League of Legends news » Nexus Blitz Primer: Snowdown Edition
The Map
Nexus Blitz is played on a compact map with two lanes and a jungle. Teams are comprised of three laners and two junglers.
Duo jungling
Monster gold and experience are shared and increased when taken by multiple allies, and buff camps grant their boons to two players rather than one. This spirit of cooperation unlocks jungling for the entire roster as long as they've got a trustworthy partner. Jinx jungle? Try it with Braum!
Upper jungle
- Invulnerable turrets (you can see 'em between Gromp and Murkwolves above)
- Red buff
- Wolves, Raptors, and Gromp
- Rift Herald (Taking Rift Herald also grants your team the minion-boosting effects of Baron Buff!)
Lower jungle
- Blue buff
- Rift Scuttler patrols around Blue buff
- A second Gromp
Top & bot lanes
- Lanes! With turrets! Bot and top lane converge toward the base and share an inhibitor.
Events
Nexus Blitz's claim to fame is its event roulette. Every few minutes, one of several map-wide events kicks off with all ten players participating! You'll get to see the first event in champ select, and once you're in game, there'll be a 30-second warning before each event letting you know what mayhem is about to ensue.
The event lineup:
- Bardle Royale: Both teams battle it out in an ever-shrinking circle of death until only one is left standing. Word of advice: don't recall once the event starts or you'll instantly burn to a crisp.
- Bardle Royale (Juggernaut): It's Bardle Royale but one member of each team gets increased health and the On-Fire buff!
- Bardle Royale (Paranoia): It's Bardle Royale but really, really dark. You won’t be able to see either enemies or allies until they’re right next to you! Everyone also gets flat penetration stats to make it the other kind of dark too (murder).
- URF Deathmatch: Urf the Manatee blesses everyone with insane buffs, including massive cooldown reduction and removed mana and energy costs. Everyone gets three lives. Last team standing wins!
- Loot Teemo: Chase a giant Teemo around the map and hit him to take his gold!
- Loot Veigar: A more dangerous Loot Teemo. Dodge the Dark Matter and Event Horizons that Veigar casts around him!
- Push the Cart: Stand near the cart to push it toward the enemy team's base and blow up the first building it touches. If the event goes too long, the cart gets impatient and decides the next person to touch it wins.
- Push the Cart (Attack/Defend): A time-capped variant of Push the Cart. Only the attackers can push the cart and their objective is still to shove it into an enemy building. When time runs out, defenders claim the win by shoving all attackers off the cart.
- Arena: Teams face off in a gauntlet of 1v1s and 2v2s. Strongest vs strongest, down to... less-strongest vs less-strongest. The team that wins the most prize fights takes the event!
- King of the Hill: Stand on top of the hill until your team claims it. If you push the enemy off, you'll drain their progress before adding your own.
- Scuttle Racing: An innocent race between two Rift Scuttlers turns nasty as both teams interfere. Use speed boosts and shields on your crab; CC and damage on the other team’s crab. If a crab
diesfaints, it recovers after a few seconds. - Sudden Death (Nexus Blitz): At 18 minutes, the Nexuses get impatient and walk toward the center of the map to fight it out. Win the game by destroying the enemy Nexus, but watch out—someone taught them how to cast abilities. Death timers are reduced during Nexus Blitz!
For Nexus Blitz vets, we've done some tuning to make events feel more fair. Most notably, events won't spawn right on top of turrets anymore! We've also made a bunch of UI improvements to better track who's winning on an event-by-event basis. Finally, the Snowball event has been removed, which is a little ironic since it's now Snowdown.
Rewards
Winning an event grants one of several wild rewards. Here's the prize wall:
- Catapult of Champions: Click the giant cannon next to your fountain to launch yourself across the map!
- Blessing of Blitzcrank: Gives your turrets and cannon minions Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab.
- Poro King: The Poro King arrives to aid your team, pushing through top lane! Fluffy helps you siege enemy turrets, breathes fire on baddies, and periodically heals nearby allies. Long live the King!
- Battle Sled: The whole team can pile into this vehicle, with the first player to click acting as driver. Take a leisurely cruise around the map until you hit something and the sled explodes, damaging and knocking up nearby enemies.
- Guardian Angel: Your team gets a temporary, one-time Guardian Angel.
- Statikk Shock: Your team gains Statikk Shiv. Zap!
- BF Shield: Your team gets big, friendly shields.
- Mega Cloud Drake: Your team gets mega out-of-combat movement speed.
