Volibear is getting some changes to his kit

Volibear has had some trouble over the last few years. He is rapidly aging into complete and total irrelevance. But have no fear Volibear mains (read: me and only me), our big Baloo is getting a soft rework very soon.

Currently on the Public Beta Environment for Patch 8.4, Volibear has some pretty interesting changes to his abilities.

Surrender@20

Rolling Thunder, Volibear’s Q, has been changed quite a bit. Volibear’s charge speed now scales off level, not off of spell rank. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it essentially gives jungle Volibear a reason to rank something other than Rolling Thunder.

Even better, the movement speed now tops out at 30 percent rather than 25. When moving toward champions, the movement speed tops out at 60 rather than 50. Five and 10 percent may not seem like much but this is a huge advantage for a champion that has almost none on live.

Lane Volibear is also getting some weird buffs. When you use Voli’s bite on a minion, the cooldown is reduced by a full 50 percent. This should make picking up big CS easier in lane.

Surrender@20

Voli’s biggest changes are coming to his E, Majestic Roar. The effect now knocks back enemies slightly. This is a huge change that could potentially turn the tides on how useless Volibear is. Being able to move your enemies, even slightly, could potentially be extremely powerful. In addition to this new effect, airborne enemies take extra damage.

This is awesome because it promotes a kind of active gameplay that we’ve never seen from Volibear before. Having to watch and time your E for extra airborne damage is awesome and should at least make Voli less boring to play.

However, with all of these changes, it’s strange not to see an overhaul of his ultimate. Volibear has easily one of the worst ults in the game. Maybe some day our little lightning bear will have something to do other than make his hands get all ... electrified.