Wild Rift News November

Hi everyone! Welcome to another edition of Wild Rift News! This time we’re going to be recapping the Patch Preview and hearing about the updates from some of our dev team! Let’s dive in!

PATCH 3.5 RUNDOWN - DARKIN TO DAWN

CHAMPIONS

Aatrox is planned to be released during Patch 3.5 on November 17 at 00:01 UTC.	Kayn is planned to be released during Patch 3.5 on November 17 at 00:01 UTC.
Lillia is planned to be released during Patch 3.5b on December 21 at 00:01 UT

As promised we have more darkness and edgy Runeterran bois this patch. But, if xXmydarksoullXx edgelords who slip through the shadows to obliterate their foes aren’t your style, we also have someone on the bashful side who can help make your opponents catch some zzz’s joining the Rift this patch.

We’re excited for you to play all the champions being released but wanted to give you the inside scoop on Kayn from one of the developers who help work on him! We’ll also be doing the same for Lillia in our December edition!

KAYN QUICK CUTS

Hi everyone, it’s Mike “RogueFool” Breese from the Champions Team! At the start of Patch 3.5, Kayn will be stepping out of the shadows and onto the Rift! I know many of you have been asking for Kayn, and we’re excited to finally unleash him. This Shadow Reaper is locked in a battle of wills against the Darkin, Rhaast, and his fate is in your hands. Here are some tips and tricks to help you get that gank off from the shadows or embrace your Darkin side.

Kayn is a powerful mobile jungler who focuses on ganking vulnerable targets to fuel his transformation. He’s also the only champion to make a permanent change that you commit to each game.

If your team needs a brawler with crowd control and self-healing then you’ll want to make sure you’re ganking those tasty melee champions. But if your team needs someone with a more lethal touch to emerge from the shadows and return to them just as quickly, then focus on taking down ranged opponents in the early game. 

Kayn is a powerful champion when he’s ahead, and the best way to get there is by ganking often so you can transform and unlock his true power. Pay attention to how your lanes are doing, and make a point to assist your allies with ganks, especially targeting those that will help you transform into your desired form.

Ability Tips:

• (P) The Darkin Scythe
  • Kayn struggles against the will of Rhaast, but it’s up to you to decide whose willpower is stronger. Damaging and killing melee champions feeds Rhaast, while Kayn becomes the true Shadow Assassin if he damages or kills ranged champions.
  • The Darkin, Rhaast, is much more durable and heals as he deals damage.
  • The Shadow Assassin, Kayn, is a highly mobile assassin who excels at getting to his target and escaping. Kayn’s scythe deals increased damage when he first enters combat.
  • As a jungler it is important for Kayn to gank, and choose the right foes to hunt down so he can transform as quickly as possible.
• (1) Reaping Slash
  • Kayn, or Rhaast, dashes forward with a short cooldown. This makes him great at sticking to targets and clearing camps.
  • As Rhaast, this deals bonus damage based on his target’s maximum health.
• (2) Blade’s Reach
  • Blade’s Reach has a powerful slow attached to it, making it great for ganking targets—and the fact that it is AoE helps with your jungle clear too.
  • With Rhaast’s strength this will also knock up all targets hit, giving Rhaast powerful crowd control.
  • As the Shadow Assassin, Blade’s Reach’s range is extended and Kayn is able to manipulate his shadow to perform this attack for him, allowing him to cast on the move.
• (3) Shadow Step
  • Keep your enemies on their toes by appearing from the “safety” of the wall they had their backs to. Shadow Step grants Kayn the ability to walk through walls, making it a powerful tool for ganking and escaping.
  • Those who take up the mantle of the Shadow Assassin will gain Slow Immunity and increased movement speed while also reducing its cooldown.
• (4) Umbral Trespass
  • Umbral Trespass is a powerful ability that grants Kayn easy access to his victim, but as a special trick you can use this to dodge incoming attacks and wait for the perfect moment to pop out.
  • Upon emerging from his target, Rhaast deals increased damage and heals himself based on their health. Use this to turn the tides when dueling tanks and fighters.
  • After becoming a Shadow Assassin, Umbral Trespass gains increased range and reset’s The Darkin Scythe’s bonus damage cooldown.

Recommended Items:

• Shadow Assassin
  • If you’re going the Shadow Assassin route you are going to care a lot about Armor Penetration. Starting with Youmuu’s Ghostblade or other items such as Duskblade of Draktharr or Serpent’s Fang will help you rip through targets and quickly escape.
• Rhaast
  • Rhaast isn’t an assassin, and instead focuses on his strength as a fighter, dishing out and taking damage. Because of this, Rhaast cares about a mix of durability and damage, making Black Cleaver an ideal starting item, followed by Divine Sunderer.

I hope these tips help you as you sneak through the jungle’s shadows and on your battle of wills. Will you become the Shadow Assassin, or will you let the Darkin win out? Send us your sweet escapes along with any of your Kayn cosplays. We love seeing your hype plays and creations. See ya on the Rift!

