Legends of Runeterra Patch 3.8 is ushering in a new era within the game, showcasing champions with an Origin as a region, a new event, skins, Path of Champions 2.0, and balance changes.
Scheduled to release on May 25, the LoR Worldwalker expansion contains a total of 65 cards, including four champions. The keywords Origin, Spawn, and Boon support the new champions and archetypes, along with a couple of balance changes to Followers. The LoR Worldwalker expansion release also includes a new and improved Path of Champions 2.0, a Pulsefire event pass, updates to region roads, and new skins (personalizations).
Here are the notes for LoR Patch 3.8.
New LoR keywords and champions
The Worldwalker expansion contains a total of four new champions, ready to spice up the meta and gameplay strategies.
- Jhin: Four-cost champion with Origin as a region, synergizing with LoR cards that have Skills. The 4/4 champion also synergizes with the Stun archetype and levels up from playing either Fast/Slow spells or Skills.
- Illaoi: Four-cost champion within the Bilgewater region, synergizing with the Spawn archetype while also slotting into several LoR Midrange decks. The 1/6 champion levels up by seeing herself or Tentacles deal 15 or more damage.
- Bard: Four-cost champion with Origin as a region, synergizing with Chimes while slotting into Aggro and Midrange decks. The 2/5 champion levels up once the stats of allies in play or in hand have increased by 20 or more in total.
- Annie: A one-cost champion in the Noxus region, Annie pairs with Jhin to create a fast Aggro deck while also synergizing with Midrange and Aggro Noxus builds. She levels up upon seeing you play six or more Fast/Slow spells and/or Skills.
Each of these four new LoR champions contains or synergizes with three new keyword mechanics.
- Origin: A champion having Origin counts as one region when crafting a deck, able to include cards potentially from multiple regions that meet the Origin’s specifications.
- Spawn: Spawn is a Midrange player’s dream, scaling the power of individual Tentacles. The text for Spawn has changed since the infographic from Riot was revealed. A full breakdown of the mechanic can be found here.
- Boon: Synergizing with the Chime Skill, a Boon attaches itself to another card within a deck. Upon drawing a card with a Boon on it, the mechanic’s effect is activated.
Patch 3.8 LoR balance changes
A total of two cards received immediate balance changes for the release of the LoR Worldwalker expansion: Crackshot Corsair and Imperial Demolitionist. Adjustments were made to make it easier for opponents to remove the Followers via either a spell(s) or from blocking. Riot is aware that the changes will have an impact on the Pirate archetype and within Annie’s support package.
- Crackshot Corsair: Base stats nerfed from 1/2 to 1/1
- Imperial Demolitionist: Base stats nerfed from 2/3 to 2/2
Changes to Play/Cast, specifically in conjunction with Karma and Taric, were supposed to also get introduced in Patch 3.8. These balance adjustments have been postponed, according to Riot, to work on them further. The next balance update will take place via Patch 3.10, sometime in late June.
LoR Path of Champions 2.0
The LoR Path of Champions (PoC) 2.0 update includes a total of 12 new champions to the PvE, including the four Worldwalker champs. Noxus and Demacia are two added regions, bringing the region total within PoC to five. The release includes a total of 34 adventures, two unique ones per champion, along with 10 shared world adventures that can get played with any LoR champion. Eighteen new relics and 15 new items are also included.
Several system changes are included in the Path of Champions 2.0 update as well, from power-ups to your roster and abilities that unlock with each adventure.
- Legend levels: Power up your whole champion roster.
- Champion Star levels: Grant your champions unique abilities while unlocking new legs within their personal adventures.
- Champion levels: Power up your favorite champions, with a focus on strengthening your starter deck via health and relic upgrades.
The first PoC focused on a personal progression track, whereas Path of Champions 2.0 is more about building a roster of champions. New players should find it easier to level up and get stronger while experienced players can look forward to new top-end adventures full of challenges.
Patch 3.8 LoR Region Roads, quests, and challenges
New LoR quests and challenges are contained within Patch 3.8 that coincide with keywords, archetypes, and champions that have been added. And new cards have been added to AI decks.
Region Roads have been the go-to since the launch of LoR as a way to earn cards, champions, and various rewards Riot is changing up the format for Region Roads by no longer extending them with each expansion release. The LoR team has instead added free nodes to event passes that shouldn’t increase the amount of time to complete in comparison to these rewards getting offered via Region Roads.
Pulsefire event and pass rewards
Free-to-play players will have access to an increased number of pass rewards in all future events. An option to purchase event passes will still exist, however, the added nodes are not exclusive to the premium pass.
The Pulsefire event will run from May 25 to June 29 at 12pm CT. Players who purchase the premium event pass before June 15 will receive an exclusive chest quest that contains 10 Energy Orbs and a Rare Prismatic chest. The premium pass also includes the immediate unlocking of the Tibbers Guardian.
Personalizations and LoR skins
Players can purchase skins from the LoR store or receive them via the battle event pass. All skins and personalizations arriving in Patch 3.8 can be found here. New Pulsefire skins have been added for the LoR champions Jhin, Caitlyn, Aphelios, Thresh, and Lucian. Guardians added are Tibbers (regular and Pulsefire) and a Pulsefire Chip.Â
A new Chronsphere board has been added, along with a number of card backs and emotes. A Timewalkers bundle contains all Pulsefire champion skins and cards. And a total of two deck bundles have been added: Deadly Fire (featuring Annie and Jhin) and Otherwordly Voyagers (featuring Illaoi and Bard). The Deadly Fire bundle includes a Pulsefire skin for Jhin. All prices may vary as owned cards are prorated.
Other LoR Patch 3.8 notes
The launch of the Worldwalker expansion via Patch 3.8 kicks off a new ranked season. Rewards from the A Curious Journey season are located in the Loot popup screen on the home page. A hand counter has been added when clicking to inspect your deck while in a game. And the release of Patch 3.8 officially retires the Expedition mode. The LoR team is looking into adding some form of a Limited Draft mode in the future, but not anytime soon.
All future Seasonal tournaments will take place on a single weekend moving forward. Open rounds will take place on Saturday and the playoff rounds will get featured on Sunday. A full schedule for the upcoming Seasonals will be released in the coming weeks.
Patch 3.8 LoR bug fixes
- And issue causing crashes while viewing collections has been resolved
- Tutorials will no longer have a white circle appearing in the center of the board
- Encroaching Mist will now display the Ephemeral icon properly
- Jinx will level up properly upon discarding cards that replace themselves
- Swiftwing Lancer will no longer create itself
- Overgrown Snapvine will no longer soft-lock the game upon emerging from Buried in Ice
- A missing effect icon now shows up on Shadow Apprentice
- Winds of War will properly heal your ally regardless of whether the enemy is there when the spell resolves
- Ram Stance will resolve, even if the selected unit leaves play
- Transposition will now use the reduced cost of a unit that has had its cost reduced
- Daybreak triggers from Morning Light will no longer activate Leona’s level up progress
- An error message has been added for when a player tries to move a blocker that has been Challenged.
