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Patch 6.13 notes

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Greetings, Summoners.

Welcome to patch 6.13, the one where supports get to have nice things, too. We’ve got a few more support changes in patches to come, but let’s focus on the here and now.

For the most part, supports aren’t really that weak. The issue is their influence can be hard to appreciate compared to more obvious things like kill streaks. In a certain light, however, perception is reality: when players believe they’re weak, they’re more reluctant to make risky - but impactful! - plays. With that in mind, our goal this patch is to sharpen support gameplay satisfaction, making success a bit easier to observe. Better rewards for doing support things and a healthy assortment of quality-of-life improvements should make supports feel better about their place in the world.

Botlane happiness aside, we’re also taking steps to address recent warps in the top lane landscape. This means reining in overperformers (Irelia, Vladimir) and bringing up a few picks we think should have a seat at the table (Gnar, Jarvan). Whichever approach you prefer, this patch’s biggest shift to top lane is a reduction to the reliability of Teleport plays, so be sure to check those changes out below.

...On further inspection, occasionally surviving TP ganks will make support life more pleasant, so we’ve really come full circle with this introduction.

That’s all for us (now literally “us”) this patch! Go forth and experience the joy of leveling up from a ward.
Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough Paul "Aether" Perscheid Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman Boka "LaBoka" Agboje

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Champions

Blitzcrank

E duration decreased. R cooldown changed.

In his current state, Blitz is an unstoppable force in the bot lane. His standard pattern of engagement - hook, knockup, ult, BM - is reliably performed and extremely effective. At the same time, some aspects of Blitzcrank’s design are simply annoying, not just when facing him but when playing as Blitz as well. Some nerfs paired with the feel-good tweaks should make the Great Steam Golem less frustrating for everyone.

Q - Rocket Grab

newIN MY SIGHTS Now pulls enemies 75 units in front of Blitzcrank rather than directly on top of him

E - Power Fist

DURATION 10 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds
newNO RUST Power Fist's empowered basic attack can no longer be canceled

R - Static Field

COOLDOWN 30 seconds ⇒ 60/40/20 seconds
newSMART FIELD No longer hits monsters while Blitzcrank is out of combat

Lulu

Q damage on additional targets decreased. W grants bonus attack speed.

Historically, our previous changes to nerf solo Lulu for her competitive viability led to her support play being underwhelming. The problem lies in the fact that both mid and support Lulu value the same things: decent waveclear while enhancing and protecting allies. To be clear, we don’t want to eliminate solo lane Lulu. Players finding novel ways to explore the strengths of champions is part of what makes League of Legends great. That being said, support Lulu deserves some love as well. We’re directly enhancing what makes her a worthwhile support pick but at the same time making sure these buffs don’t spill into top and mid unchecked. This way, Lulu offers reasonable value wherever she goes.

General

BASE MANA 292 ⇒ 350
BASE MOVEMENT SPEED 325 ⇒ 330

Q - Glitterlance

newLESS LANCE MORE GLITTER Damage now falls to 70% against targets hit beyond the first
SLOW DURATION 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds at all ranks

W - Whimsy

newON A WHIM Now also grants 15/20/25/30/35% attack speed for the duration

Tahm Kench

Passive changed. Q damage increased. E shield weakened. R range increased.

“OH MY GOD,” he types angrily onto his keyboard. “HOW CAN YOU BUFF TAHM KENCH?!?” We hear you, Imaginary Straw Man. Do not worry.

Many moons ago, Tahm Kench was a monster in the bot lane. Impossible to kill yet also dealing massive damage thanks to the passive on his R, the catfish/frog/demon thing was an abomination to champion diversity and basic biology. Early this season, nerfs to his Q, combined with changes to the greater ecosystem overall resulted in The Benching of The Kench. Since then, Tahm’s nerfs have proved to be too effective. In his current state Tahm Kench is both unplayed and depressingly weak. But how do we buff Tahm without dealing with the same problems he had before?

We're taking a direct shot at a part of what makes Tahm so frustrating to face, his pseudo-invincibility. Tankiness is always going to be a part of The River King, but it was a bit insane for a support to take on both members of the opposing bot lane without a care in the world. Instead, we're moving some of Tahm's power from defense to offense with the help of a changed passive. In addition, Abyssal Voyage will now get ol’ Two-Coats where he needs to go much more effectively. These buffs should more than compensate for Tahm Kench's reduced tankiness without making facing him such a rage-inducing task.

Passive - An Acquired Taste

newIT USED TO BE ON HIS ULT Basic attacks and abilities deal 1/1.25/1.5% (at levels 1/11/16) of Tahm Kench's maximum health as bonus magic damage. Stacks 3 times vs champions.

Q - Tongue Lash

DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 ⇒ 80/130/180/230/280

E - Thick Skin

DAMAGE TO GREY HEALTH CONVERSION 100% of damage taken ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90% of damage taken
GREY HEALTH TO HEALING CONVERSION 20/26/32/38/44% ⇒ 25/30/35/40/45%
SHIELD DURATION 6 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds
COOLDOWN 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds
newLESS THICC Shield no longer decays over the duration

R - Abyssal Voyage

removedIT'S ON THE PASSIVE No longer deals 2/4/6% of Tahm Kench's bonus health as damage on attacks and abilities
CHANNEL DURATION 15 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds
CAST DELAY 1 second ⇒ 0.25 seconds
ENEMY WARNING TIME 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second
RANGE 4000/5000/6000 ⇒ 4500/5500/6500

Thresh

Epic monsters give two souls. W scaling changed.

Everyone knows that taking the souls of fallen enemies should be a fun and pleasant experience. For Thresh, however, collecting the souls of the damned currently doesn’t capture how awesome it is to slay epic monsters. We're making the soul hunting mini-game more rewarding and changing the scaling on Thresh's W to match. In addition, we're cleaning up some of the interactions between Thresh's hook and lantern, letting players feel a little more confident in landing their “Flash, Hook, Lantern” combo.

