Riot has detailed the upcoming changes for Legends of Runeterra Patch 1.7! Let's dive into it!
- Patch 1.7 is going to last 3 weeks instead of the usual 2.
- Patch 1.8 is also going to last 3 weeks. We'll see a couple of small balance changes.
- Patch 1.10 will be the next round of large balance updates, coming out in mid-September.
Highlights of the patch:
- New Lab: Quick Draw - See below for details.
- Singleton Gauntlet Update: Tri-Region!
- The deckbuilder now allows you to select deckbuilding rules.
- New bundles and guardians and card backs oh my!
- Two new Epic quests added for the Spirit Blossom Festival.
- Expeditions now refresh on Thursday (was Tuesday). This week we’ll have a short, two-day refresh to make the transition.
Quote From Riot Games The Spirit Blossom festival continues! Patch 1.7 brings with it two new Epic quests and more event-themed items in store, as well as a brand new Lab and new tri-region deckbuilding rules for Singleton Gauntlet.
Before we dive in, we’ve got some important timing info on the next few patches. As we just announced over on the Riot Games site, Riot’s taking the week of August 10th off to disconnect, recharge, and reboot. To make sure we’re not just shifting more work onto people in the following weeks, we’re adjusting timelines for the next few LoR patches.
- Patch 1.7 will go live normally tomorrow, but will last an extra week (so three weeks in total rather than the usual two) before we update again.
- Patch 1.8 will go live August 26 (rather than August 19), and will also last for three weeks. 1.8 will contain a couple minor card changes but won't be a full-fledged balance patch, though it may feature a few other things…
- Patch 1.10 (yes, we’re skipping 1.9) will land on September 16, and will contain our next significant round of balance updates. This patch will last the usual two weeks and resume our normal update cadence.
New Lab: Quick Draw
Heimerdinger’s latest Lab is an experiment in thinking on your feet. Inspired by the challenging and fast-paced mechanics of some of our favourite deck-building games, Quick Draw offers players new circumstances to contend with every round.
Each round, players draw five new Fleeting cards with heavily discounted mana costs. You only have three mana to spend each round though, so choose your plays carefully. And remember, all your cards are Fleeting so use ‘em or lose ‘em!
The only way to keep a card for next turn is to use the special Prolong card you’ll draw every other round. It’ll remove Fleeting from a single card in your hand so you can save it for a big play later on. Use your Prolongs wisely!
Singleton Gauntlet Update: Tri-Region
Taking advantage of the latest deckbuilder changes (see below), we’ve updated the Singleton Gauntlet to allow tri-region decks. This’ll further differentiate Singleton from Standard, and we’re excited to see what new combinations you discover!
- Singleton Gauntlet decks may now include cards from up to three regions.
Deckbuilder
You can now filter your decks by deckbuilding rules (Standard or Singleton for now) and select specific unit art for your deckbox!
- Deck customization interface added to deckbuilder screen.
- Click the edit button at top left to adjust deckbox art and select deckbuilding rules.
- Any unit card can be dragged to assign it as deckbox art (doesn’t have to be in the deck).
- Deck type filter added to decks screen.
- Choose to view all decks (including invalid ones), valid Standard decks, or valid Singleton decks.
Personalization
Boards
Exploring the darker side of the world of Spirit Blossom, the Nightshade Shrine is an Epic-tier board featuring tappable interactive elements and unique reactions to gameplay, and is available in the store for 1290 Coins.
Nightshade Shrine
A place for those who dance with danger.
Guardians
Dragonling
A smooth surface hides a swift current.
Personality: Calm
Origin: Ionian rivers
Bundles
- Dragonling Bundle now available for 975 Coins. Bundle includes:
- Dragonling
- Nightshade Dragonling
Nightshade Dragonling
Those who fear their darkness will never move past it.
Personality: Mysterious
Attracts: Burning passion
Card Backs
- 3 new card backs available for purchase in the store.
- Spirit of the Bloom
- Spirit of Nature
- Crossed Spirits
Emotes
- New emote available as an Epic quest reward for the Spirit Blossom Festival.
