Hello everyone, and welcome to 9.2. This is our season start patch, and while it's a big one, it's pretty straightforward. Names we've heard way too often in recent months (Urgot, Ignite, Red Smite) are getting nerfs, while others we haven't heard in some time (Shyvana, Yorick, Sunfire Cape) are being buffed up. Remember: Knowledge is power, so make sure you're read up on 9.2's changes before charging into Ranked!
Your 2019 Ranked climb begins this patch. Here's a quick TL;DR of the changes this season:
PLACEMENTS : You'll get a provisional rank after your first Ranked game, which is the lowest rank you can end placements in. Placement wins grant bonus LP; losses don't cost LP. Your rank becomes visible to others after finishing placements.
TIERS & DIVISIONS : We've added Iron tier below Bronze and Grandmaster tier between Master and Challenger. Division V has been removed from all tiers.
RANKED ARMOR : This new reward reflects your current rank across your profile, Ranked dashboard, and hovercard as well as game lobbies
SPLITS : Season 2019 is broken into three splits, with your performance in each split upgrading your ranked armor. There's no soft reset or time off between splits. End of season rewards are still based on your overall performance across the season.
POSITION RANKS : We're previewing position ranks in Korea and North America for split 1 and plan to roll them out globally in split 2. Each position has its own matchmaking rating and rank, with matches rewarding LP and rating for the position you played, plus a little for your other positions to recognize overall improvement as you climb.
For a full rundown of this season's changes to Ranked (new tiers, season splits, position ranks, placements, and more), we've got a library of past Nexus posts at your disposal:
After a rowdy month and a half of Bardle Royales, Battle Sledding, and Nexuses running it down mid, the Nexus Blitz queues shut down earlier this week. Thanks for playing—we'll be back with updates on our future plans a little further down the road!
If you're looking for something new to scratch your fast-paced-game-mode itch, we've got something new coming down the pipe later this patch! Stay tuned.
Full-res splash art is available on League Displays!
Aatrox Q damage ratio decreased. E recharge time increased.
True to his nature as an unkillable ancient terror, Aatrox survived the nerfs we threw at him during preseason and is still savaging both pro and regular play. This patch, we're dropping his damage across the board (higher E cooldown means less reliability on Q) but are especially focusing on his early game.
Q - The Darkin Blade
BASE DAMAGE : 10/25/40/55/70 (unchanged))
RATIO :
[0.64/0.68/0.72/0.76/0.80]
⇒
0.55/0.60/0.65/0.70/0.75
total attack damage
FULL COMBO BASE DAMAGE : 56.25/140.63/225/309.38/393.75 (unchanged)
FULL COMBO RATIO :
[3.6/3.825/4.05/4.275/4.5]
⇒
3.09/3.38/3.66/3.94/4.22
total attack damage (numbers rounded because they're gross)
E - Umbral Dash
RECHARGE TIME :
[24/20/16/12/8]
⇒
26/22/18/14/10
seconds
Aurelion Sol Q recast time reduced; stun duration shorter if recast quickly, longer for big stars.
Aurelion Sol's Q, Starsurge, has always suffered from two points of frustration. First, while its reactivation delay plays a crucial role in Aurelion's vulnerability to all-ins, not being able to cast and immediately pop Q feels unintuitive. Second, the reward for landing a giant star from halfway across the map feels underwhelming. Scaling Starsurge's stun duration lets us address both issues without fully eliminating Aurelion's intended vulnerability to all-ins.
Q - Starsurge
MINIMUM RECAST TIME :[0.65]⇒ 0.25 seconds (can be buffered by double-tapping Q on cast)
STUN DURATION :
[1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5]
⇒
0.55/0.6/0.65/0.7/0.75 seconds, scaling to 1.65/1.8/1.95/2.1/2.25 seconds after traveling for 5 seconds
STUN SCALING : Previous stun duration reached after 0.75 seconds (when Q reaches Aurelion Sol's outer limit if he stands still)
Brand shells out too much safe damage just by landing a spell and backing off—he should need to more actively make risky, aggressive plays to find success.