Passive - Damnation

newSOUL OF THE LORDS Epic monsters now drop two souls

W - Dark Passage

removedAP RATIO 0.4 ability power ⇒ Removed
newSOUL RATIO Now gains +1 shield per soul collected
PLEASE CLICK THE LANTERN While Thresh is tethered to an enemy via Death Sentence, casting Dark Passage at an out-of-range location now throws the lantern at maximum range in the target direction, rather than causing Thresh to walk into cast range
PLEASE. If you successfully Death Sentence a target and pull towards them, lanterns slightly beyond the leash range will have a short grace period before breaking the leash

Zyra

Fixed plant AI. Increased Passive and W cooldowns.

Yet another support champion with an immensely strong laning phase, Zyra has spread like a weed through the bot lane. She should certainly be great at zoning with her plants, but right now they're a little too good at their job, targeting enemy champions before Zyra herself (never show initiative in the workplace). In addition, seeds spawn much too quickly, letting Zyra sow whenever she pleases. We're bringing her plants in line, giving other supports a chance to blossom.

Passive - Garden of Thorns

SEED SPAWN TIME 11 - 6.75 seconds (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 13 - 8.5 seconds (at levels 1-18)

Q - Deadly Spines

GMOs Fixed a bug where plants spawned by Deadly Spines would automatically target enemy champions even if Zyra hadn't damaged them

W - Rampant Growth

AMMO RECHARGE TIME 17/16/15/14/13 seconds ⇒ 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

Zilean

Fixed a bug.

Fixed a bug.

R - Chronoshift

HE CAN CURE DEATH Fixed a bug where Chronoshift wasn't proccing on-heal effects (ex. Ardent Censer's attack speed buff)

Gnar

Mini-Gnar range scaling up. Q returns farther. W damage up.

It’s been a season of tanky melee tops, so you’d expect everybody’s favorite sometimes-tanky-melee-sometimes-tank-shredding-ranged-top laner to be doing well. Despite this, Gnar has been out of sight all season. With top lane shifting towards mages and Trinity Force users at the moment, we don’t want to push too hard, but some usability buffs for last-hitting and kiting should help Gnar feel more consistent.

Passive - Rage Gene

MINI-GNAR BONUS RANGE 400 - 485 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 400 - 500 (at levels 1-18)

Q - Boomerang Throw

RETURN BOOMERANG DISTANCE 2500 ⇒ 3000

W - Hyper

DAMAGE 10/20/30/40/50 ⇒ 15/25/35/45/55

Irelia

R cooldown up.

Irelia exhibits a classic duelist problem: her ult is back up before you can say “didn’t she just kill me with that?” With Trinity Force’s increased cooldown reduction, this experience has moved into “she killed me twice without recalling” territory. When Irelia can ult every second minion wave to avoid fighting her opponent (or just ult her opponent to avoid letting them be alive), finding the right window in which to punish her can be a ridiculous task. Those blades can transcend the laws of physics, but they shouldn’t be transcending downtime.

R - Transcendent Blades

COOLDOWN 70/60/50 seconds ⇒ 110/85/60 seconds

Jarvan IV

Increased W teamfight value.

For somebody who wants to lock as many opponents as possible into a caged deathmatch, Jarvan lacks the tankiness to survive in the fray he creates. We’re heightening Golden Aegis’ deep-behind-enemy-lines power to make sure that when Jarvan’s helping, he’s actually helping.

W - Golden Aegis

BASE SHIELD 50/90/130/170/210 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170
BONUS SHIELD PER ENEMY CHAMPION 20/30/40/50/60 ⇒ 20/40/60/80/100
RADIUS 500 ⇒ 600

Kindred

Base armor down. Armor per level up. W no longer heals, but Wolf reduces monster damage.

No stranger to the patch notes, Kindred’s back for another round of changes to address their unparalleled jungle dominance. Before we talk about the changes themselves, let’s get into a little bit of history.

While ranged junglers aren’t unheard of these days, setting out to develop a marksman jungler was no easy task. After lots of internal failures in testing, we felt it was necessary to give Kindred higher-than-average base stats and sustain (relative to marksmen) to even be able to clear their jungle. We accepted those extreme stats as necessary evils for Lamb and Wolf to be considered functional.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve clearly learned some lessons. While Kindred does possess a steep learning curve, part of that mastery is in learning how to kite the jungle monsters - meaning good Kindred players take little to no damage during their clear. That’s totally fine, but it means those ‘necessary evils’ aren’t so necessary after all. Kindred are marksmen, so they should be killable when caught out of position. Instead, Lamb and Wolf just walk around at full life and outduel just about everyone.

So that’s the deal. The changes below are all about emphasizing that weakness in Kindred while still retaining their ability to clear the jungle. The Eternal Hunters have been tough to balance before now, but we’re confident that by softening their dueling strength, we can work towards a more balanced Kindred long-term (one that isn’t nerfed in every patch consecutively, that is).

General

BASE ARMOR 27 ⇒ 20
ARMOR GROWTH STAT 3.25 ⇒ 3.5

W - Wolf's Frenzy

removedHUNTER'S VIGOR No longer grants a heal
newWOLF GANG Wolf now maims jungle monsters, reducing their attack speed and movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds

Swain

R cooldown and recast lockout up.

One of Midseason’s primary beneficiaries, Swain carries himself more like a juggernaut than a mage these days. In a world where mana management was harsh on the Master Tactician, Ravenous Flock provided a brief but powerful window of functional invincibility. With mana pools larger than ever, Swain’s ultimate is less of a ‘high moment’ and more of an extended stat-check. Similar to Maokai last season, Swain’s low-cooldown high-uptime ult leaves virtually no window for opponents to engage without getting a face full of ravens. We’re opening Ravenous Flock’s window to lean harder on Swain’s ability to accurately predict the length of his battles to succeed. Ravenous Flock will still turn Swain into a tanky monster, but baiting him into prematurely ending the effect should have very real consequences.

