Wild Rift patch 2.2 notes: five new champions, NA launch, more

Wild Rift patch 2.2 has been touted as the biggest yet, and it’s sizing up to be that way. Five new champions are coming with the update, along with the launch of NA servers, new items, and more.

Wild Rift has finally gone global. After being in the dark for months, the Americas are finally getting servers on March 29.

NA and LATAM players aren’t the only ones getting good news though.

Wild Rift patch 2.2 will be launching at the same time, with some pretty huge changes. Five new champions will be dropping, new tank items will be added, and big changes to ranked are also in testing.

Kha’Zix, Rengar, more coming in Wild Rift patch 2.2

First, let’s talk about the five new champions. Kha’Zix and Rengar are headlining the new releases, with Galio, Renekton, and Rammus on the way. They will bring the Wild Rift champion roster up to 66; almost half of League of Legends on PC.

The two hunters and mortal enemies will be centre-stage in the game’s next event, Masters of the Hunt. More details on that will be released when the event goes live in April 2021, but a new gameplay system “specifically for the event” will be added called Nemesis Hunt.

The five champions as a whole are adding diversity to not only roles, but champion designs, Riot explained.

• Read More: Riot “very open” to adding non-LoL champs to Wild Rift

“One of the things we’ve heard a lot is that Wild Rift has a lot of humanoid champions, and not a lot of monstrous types,” Jane ‘DjangoUnjaned’ Chen said.

New tank items helps build diversity

Items-wise, the Wild Rift shop has been a bit bare. Boris is getting a few more goods to sell to the champions of Summoner’s Rift though in Wild Rift patch 2.2.

Three new tank items are being added: Sunfire Aegis, Frozen Heart, and Force of Nature. All three of these items already exist in League of Legends on PC, and have been adapted to better suit the mobile gameplay of Wild Rift.

• Read More: What’s different between LoL and Wild Rift ranked?

“While we are still evaluating Mythic items for Wild Rift, we really like the way Sunfire Aegis gives tanks a way to turn themselves into a beefy threat,” Mike ‘RogueFool’ Breese added, talking about Sunfire specifically.

Sheen, Thornmail, and Winter’s Approach are being reworked.

Tanks Amumu, Alistar, Dr. Mundo hit with nerfs

With the new tank items coming in, the beefy frontliners are going to get stronger. So, to compensate, Riot are shipping some nerfs to some of Wild Rift’s tankiest champions.

Alistar is losing some base health, as well as some range on his Pulverize. Amumu is losing some armor and damage, while Dr. Mundo’s jungle clear is being targeted with a max damage to monsters nerf on his Infected Cleaver.

Jhin, Orianna, Pantheon, and Teemo are all being nerfed too. Corki and Darius are receiving smaller quality of life buffs.

Riot Games

The Sad Robot is a little bit sadder after his Wild Rift patch 2.2 nerfs.

Wild Rift open beta coming to North America

The big news for North American players is that they’ll finally have the chance to test out these changes without VPNs or other obstacles. Wild Rift is launching in the Americas alongside patch 2.2 on March 29.

A catch-up event called “Wild Welcome” will be held to catch you up. It’ll unlock champions and other in-game content faster than normal.

• Read More: What you need to know about Wild Rift NA launch

On top of these changes, a new ranked system called “Position Preference” is currently in testing. This is different from role select and autofill, as it queues you up for all five roles ⁠— just in order from 1 to 5 from most preferred to least preferred.

Riot Games

Position Preference will potentially replace role select in the future.

The Wild Pass system is also launching. Akin to TFT’s Pass system for each new set, players will be able to earn exclusive content, including skins, just by grinding out the game. A small investment into the upgraded pass could reap big rewards.

Below are the Wild Rift patch 2.2 notes. The update will launch on March 29.

Wild Rift patch 2.2 notes

Champions

Alistar

Base stats

• Base Health reduced to 610 from 650

(1) Pulverize

• Knock-up radius reduced to 275 from 300
• Damage reduced to 60/110/160/210 from 60/120/180/240

Amumu

Base stats

• Base armor reduced to 35 from 40
• Health per level reduced to 95 from 105

(2) Despair

• AP ratio reduced to 0.75% per 100 AP from 1% per 100 AP

(Ult) Curse of the Sad Mummy

• Cooldown increased to 110/95/80s from 100/85/70s

Corki

(Passive) Hextech Munitions

• Corki’s basic attacks will no longer convert physical vamp into magic vamp.

Darius

(Ult) Noxian Guillotine

• Darius is now unstoppable during the cast time.

