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Patch 8.17 Notes

Riot·8/28/2018, 7:20:22 PM·6 votes·140,396 views

Welcome to patch 8.17, the one where New Nunu's New Groove hits Summoner's Rift, and his four-armed buddy will umpack his bags and join him! If you're already feeling the call of the Freljord, you can consume more information in the links below.

Do you want to build the biggest snowball ever!? Before you do, check out the barrage of balance changes below so you have absolutely zero excuse for not knowing what's going on.

Now get out there and try to stay warm; it's going to be a wintry one!
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman Paul "Aether" Perscheid

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Patch Highlights

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Nexus Blitz

The Nexus Blitz live alpha continues this patch. For a rundown of changes coming this patch, head to the update article!

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Champions

Nunu & Willump

Nunu & Willump, the Boy and His Yeti will start their adventure in patch 8.17! Get rolling with these links:
Full-res splash art is available on League Displays!

Annie

Attack range increased.

Right now, Annie doesn't really have gameplay outside of dumping all of her spells at once. Returning to her longer attack range lets her trade and harass with autos as an alternate pattern of aggression.
ATTACK RANGE 575 ⇒ 625

Bard

R cooldown decreased.

Bard's laning phase is already strong enough, but his overall gameplay could use a bit more power. We want to give everybody's favorite chime-gathering support more playmaking opportunities so that he doesn't feel barred from using his ult for fear of its long cooldown.

R - Tempered Fate

COOLDOWN 130/110/90 seconds ⇒ 110/95/80 seconds

Fiora

E crit damage on second attack increased at early ranks.

Fiora's late game is pretty strong, but she could use some more dueling power in the early game to get there more often. Because, you know, duelist.

E - Bladework

CRIT DAMAGE ON SECOND ATTACK 140/155/170/185/200% ⇒ 160/170/180/190/200%

Garen

Q damage decreased at later ranks.

Garen's spun his way into top lane dominance as of late, and Q's early game damage leaves opponents with few opportunities to trade well.

Q - Decisive Strike

BASE DAMAGE 30/65/100/135/170 ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150

Irelia

Q damage bonus to minions increased.

We're putting some laning functionality back into Irelia's Q.

Q - Bladesurge

INCREASED DAMAGE TO MINIONS 70% ⇒ 100%

Kassadin

R cooldown decreased at early ranks.

Touching Kassadin's late game is always risky, but he has room for some more early-mid game strength.

R - Riftwalk

COOLDOWN 6/4/2 seconds ⇒ 5/3.5/2 seconds

Kayn

E duration increased early. Shadow E movement speed increased.

Kayn, especially as Shadow Assassin, is struggling to stay competitive with other junglers. This buff should help him move around the map (and through terrain) and extend his opportunities to pick up kills.

E - Shadow Step

DURATION 5/6/7/8/9 seconds ⇒ 7/7.5/8/8.5/9 seconds
SHADOW ASSASSIN BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 70% ⇒ 80%

Master Yi

W cooldown decreased; damage reduction increased early.

Meditate can be a strong defensive tool, but it’s often underappreciated by players who use it primarily for the heal. We're giving it a small buff to encourage its use during (rather than after) combat.

W - Meditate

COOLDOWN 35 seconds ⇒ 28 seconds
DAMAGE REDUCTION 50/55/60/65/70% ⇒ 60/62.5/65/67.5/70%

Rengar

R cooldown decreased early.

We want to help Rengar feel powerful, but we're also trying to tone down upfront damage in League overall. Because of this, we’re giving Rengar more chances to surprise his opponents rather than boosting his damage when he does.

R - Thrill of the Hunt

COOLDOWN 130/100/70 seconds ⇒ 110/90/70 seconds

Varus

Base health decreased; health growth increased.

As a marksman with long-ranged poke, Varus should be easier to kill when opponents close the gap.

Base Stats

HEALTH 549 ⇒ 499
HEALTH GROWTH 86 ⇒ 89

Wukong

Now has level 1 bonus attack speed.

Wukong is far from the king of the jungle after the most recent round of changes. A boost to his early attack speed should help his early clears and make him more consistent on the map.