R - Ravenous Flock

COOLDOWN 10 seconds ⇒ 20 seconds
INITIAL LOCKOUT ON RECAST 0.5 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Syndra

Bugfixes galore.

With Syndra’s update a few patches ago, it’s clear that some of her older and harder-to-track-down bugs are holding her back from feeling effective. Syndra’s skirmishing power depends on her flow between combos, so we’re patching up some of the holes in that flow to keep her firing on all cylinders.

W - Force of Will

GET A GRIP Fixed a bug where Force of Will would only grab 2 spheres at max rank based on where she clicked
BUTTERFINGERS Fixed a bug where getting crowd-controlled while grabbing an object could put Force of Will on cooldown

R - Unleashed Power

TEMPORAL AWARENESS Now continues to check for spheres during the entire cast duration, rather than only on-cast
THE SPHERES ARE INERT Fixed a bug where spheres produced by Unleashed Power would become impossible to use if her target died during the cast

Trundle

Health regen down.

Trundle’s stat-sapping abilities make him very hard to fight 1-on-1. In most top lane metas, he is kept at bay by his weakness against poke and short trades. However, our recent efforts to knock down systemic sustain (like Grasp of the Undying) have made Trundle’s passive sustain stand out even more. High base health regeneration on top of his passive prevents most top laners from forcing him out of lane before his ultimate is back up again. We dig the uniqueness of his passive, but there’s no need for him to have so much additional extra health regeneration on top of that.

General

BASE HEALTH REGEN 9.4 ⇒ 6

Twitch

Q doesn’t accidentally drop Twitch into stealth instantly.

While it wasn’t the easiest to trigger, ‘instantly stealthing Twitch’ was as nightmarish as it sounds. It was also entirely unintended. Bugfixed.

Q - Ambush

NOW YOU SEE ME Fixed a bug where Ambush's stealth delay would instantly complete if Twitch killed an enemy champion

Vladimir

Passive ratio reverted to pre-rework. Q base damage down, but ratio up.

Vladimir’s the latest in a series of champions piling on heaps of damage while purchasing almost entirely defensive items, but with a slight twist. Unlike Ekko or Fizz, Vlad’s at least intended to be a tanky nuisance. We don’t want Vlad to stop building defensively, we just want him to stop being so effective when that’s all he builds. We’re pulling back on some of our Midseason changes to get Vlad into a spot where he still feels like a sticky, sustained damage dealer - just not one that’s killing you with pure health items.

Passive - Crimson Pact

BONUS HEALTH TO AP RATIO 1 ability power per 25 bonus health ⇒ 40 bonus health
AP TO BONUS HEALTH RATIO 1 health ⇒ 1.4 health per 1 ability power

Q - Transfusion

DAMAGE 80/100/120/140/160 ⇒ 75/90/105/120/135
ABILITY POWER RATIO 0.45 ⇒ 0.55

Volibear

W damage and attack speed down at early ranks.

When it comes to taking over games, Volibear’s dominated the jungle for a couple of patches now. Similar to Rammus, Voli relies on his powerful early ganks to transition into a mid-game meatshield. What’s out of line isn’t the strength of Volibear’s ganks, but his ability to keep up with his opponent’s jungle clears. We’re lowering his effectiveness when fighting monsters in the early game so teams that successfully respond to Volibear’s early aggression can maintain a meaningful lead come mid-game.

W - Frenzy

DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 ⇒ 60/110/160/210/260
ATTACK SPEED PER STACK 8/11/14/17/20% ⇒ 4/8/12/16/20%

Ziggs

More bugfixes!

Bouncing Bomb is already unique among skillshots, thanks to its defining bounce mechanic. This gives Ziggs some neat plays (bounce a bomb over a frontline to explode a squishy target), but also leaves room for some really wonky visuals when fighting bigass monsters. We’re cleaning up the bounce’s detection to help Ziggs take these objectives without feeling cheated by his bomb casts (and before you ask, yes, six-stack Cho’Gath is basically an objective).

Q - Bouncing Bomb

BUGFIX Bouncing Bomb will now more consistently explode when bouncing near large units such as Baron, Dragon, and six-stack Cho'Gath

Terrain Abilities

Dynamically created terrain attempts to preserve your pathing commands.

The ability to create terrain has always come with its own set of challenges. At the forefront of these is the interactions between walls and pathing. For those who’ve luckily dodged this interaction, we’ll break it down: attempting to path through a wall (or accidentally clicking on it) will instead force your champion to look for the easiest path around that wall. While it sounds all good and logical when explained like that, it creates more frustrations than you’d expect - failing flashes, buying the enemy that extra second to escape - the list continues.

Taliyah’s wall, however, is different. Aware of this long-standing complication with created terrain, you can imagine everyone’s concern when they heard she was going to make a wall half the size of the map itself. New tech was implemented for Weaver’s Wall to help retain your pathing, and now that Taliyah’s been out for a bit (and nothing’s caught on fire), we’re comfortable applying it to existing walls. In short: if you wanted to move towards a wall to flash over it or snipe someone, your character won’t get really confused and try to walk back to base just to get to the other side.
PATH TO VICTORY Now path straight towards the dynamically created terrain, instead of trying to go long ways around it. This mimics Taliyah's Weaver's Wall (R) functionality, and now impacts Anivia Crystallize (W), Trundle's Pillar of Ice (E), Zz'rot Portal, Jarvan's Cataclsym (R), and Azir's Emperor's Divide (R).

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Howling Abyss

Mordekaiser

W no longer ignores Mordekaiser’s target selection on Howling Abyss.

Sorry, Mordekaiser.

