League of Legends Wild Rift Patch Notes 2.1 breakdown
New champions, buffs and nerfs, replay and spectate feature, gameplay changes, Lunar event and a bunch of new skins! One of the more heavy patches so far.
A lot of buffs,nerfs and gameplay changes along with new events. We finally have the replay and spectate feature to look forward to!
New Champions
Xayah and Rakan
A botlane duo with lots of cc dmg and utility.
Xayah is a marksman with a decent skill cap and an invincibility frame in her ult while Rakan is a support with lots of utility, high mobility, and great cc. This duo can cause a lot of havoc in team fights, and as Wild Rift is in a team fight heavy meta right now, I predict they will be in a good spot as long as their damage numbers are to scale.
Although the exact date of their release isn’t revealed yet, I predict it will be around Valentine’s Day. This is one of League’s most iconic couple after-all.
Other champions up for release by March
Leona
Diana
Pantheon
Katarina
Champions: Buffs and Nerfs
Corki
(1) Phosphorus Bomb
- AD ratio: 0.5 bonus AD → 0.7 bonus AD
(3) Gatling Gun
- Armor and Magic Resist reduction: 4/6/8/10 → 8/12/16/20
(Ult) Missile Barrage - Base damage: 80/95/110 → 80/115/150 - AD ratio: 0.25 at all ranks → 0.25/0.45/0.65
Big One base damage: 160/190/220 → 160/230/300
- Big One AD ratio: 0.5 at all ranks → 0.5/0.9/1.3
These are some huge changes to his dmg numbers all across the board! I do believe his ult was hard to hit and when it did, it never seemed to do enough dmg. But the Gattling gun buff is just insane. He will shred tanks and warriors that dare to come close range with this.
If you are looking for a hype carry mage or marksman in solo queue(that’s another good thing about Corki; he can fill in multiple roles), Corki is the champion for you. He is a little hard to master and requires a lot of positional awareness, perfect timing, and rotations, but once you learn him it will be worth it.
Jarvan IV
Base Stats
- AD per level: 3.6 → 4.55
(P) Martial Cadence
- Now deals 20 minimum damage
Dragon Strike
- Dragon Strike to Demacian Standard dash combo hitbox size: 2 → 2.5
(Ult) Cataclysm
- Fixed dash speed: 0.4s → 0.25s
This is no surprise as Jarvan was one of the most underperforming champions ever since Wild Rift was launched. Almost no one picks him in high elos or in competitive and there are various reasons for that. His dash is clunky and takes time to execute, and he only seems to fall off after his early spike. His ult is a double edged sword in team fights. I do really enjoy playing Jarvan and would love to see him in the meta.
These changes make him a bit more viable. His jungle clear speed is increased with the minimum 20 damage. He will clear small camps faster. His dash will feel a bit smoother with that hitbox increase. I don’t think this will make him meta but we are at least going in the right direction.
Jax
(1) Leap Strike
- Range: 6 → 6.5
- Cooldown: 9/8/7/6s → 7.5/7/6.5/6s
- Damage: 55/110/165/220 → 60/115/170/225
Again a champion I enjoy playing but saw no real place in the meta. Jax struggled a lot against ranged matchups in lane more than he should. With a stronger Leap strike, this is finally being addressed.
Kai’sa
(2) Void Seeker
- Correctly applies Caustic Wounds’ damage to the target hit
The bug fix will make her very slightly stronger but this does not change anything about her kit or playstyle.
Kennen
Base Stats
- Base AD: 58 → 52
- Movement speed: 335 → 330
(2) Electrical Surge
- Cooldown: 12/10/8/6s → 15/12/9/6s
(3) Lightning Rush
- Base damage: 85/140/195/250 → 70/125/180/235
- AP ratio: 0.8 → 0.7
(Ult) Slicing Maelstrom
- Base damage: 35/70/105 → 30/60/90
- AP ratio: 0.2 → 0.15
Absolutely beautiful! This is what I was waiting for the ENTIRE month. One of the most broken champs Wild Rift has seen so far. You could play him any lane any role it wouldn’t matter, he would still ruin your day. All he had to do was run in a team fight, press ult, press stasis.. BOOM, match over.