Base Stats

BONUS ATTACK SPEED AT LEVEL 1 0% ⇒ 8%

Yorick

Mist Walker damage decreased.

Top laners have unearthed Yorick as a dominant pick, in part due to the threat of his Mist Walkers. Players who understand the Mist Walkers' behavior and actively play around it avoid a lot of damage, while players who don't find themselves digging their own graves. We're toning down the damage of Mist Walkers to decrease his low level pubstomp potential.

Mist Walkers

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 2-7) 3 ⇒ 1
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 8-13) 5 ⇒ 6
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 14+) 10 ⇒ 11

Taric

Adaptive damage now defaults to physical.

Taric's passive means he benefits a decent amount from his basic attacks.
ADAPTIVE DAMAGE Now defaults to physical if Taric has no bonus attack damage or ability power

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Items

Stormrazor

Guaranteed crit damage decreased below 30% crit. Attack speed increased and attack damage decreased.

The high amount of upfront damage in the game is something we've been looking to dial back. Last patch we trimmed a lot of the burst damage from various runes; this patch we're looking at items.
CRITICAL STRIKE MODIFIER 160-200% (at 0-30% crit chance) ⇒ 140-200% (at 0-30% crit chance)
ATTACK SPEED 25% ⇒ 35%
ATTACK DAMAGE 65 ⇒ 60

Duskblade

Proc damage decreased. Lethality increased.

The high amount of upfront damage in the game is something we've been looking to dial back. Last patch we trimmed a lot of the burst damage from various runes; this patch we're looking at items.
PROC DAMAGE 30-200 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 30-150 damage (at levels 1-18)
LETHALITY 18 ⇒ 21

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Summoner Spells

Changed a service related to summoner spell configuration. If you haven’t played a particular queue in a couple of months, your summoner spells in that queue may reset to Heal/Ghost. Just a heads up!

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Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug where Phantom Dancer's Spectral Waltz passive would sometimes not trigger
  • Fixed a bug where Akali's R - Perfect Execution dealt damage to all opponents based on the health of the last enemy struck, rather than calculating damage individually for each
  • Maokai R - Nature's Grasp's sfx now correctly line up with the ability's duration.
  • Fixed a bug where ranged attacks and targeted projectiles would have their VFX appear from the champion's last seen location, if they were not currently in vision
  • Deep Sea Nami no longer leaves her spine behind while moving during her recall animation.

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Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash!

High Noon Urgot

High Noon Thresh

High Noon Lucian

Divine Sword Irelia

Enduring Sword Talon

The following chromas will be released this patch:

Dragon Fist Lee Sin

High Noon Thresh

High Noon Urgot

Enduring Sword Talon

Divine Sword Irelia

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275 Comments

Ðaddy Swain8/28/2018, 8:12:35 PM125 votes

Quality of Life Request: When setting your secondary runes, if you decide to change one, it automatically replaces the rune in the top slot, regardless to which slot you clicked on. For example, if you have Ghost Poro and Ultimate Hunter, but decide to swap Ultimate Hunter for Taste for Blood, no matter what it will replace Ghost Poro first, forcing you to redo both runes.

Solution: If you click a rune to re-open the rune-selection list, have the replacement fill the slot you clicked on. It's more intuitive and saves you the hassle of re-selecting both runes when you only wanted to change one, which in turn could let you squeak the change in before time runs out in champ select.

DartExplosion108/28/2018, 7:52:42 PM64 votes

you messed up the high noon skin names by putting the names before the skin title

Stephenizgod8/28/2018, 9:29:50 PM57 votes

We want to help Rengar feel powerful

Im sorry is him jumping from a bush and insta-killing you not powerful? That seems pretty powerful. I mean he is in a good spot in Jungle and is even successful Top right now, so not sure where he needed a buff.

but nerf Yorick because people don't know how to deal with him? You said it yourself, if you know how to fight against Yorick he isn't a problem. Why nerf him due to lack of knowledge? If anything, his E movement speed bonus should be nerfed as it allows him far too much power mid game when you are trying to kite him.

CHEWYARMS8/28/2018, 7:43:00 PM50 votes

Yay. Gutting yorick because bronze players can't play the game.

Nice.