W - Harvesters of Sorrow

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Harvesters of Sorrow would always target the ally closest to Mordekaiser, regardless of who he cast it on

Taliyah

Worked ground despawns faster on Howling Abyss.

Amidst our ARAM changes last patch, we balanced a few champions whose mechanics didn’t lend themselves to the single-lane brawlfest. Taliyah’s Threaded Volley seems like a powerful tool when her opponents can’t dodge, but Worked Ground dictates that she’s gotta keep moving to pump out the damage she needs. Considering you can’t really move anywhere on Howling Abyss, we’re helping the Stoneweaver’s chances of keeping up with the rest of the pack.

Q - Threaded Volley

WORKED GROUND DURATION 140 seconds ⇒ 100 seconds

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Items

Ancient Coin line

Early cooldown reduction increased. Talisman of Ascension now builds out of Raptor’s Cloak instead of Forbidden Idol.

For an item that enables explosive initiation, Talisman of Ascension isn’t giving its users the tankiness they might need to survive contact with the enemy. Forbidden Idol as a component didn’t leave much room for defensive stats, so we’re replacing it with Raptor’s Cloak - a natural fit given its movement speed passive. Ancient Coin and Nomad’s Medallion are also struggling in lane, so granting them Talisman’s CDR a bit early should help them feel better.

Ancient Coin

newCOOLDOWN REDUCTION 0% ⇒ 5%

Nomad's Medallion

RECIPE Ancient Coin + Faerie Charm + Rejuvenation Bead + 225 gold ⇒ Ancient Coin + Faerie Charm + 375 gold
TOTAL COST 850 gold (unchanged)
COOLDOWN REDUCTION 5% ⇒ 10%
HEALTH REGEN 50% ⇒ 25%
MANA REGEN 50% ⇒ 75%

Talisman of Ascension

newRECIPE Raptor's Cloak + Nomad's Medallion + 450 gold
TOTAL COST 2200 gold ⇒ 2500 gold
newARMOR 0 ⇒ 45
HEALTH REGEN 100% ⇒ 150%
MANA REGEN 100% ⇒ 75%
newPOINT RUNNER Builds up to 20% movement speed over 2 seconds while near turrets, fallen turrets, or void gates

Relic Shield line

Minion execute now scales with level.

Relic Shield’s execute establishes a simple feedback mechanic: damage low-health minions and you’ll gift a nearby ally both health and gold. However, we don’t want executes to get harder later in the game as minions get tankier. On a more case-specific note, allowing the execution of pets like Zyra’s plants removed some of the consistency of the gold share, given their significantly lower value.

General

NOT THAT SPOILED The Spoils of War passive no longer executes enemy pets (ex. Zyra plants)

Relic Shield

MINION EXECUTE 200 health ⇒ 195 + (5*level) health

Targon's Brace

MINION EXECUTE 240 health ⇒ 200 + (10*level) health

Face of the Mountain

MINION EXECUTE 400 health ⇒ 320 + (20*level) health

Eye of the Equinox

MINION EXECUTE 400 health ⇒ 320 + (20*level) health

Spellthief's Edge line

Killing pets no longer puts Tribute on cooldown.

Spellthief’s Edge offers you a tradeoff: don’t farm and you can build up gold by trading with your opponents. Much like with Relic Shield, pets were disrupting Spellthief’s tradeoff as well.
TRIFLING TRIBUTE REJECTED The Tribute passive is no longer put on cooldown when killing enemy pets (ex. Zyra plants)

Forbidden Idol

Cost increased. Now amplifies heals and shields.

Forbidden Idol is in a pretty odd spot at the moment. With many other mid-tier items picking up a mini-power spike with the mage item rework, Forbidden Idol feels somewhat outdated in that you aren’t really any stronger when you pick it up. We wanted to give Forbidden Idol something that reflected the items it builds into. With Talisman of Ascension no longer tied to Forbidden Idol, that left us with Ardent Censer and Mikael’s Crucible. Since they both have healing components, we’re assigning Forbidden Idol the identity of “mid-tier healing item”.
TOTAL COST 550 gold ⇒ 850 gold
newFORBIDDEN HEALING +10% bonus healing and shielding power

Ardent Censer

Cost and ability power increased. Mana regen decreased. Now amplifies heals and shields.

Moar AP for moar heals costs moar money.
COMBINE COST 800 gold ⇒ 700 gold
TOTAL COST 2200 gold ⇒ 2400 gold
ABILITY POWER 40 ⇒ 60
MANA REGEN 100% ⇒ 50%
newARDENT HEALING +15% bonus healing and shielding power

Mikael's Crucible

Cost increased. Now amplifies heals and shields.

To account for the new Forbidden Idol power, Mikael’s Crucible has to get a bit more expensive.
COMBINE COST 850 gold ⇒ 650 gold
TOTAL COST 2300 gold ⇒ 2400 gold
newCRUCIAL HEALING +15% bonus healing and shielding power

Ruby Sightstone

Cost decreased. Active item cooldown reduction increased.

Ruby Sightstone’s high cost and lack of combat efficacy has prevented it from being a consistent alternative support rush. Rather than add more stats to Ruby Sightstone, we’re tuning up its business with active items to create a more distinct feeling difference between the Eyestone and Ruby Sightstone routes.
COMBINE COST 600 gold ⇒ 400 gold
TOTAL COST 1800 gold ⇒ 1600 gold
ACTIVE ITEM COOLDOWN REDUCTION 10% ⇒ 20%

Hextech Protobelt-01

Spells can no longer be cast during Protobelt's dash.

Abilities can't fire during Protobelt's dash, so they delay their effects until the dash ends. Problem is, abilities can only resolve one at a time. When they all attempt to fire at once, only the last ability cast gets to play out. The others never do anything, even though their mana cost and cooldown were incurred on-cast. This is a waste of resources at best and a thrown game at worst, so we're preventing the interaction altogether.
COMBINE COST Protobelt's dash now disables spellcasts and channels for the duration

Wards

Wards grant experience. Attacking them no longer puts you in combat.