Expeditions Archetypes
We’ve only got minor adjustments this time, mostly to boost several underperforming Ionian archetypes.
Fishbones
- After choosing Fishbones in pick 1, you’ll now see both a Bilgewater option and a Piltover & Zaun option for pick 2 and will no longer be forced into a tri-region deck.
Disruption
- Added: Twin Disciplines
- Removed: Shadowshift
Shadows and Dust
- Added: Navori Conspirator, Ren Shadowblade
- Removed: Shadow Fiend
Spell Slingers
- Removed: Retreat, Ye Been Warned
Total Recall
- Added: Greenglade Duo, Yusari
- Removed: Plaza Guardian
Minimum Specifications (iOS)
With Patch 1.8 in two weeks, we're raising LoR's required iOS version to iOS 13, and we'd like to provide an early warning so you can make sure your devices are updated to the latest version. We'll also update the LoR support site, where you can always find info on supported devices. Please note that 1 GB iOS devices (iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPad Air 1) are not supported by iOS 13.
Miscellaneous
- Two new Epic quests added for the Spirit Blossom Festival.
- Expeditions now refresh on Thursday (was Tuesday). This week we’ll have a short, two-day refresh to make the transition.
- Certain Death decklist from Bestow lab adjusted (previously applied hotfix).
- Discard-from-hand animations sped up when several are queued.
- In-game rules widget added to Labs.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a crash when trying to replace a unit at the start of round with a full hand.
- Fixed an issue where Back Alley Barkeep could create copies of itself (generally, random “create” cards aren’t supposed to make copies of themselves).
- Fixed an issue where the VFX on Insight of Ages would produce pink sparkles.
- Fixed an issue where Sejuani (level 2) would cause units to overlap when summoned at the same time her ability triggers.
- Zed (level 2) icon tray adjusted.
Comments
They didn't mention this in the patch notes, but apparently the reason why these patches are pushing out is because Riot is declaring a week-long company holiday for the week of August 10th off to “disconnect, recharge, and reboot."
https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/riots-taking-a-week-off
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/4/21354553/riot-games-burnout-crunch-employees-week-time-off
As much as I dislike the delay of get new toys, I have to say I really appreciate them caring about their employees' mental health--especially now during the pandemic when there's so much additional home stress and fear about losing / seeking alternative employment.
Do you think they will add a function for us to spectate our friends? It would really help my company in running tournaments for this game if we could.
Ok expansion on August 26th confirmed, but I was hoping for some more info... 3 weeks left, maybe at least a teaser...?
Cosmetics are cool and all but it's not what we are waiting for.
The tri-regions singleton sounds fun!
The "few other things" in 1.8 is most likely the next big expansion for LoR. Riot said months ago that the next expansion was scheduled for August and they would have said something here if it was delayed. Also, they've made significant balance changes in alternating patches since open beta. 1.7 doesn't have any balance changes, so 1.8 would be due for those changes, but it says it won't be a full-fledged balance patch. It doesn't make sense that they would plan to leave that out unless the patch included something else big.
So it's safe to say we'll be getting the next expansion in three weeks, which will be the biggest one yet. A full new region with 6 champions and one new champion for each existing region, along with a bunch of followers and spells to go along with them.
I am anticipating 1.8 / Aug 28 to be ONLY the new region, its 5 new champions, and maybe 50-60 followers + spells just for that region. I don't think we're going to get new cards for the current 7 regions until 1.10 / Sept 16, and that they are going to start trickling out at a staggered rate rather than release a full set of +1 champion to every region immediately.
I interpreted it the same way. They already promised the next expansion sometime in August. It’s certainly possible that the release could slip, but it would be weird if they planned out a schedule through September without mentioning a big change like that.
Also, August 26th is the end of the Spirit Blossom festival and 2 months since the ranked season began, so I would expect the new expansion to hit right then.
Yeah, reddit seem to agree on new expansion release date being 26th August. And the region being