Revelation VR: 2/7 PBE Update: Dark Star Jarvan IV Splash Art

[WIP!] [STATUS: PBE is currently offline.]

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 8.4 PBE cycle, today's patch includes the splash art for Dark Star Jarvan IV, a look at Dragon Master Swain's special interactions, and more tentative balance changes!

Continue reading for more information!

(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and subject to change - what you see below may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers at the end of the cycle! Manage your expectations accordingly.)

Dark Star Jarvan IV Splash Art

The splash art for Dark Star Jarvan IV is now on the PBE:

Dark Star Jarvan IV

[Loading Screen]

Miscellaneous

Here's a look at Dragon Master Swain's special interactions:

Balance Changes

* NOTE*: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, & experimental changes. Be aware that what you see below may be relative to other changes earlier this cycle! These are not official notes.

Champions

Fiddlesticks

Dark Wind (E)
- cooldown lowered from 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 to 10 at all ranks
- cost increased from 50/60/70/80/90 to 70/80/90/100/110
- Additional damage to minions and monsters increased from 50% to 100%
Crowstorm (R) cooldown lowered from 150/140/130 to 140/110/80

Kalista

Sentinel (W)
- Cooldown increased from 30 at all ranks to 90/80/70/60/50
- [Changed Effect] No longer gains attack speed near Oathsworn ally, now gains 5/10/15/20/25 Attack Damage.
Rend (E) mana refund changed from 30 mana to 10/15/20/25/30 mana.

Rengar
[Changelist for 2/7]

Savagery (Q)
- Buff duration for on-next hit lowered from 5 to 3
Battle Roar (W)
- "Empowered W base damage increased to 60 (to match base W)"
Thrill of the Hunt (R)
- "Enemy champions near the closest enemy who can sense Rengar are also alerted of Rengar's presence"
- Armor shred increased from 10/14/18 to 12/18/24

Items

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Runes

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Context & Notes

WIP

1) Regarding Pathfinder's Knife and the jungle item changes on the PBE, Meddler commented they are very experimental:

"Very experimental, to the extent I'm a little surprised it's on the PBE already (hasn't really been tested internally at all yet either). A test into how much benefit there is from potentially streamlining the jungle item effects somewhat. Lot of varying opinions on it here."

2) Here's Riot August with a changelist and context for Rengar changes in today's PBE update:

"PBE update for tomorrow (2/7)

Tomorrow you're going to see a number of bug fixes and tweaks flowing in for Rengar. Here's the list:

Balance Tuning:

Q -
Buff duration for on-next-hit:: 5 >>> 3

W -
Empowered W base damage increased to 60 (to match base W)

R-
Enemy champions near the closest enemy who can sense Rengar are also alerted of Rengar's presence
Armor shred on ult 10/14/18 >>> 12/18/24

Tweaks and Bug fixes:
W animation no longer interrupts attack animations

Q no longer has old Q's range indicator
Tiamat active now plays Q's animation (complete with particles) if used in combination with Q (plays normal attack animation otherwise).

Ult no longer crits targets Rengar attacks in melee range (without leaping) and now properly applies the bonus damage and shred.
Thoughts

I was thinking of "solving" triple Q by making the empowered Q buff fall off when the Passive timer does. A number of you suggested that it would feel better and not be all that abusive if we just reduced the amount of time he can hold the Q after casting it. Seemed like a good middle ground. We'll see how it plays out.

Ran some numbers on comparative shreds and the R shred felt low, especially late game. Bumping it up as I want to encourage jumping to closest. This could be risky and may need to revert once we do a more complete damage analysis

The overall goal of reducing range at which enemies sense Rengar with the updated ult was to allow him to better dodge wards and pick off solo targets. The intended counterplay in a grouped up situation is that the person he's stalking's allies can still pickup on the fact that Rengar is coming and move in to help out. As such, trying out a mechanic where the closest target (the one with the eyes above them) adds "Rengar sense"( the screen tint everyone gets when in the reveal range) to allies in a circle around them. Hope is that this mechanic makes it easier for a Braum who's chilling within a screen of his ADC to realize they're getting hunted and move in to help, while still preserving the ult's ability to skirt around enemy vision.

People said my tiamat implementation could be better so I tried again. Please tell me if it's finally working the way you expect.

FINALLY - Thank you to the people who sent me Rengar's old bonetooth icons <3 I tested them internally and decided NOT to swap them with what's on live. Why? Given how small they are, the black background makes them pretty hard to read. At a glance, it was much more difficult to tell how many Bonetooth stacks you had.

Thanks for the all the feedback and help. Iteration continues. Does anyone have any strong feelings for or against Mecha Rengar's new Q animation?"

Check out [THIS PAGE] for a comprehensive list of the new content & changes currently on the PBE as a part of this cycle or catch up with the individual update links below !