Legends of Runeterra Patch 2.3.0: Full notes and updates

The newest expansion will arrive tomorrow.

Image via Riot Games

Legends of Runeterra’s newest update, Patch 2.3.0, will be released tomorrow.

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With the completion of the Call of the Mountain set, the first major expansion for 2021, Empires of the Ascended, is slated to become available in this patch. With 110 new cards and the next region of Shurima, there will be a ton of new content for LoR players to explore.

In addition, an event pass with a multitude of premium and free content is available for players to complete until the end of March. If players purchase the bundle before March 16, there will be an extra bonus quest that awards an extra Rare Prismatic Capsule.

For Labs, the first co-op PvP experience is being added to the game. While The United Front was the first instance of co-op for players, that was against AI with an elevated deck and abilities. Similar to the initial teamwork Lab, you can queue up with your friends to tackle the challenge of other duos together.

Outside of the new content, there’s also a slight balance change featuring the newest champion, Aphelios. Despite his fresh appearance, he’s assisted in dominating the tournament scene and will be losing one health to allow for more counterplay opportunities.

Here are the full notes for LoR Patch 2.3.0. 

New expansion: Empires of the Ascended

It’s finally time to awaken your empire. The Empires of the Ascended expansion introduces a new region, Shurima, as well as 110 collectible cards across all regions including Shurima, nine champions, and new keywords and mechanics that can completely alter your destiny.

Empires of the Ascended arrives in Patch 2.3.0, which will be playable at approximately 1pm CT on March 3.

New region: Shurima

The empire of Shurima stands strong once again in Empires of the Ascended and revolves around a theme of ascension and inevitability. The power of the great Sun Disc can raise the powers of Shurima’s Ascended champions by unbelievable magnitudes—but only if it can be restored.

New cards

Over the past few weeks, Riot has been steadily revealing all of the cards being introduced in Empires of the Ascended, which concluded with Azir’s reveal earlier today. You can head to one of the galleries below to check out the full list:

New keywords

Within the 110 new collectible cards being added in Empires of the Ascended, some new keywords have been introduced: Countdown, Predict, and Reputation.

Updates to challenges, quests, and AI decks

New challenges and quests have been added to introduce you to the keywords, archetypes, and champions coming in Empires of the Ascended. AI decks featuring Shurima, as well as other cards added in the expansion, have also been added to the Vs. AI opponent pool.

Card updates

Aphelios (Level one and two)

  • Base stats:
    • Level 1 3|3 → 3|2
    • Level 2 4|4 → 4|3

Riot wants to flatly decrease Aphelios’ survivability and increase counterplay. Given the power and versatility of his kit, Riot will continue to monitor his performance and make follow-up changes in the future if needed.

Region Road updates

With Shurima’s rise comes a new Region Road. Demacia, Noxus, Freljord, and Shadow Isles have also been extended for the addition of their newest champions.

  • Shurima Region Road added, featuring 25 levels, including a Shurima card back.
  • Demacia, Noxus, Feljord, and Shadow Isles extended an additional 4 levels.

Champion Mastery

Patch 2.3.0 introduces the Champion Mastery feature. Play your favorite champions to increase their Champion Mastery level and unlock special card borders to show off your prowess.

New Lab: United Front PvP

  • Patch 2.3.0 brings a new rotation to Multilab:
    • Lab of Legends
    • United Front PvP (New in 2.3.0!)
    • Heimer’s Madness

Heimerdinger has taken another crack at his United Front Lab, upgrading it to a two-vs-two PvP tag-team battle.

Just like in United Front PvE, each player is offered a champion at the start of the game that determines the deck they’ll bring into battle. But they share a board and units and must work together to achieve victory.

You can queue with either a friend or random partner, but regardless of your recruitment strategy, communication is essential to optimize your plays. Use the experimental P.I.N.G. system by dragging special social emotes onto the board to suggest attackers, blockers, send a friendly fist bump, and more.

Personalization

Boards

  • Ascended Oasis
    • For legends who come back stronger than before.
    • This board has special visual effects and music.
Image via Riot Games

Guardians

  • Fen
    • The desert holds many wonders and Fen may just be the cutest of them all.
    • Personality: Clever
    • Hobby: Sand Surfing
    • Fen is available in the Empires of the Ascended event pass.
Image via Riot Games

Card backs

Four new card backs are available as part of the Empires of the Ascended event pass.

