League of Legends patch 4.17 is now live, and developer Riot Games has fully detailed the changes brought on by it.
Referred to as "the patch of champion updates," it contains some "cool 'pump up the unique!' changes for champs who may have been lacking that category," Riot explained. "Much in the vein of promoting more meaningful choices, our hope is that by giving champions like Garen and LeBlanc more uniqueness (like out-of-combat health regeneration or stealthy deception), they'll be able to feel a little more interesting in their roles."
In addition to the subtle tweaks, patch 4.17 also introduces two new gameplay updates for Vickor and Soraka, "with both focused on creating a little more unique gameplay for their respective champion." Below are the new gameplay changes to Viktor and Soraka, but you can check out the full 4.17 patch notes here.
Champion Update: Viktor, the Machine Herald
Passive: Glorious Evolution
Viktor begins the game with a Hex Core, a unique item that can be upgraded three times during the course of the game.
Q: Siphon Power
Viktor creates a shield around him and blasts an enemy unit with a round of magic damage. Additionally, Viktor deals bonus magic damage with his next basic attack.
Augment: Turbocharge – Siphon Power gives Viktor a moderate movement speed boost on cast.
W: Gravity Field
Viktor creates a gravitational field at a target location, slowing all non-friendly units inside it. The field triggers after a few seconds, stunning all caught enemies.
Augment: Implosion – The gravitational field sucks all caught enemies toward its center as it triggers.
E: Death Ray
Viktor fires a beam of energy across the battleground, damaging all enemies caught.
Augment: Aftershock – The beam of energy explodes a moment after being cast, dealing a further round of damage. Enemies caught by both rounds take reduced damage from the explosion.
R: Chaos Storm
Viktor creates an electrical storm at a target location that interrupts all nearby enemy channels and deals damage over time to all caught targets. Viktor can move the storm at will, though it loses movement speed as it travels farther from him.
Augment: Velocity – Chaos Storm moves slightly faster at all times.
Champion Update: Soraka, the Starchild
Passive: Salvation
Q: Starcall
Soraka calls down a meteor at a target location, damaging all enemies caught by the explosion and dealing extra damage and a slow to enemies directly under the impact.
W: Astral Infusion
Passive: Soraka heals herself whenever she hits an enemy champion with Starcall.
Active: Soraka sacrifices her own health to heal a nearby ally.
E: Equinox
Soraka briefly conjures a celestial zone at a target location. Enemies standing above the zone are silenced until they leave, while if they’re standing above Equinox when it collapses, they’re briefly rooted.
R: Wish
Soraka summons a global heal for all allied champions. Heavily wounded allies gain extra health.
Lastly, Riot notes that they are continuing to patch out pieces of the updated Summoner's Rift. Even though parts of the redesigned map are included in this patch, you won't be able to actually play on the updated Summoner's Rift. All it means is that you won't get a "mega-sized patch" in the future. Riot is also rolling out some updated character textures for older champions "so they can still look good when their environments change."
