?Image - Riot Games
Even with an upcoming massive overhaul coming in preseason, League of Legends will be experiencing some heavy changes and shifts in champion power this patch.
A few balance changes and nerfs are coming to put the strongest champions in line with other champions. The method of the balancing mostly targets champions that are heavily rewarded even without precision on the use of their abilities. Some of the affected champions include Ahri, Jarvan, and Shen.
In addition, Sivir has been reworked and now works as a hybrid between her most recent state and her state before Season 2, where "Ricochet" was a toggled ability, increasing damage and making it splash until deactivated. Quality of life changes have come as well, including the long-awaited change to the chat system, where an ally speaking would scroll the window down if you were looking for specific timers in the log.
Summary: Blood Well’s passive attack speed bonus now scales with character level (lower at earlier levels, higher at max level). Blades of Torment’s damage has been reduced (equal at lower levels, lower at max levels).
Context: Any champion can be frustrating to play against when they’re capable of building very tanky while still outputting considerable DPS, so we're lowering some of Aatrox’s innate damage. With this change, Aatrox must build items for damage and won’t be able to simultaneously tank and smash face as easily.
Blood Well
- Passive Attack Speed changed to 30/35/40/45/50/55% (upgrades every 3 champion levels) (from 50% flat)
Blades of Torment
- Damage reduced to 75/110/145/180/215 (from 75/120/165/210/255)
Summary: Charm has had its mana cost changed to a flat amount at all levels but now increases the magic damage Ahri deals to a Charmed target. Essence Theft now heals her for a specific amount based on the number of enemies she hits with her passive-enhanced spell, as opposed to getting straight spell vamp. Fox Fire now deals less damage when multiple wisps hit the same target. Spirit Rush's base damage and AP ratios have been slightly reduced.
Context: Ahri is a champion with a lot of strengths and few weaknesses, given her high versatility and reliability, so she can consistently apply a lot of pressure on her opponents from relative safety. Ahri’s strengths should be better defined than they currently are. These changes give Ahri players (and her opponents) clear areas of mastery that differentiate the good Ahris from the great Ahris. Our core focuses are:
- Make Ahri’s default lane patterns more clear, so both Ahri and her opponents can make plays around them
- Make Ahri’s “all-in” gameplay more closely tied with landing Charm to establish Charm as Ahri’s “kiss of death” that needs to be avoided, as well as lower her threat/presence while Charm is on cooldown
- Keep Ahri’s core gameplay intact while trimming away strength from the low-gameplay patterns that don’t feel rewarding
Essence Theft
- Now heals Ahri for 2 (+1 per champion level) (+0.09 Ability Power) each time her passive-enhanced spells hit an enemy (previously 35% Spell Vamp)
Fox-Fire
- Mana cost reduced to 50 (from 60)
- Diminishing returns effect on same-target hits increased to 70% (from 50%) (best case is now 100% + 30% + 30%)
- This reduces the same-target damage to 64/104/144/184/224 (+0.64 Ability Power) (from 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.8 Ability Power))
- Fixed a bug that caused Fox-Fire to sometimes deal reduced damage to a target that should receive the standard damage amount
Charm
- Now increases the magic damage Ahri deals to the target by 20% for 6 seconds
- Mana cost changed to 85 (from 50/65/80/95/110)
Spirit Rush
- Base damage reduced to 70/110/150 (+0.3 Ability Power) (from 85/125/165 (+0.35 Ability Power))
- This reduces the max damage per target to 210/330/450 (+0.9 Ability Power) (from 255/375/495 (+1.05 Ability Power))
Summary: Corki's base attack speed has been reduced. Missile Barrage's base damage has been reduced at earlier ranks and the cooldown between missile shots has been increased. Additionally, the cooldown between missile shots can no longer be reduced by cooldown reduction, but CDR will still affect how quickly you can gain missile ammo.
Context: Overall, we like the direction we pushed Corki toward with Trinity Force, but currently he's too overwhelming to play against. Here we're reducing excess power in a few areas to put him more in line with other similar spell-based ADCs. Ultimately, Missile Barrage should function as a powerful sustained damage tool rather than a source of burst damage.
General
- Base Attack Speed reduced to 0.625 (from 0.658)
Missile Barrage
- Base damage reduced to 100/180/260 (from 120/190/260)
- Cooldown between missile shots increased to 2 seconds (from 1.2)
- Cooldown between missile shots can no longer be reduced by Cooldown Reduction (Cooldown Reduction still affects how quickly you gain missile ammo)
Summary: The active ability power ratio of Seastone Trident has been reduced significantly.
Context: We’re aiming to reduce some of Fizz’s late game damage so that he has to rely more on successfully landing his ultimate or finding a way to stall until his next set of cooldowns come up in order to successfully assassinate targets in late game fights.