Dr. Mundo

(1) Infected Cleaver

• Max damage vs monsters reduced to 290/360/430/500 from 320/380/440/500

(3) Masochism

• Cooldown increased to 6/5/4/3s from 6/5.5/5/4.5s

Galio

• New champion coming on April 1

Jhin

(3) Captive Audience

• Now deals 65% damage to non-champions, down from 100%

Kha’Zix

• New champion coming on May 6

Orianna

Base stats

• Base health reduced to 530 from 570

(1) Command: Attack

• Cooldown increased to 7.5/6/4.5/3s from 6/5/4/3s
• AP ratio reduced to 0.4 from 0.5
• Base damage reduced to 50/90/130/170 from 60/100/140/180

(3) Command: Protect

• Base damage reduced to 50/90/130/170 from 60/100/140/180

Pantheon

(1) Comet Spear

• Mortal Will no longer slows.

(2) Shield Vault

• Bug fixed so ability now resets attacks and empowered attacks cannot be interrupted.

(3) Aegis Assault

• No longer blocks turret damage.
• Mortal Will no longer has extended duration.
• Mortal Will now gains 60% movement speed for 1.5 seconds

(Ult) Grand Starfall

• The spear that lands before Pantheon now slows by 50% for 2s and deals AOE damage.

Rammus

• New champion coming on April 22, reworked from Summoner’s Rift
• New passive: Rolling Armordillo
  • While out of combat, gain 32 movement speed.
• Q rework: Powerball
  • Enabled Rolling Armordillo and accelerates up to 110% bonus movement speed over six seconds. Colliding with an enemy deals magic damage in an area, knocking back and slowing enemies by 40% for one second.
• New ultimate: Soaring Slam
  • Hop into the air and slam down, dealing magic damage and creating aftershocks for four seconds. Aftershocks deal magic damage every second and slow enemies incrementally by 12%, stacking up to 60%.

Renekton

• New champion coming on May 12

Rengar

• New champion coming on May 6

Teemo

(3) Guerrilla Warfare

• Camouflage channel time increased to 1s from 0.8s

Items

Adaptive Helm

• Item removed

Dead Man’s Plate

• [NEW PASSIVE] Relentless: +5% movement speed
• Now builds from Winged Moonplate (900g) + Chain Vest (1000g) + 1000g

Fimbulwinter

• 2600 gold: Tear of the Goddess (900g) + Giant’s Belt (1000g) + 700g
• [NEW] Health: 350
• [REMOVED] Armor: 40
• Mana: 1150 → 1200 (due to Sapphire Crystal max of 350)
• Ability Haste: 10
• [NEW PASSIVE] Awe: Grants Ability Haste equal to 1% maximum mana. Refunds 15% of mana spent.
• [NEW PASSIVE] Frozen Colossus: Immobilizing an enemy champion consumes Mana and grants a shield for 3 seconds, absorbing 150 (+ 5% current max mana) for every nearby enemy champion. This effect only activates while you have greater than 20% maximum mana. (15 second cooldown)

Force of Nature

New item added

• 2850 gold: Spectre’s Cowl (1100g) + Winged Moonplate (900g) + 950g
• 350 Health
• 45 Magic Resist
• [Passive] Storm: Bonus 5% movement speed
• [Passive] Absorb: Taking ability damage grants six movement speed and four magic resist for five seconds, stacking up to five times for a max of 30 move speed and 20 magic resist. Each unique ability gives one stack.

Frozen Heart

New item added

• 2850 gold: Warden’s Mail (1050g) + Glacial Shroud (1000g) + 800g
• 70 Armor
• 300 Max Mana
• 20 Ability Haste
• [Passive] Winter’s Caress: Reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 15%.

Iceborn Gauntlet

• [REMOVED] Mana: 300

Lich Bane

• [REMOVED] Mana: 300
• Total Cost: 3050g → 2950g
  • Now builds from Sheen (900g) + Aether Wisp (950g) + 1100g

Manamune

• Ability Haste: 10 → 20

Mortal Reminder

• Combine cost: 350g → 650g
• Total cost: 2650g → 2950g

Muramana

• Ability Haste: 10 → 20

Sunfire Aegis

New item added

• 500 Health
• 15 Ability Haste
• [PASSIVE] Immolate: Deals magic damage per second to nearby enemies. Damaging champions or epic monsters with Immolate increases its damage by 10% for five seconds, stacking up to six times.
  • Immolate deals 150% damage to minions and monsters.
• [PASSIVE] Flametouch: At max Immolate stacks, attacks burn enemies around you for Immolate’s damage over three seconds.
• Cost: 3000g

Sunfire Cape

Item removed

Randuin’s Omen

• Armor: 50 → 55

Sapphire Crystal

• Mana: 300 → 100
• [NEW] Ability Haste: 5
• [NEW PASSIVE] Mana Charge: Grants 5 maximum Mana per ability cast, up to 250. Triggers up to 3 times every 12 seconds.

