Riot wants to continue bringing champions closer to their Classic appearance with tailored VFX

Riot’s David “Phreak” Turley published a video of over an hour on his YouTube channel to discuss League of Legends Classic’s first major patch, announcing several new features and changes, including visual updates, the arrival of new champions, the upcoming Player Council, rune changes, and new gameplay adjustments.

On his side, Phreak did not mention a specific release date for the patch, but it is expected to go live around next week. The game should then receive patches every two weeks, just like the regular version of League of Legends. Here are all the changes coming to LoL Classic with its first patch:

Art and Visual

The sun has been moved back to its historical position, changing the lighting and color temperature across the map.
A major texture pass for Summoner's Rift is planned for Patch 2 to bring the map closer to its 2013 appearance.
Riot also wants to continue bringing champions closer to their Classic appearance with tailored VFX.

Three New Champions

Akali: June 2012 version

Riot is bringing back the old Akali, with a clear focus on preserving her hybrid AD/AP identity.

Her passive rewards bonus AD and AP with spell vamp and additional damage.
Her Q marks the target and must then be triggered with an auto attack.
Riot particularly likes the fact that this version of Akali has to use her basic attacks, unlike many modern mages.
Her W provides stealth and resistances.
Her R has multiple charges and is primarily used for engaging and trading.

Riot explains that if certain elements, such as the energy cost of her E, prove problematic, they can be adjusted later. The initial goal is to restore the champion's correct historical structure and then balance it.

Kennen: Patch 3.9 version

Kennen is much closer to his modern version.

His passive still allows him to stack three marks to stun enemies.
Q remains a skillshot.
W has a passive tied to auto attacks and an active that adds a mark to nearby enemies.
E grants movement and resistances, unlike the modern version where these resistances are more closely tied to his R.
His R works differently: it hits enemies individually, making it more reliable in 1v1s but less predictable in teamfights.
It does not hit minions, meaning it cannot be used for waveclear.

Shen: Patch 3.6 version

Shen is much more different from his current counterpart.

His passive periodically deals additional damage based on his HP and restores energy.
His attacks also reduce the passive's cooldown.
Q is a targeted projectile that deals damage and allows Shen to recover HP by attacking the target.
W is essentially a shield.
E remains his taunt.
His R remains broadly recognizable.

Player Council

Riot wants to give more weight to direct player feedback.

The first Player Council vote could arrive with Patch 2 or 3.
Official surveys will also be used to gather opinions on game pacing, gold, gameplay systems, trinkets, and more.
Riot emphasizes that Reddit, Twitter, Twitch and YouTube do not represent the entire player base, particularly because the feedback from these platforms is heavily skewed toward English-speaking players.
The goal is therefore to gather feedback from more regions.

Runes and Progression

This is one of the patch's biggest topics.

Riot acknowledges that unlocking runes is currently too slow. Progression and grinding should remain part of the experience, but they should not become a frustrating requirement.

The goal is for free-to-play players to quickly have enough resources to build two functional rune pages as they begin unlocking the different rune types.

Changes

6,000 IP will be distributed through missions.
IP gains will be increased.
New energy runes are being added, particularly useful for champions such as Akali and Kennen.
The "placeholder" runes used when players have not yet unlocked the correct runes will be increased to 80% effectiveness.
Riot wants to prevent new players from being heavily disadvantaged simply because they have not progressed far enough yet.

Gameplay Changes

Gold

Riot is slightly increasing passive gold while slightly reducing the amount obtained directly from CS.

The goal is to give players more resources, particularly those who are struggling in lane, without completely removing the importance of farming.

Homeguards

Homeguards are disabled before 15 minutes.

Riot believes that having them so early does not fit the 2013 experience and could amplify the effects of a game that is already going badly.

On the other hand, Riot likes Homeguards in the mid and late game and may even consider making them more useful later on.

Respawn Timers

Early-game respawn timers are being reduced:

around 2 seconds shorter at levels 1-3
around 1 second shorter around levels 5-7
returning to normal values around level 8.

The main goal is to prevent an early death from completely taking a player out of the game.

Turrets

This is probably the most significant change made for gameplay reasons rather than historical accuracy.

Riot confirms that turrets were indeed more fragile in 2013, even though players currently feel that they are too weak.

Because modern players are also better at tower diving and managing aggro, Riot has decided to make them stronger:

+500 HP on outer, inner and inhibitor turrets;
roughly 15% more HP, according to Riot.

This makes them more durable than their 2013 counterparts.

Buffs

Alistar

A buff primarily aimed at his support role, where he is considerably weaker than when played in top or mid.

Amumu

Very weak statistically. Riot is reverting several 2012-2013 nerfs:

stronger MR shred
longer shred duration
more damage on Q

Riot notes that his poor performance does not appear to be caused by players lacking runes, as his win rate does not simply improve as players unlock more rune pages.

Dr. Mundo

W deals more damage per second
+5% tenacity
additional buffs to improve his ability to stay on top of enemies.

Garen

Buffs aimed at improving his sustain and early-game performance.

Lux

One of the biggest buffs in the patch because she is considered one of the weakest mid laners and supports.

+10 movement speed
improved AP ratio on R
several cooldowns reverted.

Miss Fortune

Buffs to her W, particularly the damage dealt by her early attacks.

Olaf

Returned to a version closer to the beginning of Season 3, with several historical changes reverted.

Skarner

Significant buffs after Riot identified several power issues with his current state.

Soraka

A buff primarily aimed at her support role.

Veigar

Lower Q mana cost and additional power to reinforce his identity as a mage capable of repeatedly using the ability.

Nerfs

Heimerdinger

Considered one of the strongest champions in the game, particularly in solo lanes.

Riot believes his W deals too much damage for its mana cost while being difficult to dodge. His turrets also provide a lot of lane pressure without requiring much interaction.

The nerf therefore primarily targets his overwhelming laning power.

Janna

Her nerf is relatively small and mainly targets some of her base stats.

Jarvan IV

One of the strongest junglers, receiving several historical buff reversions.

Katarina

Also nerfed, partly to address an issue with her R that could cause more damage/hits than intended.

Nasus

One of the strongest toplaners in the game. Riot is reducing some of his Q-related power.

Tryndamere

Several nerfs are tied to buffs that were introduced in 2010.

Riot is reducing:

his AD
Q's cooldown
E's cooldown.

The Q cooldown change also aims to prevent certain breakpoints that were particularly favorable to AP Tryndamere, who could otherwise use Q → R → Q extremely quickly.

Twitch

The best-performing ADC, making him the only botlaner directly nerfed.

The changes aim to reduce his early-game power without destroying his scaling:

-2 AD
slower W
higher E cost
slightly slower R.

The goal is to preserve Twitch as a late-game hypercarry while reducing his early-game dominance. Riot estimates that the nerfs should result in roughly a 1% win-rate reduction.

Warwick

Riot believes part of Warwick’s strength comes from 2013 itemization, particularly items that are especially effective on him.

He receives a 5% reduction to his attack speed ratio, directly lowering his attack speed.

Akali, Kennen and Shen Return in League Classic’s First Major Patch