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Welcome back, folks! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and are ready for more balance and League shenanigans in the big 2-0.
We say hello to the big boss Sett this patch, as well as a huge update to Sylas, League's other resident bad boy. His changes mainly focus on encouraging his role as a midlaner, while making sure players don't lose out on that signature bruisery playstyle he's known for.
Other than that, we have some QoL changes for Vi, Kog'Maw, Kassadin, and Jax, as well as some cautious buffs to champions that have proven to be menaces in pro play in the past. And finally, we're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game.
FLAMETHROWER SPLASH DAMAGE BUGFIX : Aphelios' Q's splash damage now properly originates from where the primary target was hit and deals the proper amount of damage depending on his level
The nerfs to Sylas are on-target directionally, but we overshot bit in terms of magnitude and are pulling back as a result.
PETRICITE BURST ATTACK SPEED :[60%]⇒ 80%
PETRICITE BURST PRIMARY TARGET DAMAGE :
[1.1 attack damage (+0.25 AP)]
⇒
1.3 attack damage (+0.25 AP)
CHAIN LASH DETONATION DAMAGE :
[60/105/150/195/240 (+0.8 AP)]
⇒
60/115/170/225/280 (+0.8 AP)
KINGSLAYER COOLDOWN :
[14/12.5/11/9.5/8]
⇒
13/11.5/10/8.5/7
Thresh VFX
These changes are aimed at improving gameplay readability, bringing up Thresh's VFXs to modern day standards, and improving his overall thematic feel.
BASIC ATTACK : Trails added with new hit effects
DAMNATION : Updated souls' appearance and power-up visuals
DEATH SENTENCE : Cleared up the hitbox, adjusted the hook's position, updated the hit and link break effects, and changed the wind-up effect.
DARK PASSAGE : Updated the Lantern's missile, edge, and AoE indicators to be more noticeable and in-theme. The Lantern will now also rotate much more fluidly.
FLAY : Added a circle indicator to show the actual hitbox
IDLE EFFECTS : Cleaned up and improved his idle effects overall to match his actual appearance
ALL SKINS : Generally cleaned up and matched with the base skin changes
DEEP TERROR THRESH : More bubbles!
CHAMPIONSHIP THRESH : New Championship themed particles and cleaned up
BLOOD MOON THRESH : Cleaned up with some thematic improvements
Patch Highlights[]
Freljord Sylas will be available on January 10, 2020. Sett and Mecha Kingdoms Sett will be available on January 14, 2020. Mecha Kingdoms Garen Prestige Edition, Draven, Garen, Leona, and Jax will be available on January 15, 2020.
Season Start[]
Ranked 2020 begins on January 10, 4:00 AM! Prepare yourself for another year of competition, salt, joyous victories, and soul-crushing losses.
High-res versions of Sett's splash arts are available on League Displays!
Aphelios Base movement speed and health decreased. Infernum R AoE damage decreased on secondary targets.
Infernum should be Aphelios’ best ultimate option when 3-5 enemies are standing on top of each other, but 'best' doesn't have to mean 1-shotting a whole team. We believe we can trim some damage and still retain its position as the best against stacked enemies, so we're doing just that.
Base Stats
MOVEMENT SPEED :[330]⇒ 325
HEALTH :[530]⇒ 500
R - Moonlight Vigil
INFERNUM EMPOWERED AOE DAMAGE :[100%]⇒ 75% on secondary targets
Aurelion Sol's wave control and enemy burst potential in the early lane is a bit too high right now. While we're quelling some of that damage in the early game, we still want to let him reach those high peaks later.
Giving Corki some power in a place that won't greatly increase his early game waveclear, but will overall strengthen his niche as an ability-based marksman. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on his low presence in pro play.
Jayce is not in a good spot all across the board. With Kleptomancy gone, he's definitely seen better days and could use some help elsewhere. Fortunately, the Lethality buffs from the end of last year is helping a bit already, but we're also giving him back some of his more electrifying power and accentuating the burst he's known for.
Kalista is still pretty weak after the buffs in 9.22, so this time we're buffing her survivability in the mid-late game in order to help her get damage out in skirmishes and teamfights. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on her low presence in pro play.
Base Stats
HEALTH GROWH :[89]⇒ 100
ARMOR GROWTH :[3.5]⇒ 4
Kassadin Movement speed decreased. R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.
Kassadin is doing a little too well in mid-tier levels of play. We're nerfing his roaming and escape potential to target the players that go unpunished in lane and have the ability to be all over the place.
Base Stats
MOVEMENT SPEED :[340]⇒ 335
R - Riftwalk
DEBUFF DISPLAY : Kassadin's mana debuff duration now displays on R's border
Kog'Maw R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.
R - Living Artillery
DEBUFF DISPLAY : Kog'Maw's mana debuff duration now displays on R's border
Mordekaiser Passive duration decreased; movement speed now flat.