Playful / Trickster
- Fixed a bug where Fizz became targetable while still descending from Playful (he now only becomes targetable after landing, just like Trickster)
Seastone Trident
- Active Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.15 (from 0.35)
Summary: Heimerdinger’s kit has been significantly reworked this patch. Techmaturgical Repair Bots no longer works on friendly turrets. H-28G Evolution Turrets now fire a beam every twelve seconds in a projected line shot in addition to their regular attacks. Additionally, H-28G Evolution Turret will now shut down after a period of time if Heimerdinger leaves the area. Hextech Micro-Rockets have been reworked to unleash a barrage of rockets that converge at your cursor before fanning out. Enemies hit by more than one rocket take reduced magic damage from additional rockets. CH-1 Electron Storm Grenade now travels in an arc.
UPGRADE!!! makes Heimerdinger’s next spell free while also applying bonus effects. Upgrading H-28G Evolution Turret transforms it into a giant H-28Q Apex Turret that deals higher damage with a lower cooldown beam. Upgrading Hextech Micro-Rockets transforms it into Hextech Rocket Swarm, where Heimerdinger fires out four waves of rockets that deal damage on impact. Finally, upgrading the CH-1 Electron Storm Grenade transforms it into a CH-3X Lightning Grenade that bounces three times (dealing damage and stunning with each bounce) before disappearing.
Context: Heimerdinger’s got some new toys! Our core goal was to give Heimerdinger the tools to differentiate himself in ability use and build optimization. In particular, we focused on diversifying the Heimerdinger experience so that each of Heimer’s abilities comes with its own form of gameplay and interaction – players will need to think carefully about how to use each in an optimal way. Raise your turrets!
Passive: Techmaturgical Repair Bots
- Heimerdinger gives nearby allied champions and H-28G Evolution Turrets 10/15/20/25/30 bonus Health Regen
H-28G Evolution Turret
- Places a Turret at target location. Turret attacks prioritize Heimerdinger’s targets and enemies attacking Heimerdinger
- Heimerdinger generates a Turret Kit every 24/23/22/21/20 seconds (modified by Cooldown Reduction), and he can hold up to 1/1/2/2/3 Kits at once
- Cost: 20 Mana and 1 Kit
- Cooldown: 1s
- H-28G Evolution Turret Stats
- Health: 150 (+25 per champion level)
- Attack - Cannon: 15/22/29/36/42 (+0.125 Ability Power) magic damage
- Attack - Beam: 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.5 Ability Power) magic damage in a line, 12 second cooldown
- Maximum Turrets: 3
Hextech Micro-Rockets
- Unleashes a barrage of 5 rockets that converge towards your cursor and fan out past it. Each rocket deals 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.45 Ability Power) magic damage
- Enemies that are hit by more than one rocket take 20% magic damage for each additional rocket (max damage 108/162/216/270/324). Minions take 60% instead
- Targeting the ability closer to Heimerdinger increases projectile spread
- Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 Mana
- Cooldown: 11s
CH-1 Electron Storm Grenade
- Hurls a grenade that deals 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.6 Ability Power) magic damage to enemy units and slows their Movement Speed by 35% for 2 seconds
- Enemies in the center of the blast are also stunned for 1.25 seconds
- Cost: 85 Mana
- Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10
UPGRADE!!!
- Heimerdinger's next basic spell is free and has bonus effects
- H-28Q Apex Turret: Places a Turret that deals 90/110/130 (+0.33 Ability Power) magic damage with its cannon and 225/300/375 (+0.8 Ability Power) magic damage with its beam for 8 seconds
- Hextech Rocket Swarm: Fires 4 waves that deal 135/180/225 (+0.45 Ability Power) magic damage each. Champions and monsters hit by multiple rockets take reduced damage (max 550/690/865 (+1.83 Ability Power))
- CH-3X Lightning Grenade: Throws a grenade that discharges three times, dealing 150/200/250 (+0.6 Ability Power) magic damage each time. Both the stun and slow areas are larger, and the slow is improved to 80%
- Cooldown: 100/85/70
- Cost: 100 Mana
Summary: Switcheroo!’s Minigun attack speed bonus has been reduced at early ranks. Zap!’s base damage has been reduced at early ranks and its mana cost has been slightly increased. Zap! also no longer reveals stealthed units.
Context: We feel that while Jinx's kit has a lot of built-in weakness in the mid and late game, her early lane dominance is so overwhelming that it distorts her overall power across the entire game. The goal here is to address Jinx’s early damage potential while trying to minimize effects on her late game.
Switcheroo! - Minigun
- Total Attack Speed bonus reduced to 30/55/80/105/130% (from 50/70/90/110/130%)
Zap!
