With 2022’s League of Legends season 12 coming up fast, and League of Legends patch 12.1 already on the PBE for testing, it’s a great time to look ahead at what a whole new year of content will bring to Riot Games’ flagship MOBA game. While there are no details of the balance changes coming to the Rift next just yet, it seems Riot is planning to roll out some significant changes to assassin champion Rengar at some point soon.
Game designer Kevin ‘Captain Gameplay’ Huang has shared a tooltip teaser on Twitter that gives us a snapshot of changes headed to Rengar’s ultimate ability, Thrill of the Hunt. While it’s likely that these proposed updates aren’t in their final form – they haven’t even hit the PBE for a round of testing yet, after all – they do indicate some key adjustments to how his R works. The new-look ability’s passive would let the champ “also leap attack when camouflaged”, which could have a potential knock-on effect for his passive ability, Unseen Predator, which is of course tied to Rengar’s leaping attack.
On Twitter, game designer Riot Phlox describes the ultimate tweak as a “sweet change that should make chem map not feel bad for Rengar!” and adds that “the other stuff is still in the works dw”, so it does seem like this won’t be the only change we see to his abilities.
As for Rengar’s active ultimate, the tooltip now notes that “Rengar gains 60% move speed and true sight of the nearest enemy champion for 20 seconds. After one second, Rengar becomes camouflaged and can leap without being in brush. Leaping to the nearest champion deals an additional [62] physical damage, shreds [24] armour for four seconds, and ends this ability”. This halves the time after which he camouflages – it’s currently two seconds in the live game – and bolsters his assassination skills, giving him the option to spot hidden enemies and take them out.
A sweet change that should make chem map not feel bad for Rengar! The other stuff is still in the works dw https://t.co/iAP31TcXdy
— Phlox (@RiotPhlox) December 10, 2021
Riot’s been talking about bringing in some big changes to Rengar’s gameplay for a while, with Riot Phlox noting earlier this year that the team is looking to “ease pain points and open up Rengar jungle so that he’s not so inaccessible in lower ELOs”. The devs also rolled out some changes for testing in August this year, though no major balance changes have come to the live game for the champ in a long while now.
There’s no timeframe given for when the newly revealed changes – and those others teased as “still in the works” – are due to hit the live game, but hopefully for Rengar mains it won’t be too much longer now.