- Mega Ocean Drake: Your team gets mega regen.
Those of you who played Nexus Blitz the first time around may notice some omissions. Cursed Minions, Blessing of Caitlyn, and Wrath of the Hunter (brush stealth) have been removed.
On-Fire
Racking up a killstreak lights you on fire, granting mana and energy regen, tons of damage, and shorter cooldowns, but increasing the damage you take and reducing shields and heals received. Being on fire also puts a sizable bounty on your head which the entire enemy team shares.
Items
Nexus Blitz features an armory of items from seasons past. If any of these icons stir up waves of nostalgia within you, hop into queue and relive the olden days.
Starting items have been retuned for the mode, including a new Doran's item for enchanter supports (the blue stick). Support items don't upgrade, there's no Spellthief's item, and there's only one jungle item (which upgrades Smite to Chilling Smite when you enchant it).
Finally, there's one item we developed specifically for Nexus Blitz:
Stat-Stick of Stoicism
B.F. Sword + Vampiric Scepter + Zeal + Needlessly Large Rod + Kindlegem + Aegis of the Legion + 1127 gold (7,777 gold total)
- +250 health
- +250 mana
- +100% base health regen
- +100% base mana regen
- +30 armor
- +30 magic resist
- +120 ability power
- +70 attack damage
- +50% attack speed
- +30% critical strike chance
- +10% lifesteal
- +10% movement speed
- +20% cooldown reduction
Bans
New to our second test, champ select kicks off with a ban phase. Everyone gets one ban and bans champs at the same time!
Mode-Specific Balancing
Nexus Blitz features a bunch of mode-specific balance changes for champions and runes to accommodate the faster pace, smaller map, and frequent fighting. We'll have at least one follow-up balance update after the mode goes live.
A Giant List of Mode-Specific Changes
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GLOBAL AURA (all champs) +30% summoner spell cooldown reduction
+4 mana per 5 seconds
+5 (+.5/lvl) Magic resistance
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CHAMPIONS Amumu
- Stats
-
- Base health reduced to 570 from 613
- Health growth reduced to 80 from 84
- Armor growth reduced to 3.3 from 3.8
Bard
- Increased chime spawn rate
Akali
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 630 from 550
- Base AD increased to 65 from 62
- AD Growth increased to 4 from 3.3
- Base armor increased to 28 from 23
Azir
- Stats
-
- Attack speed growth increased to 3% from 1.5%
- Base health increased to 600 from 552
- Health growth increased to 100 from 92
- Base mana increased to 500 from 438
- Mana growth increased to 30 from 21
- Base mana regeneration increased to 12 from 8
Brand
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 75 from 88
- Base armor reduced to 18 from 22
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.4
Cassiopeia
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 580 from 537
- Base mana increased to 500 from 418
- Base mana regeneration increased to 11 from 8
Evelynn
- Stats
-
- Base health reduced to 500 from 572
- Health growth increased to 95 from 84
- Base attack damage increased to 65 from 61
- Base armor increased to 42 from 37
Ezreal
- Stats
-
- Base attack damage increased to 63 from 60
- Attack damage growth increased to 3 from 2.5
- Attack speed growth increased to 1.5% from 2.5%
- Base mana regeneration increased to 12 from 8.1
Graves
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 85 from 92
- Base armor reduced to 30 from 33
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.5
Ivern
- Friend of the Forest
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- Ivern is not a friend of Nexus Blitz’s forest (his passive doesn’t work on them)
Jhin
- Stats
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- Health growth reduced to 85 from 91
- Attack damage growth reduced to 4 from 4.7
Kalista
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 600 from 534
- Base mana increased to 300 from 231
- Base attack damage increased to 67 from 62
- Attack damage growth increased to 4.5 from 3.6
- Attack speed growth increased to 4.5% from 3.5%
Karthus
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 75 from 87
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.5
Kindred
- Mark of the Kindred
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- Jungle camps aren't marked
- Always grant a stack when killing the Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback or Rift Herald
- On-champion-kill stacks increased to 2 from 1
Kog'Maw
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 75 from 88
- Attack damage growth reduced to 2 from 3.1
Lee Sin
- Stats
-
- Attack damage growth increased to 4.5 from 3.2
- Health growth increased to 95 from 85
Lulu
- Stats
-
- Health growth increased to 90 from 74
- Base attack damage increased to 51 from 46
- Base armor increased to 32 from 28
Lux
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 75 from 85
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 4
Maokai