General
RECOMMENDED ITEMS : Updated!
Passive - Blaze
DAMAGE PER STACK :[4%]⇒ 3% target's max health over 4 seconds
Cassiopeia W cooldown increased late; damage decreased late.
As a followup to the Noxious Blast nerf at the end of last year, we're reducing Miasma's effectiveness so Cassiopeia has to rely more on Twin Fang for damage. This forces her to get close to enemies, offering them an opportunity to fight back rather than melting helplessly from a distance.
W - Miasma
COOLDOWN :
[18/17/16/15/14]
⇒
18/17.5/17/16.5/16
seconds
DAMAGE PER SECOND :
[20/35/50/65/80]
⇒
20/30/40/50/60
MAX DAMAGE :
[100/175/250/325/400]
⇒
100/150/200/250/300
Galio Q damage decreased, cost increased. E damage decreased early.
Galio underwent big changes at the end of last year with the goal of weakening his pro play strengths and amplifying his normal play strengths. With those mechanical shifts in place, he's now too strong at both levels of play, so we're going for raw power nerfs.
Q - Winds of War
COST :
[70/75/80/85/90]
⇒
80/90/100/110/120
mana
WINDBLAST DAMAGE :
[70/110/150/190/230]
⇒
70/105/140/175/210
WINDBLAST RATIO :[0.9]⇒ 0.75 ability power
TORNADO RATIO :[4%]⇒ 2% target's max health per 100 ability power (base 6% max health damage unchanged)
E - Justice Punch
DAMAGE :
[100/130/160/190/220]
⇒
80/115/150/185/220
Irelia Passive bonus damage vs shields removed. Q deals bonus damage to minions instead of double damage. R duration decreased late; damage increased; slow increased; no longer disarms.
Irelia's got a lot going on across her abilities, which makes her effective in an extremely broad range of team comps and scenarios. We're removing a few mechanics that weren't essential to her blade dancer combat style as well as reining in Bladesurge's late game insta-waveclear.
Passive - Ionian Fervor
SHIELD BREAKER Irelia no longer deals bonus damage to shields at max stacks
Q - Bladesurge
BONUS DAMAGE VS MINIONS :[Double damage]⇒ Flat bonus
NUMBERS :
[5/25/45/65/85 (+0.6 total AD)]
⇒
45/60/75/90/105
R - Vanguard's Edge
DURATION :
[2.5/3/3.5 seconds]
⇒
2.5 at all ranks
DISARM Enemies who pass through the wall are no longer disarmed
We're playing into Kassadin's anti-magic theme by opening up a weakness to physical-damage lane bullies.
Base Stats
BASE ARMOR :[23.376]⇒ 19
ARMOR GROWTH :[3.2]⇒ 2.8
Kayn Transformation rules are smoother and more intuitive.
There's a lot of text below, but here's the gist: Unlock progress for Red and Blue Kayn are no longer separate (violence always gets you closer to transformation), and capitalizing on advantageous mid-game opportunities against one range type no longer risks undoing the work you did to unlock the other type first. If you still end up unlocking the form you don't want, now you can unlock the form you do want faster by continuing to fight the other range type.
Passive - The Darkin Scythe
TRANSFORMATION PROGRESS : Darkin and Shadow Assassin [unlock progress are separate]⇒ [share unlock progress]. When transformation becomes available, the form that unlocks is chosen based on which champion type Kayn dealt more damage to.
