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League Of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a Patch Notes

League Of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a Patch Notes
Images via Riot Games

Written by 

Dave McAdam

Published 

1st Feb 2023 21:30

League of Legends Wild Rift patch 4.0a is on its way, and we have all the patch notes. League of Legends Wild Rift has its own mechanics and features separate from the PC game, and as such it has its own patches. Patch 4.0a brings plenty of balance changes, as well as some new features that will increase the pace of the game. Here are the patch notes for League of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a.

League Of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a: The TLDR Version

League of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a: A summary of the changes in the patch
Click to enlarge

A lot of LoL Wild Rift Patch 4.0a is dominated by small adjustments to various Champions. These changes are meant to bring down the Champions that are doing too well, and bring up the Champions that are not doing well enough. Also, there are some Champions that are straying outside of their intended roles, so some changes are necessary to bring them back in line.

The list of Champions with changes coming to them are; Aatrox, Akshan, Ashe, Blitzcrank, Ekko, Kayn, Lucian, Lux, Nautilus, Rakan, Sett, Yone, and Zoe. See the full list of changes below to learn exactly what is happening with each of them.

The other big changes are the new base burning mechanic, as well as giving Inhibitors the ability to respawn. Base burning is intended to help speed up the pace of the game. Essentially, at the 25-minute mark, the outermost turret on each lane will begin to lose health. Specifically, 3% of its max health every 3 seconds.

This also affects Inhibitor Turrets, but those will stop taking damage once their health goes under 25%. Base burning has no effect on the Nexus.

As for Inhibitors, they will now be able to respawn. Respawned Inhibitors lose their ability to attack, so you still do not want to let them be destroyed. If an Inhibitor is destroyed early in a match, the respawn time will be much shorter than if it was destroyed in the late game.

League Of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a: Full Patch Notes

League of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a: An example of Wild Rift gameplay from a trailer
Click to enlarge

Below are the full patch notes for Patch 4.0a, feel free to peruse them and see what changes are coming to your favourite Champions.

Champion Changes

AATROX 

Aatrox continues to see strong win rates and high ban rates. To combat this, we’re reducing the healing he gains from his World Ender, which is one of his more frustrating strengths.

(4) World Ender

  • Increased Healing: 30/45/60% → 25/35/45%

AKSHAN 

Riff raff, street rats, scoundrels, take that! We know that chasing Scoundrels without mana is no fun, so we’re lending you a hand and giving you a little more to have.

(2) Going Rogue

  • Cooldown: 18/14/10/6s → 14/10/6/2s
  • NEW: Gain 2% missing mana regen per second when chasing Scoundrels.

ASHE

Support Ashe has been overperforming, so we’re shifting some of the power out of her Volley and into Ranger’s Focus. That way we can keep her role as a marksman on target. 

(1) Ranger’s Focus  

  • Base attack speed: 25/30/35/40% → 25/35/45/55%

(2) Volley

  • Cooldown: 13/10/7/4s → 15/12/9/6s

BLITZCRANK 

Landing Rocket Grab is harder at higher levels of play, so we’re cranking up the movement speed after Overdrive’s acceleration decay.

(2) Overdrive

  • Movement speed after the first acceleration decay: 10% → 25%
  • Movement speed after the second acceleration decay: 25% → 50%

EKKO  

It’s Jungle O'clock! We’ve noticed that jungle Ekko’s clear speed has been lackluster, so it’s time for a buff.

(P) Z-Drive Resonance  

  • Monster modification: 110% → 140%

KAYN

While we’re happy with the performance of Darkin Slayer Kayn, Shadow Assassin Kayn is struggling to hold his own against his alter ego. We’re giving Shadow Assassin a handful of buffs to make the choice between this form and the Darkin Slayer form a meaningful one. 

(1) The Darkin Scythe

  • Shadow Assassin passive reset time: 6s → 5s
  • Shadow Assassin passive bonus damage: 14%~42% → 32%~46%
  • Increased the number of charges that Shadow Assassin receives when damaging ranged champions.

(2) Shadow Step

  • Shadow Assassin Cooldown: 8s → 7s

(3) Umbral Trespass

  • Shadow Assassin's range increased slightly

LUCIAN 

Lucian’s been under-target lately, so we’re making this marksman hit a little harder.

(1) Piercing Light

  • Base damage: 95/140/185/230 → 110/150/190/230

LUX    

Mid Lux is in a good spot, but support Lux is in a bit of a bind. We’re shifting some of the power out of her Ability Power ratios and into her base damage to help, since the support role won’t have as much Ability Power.