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 90 from 95
- Armor growth reduced to 3.5 from 4
Nasus
- Siphoning Strike
-
- On-kill stacks increased to 6 from 3
- On-large-kill stacks increased to 12 from 6
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 620 from 560
- Attack damage growth increased to 4 from 3.5
- Attack speed growth increased to 4% from 3.5%
Nidalee
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 590 from 545
- Health growth increased to 95 from 85 8000
- Base armor increased to 33 from 28
- Base attack damage increased to 66 from 61
Ryze
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 610 from 570
- Base armor increased to 27 from 21.5
- Base mana regeneration increased to 9 from 6
Sejuani
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 620 from 560
- Base armor increased to 36 from 31
- Base magic resist increased to 32 from 27
Shen
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 600 from 540
- Health growth increased to 95 from 85
Shyvana
- Fury of the Dragonborn
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- Deals 10% bonus damage to the Walking Nexus and Nexus Blitz Rift Herald
- Gains a stack whenever her team wins an event
Sona
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 60 from 77
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.3
Tahm Kench
- Stats
-
- Health growth increased to 110 from 95
- Attack speed growth increased to 3.5% from 2.5%
- Base armor increased to 52 from 47
Talon
- Assassin's Path
-
- Cooldown reduced to 80/67.5/55/42.5/30 seconds from 160/135/110/85/60 seconds
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 650 from 588
- Base attack damage increased to 70 from 68
- Attack damage growth increased to 4 from 3.1
- Base armor increased to 35 from 30
Taric
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 75 from 90
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.4
Tristana
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 610 from 559
- Base attack damage increased to 65 from 61
- Attack damage growth increased to 4 from 3.11
- Attack speed growth increased to 2.5% from 1.5%
Tryndamere
- Stats
-
- Attack speed growth increased to 4% from 2.9%
- Attack damage growth increased to 4.5 from 3.7
- Health growth increased to 110 from 98
Rek'Sai
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 600 from 570
- Health growth increased to 100 from 85
- Attack damage growth increased to 4.5 from 3.35
- Base armor increased to 38 from 33
- Attack speed growth increased to 3% from 2%
Veigar
- Phenomenal Evil Power
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- On-unit-kill stacks increased to 2 from 1
Vel'Koz
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced 75 from 88
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.5
Warwick
- Stats
-
- Health growth increased to 100 from 85
- Attack speed growth increased to 3.5% from 2.3%
- Attack damage growth increased to 4 from 3
Wukong
- Stats
-
- Attack damage growth reduced to 3 from 4
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.5
Xayah
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 600 from 561
- Base attack damage increased to 65 from 60
- Attack damage growth increased to 3.5 from 2.9
Yasuo
- Stats
-
- Attack damage growth reduced to 2.5 from 3.2
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.4
Zed
- Stats
-
- Base health increased to 630 from 584
- Attack damage growth increased to 4 from 3.4
- Attack speed growth increased to 3% from 2.1%
Ziggs
- Stats
-
- Health growth reduced to 78 from 92
- Armor growth reduced to 3 from 3.3
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RUNES Presence of Mind
- Ultimate cooldown refund reduced to 6% from 10%
Dark Harvest
- Damage per soul reduced to 2 from 5
Taste of Blood
- Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 20 seconds
Ghost Poro
- Cooldown reduced to 40 seconds from 60 seconds
Transcendence
- Bonus cooldown reduction time reduced to level 8 from level 10
Gathering Storm
- Rank-up time reduced to every 4.5 minutes from 10 minutes
Grasp of the Undying
- Triggered attack bonus health increased to 15 from 5
- Ranged champions triggered attack bonus health increased to 9 from 3
Demolish
- Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds from 45 seconds
Conditioning
- Time available reduced to 6 minutes from 10 minutes
Overgrowth
- Threshold for %max health reduced to 80 minions from 120
- Flat health per stack increased to 5 from 3
Kleptomancy
- Switchover to late-game drops reduced to 4 minutes from 15 minutes
- Early game loot curve steepness reduced to first 4 drops from 8
- Gold on failed loot rolls increased to 10 from 5
Biscuit Delivery
- Time between biscuits reduced to 1.5 minutes from 3 minutes
- Total number of biscuits increased to 8 from 4
Magical Footwear
- Time available reduced to 6 minutes from 10 minutes
Perfect Timing
- Time available reduced to 4 minutes from 10
Minion Dematerializer
- Time available reduced to 3 minutes from 4 minutes
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