JUNGLE UPDATE

During the past few patches we’ve been targeting our key gameplay updates around certain roles on the Rift to make sure we give each of them the love they deserve. This patch is no different and we’ll be heading into the jungle! 

We know that jungling is one of the most challenging roles in Wild Rift. A lot of pressure falls on your shoulders to set up ganks and secure objectives for your teammates. But those challenges also allow you to have a ton of agency over the course of a game. You could get off a gank that helps your laner get a shut down or have the game-winning Smite steal on Baron! With the updates coming in 3.5 we want the jungle role to remain high depth and high impact, but are looking to remove some of the unnecessary complexity.

BUFF SHARING

The first update that we’re making to the jungle is the new Buff Sharing Mechanic. After 8 minutes of game time, killing the Red Brambleback or Blue Sentinel will drop a temporary buff that other players can pick up by walking up to the buff circle. The shared buff will only drop if the jungler clears the camp, and will last for 45 seconds before it expires and disappears into the void. Sharing is caring, so make sure your teammate picks up the buff! Since we’re adding this new mechanic and you’ll have double the buffs, we will be removing Evolved Red Brambleback and Evolved Blue Sentinel.

CONSERVATION

We’re also introducing a new jungler-specific buff called Conservation. We’re introducing this buff for junglers so it can provide them with some natural guidance on how to balance farming and ganking.

Every 5 seconds, the “Conservation” buff gains 6 or 12 stacks of charge, depending on how much gold a player has. The max charge cap is 150. Basically if you ONLY farm or ONLY gank, you’ll be missing out on some extra gold as a player. So try and look for that healthy balance with the help of “Conservation” and line your pockets with some extra gold!

SMITE

We will also be updating the Smite spell for junglers this patch. The first change we will be making is smiting down Challenging Smite, or Red Smite, and removing it. The reason for this is that we felt like it wasn’t a compelling choice for junglers and it was hard to fully appreciate its effects in-game. We’ll also be changing how the Smite upgrade works. Smite will now upgrade based on the number of times it’s been used, making the upgrade time more consistent across games. Smite and your upgraded Smite will also deal a fixed amount of damage to monsters, instead of scaling based on your champion level.

JUNGLE MONSTERS

Our last adjustment to the jungle is to our jungle monster friends. We’ll be adjusting their general stats and behavior, which should help make clear times faster overall and help you have an easier time surviving against them, especially in those earlier clears. We want you to be able to focus on planning out your plan of attack for the game, without having to worry about losing too much health in those first clears. 

These new changes to monster stats should also impact your first camp start decisions. Currently, it is almost necessary for junglers to start at red buff to maximize their clear speed. With these new updates you should be able to have more freedom to start at other camps based on who you’re against or how you want to play out your games.

And while we’re making other adjustments to jungle monsters, how could we forget to make one to everyone’s favorite monster… Shelly! We’ve always wanted Rift Herald to be a tool you use in the mid game to help you snowball your lead, but right now the rewards it grants can vary. So we’re giving Shelly a little more oomph, and increasing the speed of summoning Rift Herald, as well as its charge speed, so the value you get for summoning this monster is more consistent.

ITEMS & RUNES

We’re also adding in a couple items this patch and making some adjustments to runes!

HORIZON FOCUS

We know that mage players have been asking for more options and choices for their build paths. So this patch we’ll be bringing Horizon Focus to from League PC but with a new take. Its passive Hypershot will apply one stack when you hit a champion from longer range, and when you immobilize a champion you’ll gain two stacks!

LORD DOMINIK’S REGARDS

We felt there was room to bring in another Last Whisper item for marksmen since our current penetration options for them can sometimes make the build paths a bit awkward. With its passive Adrenaline, after you’re out of combat with other champions for a few seconds, your first attack against another champ will have increased Attack Speed.

AWAKENED SOULSTEALER

We’ll also be reworking Awakened Soulstealer this patch. We wanted this item to be geared towards players who are looking to play aggressively and snowball their leads. So we made some tweaks to its passive to fit that. When Soulflare, when getting takedowns on enemy champions within three seconds of dealing damage to them, you’ll reduce the remaining cooldowns of your abilities, including your ultimate by 20%. The other passive, Death Touch, will also grant you 15 magic penetration.

PHASE RUSH

We wanted to make some updates to Phase Rush so that mages could have another option in their arsenal aside from Electrocute and Summon Aery, with some utility beyond just dealing some extra damage. It will still trigger on hitting a champion with three separate attacks or abilities within a few seconds, and you’ll still get to go fast with that extra move speed. But instead of the extra slow resistance, your current cooldowns will be reduced, and you’ll gain a bit of Ability Haste for a short period of time.

SUDDEN IMPACT

We’ll also be bidding farewell to the Champion rune this patch and replacing it with Sudden Impact! If you're looking to appear from the shadows to assassinate your foes, this is the pick for you. With this new rune, you’ll gain Adaptive Penetration when you exit stealth or use a dash, blink, or teleport to deal damage to an enemy champion.

