League of Legends Wild Rift Patch Notes 2.2 breakdown
Largest patch so far. New servers, champion, items, systems, game modes, goodies, balance changes and much more!
Artwork by ShenZe YANG.
This is the largest Wild Rift patch so far! You might be wondering, why I usually post these patch articles late. I wait for the patch to come live so I can attach screenshots of features so that it would be a more clear breakdown.
To summarize this patch, Galio awakes, lots of nerfs and buffs, a lot of new tank items and item changes, ARAM, preference queue, and a server for Americas.
- New Locations
- Galio
- New Items
- Goodies
- Attack Speed
- Communications
- Social
- MISCELLANEOUS
- FREE-TO-PLAY CHAMPION ROTATION
- New Skins
- Rundown Videos
- Final Thoughts
New Locations
The game is out for open beta in Americas, Hong Kong and Macau.
Galio
Galio is an anti-mage tank who can be played either in the mid lane or in the support position. His ult is supportive in nature and has a near global presence. Also, a good thing to note is that this is the first champion with a “taunt” ability in game. A taunt is a status effect inflicted on the enemy which makes them unable to attack any other target except the one taunting, so very supportive in nature(again) and a boon for tanks.
It will be interesting to see him in the meta, especially since Malphite and Alistar are also quite dominant, a lot of knockups in the game.
He will release on 1st April along with these skins.
New Features
Position Preference
You do not always get the role you want to play in ranked matches. This is an attempt at improving that. You can set the roles you are the most confortable at.
This does not guarantee that you will always get your most preferred role, but it will certainly improve the chances. As you find a match, it will show you which role you were assigned and the common champions of that role. If you do not play the assigned role, it might constitute as “trolling” and increases your chances of getting reported, but worry not, this is still only in testing and you might not be penalised for it just yet.
This is not replacing the current ranked system yet and will be in testing for a period of two weeks. Based on how successful it is, it will be implemented later. Most events will not count for this mode, but you will be given more blue emotes if you do choose to test ths mode out, allowing you to buy more champions.
I recommend every one to test this mode out. It does not affect your rank and would allow you to play whatever champion you main more often than not. Even if it’s not perfect it will pave the way for a preference queue.
All Random All Mid (ARAM)
I have been waiting for this a long time. It’s a single lane, team fight only mode, where you get assigned a random champion and you have to constantly brawl it out with the enemy. It is incredibly fun, and pretty chill.
Keep in mind you cannot recall, so you only get items when you spawn or die. Going out of the fountain means you can no longer buy. If you do not like the champion assigned, you can choose another and the one you rejected, goes to the bench and can be selected by some of your team mates. So if your friend is really good at a champ but you got him/her instead, you can reroll ad send the champ to the bench so your friend can pick it up. Pretty neat!
Balance in Aram mode
Yes, since it’s a single lane, some champions are inherently stronger than others. In general, those with huge AOE abilities straight out dominate this mode. Of course, it’s just a casual mode but Riot has taken some steps to balance it out for engage heavy champions like assassins, warriors and tanks. There are two special spells given for this mode.
Mark/Dash: This is a must for meele champions especially if they dont have a gap closer. Given that there’s only one lane, poke champions really have an easy time doing what they do, but with the introduction of this spell, it makes engage champions much more viable.
Clarity: Since you cannot go back to the fountain, this will be one of the major sources of mana.
My thoughts on ARAM
I usually always test out these new modes in mobas. They are usually a lot of fun and keep the game fresh. AoV and MSW has already implemented his mode and it works very well on phone! Usually mages and AOE damage characters dominate it and yes, it is a bit unbalanced but maybe Riot will give special patches for the champs in ARAM, special buffs or nerfs, assuming its successful.
I will surely test ARAM out and write an article about it once I have gotten a chance to play it.
Ranked Season 2
The season wil start on Season 2 begins April 2 at 18:00 UTC!
The reward for 10 wins and reaching Gold is the Glorious Jinx skin.
Wild Pass
This is a seasonal pass in which you have to complete certain missions to unlock certain rewards. You can speed the process up by buying the pass. It is similar to Seasonal passes in PubG, Xenial Codex in AoV or seasonal Pass in MSW.
The reward for the pass will be Hexplorer Jax. Gotta say, it’s a neat skin!
Price of Wild Pass
| Wild Pass type | Price |
|---|---|
| Basic | 590 Wild Cores. |
| Elite | 990 Wild Cores. |
| Levels | 150 Wild Cores each. |
120Hz support
Testing for 120Hz phones will commence.
New Languages
Official support for Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, and Arabic.
New Items
Winged moonplate
Force of Nature
This will be a go-to item for Magic Resitence from now on.
Frozen Heart
Goodies
Icons: Charming Poro; Rebel Poro; Trickster Poro; Hextech Jaximus; Jax Unleashed
Emotes: The Slow Clap; Much Rage; Just Peachy; OHMAIGOSH; Forgotten Birthday; Super Shisa; Choncc Chortle; Retreat!
