Riot Games' League of Legends Classic patch 4 adds four champions themed around Bilgewater and the sea: Graves, Fizz, Nami and Nautilus, according to a walkthrough by Riot game designer David "Phreak" Turley reported by PCGamesN. PCGamesN reported that the patch is expected on Wednesday, September 23.
Graves had been one of the most requested additions since the throwback mode was announced. His Classic kit includes True Grit, which grants stacking armor and magic resist the longer he stays in combat; Buckshot, a three-shot cone that can hit one target multiple times; a Smoke Screen that damages, slows and limits enemy vision; and Quickdraw, a dash that grants attack speed and whose cooldown drops as he auto-attacks. His ultimate, Collateral Damage, keeps its cone area on hit but no longer knocks Graves backwards.
- Fizz: Seastone Trident's damage scales with the target's missing health and its active applies grievous wounds; Chum the Waters loses its distance-based scaling.
- Nami: Tidecaller's Blessing works only on auto-attacks, and Tidal Wave spawns in front of her, so enemies standing behind her are not knocked up.
- Nautilus: hooking terrain with Dredge Line refunds only the cooldown, not half the mana cost, and Depth Charge's trail damages and knocks up but does not stun.
Phreak said there is "a real argument" for changing Nami's ultimate but that the team wanted to test it in its original form first.
Council vote and balance
The patch also reports the first results from The Council, a voting system players earn votes for by playing Classic. According to PCGamesN, 52.8% of voters said average game length was about right and 48.8% said the level of snowballing was in a good place. Voters backed always-visible modern jungle timers, approved of ward trinkets, and said yes to all three proposed items: Zz'Rot Portal, Cloak and Dagger, and Moonflair Spellblade. Phreak said no single server swung any vote.
Akali, Galio, Kassadin, Poppy and Shyvana receive buffs, while Fiora, Morgana and Twisted Fate are nerfed. All global passives now disable instantly when a champion dies, which Phreak described as minor nerfs to champions including Janna, Twisted Fate and Zilean.
Phreak also rejected social media claims that botting is rampant in Classic, saying there is very little conventional botting and that it is in line with other League modes. After reviewing about two days of reports, he said every flagged game involved a new player rather than a bot, though he acknowledged "some very large issues" with how Classic seeds players by skill. A further Council vote will let players choose which champion Riot starts work on next from five options.