Wards are on the far end of strategic gameplay in League of Legends, standing in stark contrast to combat. While combat risks are typically quite apparent, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ can often describe vision rewards quite literally. We generally like to keep strategic and combat gameplay distinct, but currently clearing wards can often feel too high risk and low reward. Leaving lane to place and clear wards contributes to some of the XP drain that supports face, although other champions than supports also feel it. Losing out-of-combat bonuses just to clear a ward can make it seem like clearing a ward is disproportionately harder than defending it. We’re letting champions keep their out-of-combat bonuses while clearing wards to soften that discrepancy. With these changes, we hope to dial back a bit of the risk of ward clearing and add consistency to the reward.
newWARD AND PEACE Attacking wards will not trigger in-combat status for the purpose of Boots of Mobility, Cloud Drake, or Taliyah's Rock Surfing
newLOOKING FORWARD Wards now grant 30 experience when killed (15 for blue wards)
newLEVEL UP For every 150 seconds that a ward is alive, it becomes visually swaggier for the team that placed it

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Global Experience Pacing

Catch-Up Experience

Catch-up experience now scales smoothly.

(Reminder: we're talking about the bonus experience granted from various sources when you’re underleveled.)

Up until now, catch-up bonuses have scaled with level difference. Sounds logical, but means you get the same bonus whether you need 1 or 1000 experience to fill your XP bar. Those bonuses drop off the moment you level up, even though you’re basically just one minion kill closer to even. This is confusing and weird to balance, so we're modernizing catch-up experience to scale continuously instead.
THIS MAKES MORE SENSE Catch-up experience now scales continuously with percent missing level, rather than remaining at a set value from level to level
IN OTHER WORDS You now get more catch-up experience at 2.5 levels behind than 2.3 levels behind than 2 levels behind, etc.
HERE BE MATH To accommodate the new continuous growth, catch-up experience kicks in earlier but scales less strongly
new

Post-Death Kill Experience

Dead champs now gain experience from nearby kills.

Life’s tough for initiators. Their job is to throw themselves into the enemy team, which often results in death even when done right. Many initiators are also tasked with target lockdown, meaning they only ‘enter combat’ with (and get assists from) a few opponents, despite paving the way for every kill in the fight. A vicious cycle emerges: initiators don’t get full teamfight experience, leaving them underleveled for the next fight, making them even more likely to die. We’re putting a stop to this to ensure initiators are rewarded - not punished - for doing their jobs.
newABSORBENT CORPSES Champions now continue to gain experience from nearby champion kills for ~10 seconds after death, even if they didn't participate

Early Kill Rewards

Early kills grant less experience.

Given how small low-level experience requirements are, early kills are super rewarding: a single victory can fast-track progression by up to half a level. As it so happens, early deaths are also super punishing. Early on, minion waves grant more experience than kills, and dead people miss out on a lot of it. That means early kills double dip in the rewards bowl, creating advantages two to three times larger than you’d expect. Lanes shouldn’t be decided by a single kill, so we’re toning these advantages down.
BREATHING ROOM Champion kills reward less experience at early levels, returning to pre-6.13 values around level 9

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Summoner Spells

Teleport

Channel time increased. Clarity improvements for both allies and opponents.

For the power an extra champ brings to a fight, Teleport plays are generally too successful. Widening the window for enemy reaction means Teleports will more frequently fail to create advantages if teams don’t coordinate properly. At the same time, well-executed Teleport plays still deserve to be rewarded, so we’re making it easier to tell exactly where your reinforcements will come in.
CHANNEL DURATION 3.5 seconds ⇒ 4.5 seconds
DROP ZONE Teleport drops its caster in a random spot near the target ⇒ on the side of the target closest to the caster's nexus. For example, champions now always appear behind their towers.
I SPY Teleport's visuals are now always visible (even through Fog of War) if you have vision within 500 units of the target location
newCOME THRU Teleport now issues a soundless “On My Way” ping at the target location

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Dragons & Rift Herald

Dragons and Rift Herald no longer level up during combat.

Junglers already have enough to focus on during objective contests - all the normal teamfight stuff, plus the xpecial challenge of Smite timing (or stealing). Unlucky level-ups are one factor junglers have no way of accounting for, so the pit-denizens of the Rift have graciously agreed to stop trolling their murderers.
CLOUD 9 10 Dragons and Rift Herald now wait to level up until they've been out of combat for 30 seconds
removedWARDS STOLE THIS Dragons no longer play level up visual or audio effects

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Attack-Move

Attack-move works properly when used with move commands.

Sorry, marksmen.
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where an attack-move command issued immediately after a move command to the same spot would fail to overwrite the move command

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Ranked Emblems

Earn one of three different emblems winning dynamic ranked games solo, in groups, or alongside fully-stacked teams. Flaunt them on your Profile and Leagues pages.

We hear you on needing new ways to show off individual skill in ranked, and this is just a first step towards that. If you climb as a solo inhibitor-crushing machine, your emblem shows that off. Emblems change over time based on your recent wins, swapping between solo, dynamic, and team as your style evolves.
RETRO GRADE Wins for emblems started being counted during 6.12, so you’ll need to have won 25 games since the start of last patch to earn one
LONE WOLF A solo emblem means the vast majority of your recent wins came from queueing alone
PARTNERS IN CRIME A dynamic emblem means you win with parties of all sizes
#SQUADGOALS A team emblem means your wins come mostly from queuing with full teams

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Ranked Tier Restrictions

Tier restrictions in Diamond and above now allows three divisions of separation between teammates instead of two.