He had one of the highest pick rates at ALL elos, and one of the highest ban rates even in competitive. Truly a nightmare to deal with.
Happy all his shenanigans will now be toned down a bit. The good Kennen players will survive, the meta spammers, not so much.
Lee Sin
(Ult) Dragon’s Rage
- Knockback range: 7.5 → 6.75
This makes it so he can reach the kicked target with his sonic wave. Although they say it’s a light nerf, I feel like it’s a small buff, especially for solo queue Lee Sins. But it does make it slightly easier to escape once hit by his ult.
This doesn’t change Lee Sin’s place in the meta, he is still an S tier jungler.
Tristana
(1) Rapid Fire
- Attack speed: 30/50/70/90% → 50/70/90/110%
- Duration: 5s → 7s
(2) Rocket Jump
- Base damage: 60/130/200/270 → 85/155/225/295
(2) Explosive Charge
- Passive base damage: 40/70/100/130 → 55/85/115/145
- Active base damage: 60/70/80/90 → 65/80/95/110
- AD ratio: 50/70/90/110% Bonus AD → 55/90/125/160% Bonus AD
There was no controversy in the fact that Tristana was heavily underperforming. Even her late game strength was nowhere near what was expected of a scaling champ. I love Tristana’s champion design, but the lack of the damage made it so I couldn’t play her a lot. I am glad all that is fixed now. A lot of juicy damage buffs all across the board!
I am sure these changes will easily make her an S tier mm or atleast a high A tier.
Twisted Fate
(2) Pick a Card
- Blue Card mana restoration: 50/65/80/95 → 60/90/120/150
- Blue Card AP ratio: 0.5 → 0.8
- Red Card AP ratio: 0.5 → 0.65
- Gold Card stun duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75s → 1.25/1.5/1.75/2s
Twisted Fate doesn’t have a very high pick rate but many players and strategies do find success with him, especially with his ult. His pick a card ability surely does a lot for improving his place here. The stun duration is up to 2 seconds! Remember, this is a highly spammable ability in a team fight. He can spam this sure to hit 2 second stun very frequently especially in mid and late game. The blue card ensures his sustain in lane is increased, no longer needing to recall as frequently, hence significantly increasing his laning strength.
Twisted Fate is very much a meta pick after these changes. His burst and cc are insanely strong.
Yasuo
(Ult) Last Breath
- Base damage: 200/300/400 → 200/350/500
- Animation time: 1.5s → 1.25s
- Knock-up duration: 1.5s → 1.25s
This change came as a bit of a surprise to me. I didn’t think he was underperforming at any elo. His ult dmg has increased now, but the knock-up duration reduced. A good rebalance, won’t change much about his playstyle or position in meta.
Items
YOUMUU’S GHOSTBLADE
Momentum [Removed] Attacks convert Momentum into bonus magic damage on-hit. Attacks will still remove all Momentum stacks. Spectral Haste Unchanged
Ghostblade was a staple item on lot of the assassins. More or less a direct nerf to many of them. We might see some changes in build here or there.
DEAD MAN’S PLATE
Momentum [Removed] Attacks convert Momentum into bonus magic damage on-hit. Attacks will still remove all Momentum stacks. Crushing Blow [New] Attacks deal magic damage equal to Momentum stacks removed. Melee attacks that expend max Momentum also slow by 50% for 1 second
They did not want to remove the damage from the Dead Man’s plate hence, they shifted the numbers to a new passive. This item and builds related to it will remain the same.
REDEEMING ENCHANT
(NEW) Redemption heal effect is reduced by 50% if the target has been affected by another Redemption in the last 20 seconds
It was possible to stack multiple redeems on heroes and use it all in a teamfight without seeing any reduced effects in healing. To make sure that only one redeem is used per fight, these changes were made
LOCKET ENCHANT
Locket shield effect is reduced by 50% if the target has been affected by another Locket in the last 20 seconds
Similar to stacking or redeeming enchant, the shield could also stack, and more than one champion could equip it. This makes sure only one champion builds this item per team.
Although you can still build redeeming enchant and locket enchant on two different heores, they stack together really well with no consequence.