"Dominant top lane pick"

Mmmm that might have more to do with the fact his best MUs are currently meta. But what do I know.

TwoFaceTony8/28/2018, 7:55:16 PM46 votes

"Garen's spun his way into top lane dominance as of late, and Q's early game damage leaves opponents with few opportunities to trade well." "Q damage decreased at later ranks."

I'm sorry... What? His early game is too strong, so you're nerfing his late game? How does that make sense?

Admiral Banana8/28/2018, 8:36:11 PM35 votes

This patch is actually...not infuriating. It's transparent (seriously, thank you for returning to the old format for patch notes), addresses a lot of things the community has been complaining about, and doesn't shake the game at it's core.

Sure, maybe we'd all like to see more here or there from the balance side based on our own perspectives. But nothing just seems random or neglectful, and we can't really ask for much more.

Thanks Riot! Loving Nexus Blitz, I hope it gets more dev love [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Dllesh8/28/2018, 10:25:13 PM25 votes

wait... did they just buff yi?

420 grams8/28/2018, 8:00:40 PM25 votes

Good thing we're getting an Irelia buff. Thats been a priority problem

woodvsmurph8/29/2018, 4:12:45 AM25 votes

Rengar buff is small enough it should be ok.

Yi buff is horrible call. As numerous people have pointed out, the only couter to yi is to cc and then nuke him. Allowing him to potentially get off w and reduce that burst even more than in the past is a horrible call - especially to anyone playing below plat. While individuals like myself may know how to play against him, too many don't and it makes for very unfun pub stomp games... for which you just wrote in patch notes you nerfed yorick's base mistwalker dmg growth. No sane person can think it's ok to nerf yorick damage because of "low elo pubstomp" while buffing yi's durability when he's far more of a pubstomp champ than yorick.

Garen q nerf is far too kind to him. Other champions need to build damage to deal damage with their abilities. Compare for example garen q to renekton q... garen q with a sunfire cape will do more damage than renekton q with a cleaver. The base is too high - it should have it cut by around 1/3 with perhaps a bit more scaling ratio to compensate - reward garen for building some damage much like you reward galio damage reduction for building some ap or any of numerous other champs who need to build damage to deal meaningful damage. Considering how loaded his w is... I think this is a perfectly acceptable trade.

Fiora... I don't know what's wrong with you guys, but you don't seem to understand some very simple concepts. When hyperscaling champs like fiora or jax are just doing OK in laning phase, but being bullied by lane bullies, you buff them until they can trade on even terms with lane bullies w/o having to outplay anything at all. The concept of a lane bully is just that... to bully other champs in lane. They are SUPPOSED to win lane if they don't get outplayed repeatedly. They NEED that to have any chance to win. Buffing hyperscaling champs to the point they can win or go even w/o any outplay involved during laning phase is the equivalent to going... gee darius or renekton don't win late game vs a jax or fiora even if those champs make on mistake for the renek or darius to capitalize on. I guess we better double darius's passive damage and give him 20% lifesteal, give renekton stun a scaling to 3.5 sec and increase his bonus ad by 25% when he ults so they have a fair chance to compete late game. That would be utter stupidity... so why are you doing exactly that type of thing... AGAIN with hyperscaling champs in laning phase. They should lose lane to lane bullies plain and simple. Even if they get one outplay, they shouldn't be taking over the lane for the rest of the game barring major mess up or outside intervention, but that's exactly the direction you are heading with this type of buff for a champ that doesn't need one.

Stormrazor changes don't really do much for adc's in bot lane. They only hurt adc's in other roles who don't want multiple crit items and non-adc's who don't build additional crit. So it's a decent start, but probably not resulting in as much change as people expect it to. A bit more safety for adc who loses rush to stormrazor in bot lane too... so I guess that's nice for laning phase.