ONE FOR ALL

Have you ever wanted to play as 5 Yuumis pouncing all over your foes? Or do you want to play as 5 Blitzcranks and start a hook chain across the map? Regardless of what zany combo you want to try out, you’ll be able to when One For All launches on November 18!

QUALITY OF LIFE

We have a few quality of life updates coming this patch. We’ll be sharing a few here, but as always all our updates big and small will be listed in the Patch Notes!

PLAYER BEHAVIOR

We know how frustrating it is to hop into a game and one of your teammates just swipes up and out, leaving you at a disadvantage. So this patch we’ll be adding another penalty for players who leave matches, and we’ll also have the remake vote automatically trigger when it’s available so you won’t miss the vote. 

In addition to these changes you’ll also see a new “Avoid List” feature. Once you finish a game and are put in the post-game lobby, you’ll be able to add someone from the game to your Avoid List. This will prevent you from being matched on the same team with them until the List resets at the start of every week.

We also have one other player behavior change in this patch—All Chat will no longer be an option in game. There won’t be any changes made to team or party chat though. We know these are a lot of new changes, and we look forward to hearing your feedback on how they affect your overall in-game experience.

GALLERY SKIN SETS

If you’re a collector like us and want to see all your Star Guardian Skins together or KDA reunited and slaying together in harmony… the new Gallery Skin Sets feature is here! When you visit the Collection tab, you’ll see the “Skin Set” tab and the “Champion” tab. With these filters, you’ll be able to view multiple skins for the same champion or skin line at once—some will even have some special backgrounds. You’ll also be able to earn an exclusive title and special effect to show off in champion select if you complete an entire Skin Set.

WILD PASS

Unfourtunately or maybe fourtunately, you can’t have Superheroes without Supervillains. This patch, Supervillain Jhin along with his Ascended version are making their grand entrance in this Wild Pass. You’ll be able to earn him and as well as various goodies as you progress your way through the pass and maybe channel your own inner villain… muahahahaha.

EVENTS

This patch you’ll be able to see the Darkin’s Unleashed, visit a village in the spirit world, and snowball fight with some poros. But don’t worry, no poros will be harmed during the course of the event, we promise.

PROMOTIONS

During this patch you’ll be able to dance the night away at the Crystal Rose Ball when Crystal Rose Vi, Akali, and Riven come to the Rift! These skins will be available during a promotion that will run starting November 26 at 00:01 UTC. During this promotion you’ll be able to purchase boxes from the store with Wild Cores and open them for a chance to earn the following:

• Crystal Rose Mega Homeguards
• Crystal Rose Recall
• Crystal Rose Homeguards
• Crystal Rose Akali Emote
• Crystal Rose Riven Emote
• Crystal Rose Vi Emote
• Crystal Rose Akali
• Crystal Rose Riven
• Crystal Rose Vi
• Crystal Rose Bauble
• Crystal Rose Token

Any tokens you receive in the boxes, you’ll be able to exchange for various items in the Token Store. We’ll provide more information about the drop rates, cost of each box, and the Token Store in the 3.5 Patch Notes!

SKINS

Who doesn’t love a good skin montage? Whether you want to dance the night away at the Crystal Ball, paint the town blue (or whatever color your heart desires), or find some harmony, there’s something for everyone: 

Releasing in Patch 3.5*

• Blood Moon Aatrox
• Soulhunter Kayn
• Crystal Rose Akali
• Crystal Rose Riven
• Crystal Rose Vi

Releasing in Patch 3.5a*

• Chroma Crash Ekko
• Chroma Crash Jinx
• Chroma Crash Samira

Releasing in Patch 3.5b*

• Frostblade Irelia
• Spirit Blossom Lillia
• Spirit Blossom Teemo
• Spirit Blossom Thresh
• Spirit Blossom Yone
• Spirit Blossom Yasuo

As a note you may notice that some regions will be receiving some Cosmic skins this patch, but they will be available for all regions in Patch 4.1!

*We’ll keep you updated if anything moves

WILD FOR WILDLINGS

CREATORS

With new jungle changes afoot and the Darkin about to be unleashed, check out some of these creators to hear how they feel about the update once the Patch Notes drop:

WHAT THE JESS

BRACTWO RIFT

VEX 190

FAN ART

Are we still obsessed with Xayah and Rakan Star Guardian fan art, even though Star Guardian was a few months… yes and what about it? We just love seeing those love birds. Also Yone and Yasuo just doing brother stuff, we’re so happy they’re both in Wild Rift now. We’re so excited and can’t wait to see your Chroma Crash and other fan art from 3.5!

PAINTOVERS

We also have a new selection of paintovers for you! Since this patch is focusing on jungle changes, we wanted to share some of our favorite junglers with you all!

Good luck and have fawn in 3.5, and we’ll see you back here again in December for another edition of Wild Rift News.