Icon Borders: Hexplorer Passage
Recalls: Recall Port
Baubles: Whoopsie; Trusty Shovel; Bright Idea
Rift Emblems: Hexplorer History; High Tech Hexplorer; The Great Demacia; Noxian Power
Events
Wild Rift Journey
Wild Rift Journey starts after completion of Wild Rift Academy.
Position Lab
Gain extra blue emotes to test out position queue.
Buffs and Nerfs
Alistar
The nerf was long coming. He has by far dominated the support role since Alpha stages as an uncontested S+ support. Riot has hit him where it hurts. His knockup area is reduced by over 15 percent.
His ability to pick off single targets and demolish them for bad positioning is still insanely strong.
Despite these changes he will still be a solid S tier support.
Amumu
Some time ago Riot released an article showing how they plan to nerf or buff champions. Apparently, this boi had a high winrate in low elo and hence is getting a nerf.
In my personal opinion, he didn’t deserve a nerf. I don’t see many people pick him in my games, and even when they do it’s never an oppresive pick. Well, it may be different in different elos and to be fair, the Sunfire Aegis buff might compensate his ability 2 damage by a substantial amount.
Corki
Blade of the Ruined King might not be viable on him anymore.
Darius
Why another Darius buff? I have no idea why God King Darius is getting a buff. 🌚
This will make the champion flow much smoother than before. If you hit those five stacks on someone and pop sprint, there isn’t gonna be much that the enemies can do anymore. Before it was possible to lock Darius down with CC and burst him instantly. Who knows we might even see Darius use his ult for the C immunity then pop sprint to escape when stuck in a bad spot?
Dr. Mundo
The nerf on his Cleave is not as much as that on his third ability. That cooldown is insane! In a 1v1, this is the highest source of his damage. But, almost ALL of his main items are buffed. Sunfire Aegis, which gives him HP now instead of armor(HP is even better for his ultimate), Warmog’s, even Thornmail! I think he will be in a good spot. His late game will be just as incredible as it was before.
Jhin.
This is just a nerf to his insane wave clear. Jhin mains won’t be affected much by it. In fact, with the nerf of Attack Speed marksmen, Jhin might rise to prominence.
Orianna
Another nerf that everyone will cheer for. No one will deny that she was overtuned, in any elo. Even early-game a full Zed combo did not kill her. Now assassins will surely have an easier time killing her.
But for those who are genuinely good at the champ will still be able to do wonders. Her late game is just as insane and the ult damage and second skill poke is intact!
Pantheon
No more support Pantheon. His utility is greatly reduced. The cc in his first skill now goes over to his ult. The radius of the spear is not too much and will take some practice to aim. This will feel like a completely different Pantheon from what we saw on his release.
Teemo
Apparently he was oppresive in the lower elos. Teemo mains have nothing to fear tho. He will stil be in the same spot he was in before.
Item Changes
Sapphire Crystal
Mana: 300 → 100
[NEW] Ability Haste: 5
[NEW] Passive - Mana Charge: Grants 5 maximum Mana per ability cast, up to 250. Triggers up to 3 times every 12 seconds.
Cost: 500g (unchanged)Better for the champs that sap mana early game. Tear of Goddess item can start stacking much faster now. This will be the first item for all champs that build a tear of Goddess item.
Tear of Goddess
Winter’s Approach
Huge rework! Will become the main item for all tanks that engage and cc. Think, Blitzcrank, Leona. It has great Health/Mana/Ability Haste.
Fimbulwinter
Manamune Muramana
Ability Haste: 10 → 20 (due to Tear gaining 10) Direct Ezreal buff
Sheen
Does not have mana anymore. reduced gold pricing accordingly. Champs that aren’t mana heavy and love to spam the Sheen passive will reach their power spikes much sooner! Think Nasus, Camille.
[REMOVED] Mana: 300
Cost: 1100g → 900g
No longer builds out of Sapphire CrystalItems affected by the Sheen change have reduced prices as well.
Lich Bane
[REMOVED] Mana: 300
Total Cost: 3050g → 2950g
Now builds from Sheen (900g) + Aether Wisp (950g) + 1100gTrinity Force
[REMOVED] Mana: 300
Total Cost: 3733g → 3533g
Now builds from Sheen (900g) + Stinger (1200g) + Phage (1100g) + 333gIceborn Guantlet
[REMOVED] Mana: 300
Total Cost: 2700g (unchanged)
Combine Cost: 600g → 800g (due to Sheen changes)
Builds from Sheen (900g) + Glacial Shroud (1000g) + 800gDead Man’s Plate
This is a great item for all champs that love mobility. Darius, Janna, even some support tanks. Go to item for tankines and mobility.
[NEW] Passive - Relentless: +5% movement speed
Total Cost: 2900g (unchanged)
Now builds from Winged Moonplate (900g) + Chain Vest (1000g) + 1000gThornmail
Applying CC on enemies will trigger this as well. Alistar, Leona, Braum and Blitzcrank are happy.