(2) Prismatic Barrier 

  • Shield: 40/70/100/130 + 15% Ability Power → 40/75/110/145 + 10% Ability Power
  • Return shield: 80/140/200/260 + 30% Ability Power → 80/150/220/290 + 20% Ability Power

(3) Lucent Singularity 

  • Damage: 60/120/180/240 + 60% Ability Power → 65/130/195/260 + 55% Ability Power

NAUTILUS 

Nautilus win rates have been floating up under the radar, so we’re anchoring it back down with some Dredge Line nerfs.

(1) Dredge Line 

  • Cooldown: 11/10/9/8s → 12/11/10/9s
  • Base damage: 70/130/190/250 → 60/120/180/240

RAKAN 

Rakan is still flying high despite recent nerfs, so we’re reducing the damage on Grand Entrance and increasing the cooldown of Battle Dance. This should ruffle some feathers.

(2) Void Seeker 

  • Base damage: 80/150/220/290 → 70/140/210/280

(3) Supercharge

  • Cooldown: 18/16/14/12s → 20/18/16/14s

SETT

Sett’s base Attack Damage is low, especially when compared to other fighters, so we’re making him hit harder but slower. We want this boss to throw those heavy Haymakers, not fast jabs.

Base Stats 

  • Base Attack Damage: 52 → 58
  • Attack speed per level: 1.7% → 1.2%

YONE 

Yone is on the strong side, and feedback from you all has been very clear that he’s extremely frustrating to play against in his current form. So, we’re slashing some of his waveclear and defensive capabilities to make sure that he exposes himself to proper risks. 

(1) Spirit Cleave 

  • Minimum damage to minions: 50~400 → 60~200
  • Damage cap to Monsters: 100~380 →  80~290
  • Base shield: 40 + 70% bonus Attack Damage → 30 + 70 % bonus Attack Damage

ZOE

We’re big Zoe fans over here, and really hope she wins xd. But right now this mischievous mage is weaker than we’d like to see in the early game so we’re adjusting the bonus movement speed and bonus movement speed duration of Spell Thief to better allow Zoe to make impactful plays during the laning phase and those early objective skirmishes.

(2) Spell Thief 

  • [BUG FIX]: Fixed an issue that prevented this ability from applying on-hit effects.

Gameplay Changes

Items

AWAKENED SOULSTEALER

Now even more woke and giving you the refunds you deserve (unlike your upcoming taxes).

Unique passive: 

  • Cooldown refund on kill: 20% → 25%

HORIZON FOCUS 

We’ve been keeping a close eye on Horizon Focus and it looks like we’ve got some damage buffs on the horizon for this item. 

Unique Passive:

  • Damage: 80 + 20% Ability Power → 90 + 25% Ability Power

LUDEN’S ECHO 

We feel that Luden’s Echo can use a little boost to help it stand out amongst the other Ability Power items so we’re giving it a bit more damage…damage…damage…

Unique passive:

  • Lightning damage: 100 + 10% Ability Power → 110 + 10% Ability Power 

System

BASE BURNING

To limit turtling tactics in the later stages of the game and keep the overall length of games reasonable, we’re introducing the Base burning System. In the very late stages of the game, turrets will begin to burn, accelerating games to their conclusion.

  • At 25 minutes the outermost turret in each lane loses 25 magic resistance and 25 armor and starts to lose 3% max health every 3 seconds.
  • Inhibitor Turrets stop taking burning damage when their health drops below 25%.
  • Base burning has no effect on the Nexus. 

INHIBITOR RESPAWN  

To provide more opportunities for interesting comebacks in the mid to late game, Inhibitors can now respawn. When an Inhibitor respawns, the respawned Inhibitor cannot deal damage to enemy units. Inhibitor respawn time scales up with game time, so losing an Inhibitor in the early stages of the game will have less of an impact while taking an enemy Inhibitor in the late game remains a powerful tactic to close out games.

  • Inhibitors respawn after destruction based on game time.
    • If an Inhibitor is destroyed within the first 13 minutes of the game, it respawns after 4 minutes.
    • If an Inhibitor is destroyed between 13-18 minutes, it respawns after 5 minutes.
    • If an Inhibitor is destroyed after 18 minutes, it respawns after 6 minutes. 
  • Respawned Inhibitors cannot attack.

Free-To-Play Champion Rotation

Feb 2 - Feb 8: Amumu, Braum, Caitlyn, Evelynn, Malphite, Pyke, Renekton, Tristana, Twisted Fate, Yasuo 

Feb 9 - Feb 15: Galio, Karma, Kennen, Kha’zix, Lucian, Kayle, Katarina, Senna, Samira, Xin Zhao

That is it for the League of Legends Wild Rift Patch 4.0a patch notes. For more League changes, check out our rundown of League of Legends Patch 13.3.

Dave McAdam
About the author
Dave McAdam
Dave is a Senior Guides Writer at GGRecon, after several years of freelancing across the industry. He covers a wide range of games, with particular focus on shooters like Destiny 2, RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, and fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
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