Legends of Runeterra, the LoL card game, received its first major balance patch on February 17. This brought many changes, of which we would like to introduce you to the biggest ones.
What kind of patch is this? Update 0.9.0 is the first major balance patch during the open beta of Legends of Runeterra.
In addition to many changes to the cards, it also included adjustments to the UI, experience point distribution, and provided an outlook on how future patches of LoR are expected to be structured.
In this article, we present you with the 5 biggest changes from the update. You can find the complete patch notes on the Riot Games website.
1. Adjusted Experience Points
The biggest change brought by the balance patch does not directly relate to the cards, but rather to the experience points in the game. These have been adjusted in various areas.
Expeditions: In the Expeditions, the experience points you can gain have been significantly reduced:
- 0 wins: 100 → 50
- 1 win: 300 → 150
- 2 wins: 500 → 250
- 3 wins: 700 → 400
- 4 wins: 900 → 600
- 5 wins: 1200 → 800
- 6 wins: 1500 → 1000
- 7 wins: 2000 → 1500
For each round: The experience points for played matches have been adjusted so that the penalty for playing many games per day is lower:
- Experience points in a match: 200 in Normal and Ranked, 100 in Expeditions (no changes)
- 1-10 wins: full experience (no change)
- 11-15 wins: -50 EP → full experience
- 16-20 wins: -100 EP (no change)
- 21-30 wins: -150 EP → -100 EP
- 31+ wins: -200 EP → -100 EP
Games Against Friends: In games against friends, however, the experience has been significantly reduced due to agreements that allowed players to gain a lot of experience:
- Games against friends now give 100 experience points for the first 5 wins and no experience points afterwards.
- Losses against friends now give no experience points.
- Games against friends no longer count towards the limit of matches played per day (see above).
2. Buff for Lux
Lux was previously one of the champions that were rarely played. Although she has a strong effect with Final Spark, her stats were significantly too weak for the current meta. Thus, Riot made changes.
Lux Level 1:
- Attack: increased from 3 to 4
- Health: increased from 4 to 5.
Lux Level 2:
- Attack: increased from 4 to 5
- Health: increased from 5 to 6
3. Nerfs for Ledros and Rhasa
One of the strongest decks in the meta so far was an aggro deck from Shadow Isles. This focused on attacking your health points early and finishing you off in the end game with the strong cards “Rhasa the Splitter” and “Commander Ledros”.
However, both cards have now received a noticeable nerf.
Commander Ledros:
- Cost: increased from 8 to 9
- Attack: increased from 8 to 9
- Text changed: The Nexus health points are halved but now rounded up (previously rounded down)
Rhasa the Splitter:
- Cost: increased from 7 to 8
This should weaken the aggro deck that allowed the first player to reach the master rank in Legends of Runeterra a bit. However, Ledros and Rhasa were also used in other midrange decks.
4. Nerf for Deny
The fast spell “Deny” negates an opponent’s spell. This is especially strong when it hits a really expensive spell that the opponent built their turn around.
So far, Deny costs 3 mana and could only be used with saved spell mana. This is now set to change, which is why the cost has been increased to 4 mana.
5. Changes to the Expeditions
In the Expeditions, you select cards from various archetypes. Riot Games has also made some changes to these:
- Demacian Steel: has now added the Chains of Shield card to slightly weaken the overall selection.
- War Scars: The cards “Might” and “Alpha Wildclaw” have been added, “Blood for Blood” and “Elnuk Bully” removed.
- One-Man Army: The card “Elnuk Bully” has been added, “Alpha Wildclaw” removed.
- Curse of the Plunder: The cards “Assembly Bot”, “Static Shock”, and “Plaza Warden” have been added, “Academy Prodigy”, “Chem-Punk Shredder”, and “I’m Going Crazy!” removed.
Additionally, the trading logistics of the merchant have been improved so that you receive more trading opportunities. You can find a detailed guide to the Expeditions here.
How Legends of Runeterra Will Be Expanded in the Future
Together with the patch notes, Riot Games also released details about the future expansions of Legends of Runeterra. New card sets are not only planned to be released regularly, but the patches will also follow a clear structure:
- New card set will be released.
- First gameplay balance patch: Primarily “medium” value changes based on our first impression of any outliers.
- Second gameplay balance patch: Unpopular cards will be significantly revised. This is the major patch where any larger champion updates will happen.
- Third gameplay balance patch: Limited value changes to address meta issues.
- Next card set will be released.
According to an old statement, a patch is expected to be released every month. Based on this system, you can expect a new set approximately every 4-6 months.
A similar rhythm is currently also seen in Teamfight Tactics, the auto-chess game by Riot Games. Set 2 was released about 5 months after launch, and Set 3 is already announced for March 2020.