TRANSFORMATION THRESHOLD :
[400 points per champion type]
⇒
500 points from any champion type (offsetting the rate increase from combining transformation progress)
CLOSE CALL : If Kayn unlocks his transformation when the two forms are near-even, Kayn unlocks the form of the champion type he damaged last
TIME WEIGHTING : Damage dealt later in the game is still worth more transformation progress but doesn't count for more in terms of which form Kayn unlocks
FASTER OTHER FORM Once Kayn's first form is unlocked, he can continue collecting orbs of the other form's type to reduce the timer until his second form unlocks
Transformation Clarity
COLORING Kayn's transformation bar now changes color based on which champion type Kayn has dealt more damage to
PINGING : Kayn can now ping various aspects of his passive to his team:
Pinging the transformation bar tells allies roughly how close Kayn is to transformation (early in the transformation process, midway to transformation, or very near transformation)
Pinging the "Form available" button tells allies Kayn can transform into that form
Pinging the "Form unavailable" button tells allies the time remaining before that form unlocks
E - Shadow Step
LET ME GO HOME : Kayn can now recall before Shadow Step expires as long as he isn't still in terrain
R - Umbral Trespass
Giving Shadow Assassin Kayn a better shot at escaping sticky situations.
SHADOW ASSASSIN EXIT DASH :[300]⇒ 300-500 range based on Shadow Assassin Kayn's cursor position
Bugfixes
MISSTEP : Fixed a Shadow Step into basic attack into Reaping Slash bug where, if Shadow Step's buff expired during Q's cast time (due to the basic attack putting Kayn in combat), Q dealt no damage
NO SHORTCUTS : Kayn no longer immediately harvests orbs when damaging ranged champions who hadn't yet damaged him. He'll now properly wait until exiting combat.
....HIGHLANDER? : Fixed a bug where Soulhunter Kayn would hear the audio for Master Yi's Highlander forever if he transformed into Rhaast with Master Yi in the game
Neeko W clone, haste duration increased; clone travels in target direction rather than pathing to target location. R no longer slows but Neeko lands faster after jumping.
We're playing up Neeko's clone baiting potential with Shapesplitter and trimming an extraneous strength from Pop Blossom (with an accompanying buff to keep the change net-neutral).
W - Shapesplitter
CLONE AND HASTE DURATION :[2]⇒ 3 seconds (stealth duration still 0.5 seconds)
PATHING : Neeko's clone now travels in the target direction until it runs into terrain, rather than pathing to the target location
BUGFIX : Shapesplitter's passive once again works on turrets
R - Pop Blossom
SLOW Enemies in Pop Blossom's radius are no longer slowed by 40%
JUMP TIME :[0.75]⇒ 0.6 seconds
TOOLTIP FIX : Tooltip now indicates the ability power ratio on Pop Blossom's shield (actual scaling unchanged)
When we took a mechanics pass on Ornn last patch, our intent was that he'd be slightly stronger overall. This isn't the case—in particular, players are struggling in lane without Bellows Breath's shield so we're giving him some more baseline tankiness.
Base Stats
HEALTH :[565.64]⇒ 590
ARMOR :[33.04]⇒ 36
Rakan Armor decreased. W dash speed decreased but activates faster upon reaching the destination.
This patch's changes to Grand Entrance are a targeted nerf for Rakan's R-W initiation: The Quickness's speed boost made Grand Entrance's dash fast enough for Rakan to reliably charm enemies at the dash's end point, holding them in place for the knockup and—for coordinated teams—a truckload of follow-up damage from Rakan's allies. Slowing Grand Entrance's dash speed gives foes more time to react to Rakan's dive while reducing the delay before it pops keeps it effective when Rakan isn't trying to do fancy combos with it.
General
RECOMMENDED ITEMS : Updated!
Base Stats
ARMOR :[33]⇒ 29
W - Grand Entrance
DASH SPEED :
[2050 (+30% Rakan's movement speed)]
⇒
1400 (+45/+80 with un-upgraded/upgraded boots)
EFFECT DELAY :[0.5]⇒ 0.35 seconds after reaching the destination
OVERALL : Max-range casts hit slightly later than before; short-range casts hit faster
R - The Quickness
BUGFIX : Fixed a bug that caused The Quickness to sometimes not affect Rakan's basic attack target
Shyvana Passive bonus damage to dragons increased. E mark damage increased.
Shyvana's been on the weak side for quite a while. We're buffing her unique dragon killing ability, as well as her ability to shred through tanky targets.