Wukong buff mostly helps out his jg role I think. He'll still win or lose toplane and mid much the same as he did before the attack speed buff. And perhaps that's the goal. Probably not what non-jg wukong's wanted, but at least he can have a place again. Still haven't really addressed his ability to nuke squishies mid/late from stealth... just made it so fewer people play him and he has to work a bit harder to reach that point. I don't think he's too op nor was he before the last nerf. Other champs did much the same thing as him and were left untouched for unknown reasons. It wouldn't even be an issue if adc's built a bit of defense early/mid instead of going 3 straight crit items or 4 straight, but I can't even blame them too much either because they almost have to or else they lose every adc duel and lack the same carry potential even if protected properly, so they are forced to go glass cannon and hope for the best. I think making resistances matter a bit more, toning down crit/adc dps somewhat vs champs who have resistances if the adc has no meaningful armor pen, reducing the movespeed advantage adc's get over other roles due to crit (really not ok - there's a reason melees are given more base movespeed; it makes the game fair to both parties), and in return reducing the burst potential of champs onto adc's building some durability (ga, maw, bloodthirster)into their kit so that adc's aren't 1-shot would be the way to go. I shouldn't be able to go cleaver, essence reaver, and sterak's renekton and flash 1-shot an adc with ga, bt, and zeal item; they shouldn't be able to perma-kite me and drain tank if I don't manage to 1-shot them. Give both parties a fair chance to show SKILL rather than making it a nuclear arms race like it's been for awhile now. This would also help adc's feel better about stuff like zed being in the game because they can feel ok about getting a ga to help lessen zed's 1-shot potential and make him have to do it twice to actually kill them; zed mains don't see zed nerfed for doing his job vs a squishy with no resistances. Ta, da... everyone wins.

PraySauce8/29/2018, 1:13:01 AM23 votes

The Yorick nerfs seem really excessive...

SuperNova00798/29/2018, 2:17:11 AM23 votes

Mist walkers.

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 2-7) 3 ⇒ 1 ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 8-13) 5 ⇒ 6 ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH (LEVELS 14+) 10 ⇒ 11

Congrats. Now yorick's mist walkers suck all the time instead of just mid and late game. Where they literally can't do crap.So Mist walkers are just free gold now.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

ShoreyStory8/29/2018, 11:29:06 AM18 votes

Seriously? Does the Riot Balance Team even play the game? Do they not realize how stupid some of these changes are?

Most notably, nerfing Yorick because of "people who don't know how to play against his mist walkers" and, wait for it... **BUFFING YI?? **

..Lol.

The Jotaro Kujo8/28/2018, 8:23:01 PM18 votes

Can we please get a skin for kled please?

Urblotasun8/29/2018, 2:07:18 AM13 votes

Nerfed Yorick? Really? Three down to 1? You know if you guys took the time to balance champs before you release them you would save thousands of man hours. And as a main Yorick screw your nerf. Lame. Happens to damn near every champ I like to play. It's going to get to the point where there will be no reason to play League anymore cause none of the champs do anything but take up space cause of constant nerfs. Maybe you should have tried 2 on his attack damage growth.

Gramps aka Doug8/28/2018, 8:42:08 PM13 votes

How does reducing the cooldown on Rengar's ult help with reducing the buttloads of burst damage in this game? He already builds CDR with his jungle item and rushing Duskblade, giving him more opportunities to stealth one-shot people seems like a backwards way of reducing burst...

Politur grime8/28/2018, 9:56:46 PM13 votes

item 3147 change looks more like a buff with 3 more lethality.

Annie and Bard Buffs are giving some neglected champs some love.

While the Taric change was asked by the community long time ago and good that they shipped it.

RekSai CoffeeCo8/29/2018, 2:04:43 PM12 votes

RekSai Elise need buffs.

MonkeyKing needs more than a small small adjustment to attack speed to make up for rune changes q and e nerf and now changes to stormrazor/duskblade. Quit monkeying around and hotfix it tomorrow like you would for other champs.

Yorick didn't need the nerfs, towers tho need a buff but keep ignoring what people say about that at your own peril of losing more players.

Oberisuk8/28/2018, 7:21:28 PM12 votes

Do I smell the return of Annie Support?

Business trooper8/28/2018, 11:04:25 PM11 votes

Oh boy more lethality just what we need as though there wasn't already enough for bruisers and the ad assassins...

HeIIoweenman8/29/2018, 1:28:57 AM10 votes

Nerfing Garen and Yorick????? WTF? Riot is balancing for low elo again, like idiots. Good players deterimine what is good, not the crappy players that get trashed.