- Base damage reduced to 10/60/110/160/210 (from 30/75/120/165/210)
- Mana cost increased to 50/60/70/80/90 (from 45/55/65/75/85)
- No longer reveals stealthed units
Summary: Null Sphere has had its mana cost and damage reduced at later levels. The silence duration of Null Sphere has been increased at lower levels but very slightly lowered at max level. Riftwalk’s base damage and bonus damage per stack has been increased in addition to having a small AP ratio added per stack. Additionally, Riftwalk now refunds 50% of the total mana cost when it damages an enemy champion. Finally, Kassadin no longer gains magic resistance per level.
Context: Currently we feel like Kassadin’s play beyond the laning phase is too safe, especially when he gets ahead. He can deal consistently high damage at range with Null Sphere and Force Pulse while holding on to Riftwalk for a safe escape. These changes are focused on forcing Kassadin to use Riftwalk as a significant part of his damage output, which also gives opponents opportunities to capitalize on his mistakes.
General
- Magic Resist per level reduced to 0 (from 1.25)
Null Sphere
- Base damage reduced to 80/115/150/185/220 (from 80/130/180/230/280)
- Silence duration changed to 1.5/1.75/2.0/2.25/2.5 seconds (from 1/1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6)
- Mana Cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 (from 70/80/90/100/110)
Riftwalk
- Base damage increased to 80/100/120 (from 60/70/80)
- Base damage per Riftwalk stack reduced to 50/55/60 (from 60/70/80)
- Added 0.1 Ability Power ratio per stack
- Now refunds 50% of the total mana cost when Riftwalk damages an enemy champion
Summary: Morgana’s attack range, base attack speed, and basic attack animation have been improved across the board. Tormented Soil no longer reduces magic resistance per tick, instead it deals additional damage based on an enemy's missing health. Morgana should deal roughly the same amount of overall damage, although there’ll be some variation due to how the new Tormented Soil works.
Context: This change is more of a modernization of Morgana and her Tormented Soil by rewarding her for being continuously aggressive with landing her Dark Bindings. Specifically, we wanted to reinforce Morgana's standard damage combo of Dark Binding to Tormented Soil, rather than the "ideal" combo of using Tormented Soil's magic resistance reduction to make Dark Binding deal more damage.
General
- Attack Range increased to 450 (from 425)
- Base Attack Speed increased to 0.625 (from 0.579)
- Improved basic attack responsiveness
Tormented Soil
- Damage per second changed to 24/38/52/66/80 (+0.22 Ability Power) (from 25/40/55/70/85 (+0.2 Ability Power))
- Tormented Soil's damage now increases by up to 50% based on the enemy's missing Health
- Damage application cadence increased to every 0.5 seconds from every 1 second
- No longer applies a Magic Resist reduction debuff
Summary: Undertow’s slow duration has been increased and its mana cost changed to a flat cost. Vicious Strikes grants more attack speed at lower levels. Reckless Swing deals slightly less self-damage to Olaf on use.
Context: We were overly cautious with our initial rework changes for Olaf, which left him undertuned, but not Old and Busted. However, now that we’ve addressed some of his old core issues, we feel like we can be more aggressive with tweaking his kit balance. These changes are focused on allowing Olaf to better stick to his opponents when he’s landing his skillshots properly, which will, in turn, allow him to better melt face when he’s in the zone.
Undertow
- Slow duration increased to 1.5 - 2.5 seconds (from 1.0 to 2.0)
- Mana cost changed to 60 (from 55/60/65/70/75)
Vicious Strikes
- Attack Speed increased to 40/50/60/70/80% (from 20/35/50/65/80%)
Reckless Swing
- Self-damage reduced to 30% damage dealt (from 40% damage dealt)
General
- Rammus received a texture update
Summary: Sivir has received a visual upgrade! Sivir’s Ricochet will now be active for the next three attacks after casting and each attack bounces infinitely, provided it can find new targets to bounce to (it will never hit the same target twice). Additionally, targets hit by a bounce will take a flat percentage amount of damage. Spell Shield no longer costs mana to cast. On The Hunt no longer has a cast time but doesn’t provide a flat bonus attack speed aura. On The Hunt now provides a large movement speed boost that wears off to a smaller, longer lasting movement speed buff. On The Hunt also provides a passive attack speed bonus when Sivir activates Ricochet. Finally, Sivir no longer runs in slow motion (her movement speed remains unaffected).
Context: When we approached reworking Sivir, we shied away from homogenizing her as another generic Marksman. Instead we took a route where we wanted to highlight Sivir’s unique traits, like her ability to deal high area-of-effect damage with Ricochet and her large team-wide mobility boost in On the Hunt. Our focus here is to ensure that dedicated Sivir players will still be able to enjoy the core gameplay mechanics they’ve come to appreciate while also bringing Sivir up to our modern gameplay standards and aesthetics.