Passive - Fury of the Dragonborn
BONUS DAMAGE VS DRAGONS :[10%]⇒ 20% (also applies to Vilemaw on Twisted Treeline)
E - Flame Breath
MARK DAMAGE :[2.5%]⇒ 3.25% target's max health
Tahm Kench Allies in combat with champions can no longer jump into R.
This particular use case for Tahm Kench's ult was basically "second Devour." Chomping allies once a fight is enough, Tahm.
R - Abyssal Voyage
FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED : Allies in combat with enemy champions can no longer jump into Abyssal Voyage
Urgot Armor decreased. Q cost increased. W cooldown increased early.
It's time, Urgot. We're nerfing crab man's early game across a number of vectors to give other top laners a better chance at success.
Base Stats
ARMOR :[39]⇒ 36
Q - Corrosive Charge
COST :[50]⇒ 60 mana
W - Purge
COOLDOWN :
[13/12/11/10/9]
⇒
17/15/13/11/9
seconds
Volibear E bonus damage vs dashing/airborne targets changed to max health. R ratio increased; on-cast lightning happens faster; lightning now bounces instantly.
Given that Volibear, like other juggernauts, is often forced to fight whoever's up close and personal, we're changing Majestic Roar's bonus damage to be good against fighters and tanks, not just backline squishies. We're also taking the opportunity to make Thunder Claws feel snappier.
E - Majestic Roar
BONUS DAMAGE VS DASHING/AIRBORNE TARGETS :
[40/60/80/100/120 (+0.3 AP)]
⇒
8% target's max health
R - Thunder Claws
RATIO :[0.3]⇒ 0.4 ability power
LIGHTNING BOLT ON CAST : Fires after [0.25]⇒ 0.1 second
BOUNCE DELAY Chain lightning no longer takes 0.075 seconds to bounce from one target to the next (it's now instant)
Yorick The Maiden now follows Yorick when he leaves lane. Maiden health scales better with game time. Graves spawn faster late. Mist Walkers and the Maiden no longer deal less damage when far from Yorick.
Yorick's a lot stronger when The Maiden is with him, but he loses that strength if he doesn't stay in lane, leading to subpar contributions if he abandons a split-push to fight with his team. We're giving Yorick the ability to bring the Maiden and her Mist Walkers with him, roaming together as combat buddies or cross-lane turret demolitionists. Toss in a late-game increase to Mist Walker availability (especially when Yorick's allies don't let him last hit with Last Rites) and we've got a patch!
General
DECAYED INTENT Mist Walkers and the Maiden no longer deal decreased damage when far from Yorick
Passive - Shepherd of Souls
NEARBY ENEMY DEATHS PER GRAVE :
[12/8/4 (at levels 1/7/13), 4 on ARAM]
⇒
12/6/2 (at levels 1/7/13), 2 on ARAM
MIST WALKER GOLD :[5]⇒ 2
E - Mourning Mist
BUGFIX : Mist Walkers and the Maiden no longer sometimes fail to target an enemy hit by Mourning Mist
R - Eulogy of the Isles
MAIDEN HEALTH :
[700/1500/4000 (+30% Yorick's health)]
⇒
300/1000/3000 (+70% Yorick's health)
BROKEN BOND The Maiden no longer begins autonomously pushing a lane when far from Yorick. Instead, she'll leash back to him.
GO YOUR OWN WAY Yorick can now reactivate Eulogy of the Isles to set the Maiden free, but can't get her back once he does. She'll push the nearest lane until she dies.
Lower mana regen means Zyra will need to think twice before fishing for hits with Deadly Spines and Grasping Roots, lest she be caught out without resources during a gank or all-in.