We made it a bit too hard for top-tier players to play with friends in ranked, so we’re relaxing restrictions to allow three divisions of separation. We’ll keep an eye on things in terms of playing with friends versus flinging the door open to packs of boosted animals.

High-tier premade skill ranges

Reminder: From Diamond V and up, premades are limited to duos or trios. The entire premade has to be within a three-division skill range of each other.
CHALLENGER Challenger / Master, Diamond I, II
MASTER Challenger / Master / Diamond I, II, III
DIAMOND I Challenger, Master / Diamond I / Diamond II, III, IV
DIAMOND V Diamond II, III, IV / Diamond V / Platinum I, II, III
PLATINUM As before, high-Platinum players can queue with low-Diamond players based on the restrictions above. If no Diamond players are in the party, Platinum players remain completely unaffected by these changes.

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Scheduled Ranked 5s

Ranked 5s queues return during scheduled windows.

We disabled ranked 5s at the start of the season because we were unsure how match quality would be affected by the addition of dynamic queue. When we limited the highest MMR players (Diamond V+) to solo, duo, or trio queues, those players had no option to play ranked as a group of five. Even among players below Diamond V, we've heard that people miss the ranked 5v5 queue so we’re bringing it back while hopefully avoiding the low population/high queue time problems the old version had by restricting it to certain time periods. Each region will have different times and days, so keep an eye out for your region's schedule. Otherwise, this queue works exactly like the old Ranked 5s did.
DIAMOND FRIEND POWER UNLEASHED Teams can have up to nine players, with no restrictions on which ranked tiers can join
TEAM PLACEMENT Teams must play five games to become officially ranked and placed in the appropriate tier/division
APPRENTICE JOURNEYMAN Players can be a part of up to five different teams at any time
INTO THE WOODS For servers with Ranked 3s enabled on Twisted Treeline, the play window now matches the schedule for Ranked 5s

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Friend List

Mobile users are no longer added to the total count of online friends next to group names.

On the individual level, friends on mobile should be easy to find and chat with - that's the reason they're logged into the app to begin with! On the group level, however, what matters is how many people are around to queue with. Since (to our knowledge) smartphones still aren't smart enough to run League, we're removing mobile users from the group-level totals of online friends.

More broadly, we're thinking about other changes along these lines to distinguish between friends ready to get into game vs. friends on mobile. No promises while we focus on the League Client Update, but if we do end up changing anything, we'll let you know!
BUT CAN YOU INVITE Friend List groups no longer count mobile users toward the number of online players displayed next to the group name

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Bugfixes

  • Fixed a few cases where Ninja Tabi weren't properly reducing damage from empowered basic attacks (ex. Ashe's Q - Ranger's Focus)
  • Fixed a bug where Fiora would be locked out of Flash and Teleport if she died during Q - Lunge until casting Lunge again
  • Corrected Leona’s Q - Shield of Daybreak tooltip to indicate the stun lasts 1 second, not 1.25 seconds (actual stun duration unchanged)
  • Miss Fortune’s Passive - Love Tap and Shaco’s Passive - Backstab no longer apply extra stacks of Black Cleaver’s armor shred
  • Champions no longer get stuck when trying to walk behind Blue Sentinel’s little rock buddy
  • Fixed a bunch of cracks in the Zac Sweet Chromas on Very Low visual settings
  • Fixed a bug where toggling Relative Team Color wouldn't adjust the color of existing minions
  • Adjusted colors on a few of Challenger Nidalee's visual effects to improve readability
  • Restored custom particles for Blight Crystal Varus's E - Hail of Arrows when the arrows land

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Upcoming Skins

Deep Sea Nami will be released during patch 6.13!


In addition, Soulstealer Vayne will be added as a Hextech Crafting exclusive during this patch!

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424 Comments

ZT Xperimentor68 votes

Huzzah, thank you riot for finally addressing supports being behind in gold & exp in this heavy snowball reliant season.

WowSuchRicky51 votes

Also a support main, really looking forward to the changes :)

warpenguin55540 votes

Abilities can't fire during Protobelt's dash, so they delay their effects until the dash ends. Problem is, abilities can only resolve one at a time. When they all attempt to fire at once, only the last ability cast gets to play out. The others never do anything, even though their mana cost and cooldown were incurred on-cast. This is a waste of resources at best and a thrown game at worst, so we're preventing the interaction altogether.

Nice try Riot but ill still throw games with my horrible plays

Deep Terror Nami33 votes

NEWSOUL RATIO Now gains +1 shield per soul collected

Thresh is making Braum jealous.

AnonymousPoro27 votes

But Braum has one thing that Thresh will never have.

A manly moustache!

http://cdn.leagueoflegends.com/apollo/content/braum-fanart/yy6242.png

ZT Xperimentor13 votes

Now I want to see a thresh skin where he has a mustache XD Not for an actual skin, just as a joke picture.

PygmieKing6 votes

If this isn't done by the time I get off work and out of class in 10ish hours, I'll photoshop it when I get home.

Penis Ajumma26 votes

Riot got a Zilean problems, but RNG dragons ain't one.

Spangy25 votes

Dear Riot Games,

I know you're thinking of nerfing Hecarim, I just know it. Do us all a favour: nerf Triforce instead, that's what is making him OP atm.

200% spellblade proc? Lower it to 150%. % movespeed even though Trinity doesn't build out of Zeal anymore? Get rid of the movespeed.

The item is way too overloaded with utility AND damage, which tends to make champions too strong (time and time again).

Hecarim doesn't need a nerf, Trinity Force does.

Sincerely, a Hecarim main who actually knows how to balance the champion properly.

PS: not a hate post, I love you Rito. Just doing my part to help balance my favourite champion so he isn't permabanned and I can actually start playing him again.

Ozlo Zozo8 votes

Tri force is finally good again, it sucked ever since preseason changes. Thank God riot doesn't do what random people say in these posts.

codman14410 votes

As if Riot would nerf an item before a champion. They will nerf every champion that benefits from the new triforce, nerf triforce, and leave those champions weaker than they were before.