For a juggernaut, Mordekaiser is too hard to get away from and kite. That coupled with his synergy with Rylai's makes it difficult to escape from him.
Most enchanters are almost entirely designed to support their marksman and Nami's no exception. But we see the opportunity to broaden her utility a bit so that she can benefit both basic attacking marksmen and ability-based champions.
E - Tidecaller's Blessing
BLESSING : Empowers the target's next [3 basic attacks]⇒ 3 basic attacks and abilities (AoE spells empowered by Tidecaller's Blessing deal 33-66% less damage to non-champions)
Sejuani Base health growth increased. Frost Armor resistances ratio increased. E base damage increased later.
We're happy with Sejuani's identity as a scaling tank, so we're doubling down on it and buffing her scaling capabilities, while leaving her early game vulnerabilities intact.
Shyvana Gains resistances when slaying Elder Dragon. Fury gains increased in lieu of ultimate CDR when slaying Cloud Drakes. E marked target damage ratio and monster damage cap increased.
For a dragon-killing dragon girl, Shyvana's been losing out on some of the new Rise of the Elements dragon interactions. We're fixing that and also giving her some small buffs to her sustained damage.
Passive - Fury of the Dragonborn
DRAGON SLAYER : Shyvana now gains 5 permanent bonus armor and bonus magic resistance for every elemental drake and Elder Dragon her team slays
RAGING WINDS : Cloud Drake now increases Shyvana's Fury gains by 10/20/30/40% (because her ultimate does not have a cooldown)
E - Flame Breath
MARKED TARGET DAMAGE RATIO :[3.25%]⇒ 3.75% of target's maximum health
MARKED MONSTER DAMAGE CAP :[100]⇒ 150
Sylas Less base stats early, more later. Passive now gives attack speed. W cooldown decreased. E AP ratio increased. W, E1, and R basic attack reset removed.
Sylas has been difficult to stabilize for all brackets of players and has an extremely long record of changes since his release. Due to that, we promised that we'd do some bigger work on him outside of number tweaks that would help bring the gap between all levels of Sylas players closer.
First, we're changing his early lane to be more in line with someone like Ekko and Fizz, champions that have less control in the early laning phase, but get stronger with levels. Secondly, we're balancing him as a midlaner and prioritizing changes that encourage him to be used there instead of other lanes. And finally, by removing his E>Q combo and slowing down his basic attack pattern, we're making a good faith effort to retain his auto-weaving bruiser playstyle while also making measures against the speed in which he bursts down his enemies.
We'll be looking closely at him in the coming months to see how these changes have landed!
Base Stats
HEALTH :[585]⇒ 525
HEALTH GROWH :[95]⇒ 115
ARMOR :[32]⇒ 27
ARMOR GROWTH :[3]⇒ 4
MAGIC RESISTANCE :[39]⇒ 32
MAGIC RESISTANCE GROWTH :[1.25]⇒ 1.75
Passive - Petricite Burst
PRIMARY TARGET DAMAGE RATIO :
[1.1 total attack damage (+0.2 AP)]
⇒
1.1 total attack damage (+0.25 AP)
RADIUS400 range : 300 range
FAST CHAINZ Now grants Sylas 60% attack speed when available
PETRICITE BURST :[2]⇒ 3 stacks
MINION EXECUTE Now executes secondary target minions below 25 health
Q - Chain Lash
COOLDOWN :
[9/8/7/6/5]
⇒
10/9/8/7/6
CHAIN DAMAGE :
[45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 AP)]
⇒
40/55/70/85/100 (+0.4 AP)
DETONATION DAMAGE :
[45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 AP)]
⇒
60/105/150/195/240 (+0.8 AP)
DETONATION MINION DAMAGE REDUCTION :[45%]⇒ 60%
DETONATION SLOW No longer slows enemies hit for 2 seconds
Varus Q cooldown and Blight cooldown refund decreased.
Varus' role as a poke marksman has been quite weak since his last set of major changes in 2018. For an ability-based marksman, that playstyle should be one of, if not, his strongest, so we're specifically focusing on strengthening it.
Giving Vi a QoL change to her ultimate, making it work more consistently against knock-ups and knockbacks and letting her stick to her target throughout the ability's duration.
R - Assault and Battery
DENZEL WASHINGTON Vi remains Unstoppable for the duration of her uppercut
Zyra never had a reason to spawn multiple Vine Lashers since having one was the same as having two. But now that we made the Lashers' slow stackable, Zyra can plan her actions around the plants and actually think about which one she wants.
E - Grasping Roots
VINE LASHER SLOW :
[30%, not stacking]
⇒
25%, stacking up to two times, but only once per plant
Support Items[]
We're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game in exchange for some combat stats. Tanky champions will be slightly more resilient and ability-casting champions will have more mana for abilities.