[ADJUSTED] Passive - Thorns: Upon being hit by a basic attack on-hit, reflects 25 (+ 10% bonus Armor) magic damage, while also inflicting Grievous Wounds on the attacker for 3 seconds. Immobilizing enemy champions also inflicts them with Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds.Sunfire Aegis
This is a huge buff to the item, especially jungle tanks and well deserved. Mundo and Amumu might have faster clears after this. The old item did not scale well into the late game at all. It did a set amount of damage. Sunfire Aegis will do damage based on the percentage hp of the tank. This is a great change. On a side note, Rammus is gonna release soon, he will love this change.
Mortal Reminder
Combine cost: 350g → 650g
Total cost: 2650g → 2950gRanduin’s Omen
Armor: 50 → 55Warmog’s Armor
Health: 650 HP → 700 HPAdaptive Helm removed
Replaced with Force of Nature. Force of Nature is the go to item for Magic resistance.
Attack Speed
Champions with high attack speed found it very easy to kite. This change will make it harder. This is a direct nerf to high attack speed, kiting marksmen like Jinx, Xayah and so on. that means marksmen that do not rely on attack speed like Jhin and Ezreal will rise to prominence in the next patch. Not to mention there is now an item that reduces attack speed.
Attack Speed's effect ratio on attacks' windup time: 100% → 50%
Windup time = base windup time / (1 + attack speed) → base windup time / (1 + attack speed × 50%)Summoner Spells
Ghost
Free Jinx passive to whoever builds this. This new passive allows you to get an extended sprint duration if you kill an enemy. This will become a must for Darius and Singed. They can pop this whenever they are gonna get a sure kill and continue their rampage like Madmen.
Ignite
Range nerfed. Enchanter supports like Sona, Lulu and Janna won’t like this spell as much anymore.
Cast range: 7 → 5.5Communications
Three new pings added
- “Enemy has vision here”
- “Group”
- “Enemy missing”
Removed question mark for toxicity reasons. LOL.
We might receive email now if report was succesful.
You can now equip the same emote in multiple autofire slots, because there’s never a bad time to spam the galaxy brain poro.
Galaxy Brain poro is my favorite poro.
Social
Game invites
- Better visuals for when you invite friends who have already found a match.
- Better social sharing
- If you stay awhile in the end-of-game screen, and your friends are ready for another round, you will be prompted to continue.
- An end of game screen indicator to mark AFKs.
Controls and Settings
Graphics
Support for 120Hz.
Deadzone tuning
Movestick
Can now be centered closer to the edge of the screen on first touch similar to “Move Stick Type - Follow”
MISCELLANEOUS
- Heightened camera for tablets.
- Better visuals and indicators for when Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback, or Rift Scuttler are about to spawn. Gray hourglass icon turns to yellow.
- Added visuals to help indicate lane assignments more clearly in game.
- More solid red coloring when player takes tower aggro.
- Option to hide in-game names entirely or change them to champion names. I love this change! It is recommended for beginners to switch it to champion names, so they can learn the champions and their abilities faster.
- Malphite’s is back to Ixtal. His 3D model proves it.
- (Europe & Asia only) Even if you are playing on a different server, event missions will now progress
- Events with temporary personalization content (like spawn effects and Homeguard trails) will now show in the Events panel under an Equip menu.
- Addressed performance and latency issues.
- Picking by position (solo lane, jungle, etc.) is now allowed in Champ select filters.
- If refunding content through the App Store/Google Play Store would put your Wild Rift account in the negative, you will be temporarily suspended as a precaution. Reach out to Player Support to regain access.
FREE-TO-PLAY CHAMPION ROTATION
| Date | Easy | Medium | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 1 - April 7 | Miss Fortune, Olaf, Tryndamere | Gragas, Leona, Lulu, Pantheon | Diana, Ezreal, Orianna |
| April 8 - April 14 | Amumu, Sona, Nami | Vayne, Kennen, Darius, Ahri, Tristana | Lee Sin, Yasuo |
New Skins
Apart from the ones already mentioned these are the new skins.
Corgi Corki
Draven Draven
Fuzz Fizz
Surprise Party Amumu
Academy Ahri
iBlitzcrank
Marauder Olaf
Rundown Videos
Gaming Pharaoh notes rundown video is entertaining as always. Many thanks to Shurkou for letting us embed his video on here.
Patch Notes from a challenger ADC main, iTzSTU4RT. His insights are really useful, as this patch mainly touches the duo lane meta. If you aren’t already subscribed, do it!
As a Jinx main, this will surely hurt Hellsdevil. But his Darius and Nasus will be even more insane now! Watch his reaction to the new patch.
Final Thoughts
Really excited for the new modes and Galio. We are looking at a tank meta. The much awaited Orianna and Alistar nerfs are finally in place which will mean the meta will change quite a lot in the coming months. I felt that the supports needed seperate special items of their own to compensate the gold difference. With these new buffed items, I think supports might be in a better spot for dealing with solo queue now.
Goodluck on the Rift, friend!
Have anything you would like to add? Let us know what you think about these changes!