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League of Legends 4.2 brings some nerfs and reworks, and winter skins make a return

League of Legends 4.2 and winter skins

Riot’s released all the juicy details on League of Legends newest update, 4.2, which brings reworks for Xerath and Skarner and nerfs for the likes of Kayle and Thresh. 

“Looking at the overall content of this update, our goal is to create healthier gameplay patterns with champions who are particularly strong,” Riot said. “Look at Kayle or Riven and you can see more optimal ways to play as (and against) them. At the end of the day, some of these changes are nerfs, but hopefully you’ll try to understand them (and try them out!) first.”

Xerath’s getting a complete overhaul, with changes to his kit, new animations, particle effects and VOs. “This rework isn’t driven by a concern for power levels. Instead, like a lot of our reworks, it’s focused on delivering a unique, cohesive champion theme. Xerath’s theme has always been the arcane sniper with huge damage potential. Give him time and the right target, and he can precisely pick off his victims. That said, with Xerath’s old kit, he had so much spell penetration and rapid-fire abilities that players would often just dump all of his damage on the nearest target. We believe his new kit delivers on a better champion fantasy.”

Skarner’s rework is less dramatic, but still comes with significant changes to his bonuses and abilities. “Our goals are to improve his overall counterplay, make Fracture a more useful skill and bring him up to current jungle standards. These changes shouldn’t have a dramatic effect on Skarner’s overall play pattern but they should make his kit feel more cohesive overall.”

Along with the changes to champions, the pick order in ranked matches is changing. All players will now have an equal, random chance of being first pick, and if players are in a duo – which had some odd side effects before – if either player is chosen as first pick, the team captain will be assigned first pick and the other member of the duo will get whatever position the captain received from the randomizer

The vision system has also seen some bug fixing, and is next on Riot’s “hit list”, so more updates are planned.

Separate from the update, winter skins have returned temporarily. You can pick up the likes Mighty Jax, Union Jack Fiddlesticks and other skins until February 23rd from 520RP.