PRIORITY : Hate Spike still prioritizes the last champion then the last non-champion Evelynn hit, but now prioritizes the lowest-health champion next (ahead of the lowest-health non-champion)
BUFFERING : Hate Spike's recasts can now be buffered up to 0.5 seconds before becoming castable
W - Allure
FIZZLE FIX : Allure's cast no longer fizzles if Evelynn loses sight of her target mid-cast
E - Whiplash
EMPOWERED DASH : No longer occasionally drops Evelynn directly on top of her target
R - Last Caress
BUFFERING Can now be buffered during Empowered Whiplash's cast
This one actually went live last patch, but we figured it's still worth a mention!
E - Jousting
VACUUM : Jousting through minions is no longer likely to stack them directly on top of each other
Minimap Targeting
Given you're typically trying to hit something on-screen or just off-screen with these abilities, we're disabling minimap targeting to avoid miscasts.
MINIMAP TARGETING DISABLED : Lux's Final Spark, Nami's Tidal Wave, and ARAM's Mark spell (yeah yeah it's not a champion ability) no longer use Minimap Targeting. If your cursor is over the minimap when casting one of these, it'll fire in the target direction instead.
Oblivion Orb Cost increased, ability power decreased.
Oblivion Orb is a ubiquitous mage pick-up due to the ability to stack its magic penetration with Sorcerer's Shoes relatively early in the game. That being the case, why didn't we nerf the magic penetration? We're shrinking Oblivion Orb's contribution toward ability ratios so it's less attractive for late-scaling mages while still satisfying to rush for champions with high base damages or are looking for an early power spike before moving onto main-build items.
Like Oblivion Orb above, we want to push Morellonomicon a bit further toward its unique identity. In this case, that identity is the magic damage Grievous Wounds item. If the enemy team doesn't have significant sources of healing or regen, finishing Morellonomicon should be less attractive than sitting on Oblivion Orb and building something else.
COMBINE COST :[650]⇒ 550 gold (total cost unchanged due to Oblivion Orb cost increase)
Despite its historical place in many tank and fighter builds, Sunfire Cape isn't showing up in many inventories these days. Making it cheaper provides earlier access to the full-powered Immolate effect, giving core users a leg up in lane and reopening the door to Sunfire builds for champs who've rotated onto other first items.
Overheal Ally healing grants less shielding; self-healing grants more shielding late. Shield decays gradually instead of immediately.
Overheal's effectiveness relies on whether your allies know to... well... overheal you, which often isn't the case in solo queue. We're siphoning that coordinated play strength into more self-sufficiency, plus shifting the shield decay to the Bloodthirster model to make Overheal a more consistently rewarding defensive choice.
decays by 2.5% of the max shield value each second
BUGFIX : Overheal's tooltips and post-game stats now properly track total damage blocked rather than just the last instance of damage blocked
Legend: Bloodline Lifesteal per stack decreased; max stacks doubled.
The choice between Bloodline and Alacrity isn't all that exciting, with the majority of potential users simply defaulting to Alacrity without much thought. We're shifting Bloodline to be a stronger late game option, adding a new decision point on top of "attack speed or lifesteal?"
LIFESTEAL PER STACK :[0.8%]⇒ 0.6%
MAX STACKS :[10]⇒ 20
MAX LIFESTEAL :[8%]⇒ 12%
Cut Down Bonus damage scales based on percent max health difference rather than flat max health difference. Maximum bonus decreased.
Cut Down scales dramatically over game time due flat health differences being much narrower before level scaling and items kick in. Switching to a percent model makes it useful even in the early game, though the max bonus is going down to accommodate this increase in relevance.
BONUS DAMAGE :[4%-12% vs targets with 150-2000]⇒ [4%-10% vs targets with 10%-100%] more max health than you
Absolute Focus is overtuned, particularly for champions who extract tons of PvE value from the bonus stats (marksmen, junglers). We're bringing its effectiveness down across the board.
ADAPTIVE STATS :[3-24 AD or 5-40 AP]⇒ [1.8-18 AD or 3-30 AP] (at levels 1-18)
Rune Stats Adaptive damage decreased. Armor and magic resist increased.