Thuban18 votes

WHY ARE THE CHAMPIONS NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER?!

Invariel17 votes

They are - we get the six support champions in alphabetical order, and then all eleven of the affected top laners in alphabetical order.

SlayerManiac8 votes

Zilean is after Zyra

Decimation47 votes

He was before her but used his passive on her and she passed him.

BluePaw318 votes

YES!! DO item 3504 YOU item 3222 KNOW item 3069 WHAT item 2045 THIS Blitzcrank MEANS?!

Soraka BUFFS!

Morning Lotus 16 votes

item 3065 item 3222 item 3114 item 3504 Will the New Healing Effect's and Visage work together Also I Saw that the New healing passives Were named Different does that Mean they are unique but they Do Stack So if we built them together would be get 15%+15%+10% or would it just Be the 15% ?

Dolasaur6 votes

In the detailed forum posts, I believe it was stated that they stack additively. So 15 + 15 -> 30.

Straw Man16 votes

OH MY GOD, HOW CAN YOU BUFF TAHM KENCH?!? Fiddlesticks

A Happy Yuumi9 votes

All of those buffs are actually nerfs in disguise. #RiverIsJustKenchMainsTears

Shdw jho8 votes

So I'm not the only one feeling like he got gutted, I mean, once you get your ult, maths say you need to hit an enemy 3 times before doing the same amount of damage as before, with a 1% more for every hit after (and let's not forget the almighty 20 bonus damage on the rank 5 Q). At level 11, you just lose damage, and a LOT of it (yes, it is just 0.25% max health IF you stack it three times, but it starts at a 2.75% deficit!) and at level 16... Let's just not talk about the 25% to 75% damage loss from ult passive, let's focus on the 20 damage increase on the Q... Of course, that's without mentioning the fact that they also cut his E's effectiveness by a lot (25% of 70%<20% of 100%, and same for 45% of 90%<44% of 100%) The only change that is even remotely a buff is the rest of the ult change, which is about the part where you actually activate it. If i remember when people used to play tahm kench, that was the 1 ability nobody used, and that nobody hopped in with you, no matter how hard you ping them... Well, I wasn't trying to make such a long paragraph, but if you made it this far, congratulations! You're a math addict like I am! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

A Happy Yuumi4 votes

[{quoted}](name=Shdw jho,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=88uH24Yo,comment-id=005500000001,timestamp=2016-06-29T17:04:17.284+0000)

So I'm not the only one feeling like he got gutted, I mean, once you get your ult, maths say you need to hit an enemy 3 times before doing the same amount of damage as before, with a 1% more for every hit after (and let's not forget the almighty 20 bonus damage on the rank 5 Q). At level 11, you just lose damage, and a LOT of it (yes, it is just 0.25% max health IF you stack it three times, but it starts at a 2.75% deficit!) and at level 16... Let's just not talk about the 25% to 75% damage loss from ult passive, let's focus on the 20 damage increase on the Q... Of course, that's without mentioning the fact that they also cut his E's effectiveness by a lot (25% of 70%<20% of 100%, and same for 45% of 90%<44% of 100%) The only change that is even remotely a buff is the rest of the ult change, which is about the part where you actually activate it. If i remember when people used to play tahm kench, that was the 1 ability nobody used, and that nobody hopped in with you, no matter how hard you ping them... Well, I wasn't trying to make such a long paragraph, but if you made it this far, congratulations! You're a math addict like I am! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Everyone keeps saying that the E isn't actually a nerf and its on a super short Cd now so its a lot better. Let's not forget the main point of the E: to soak up damage. If you know what you are doing, you don't pop that shield unless you are seriously low on hp and can't get out, because the healing it provides gave him decent sustain. Now, its as if they WANT you to use it more, just so you don't get the healing back. That doesn't make Kench more offensive. It just straight up makes him less defensive.

yurit13373 votes

I think riot needs to open a dictionary and read the meaning of "buff" because no where in the tahm changes is there a "buff" besides his ult but that isn't what their "buffs" were supposed to address. Riot: "Lets make tahm more offensive and less tanky" proceeds to cut tahms damage to a quarter to what it was 6 > 1.5 at lvl 16. o.O like wtf did they even look at there own changes. not saying that tahm needed buffs or changes in the first place just saying riot doesn't know the meaning of buff.

DeltaRaven15 votes

"Dragons and Rift Herald now wait to level up until they've been out of combat for 30 seconds"

Meteos: "That's so troll!"

Sneaky: "Same"

Tweedle14 votes

Blitzcrank Grab is already broken against champs that have escapes like Ezreal Tristana. His grab should finish and then they can escape away. Instead they haven't fixed that and are nerfing his grab but not Naut's or Thresh. I mean what the hell? Thresh can hook and flay but blitz can't grab and knock up? This game is about combos. Why would we make it harder for this champ to combo but not for others? It's ridiculous. Also, Blitz is a chase champ and all of his chase has been nerfed to garbage levels. Exhaust on his W? Fine. We'll get swiftness boots. Nerf Swiftness. Okay. Every new champ and abilities have new movement options? Okay. I mean riot which champs do you want us to play? Just make those the only ones available and lock out the rest instead of nerfing every champ into such niche roles that they are impossible to play.

Flying Buntcake17 votes

Pulling someone as Blitz 99% of the time kills the champion. They aren't trying to make Blitz a niche, they are trying to make his powerful combo less frustrating.

Q change: Basically no change ( less than a Teemo width) E change: He can't sit on the empowered auto attack longer than a line at Disneyland R change: You cant ult every 30 seconds the entire game, but at rank 3 it's 20, so that's a buff to his late game.

Adc's without dashes are still vulnerable, and come on Blitz can grab Tristana mid-jump.