Sheen

• [REMOVED] Mana: 300
• Cost: 1100g → 900g
• No longer builds out of Sapphire Crystal

Tear of the Goddess

• [NEW] Ability Haste: 10
• [PASSIVE] Mana Charge: Mana per charge: 8 → 7
• [PASSIVE] Mana Charge: Mana gained from Sapphire Crystal’s Mana Charge carries over into Tear of the Goddess, so Tear can start with up to 250 Mana already stacked.

Thornmail

• Immobilizing enemy champions also inflicts them with Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds.

Trinity Force

• [REMOVED] Mana: 300
• Total Cost: 3733g → 3533g
  • Now builds from Sheen (900g) + Stinger (1200g) + Phage (1100g) + 333g

Warmog’s Armor

• Health: 650 HP → 700 HP

Winged Moonplate

New item added

• 900 gold: Ruby Crystal (500g) + 400g
• 150 Health
• [Passive] Flight: +5% movement speed

Winter’s Approach

• 2600 gold: Tear of the Goddess (900g) + Giant’s Belt (1000g) + 700g
• [NEW] Health: 350
• [REMOVED] Armor: 40
• Mana: 450 → 500 (due to Sapphire Crystal max of 350)
• Ability Haste: 10
• [NEW PASSIVE] Awe: Grants Ability Haste equal to 1% maximum mana. Refunds 15% of mana spent.
• [NEW PASSIVE] Mana Charge: Increases max Mana by 8 every attack, when Mana is spent or when taking damage from champions, epic monsters, or towers. Caps at 700 bonus Mana, transforming Winter’s Approach into Fimbulwinter. Triggers up to 3 times every 12 seconds. You may only carry one Tear of the Goddess item at a time.

Systems

ARAM

• ARAM game mode launches with patch 2.2.
  • 3 day test begins at start of April
  • 1 month test begins middle of April
  • Will launch fully later in the year
• One lane, random champions
• Approximate 12 minute games
• New Summoner Spells:
  • Mark/Dash – throws a snowball which deals damage and marks the target hit. Reactivate to dash to marked target.
  • Clarity – grants mana to you and nearby allies.
• Reroll your champion if you don’t like them

Position Preference

• Enabled in a separate ranked queue for two weeks during Wild Rift patch 2.2.
• Position Lab – players who test Position Preference queue will gain extra Blue Motes.
• Replaces role select, instead set your positions in order of preference.
  • Your number one role isn’t guaranteed, but you’ll more likely get a high preference.

Ranked Season 2

• Begins April 2 at 18:00 UTC.
• Reaching Gold with 10 wins unlocks Glorious Jinx skin, plus Jinx if unowned.

Wild Pass

• A new battle pass system with 50 tiers, giving players access to a bunch of new rewards.
• Get a skin at Level 50, and more rewards afterwards, so the grind never stops.
• Two different tracks: Free (limited rewards) and Paid (full rewards and bonuses).

Attack Speed

• Attack Speed’s effect ratio on attacks’ windup time: 100% → 50%

Summoner Spells

Ghost

• Duration: 6s → 8s
• Burst top speed reduced
• Burst duration: 2s → 3s
• On takedown, the buff’s duration is increased by 6 seconds, and the speed burst is reapplied.

Ignite

• Cast range: 7 → 5.5

120HZ Support

• Testing on a selection of high-end devices.
  • 120Hz mode is available on Samsung Galaxy S21 Range; Samsung Galaxy S20 Range; Samsung Galaxy Note 20; Samsung Tab S7 Range; OPPO Find X2; OnePlus 9 & OnePlus 9 Pro; OnePlus 8 & OnePlus 8 Pro; iPad Pro Range; Google Pixel 5; ASUS ROG Phone 2; Razer Phone 2.

Communications and Social

Communications

• Added 3 new pings for easier team coordination. Ping “Enemy has vision here” to warn about wards; ping “Group” to rally the team; or ping “Enemy missing” for when your lane opponent might be heading for a gank.
• You’ll soon occasionally receive emails if a player you reported was penalized for their in-game behavior. We’re looking to create an in-game solution for this in the coming patches.
• You can now equip the same emote in multiple autofire slots.

Social

• Game invites
  • Invite notifications are no longer a giant full-screen takeover; they’re now a smaller, friendlier notification that won’t block your interactions with the client. You can accept, reject, or simply swipe right to hide this game invite.
  • Improved the visuals for when you invite friends who are already in game.
• Social sharing
  • You can now share your achievements and Wild Pass rewards to Facebook, or by downloading the image directly.
• End-of-game screen
  • If you stay for a while in the end-of-game screen, and your friends are ready to go again, the game will give you a friendly nudge to continue.
  • Added an indicator in the end-of-game screen to indicate which players were marked as AFK (or AF… Phone?)