The adaptive damage stat has proven to be the best option in the offense row and especially the flex rows, so we're nerfing it. Buffs to the armor and magic resist rune will bring flex in line overall, with magic resist needing more of a leg up. While the individual buffs and nerfs here might look fiddly, a change in pick rates creates a far more noticeable effect: Champs who switch their flex from adaptive to armor or magic resist will lose ten damage, not one.
Ignite's damage nerf should come as no surprise: it's been flooding summoner spell choices across multiple lanes. The cooldown buff may look confusing, but shifting power out of Ignite's burn into its uptime lets us swing harder on damage without killing the spell entirely.
Hand of Baron Baron buff is weaker in the early game.
During preseason, we made Baron buff less mandatory for sieges (by buffing minions) to reduce the degree games revolve around it. We're following suit by weakening the combat strength early Barons offer to reduce the number of games that snowball off one good play into an abrupt end.
Hand of Baron
SCALING :
[Scaling is linear and increments every minute]
⇒
Scaling accelerates over time and increments every second
ATTACK DAMAGE :
[24-48 at 20-40 minutes (36 at 30 minutes)]
⇒
12-48 at 20-40 minutes (26 at 30 minutes)
ABILITY POWER :
[40-80 at 20-40 minutes (60 at 30 minutes)]
⇒
20-80 at 20-40 minutes (43 at 30 minutes)
MINION DAMAGE REDUCTION VS CHAMPIONS :
[70% at all times]
⇒
50%-70% at 20-40 minutes (58% at 30 minutes)
Inhibitor & Nexus Turrets Inhibitor and Nexus turrets have late-game resistances at all times.
On a similar note as Hand of Baron above, we're making base defenses more resilient to early sieges to avoid games falling into an unrecoverable state due to one good early push.
INHIBITOR AND NEXUS TURRET RESISTANCES :[55-70 armor and magic resist at 31-45 minutes]⇒ 70 at all times
Jayce's ranged basic attack animation has been fixed to synchronize with the attack's actual wind-up and launch
Kai'Sa can now properly dash to an untargetable enemy with Killer Instinct
Fiora's Riposte now properly blocks Pyke's Death From Below when Fiora is below the execute threshold
When cast during Lunge, Fiora's Riposte now properly activates in the area designated by the indicator rather than toward the original target position
When moused over, Lissandra's Iceborn Subjugation now properly shows the range within which slain enemies will become Frozen Thralls
Mordekaiser's Harvester of Sorrow reactivation no longer grants double the intended amount of shielding from his Iron Man from enemies hit by both zones
Hail of Blades now properly procs when the first basic attack causes a champion to exit Camouflage (ex. Twitch's Ambush, Rengar's Thrill of the Hunt)
Rek'Sai's Queen's Wrath attacks now interact properly with Hail of Blades
Fixed an edge case where Hail of Blades' cooldown would become unable to reset after selling or refunding a fully charged Dead Man's Plate
Nidalee's basic attack no longer cancels if a Hunt activates mid-attack animation
Lux's basic attack no longer cancels if issued the moment Prismatic Barrier reaches max range
Saving multiple highlights from the same game without renaming them no longer causes them to overwrite each other due to all of them using the same default name
Restored on-hit VFX for Base, High Noon, and PROJECT Yasuo's Steel Tempest tornado
Restored missing VFX on Base, High Noon, and PROJECT Yasuo's Sweeping Blade-Steel Tempest combo cast
Restored missing buff particles on Base and PROJECT Yasuo's sword after casting Last Breath
Restored missing swipe trails on High Noon and PROJECT Yasuo's basic attacks
Restored some missing audio on Kled's basic attacks while Violent Tendencies is on cooldown
Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid
Firecracker Vayne
Firecracker Sejuani
Coin Emperor Tahm Kench
Firecracker Vayne Prestige Edition
Heartpiercer Fiora
Heartbreaker Vi
Firecracker Sejuani
Coin Emperor Tahm Kench
Heartpiercer Fiora
Heartbreaker Vi
Lunar Guardian Warwick
Warring Kingdoms Xin Zhao
Warring Kingdoms Jarvan IV