  • The Curator of the Sands
    • For legends who do what is right, not what is easy.
  • The Butcher of the Sands
    • For legends who succumb to the beast within.
  • The Emperor of the Sands
    • For legends who overcome the past.
  • The Stoneweaver
    • For legends who move mountains.

Emotes

Four new emotes will be available as part of the Empires of the Ascended event pass.

Bundles/event pass

  • The Empires of the Ascended event pass is available for 975 Coins. Purchasing the event pass will immediately unlock the Fen Guardian.
  • Additional details:
    • Grants access to an upgraded event path with premium rewards. Play games to earn Sun Discs and unlock more rewards, including Guardian variants, Emotes, Card Backs, Prismatic Cards, and more.
    • Purchase before March 16 to get an exclusive quest that awards 10 Sun Discs and a Rare Prismatic Chest.
    • The event ends and pass expires on March 31 at 1pm CT.

Deck bundles

Jump straight into the heat of battle (and the Shuriman desert) with two new deck bundles available in the store. Challenge your enemies with powerful combos with the Wardens of War deck featuring Renekton and Jarvan IV, or strike fast and hard to activate Reputation with the Mistresses of Battle deck.

  • Wardens of War: Available for 2,115 Coins, prorated for any cards you already own.
  • Mistresses of Battle: Available for 2,052 Coins, prorated for any cards you already own.

Ranked rewards and new season

With the release of Empires of the Ascended, the Cosmic Creation season has come to a close. Fight hard in the Empires of the Ascended season to earn your place in the next Seasonal Tournament, which will be run using a new format.

  • Ranked will be disabled from 11am to 1pm CT to prepare for the new ranked season.
  • Rewards based on your Cosmic Creation rank will be delivered to your account.

Expeditions

For Empires of the Ascended, Riot is adding five new archetypes to the Expeditions pool, featuring the new champions and strategies highlighted in this expansion: Ascension, Challengers, Incubators, Reputation, and Slayers.

  • Empires of the Ascended archetypes will temporarily be four times as likely as they would otherwise be to appear in the initial Champion Picks. Riot will even out these chances in a later patch.
  • Cards from Empires of the Ascended have been added to various appropriate archetypes.
  • Active Expeditions won’t roll over into Empires of the Ascended and players will be forced to retire any active runs. Active trials (not those mid-draft) will be compensated normally. 

Miscellaneous

  • Increased the maximum number of deck slots in the Collection from 30 to 50.
  • Known issue: cross-server friend challenge has been disabled until Patch 2.4.0 to address several high-severity bugs. Riot apologizes for the inconvenience. Keep an eye out for additional updates.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed an issue where Katarina would occasionally strike the Nexus while being the target of Dragon’s Rage.
  • Fixed a visual issue where Stress Testing would cause Fleeting cards to overlap in hand.
  • Fixed several visual issues with tooltips occasionally being overlapped by other UI elements in the tutorial.
  • Fixed an issue where The Cloven Way would occasionally get stuck on the board.
  • Fixed several text issues in card text, descriptions, and tooltips in our continued focus on improving consistency.
  • Fixed an issue where Aphelios could sometimes create Moon Weapons without the Phase requirements being met.
  • Fixed an error where casting Pick A Card would occasionally result in a visual bloom effect.
  • Fixed an error where an interaction between Aurelion Sol and Celestial cards would occasionally result in a visual bloom effect.
  • Fixed an issue where a silenced Jinx would occasionally allow Super Mega Death Rocket to persist over multiple turns.
  • Fixed an issue where Tahm Kench would occasionally not play any VFX when obliterating units.
  • Fixed an issue where Wiggly Burblefish would occasionally not play any SFX when attacking.
  • Fixed an issue where the numbers for Wildcards / Currencies on mobile would display incorrectly.

LoR Patch 2.3.0 will be released tomorrow, March 3.

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Dylan Ladd
My name's Dylan! I play card games, write about them, and I'm making one too! I'm also into a ton of other competitive games (MOBAs and Fighting Games especially). Sometimes you can catch me streaming on Twitch!
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