N3RAZIM PRA3TOR12 votes

Not enough Nerfs? Better nerf Irelia!Irelia

StrikeZone11 votes

Will the champion grading system move away from kills and CS for supports? Right now the only real way to get an S is to take kills and CS.

Héctoplasm3 votes

The champion grading system is determined by many factors. Champion Mastery

Every game you play with a champion, you will earn a grade based on how well you performed in comparison to all other players in your region that have played your champion-position combination (i.e., Vel'Koz bottom lane will only be compared to other Vel'Koz bottom lane players), with S+ only being awarded to the highest percentile of players. [2] These grades are not persistent and only represent how well you performed in that specific game. However, a higher grade is worth more points towards your mastery of that particular champion"

Basically, Poppy top and a Poppy Support are graded differently. Although it is not told to us, it is assumed that the grades are determined by the role the champ played. Your KDA , Kill participation, Objectives, game length, etcetera are weighted against the average of players who played that role for the champ.

S +/- You did fantastic than other people who attempted your champ in that role A +/- Almost there bud B+/- Meeting average C +/-Little less than average D Need I say more? hahah

Experience: I got 0/2/21 as a soraka in a 30 minute game: S Friend went 5/1/5 Heimderinger same game top: S-

If you get 3/7/13 as a support in a 30 minute game. You will most likely not even tap a S.

My take on this: Keep KDA postively high, Participate in teamfights, and Keep your objective cotnrol top-notch. You can still get an S-rank if your team loses... keeps me somewhat motivated.

Quort8 votes

I went 3/0/17 as Bard in a thirty minute game and got an A. I guess I just have to do better than not dying and participating in the vast majority of my team's kills.

The Noodle9 votes

Graves still no cigar item 3070

michaelo045 votes

Didn't you see the comment from a Rioter? Graves vapes from his gun now.

bill8410 votes

There was nothing about his gun, it's just that he vapes.

Stexe9 votes

Can we not get any more Hextech Crafting exclusive stuff? It is hard enough to get them for collectors and just screams that you're doing a money grab scheme.

Speaking of money grab schemes. When Championship Riven comes back, can owners of that and previous Limited Edition skins get proper compensation for owning them? You advertised that they would "NEVER BE BROUGHT BACK" and yet they were. We really want an in-game emote (like the Mastery one) and a tiered Summoner icon based on how many we owned (instead of 1 for everyone regardless of how many you had). It shouldn't have taken 2.5+ years for Hippalus to keep his promise that he'd send out a feedback survey on ways to better compensate us. Come on Riot, keep your promises and make this right!

Also, you really need someone to proof read these. "Bouncing Bomb is already unique among skillshots, thanks to its defining bounce mechanic." -- You mean "bounce mechanics" as "mechanics," referring to physical interactions, are always pluralized. Removing the "s" doesn't make it singular, it changes the meaning of the word entirely (to mean someone who repairs things).

Dolasaur18 votes

Language is a tool to express meaning. No reason to limit yourself to the words found in the first dictionary you laid eyes on. Otherwise it would be very difficult to ever discuss new topics, or use pretty much any proper nouns.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mechanic#English : "3.(gaming) A device, command, or feature which allows the player to perform a specific task within a game."

So, since this is a gaming forum, I think the author's use of gaming jargon is pretty fair.

TheOvy9 votes

That seems like a huge Tahm nerf to me. You're moving the 20 bonus magic damage from his ult to his Q, and then nerfing the percentage of his health damage from 6% at max rank to a measly 1.5% -- which is actually below the 2% it used to be at rank 1. Both his offense and defense will be weaker now, with his ult being quicker to activate. Unless I'm missing something, he's going to be dramatically underpowered.

NvrBst7 votes

The 1.5% stacks so becomes 4.5% after 3 autos. Also it's based on his max hp now instead of his bonus hp.

Dmg wise his lv1-6 game will be stronger, lv7-15 about same, and his lv16+ game will be weaker than before. IMO it should of been at least 1.80% per stack so his end game dmg didn't change as much (just needs a little ramping up).

I do really like that his ult is faster/longer though, and even though they say the shield is nerfed it seems to me like it is not so bad "6s shield that decays vs 3s shield that doesn't decay...". I guess i'll have to test it out to see if the shield change is that big of a deal or not.

Vhan87658 votes

Can we please, please stop nerfing Kindred?

Illaoi already got massacred, now Riot is trying to make Kindred just as useless. ://

Lawlruss5 votes

Illaoi is actually super strong right now.

warpenguin5557 votes

Low elo player who doesnt play marksmen(mostly mages actaully). wtf is attack move used for?

AsphodelNext7 votes

Kiting mostly. Attack move tells your champ to move until you can AA again, then you stop and AA. Combined with animation canceling, you can continuously move and attack, fleeing from someone while doing damage to them(i.e. kiting).

michaelo07 votes

You move and attack close to where you click (Attack Move Click). The best use i have for it is with Kalista where you want to attack and move immediately after to dash.

(This is from a Gold V Scrub)

A Penguin Horde6 votes

Can we please give Thresh the ability to execute minions with Relic Shield?!

Fjork325 votes

He's not melee-range, and already has a strong bonus damage passive with flay that makes executes easier. He doesn't need it.

Palaven12 votes

With the changes to Talisman of Ascension, I think Ancient Coin is the way to go now on Thresh.

Riot Vincredible5 votes

Roughly how many Teemo is 75 units?

MrHaZeYo1 votes

I believe 1 and almost a half (hes like 55 units)

Shynkle1 votes

Teemo is 100 units, so it's 2/3 of a Teemo

Zane Zephyr10 votes

3/4ths

RunawayCanadian5 votes

So the change to Kindred seems to have put her in the jungle forever. Is there any reason to not play her in the jungle now (as someone who plays with an ADC Kindred, this change seems to have forced her into the jungle).

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