Season’s greetings all! This not-technically-a-patch (no skins or new features) brings one more round of balance changes to stuff your stockings with. You'll notice most of these patch notes are light on context, which is because most of the changes are in the "simple buff" or "simple nerf" spaces—we basically just want a champ or item to be stronger or weaker without significantly changing decision making. Pyke and Akali are the two exceptions, so we stuck 'em at the top.
Since this is a small patch we'll share a quick preview of 9.1, the first patch of next year. Expect to see a bunch more buffs to individual marksmen as well as sizable changes for Ornn and Sejuani to bring their regular play and pro play performances closer in line with each other. We'll also be following up on preseason's rune changes.
That's it for us! We on the patch notes team wish you a happy Snowdown and thank you for reading through over 72,000 words of patch notes this year. See you in 2019!
Akali Akali can be more effectively counterattacked when revealing herself from Shroud. 8.24 shroud duration nerf reverted.
Our goal this patch is to give enemies a real chance of throwing a counterpunch when Akali emerges to strike, rather than waiting Shroud out from a safe distance. They'll still need quick fingers and a clear plan, but they won’t be left without options. Targeted abilities still complete when Akali re-stealths mid-cast, skillshots are easier to aim, and basic attackers have slightly longer to get a hit off before she becomes unselectable. With the increased danger Akali faces when un-stealthing, we're reverting 8.24's Shroud duration nerf since enemies now have better means of fighting back.
W - Twilight Shroud
PRESTEALTH Akali now briefly obscures (opponents can see her outline but not target her) before stealthing or re-stealthing even if enemies don't have true sight in the area
FOLLOWTHROUGH Targeted abilities and uncancellable basic attacks (ex. Nasus's Siphoning Strike are no longer canceled when Akali stealths or re-stealths
RE-STEALTH TIMING :
[0.9/0.8/0.725/0.625 seconds at levels 1/6/9/12]
⇒
1/0.9/0.825/0.725/0.625 seconds at 1/8/11/20/30 minutes
REVERTED : 8.24's nerf has been reverted in favor of the above changes.
Duration :
Duration restored to
[4/4.5/5/5.5/6 (max 2 second extension)]
⇒
5/5.5/6/6.5/7 (max 3 second extension).
Pyke Magic resist growth decreased. Q deals less passthrough damage to minions and monsters. R execute threshold decreased late.
League's assassin support has become a problematic mid laner despite relatively reasonable performances in bot lane. The nerfs below are all tailored to hit mid Pyke hardest, whether by the strengths mid laners need (protection against burst magic damage; waveclear) or by the strengths Pyke has an easier time accruing in mid (level scalings).
Base Stats
MAGIC RESIST GROWTH :[2]⇒ 1.5
Q - Bone Skewer
MINION & MONSTER DAMAGE :[50%]⇒ 30% to secondary targets (tooltip will be updated in 9.1)
R - Death From Below Reminder: Enemies above the execute threshold take physical damage equal to the threshold instead.
Caitlyn Q base damage increased; passthrough damage decreased. R range increased.
We're giving Caitlyn some lane power in Piltover Peacemaker's first hit and punching up the unique strength Ace in the Hole brings to the Sheriff's arsenal.
Q - Piltover Peacemaker
BASE DAMAGE :
[30/70/110/150/190]
⇒
50/90/130/170/210
RATIO : 1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6/1.7 total attack damage (unchanged)
Forbidden Idol Line Forbidden Idol cooldown reduction increased. Heal and shield power increased on its upgrades.
Earlier in the season, enchanters were outperforming their mage and tank support counterparts so we nerfed the Idol line and the duration of individual shield abilities. Since then, the tables have turned and enchanters are the ones struggling to make an impact even in a damage-heavy meta where their talents could be put to good use. We're reverting near-half of our earlier pass by restoring the majority of the Idol line's strength, with the shield duration nerfs ensuring larger shields are still fairer to play against.
Neeko's strength has moved toward healthy levels as players grow accustomed to the mind games her passive and W create. A small reduction to her early-game pushing and lane control is about all she needs right now; we'll continue monitoring how she settles in over the holidays.
We're increasing the investment required to grab Tiamat's dueling and waveclear benefits for champions who plan to sit on it rather than quickly upgrading to a Hydra.
COST :[1200]⇒ 1325 gold
UPGRADES : Ravenous Hydra and Titanic Hydra cost 125 less gold to upgrade; total costs unchanged
Resistances after turret plating falloff increased.
Turret plating's done its job of extending lane phase for cases where teams burn down turrets as quickly as possible. In less violent lanes, though, outer turrets fall too easily once plating falls off. They'll now keep the baseline resistances they have at game start, with plating falloff only removing the extra resistances granted by broken plates.
ARMOR AND MAGIC RESIST AFTER PLATING FALLOFF :[0]⇒ 40
Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid
