League of Legends has released details of upcoming changes to Rengar, the Pridestalker. Riot has been releasing many small-scale champion reworks and updates of this nature recently. League of Legends Patch 12.5 saw a minor update to Master Yi, the Wuju Bladesman, which moved the champion away from the Lethality build that has been popular recently. Prior to that, League of Legends Patch 12.3 included a rework for Ahri, the Nine-tailed Fox which allowed her to reconnect with her identity as a mobile mage, granting her additional charges of her ultimate dash upon getting a takedown on an enemy champion.
Rengar has long been a problem champion in League of Legends due to the fact that Rengar's kit contains little to no utility. This means that unless he gets strong enough to assassinate enemy champions quickly, he offers next to nothing to his team. Although Rengar's Battle Roar grants him some survivability and a way to escape crowd control and his empowered Bola Strike can briefly root an enemy, there is very little that makes Rengar useful if he lacks the damage to kill his target outright. On the flip-side, if the Pridestalker can kill his target inside of his burst combo, then there is very little counterplay on the part of Rengar's victim, making the champion unpleasant either to play with or against depending on how strong he is. Now, the champion appears to be in line for a rework.
Today, Phlox, a designer for League of Legends, shared their plans for a Rengar update on Twitter. Phlox explained some of the difficulties around the update and why they went with the changes they did for the time being, rather than waiting to find the perfect fix for all the champion's problems. The changes are fairly straightforward and for the most part, should leave Rengar feeling slightly less awkward than the current iteration of the champion.
One of the more important changes was the removal of Rengar's ability to sometimes use his passive to leap out of a brush even a split second after having exited said brush. League of Legends devs compensated by adding a base 25 range added to the leap at all times, making it slightly easier to get in jumping distance. Other changes include the removal of a cast time on Rengar's Bola Strike when used mid-leap. Another significant change is that Rengar's ult will now also reveal a small area around the targeted unit, not just the unit itself, giving it a little utility for determining if the enemy team is all huddling together to protect the Pridestalker's would-be victim. Rengar's Savagery will also now always count as a critical strike and have a flat damage scaling with critical strike chance, removing some of the randomness associated with the spell's damage on partial crit builds and may also add some fun interactions with items such as Navori Quickblades that have on-crit effects.
There may be more changes coming to Rengar in the future but it is the designer's hope that these will changes help make the champion feel better to play right away. How these changes will play out in-game remains to be seen, and there is still time for them to be adjusted while they remain on the League of Legends Public Beta Environment, but at the very least it seems highly likely that come Patch 12.6 Rengar will have a little more going for him on Summoner's Rift
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Source: Phlox/Twitter