General
- Sivir has received a visual update!
- Attack Speed per level reduced to 1.6 (from 3.28)
Ricochet
- Now when activated, Sivir's next 3 basic attacks will Ricochet
- No longer has a maximum number of bounces (each Ricochet can still only strike a target once)
- Now bounces to the closest target (instead of a random target within the bounce radius)
- Deals 50/55/60/65/70% damage to all secondary targets (falling off by 20% per subsequent target)
- No longer has a base damage
- Cooldown increased to 9/8/7/6/5 seconds (from 7/6/5/4/3)
Spell Shield
- Reduced Mana cost to 0 (from 75)
- Mana return reduced to 60/75/90/105/120 (from 150)
On The Hunt
- No longer has a cast time
- Active no longer grants Attack Speed
- Now grants Sivir a new Passive: Sivir gains 40/60/80% bonus Attack Speed while Ricochet is active
- Movement Speed bonus now begins at 60%, then reduces to 20% after 4 seconds
- Cooldown changed to 120/90/60 seconds (from 100/90/80)
Summary: Living Shadow and Death Mark have had their cast wind-up time increased. Death Mark now spawns the shadow at Zed’s starting position rather than behind the target. All shadows will stay around longer and Zed can switch places with his shadows at a longer range.
Context: Zed’s been a balance pain point for a while, especially at the competitive level. In particular, Zed’s current play patterns – while satisfying for the player – can be executed so quickly that they offer little to no reaction time for his opponents. In its current iteration, Death Mark sets up Zed’s gameplay for free with little execution needed beforehand. Because Zed’s intended gameplay focuses so heavily on manipulating his shadows, we want to force him to actively think about how he’ll use his tools to assassinate his targets.
Living Shadow
- Significantly increased the time it takes for the Living Shadow to reach its destination (missile travel speed reduced to 1500 from 2500)
Death Mark
- Now spawns the Living Shadow at Zed's starting position rather than behind the target
- Increased the time Zed remains untargetable before dashing to the target to 0.75 seconds (from 0.35)
- Death Mark shadow duration increased to 6 seconds (from 4)
- Increased the range at which Zed can switch places with his Death Mark shadow to 2000 (from 1100)
Summary: We’ve slightly increased the damage on Short Fuse. Bouncing Bomb can now be cast at targets outside of max range but will only travel the set distance. Satchel Charge's radius has been increased. Hexplosive Minefield and Mega Inferno Bomb are both more effective against minions, with minions no longer taking reduced damage from multiple hits of Minefield and Mega Inferno Bomb dealing double damage to minions.
Context: We've improved Ziggs in terms of general utility while also trying to more effectively carve out his niche as a pushing /counter-pushing champion. Bombs away!
Short Fuse
- Max damage increased to 150 (from 139) (now scales non-linearly)
Bouncing Bomb
- Bouncing Bomb will now cast when targeted outside of its maximum range (will fire to the maximum range in the targeted direction)
Satchel Charge
- Radius increased to 325 (from 275)
Hexplosive Minefield
- No longer deals reduced damage on multiple hits to minions
- Damage radius per mine increased to 150 (from 135)
Mega Inferno Bomb
- Now deals double damage to minions
Summary: Deadly Bloom's damage has been reduced overall but her AP ratio has been increased. Rampant Growth's passive cooldown reduction has decreased. The plants spawned from Rampant Growth have had their base damage reduced at lower levels, but increased later on. We’ve also improved Zyra’s overall feel by making seed transformation/enraging plants more intuitive.
Context: Our overall strategy here is to tone down Zyra's early level poke damage and, while we are reducing some of her overall power, we also want to improve her ability to fluidly combo cast with seeds. Additionally, reducing the base damage of her spells while increasing the AP ratios is aimed at reducing her power as a support without hurting her capabilities as a mage.
Deadly Bloom
- Range reduced to 800 (from 825)
- Damage changed to 70/105/140/175/210 (+0.65 Ability Power) (from 75/115/155/195/235 (+0.6 Ability Power))
Rampant Growth
- Passive Cooldown Reduction reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% (from 4/8/12/16/20%)
- Plant base damage changed to 23 (+6.5 per champion level) (from 26 (+6 per champion level))
- Reduced the delay before seeds can be stepped on by enemies to 1.5 seconds (from 3)
- Range increased to 825 (from 800)
- Fixed a bug where spells would rarely not turn seeds into plants
Stranglethorns
- Stun no longer persists after the knockup ends
- Now properly enrages plants created within the bramble zone after Stranglethorns has been cast
Check out the full notes here.