Gameplay
New Features
Replays
This is amazing news for all content creators and players alike! For players, this allows them to see what went wrong, or what mistakes they did during a gameplay. For content creators, doesn’t matter if you forgot to turn on the record button during a match! Just go to your match history, tap the replay button and you can record your clips.
Things to note
- Replays for 50 past matches will be available.
- Follow any player in-game. Fog of War will apply according to that players perspective
- You can increase, decrease the speed or pause but can’t go forward or backward.
- No replay for practice mode games.
- Replays will expire with each new patch.
Spectator Mode
This will greatly improve the tourney viewing experience! This feature was long-awaited by coaches, tourney organizers and players alike!
If you are a beginner use this to spectate your high-rank friends. Or if you are waiting in lobby for your friends to finish their match, you can just choose to spectate them instead of getting bored.
Things to note
- You must be friends with those you want to spectate.
- You must be on the same game version to spectate a player.
- Turn off “Allow spectators” in the Settings menu if the thought of others spectating you gives you the jitters.
- No mirroring even if you spectate a player from the opposite team.
Ping Display
Portrait Lock
In-Game chat
The in-game chat settings have been updated. All / Team / Off is now All / Team / Party. The new Party setting allows for premade party chat while hiding chat from other team members.
Summoner spell timers
Added an indicator around summoner spell buttons showing exactly how long spell casts like Barrier and Ghost will be active.
Smite Indicator
Hunter’s Duty effect timer is visible, which let’s players know how they get reduced gold from min ionss. Riot’s way of telling the junglers to stay in the jungle and not leach lane farm.
Gameplay Changes
Hand of the Baron
When champions with Hand of Baron buff leave minion vicinity, buff linger duration reduced from 10 → 5 seconds
This is a nerf to the Baron in a way. So far if you were ahead, any high mobility could just buff all the minions throughout the map and then join team fight with zero consequence, as the buffed minions would keep pushing. Now the minions will only stay buffed if you are near them. As soon as you leave the lane the buff will disappear, strengthening the split push strategy more than before.
Rift Scuttler
Rift Scuttlers now spawn similarly to League PC. At the start of the game, two Rift Scuttlers spawn (one on each side of the map), then one Scuttler on either side is randomly spawned thereafter.
The rift scuttlers made it nearly impossible to make a comeback after the enemy jungler got a lead. All the scuttlers would be taken by them. Even when you didn’t have a lead, the jungle difference would be be felt all too real if the enemy jungler prioritized scuttler. They provide vision to the most important objectives on the map.
Other
-
Increased the amount of Blue Motes in Weekly Activity Chests, and slightly increased Activity Points required to earn the third chest in a week. XP and Poro Coin rewards are unchanged:
- You can now gift recalls, baubles and emotes.
- Suggested Activities menu will stay after level 10.
- Chests will give you unowned content first. If you own everything you could not use chests before, now you will get poro coins.
- You won’t get free champions from chests(the champions you unlock from level ups).
- Adjusted the login flow to ensure that important login popup messaging (like server status) will not be skipped when using automatic login.
- Time before automatic logout when minimizing Wild Rift or locking screen increased for iOS.
- Tutorials are more detailed now.
- Permissions will be asked the first time a feature is used.
New Skins
Lunar Beast Alistar
Lunar Beast Annie
Lunar Beast Darius
Lunar Beast Fiora
Lunar Beast Jarvan IV
Lunar Beast Miss Fortune
Panda Teemo
Cosmic Dawn Rakan
Cosmic Dusk Xayah
Heartseeker Vayne
Sweetheart Rakan
Sweetheart Xayah
Sweetheart Sona
Riot has also teased a Project skin line soon to come in the upcoming months, but no dates are yet confirmed.
Rundown Videos
Here are the Patch Notes from the Gaming Galaxy Thrower himself. Many thanks to Shurkou for letting us embed his video on here.
Final Thoughts
The Lunar event has me hyped! Really excited for the new champions as well. About the buffs and nerfs I am just glad that the reig of Kennen is finally over and that people can stop flaming Tristana picks.
Goodluck on the Rift, friend!
Have anything you would like to add? Let us know what you think about these changes!