Patch 4.11 Notes

As a versatile removal and burn spell, Divine Whirlwind has really been blowing away the competition in standard, stealing a large number of winds for both Janna and non-Janna PZ decks. We're focusing on the Nexus damage portion to particularly target the more aggressive strategies, and hopefully leave space for other burn cards to see play.

This new spell has managed to Invoke the wrath of many Eternal players since its release, and leave those who don't follow the celestial path seeing stars. We want to keep the big moments that it can create, but the initial investment for that kind of power must come at a price. By removing the initial invoke, you're losing out on resources to gain future power, and hopefully creating an opening for your opponent to spoil your plans.

Janna has been going on a whirlwind tour of the top of the ladder, and even though she has counters, her decks have heavily influenced what can and can't be played competitively. By making her take a little longer to go full-tornado, there's more time to answer Janna before you're flooded with value.

We've tried a lot of different angles with Champion's Strength since it's release, and while we feel the current version of the card is healthier, it's still a little too cheap for the game ending power it can provide.

Now that we're keeping a closer watch on a certain Idol, we think Swain can have a little power back. He seems like a guy you can trust with power, right?

Editor’s Note: Who’s going to tell him?

While Samira has made her impact on Standard in the past, some of her crew members have been left stranded on shore. We want to start giving them a little lift, starting with the Dame, and explore more options in the future.

We want the Dedicant to be a high risk, high reward strategy for Updraft decks, but his low base health wasn't letting him be up to the challenge. This buff should let him stick on the board more often, making the payoff for ditching your hand more worthwhile.

The Broodfather has been hitting the same gym as some of our other pre-titanic units, and is finally juicing up that dad-bod.

While Tryndamere's level up might suggest you want him to die right away, he was living dying up to that challenge a little too often. With some extra health, he can sneak in a few more level 1 attacks before hitting his ultimate form.

As we've added more splashy spells into the game, Warmother's Call has been sent directly to voicemail. With these new and improved rates, you can connect with units all over your deck earlier in the game.

We've seen Shadow Isles showing up more often as a support region in recent patches, so we wanted to give them a little more finishing power to properly reward you for selling your soul to the Isles. While the extra attack may seem slight, this change does mean that Ledros is ready to chop down the other half of the enemy Nexus if he manages to connect.

As mentioned above, we wanted to give Shadow Isles finishers a little more finishing power, and the Arachnoid is no exception. Plus, why would you be afraid of her nestlings, but not the big spider mama? It just makes sense.

Editor’s Note: Can’t argue with that logic.

The Leech has a strong reward for decks that don't mind killing their own units, but it's so naturally fragile that it struggles to succeed alongside Glimpse Beyond. Now it can put up a slightly more spirited defense against the various pies, darts, and flashbombs found all over Runeterra.

In spite of being one of the coolest looking birds in all of Runeterra, The Etherfiend hasn’t really laid an egg in competitive play. By making them cheaper and a little smaller, we think the tempo gained from his kill ability can be used more easily, hopefully giving them a home in Shadow Isles slay strategies.

Editor’s Note: This… Can it be? Tempo?

Seal in Steel is a tempting effect, but it hasn't managed to darkin the doorstep of any viable decks, partly because of how hard it is to use the resulting equipment. While the cost reduction here will naturally make the equipment easier to play, there might be a certain Demacian who takes a particular interest in this new, easier to catch shape.

When this change arrived alongside Cosmic Call, Targon hit some peaks in winrate that we'd rather not maintain. We're eroding their advantage a little bit to turn this mountain back into a very large hill.

Since the Bandle Tree's rework, it's in a healthier spot for the game as a whole, but has really struggled to blossom. With Eternal's higher overall power level (and the arrival of some critical Explorers), we feel comfortable giving the Bandle Tree a little more bite to go along with its bark.

At the end of her run in Standard, Katarina was a cut above the rest of Noxus and had to be dulled. Now that she's settled in Eternal (and Opulent Foyer has changed), we feel comfortable giving her back a bit of her edge.

Shurima is meant to have advancing landmarks as a strength, but some of their support for that strategy is held back by their lack of board presence. By giving the Preservationist a more reliable body, the landmark advancement comes at a lower cost and has more chance to shine.

While Azir has been doing a solid job making moves out in the Shuriman desert, we wanted to give his army a chance to shine. This should open him up to multiple other synergies in other regions.

Bandle is supposed to be good at turning a bunch of little things into more threatening (but still little) things. While bandle discard strategies have found some footing, this is a cool card that could bridge multiple archetypes if it was good enough, so we're trying to give it a little more bang for the buck.

As an original fixture of LoR, They Who Endure has not managed to last after some rebalancing and the shift to Eternal. With a lower cost, we think They can go back to being the It unit for some decks to end the game.

Spider aggro doesn't fit as well with where we want Shadow Isles to land in Standard, but it should still have a chance to shine in Eternal. We're bringing the Skitterer back to its glory days to give Elise and her brood some more finishing power.

This little guy has never been able to show off his awesome technique because of his power level. But by dropping him down to a 1c unit, he can live the bouncy house dream, even though you might have to do some extra work to make him a game ending threat.

While moving Timelines to a higher cost kept the win rate from being overwhelming, it was frustrating how divergent the timelines were when the card was drawn early versus late. We wanted to try a small redesign here to both make Timelines less early-game dependent, but also make it less painful to draw multiples over the course of the game.

While Snapvine hasn't been choking out the Eternal Ladder, its summon-timing trigger was limiting design space for future cards. Since letting it only chomp on Play does change a lot of how the card plays, we wanted to give it an immediate buff so it doesn't get entirely weeded out.