Boards›Announcements

Patch 8.18 Notes

Riot·9/11/2018, 10:42:29 PM·4 votes·136,079 views

8.18 brings us the first wave of changes focused on the World Championship later this year. In some cases, this means reining in outliers who are dominating pick-ban (as well as champs likely to take over once those outliers are addressed). Other times, it means buffing champs who are on the cusp of consideration—picks we nerfed earlier in the season, in a few cases. 8.19 will contain another round of these changes.

Back to the here and now, the Nexus Blitz alpha ends with 8.18, but we aren't leaving you high and dry. Odyssey, our newest event, is here, so join the crew and smash some space nerds!
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Back to top

Patch Highlights

Back to top

Nexus Blitz Alpha

The Nexus Blitz Alpha ends with patch 8.18. Thanks to everyone who tried out the mode and gave us feedback! We'll be back soon with a rundown of how things went and where we're going next.

Back to top

Champions

Aatrox

E passive healing increased at later ranks. R bonus attack damage increased at later ranks.

Our last set of Aatrox changes brought his lane bullying under control, giving us room to improve his scaling into later phases of the game.

E - Umbral Dash

PASSIVE HEALING VS CHAMPIONS 20/21.25/22.5/23.75/25% ⇒ 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%

R - World Ender

BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE 20/22.5/25% ⇒ 20/25/30%

Akali

R base damage decreased.

Akali is too reliably snagging kills when she comes into a fight with all her tools available. We're trimming damage off the lower-counterplay part of her all-in to keep her as untouched as possible in other situations.

R - Perfect Execution

BASE DAMAGE (BOTH CASTS) 120/180/240 ⇒ 100/150/200

Braum

Base health decreased.

We're draining some of Braum's baseline sturdiness to make him more reliant on his defensive cooldowns while preserving the high moments he's picked for among the tanky support lineup.

Base stats

BASE HEALTH 576.6 ⇒ 540

Kai'Sa

Passive damage decreased at later levels.

Reducing Kai'Sa's tank-busting prowess at later phases of the game.

Passive - Caustic Wounds

PROC DAMAGE 15-20% target's missing health (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 15% target's missing health (at all levels)

Lucian

Q damage ratio increased at later ranks.

We nerfed Lucian's baseline damage a few patches back when he emerged as a premier midseason bot laner. Given the rebalancing that's happened around him, he could stand to recoup some of that damage, but we don't want to put him right back on top again. Piercing Light is a good candidate for the power we're looking to add back in, given opponents have some ability to dodge—or worst case, Flash—it.

Q - Piercing Light

DAMAGE RATIO 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.6/0.75/0.9/1.05/1.2 bonus attack damage

Renekton

Empowered E damage increased. Empowered E armor reduction increased at early ranks.

We're raising Renekton’s empowered E's potential as a means for him to throw his early-game strength around in lane, widening the range of lane matchups he can confidently play into. These changes also amplify the fallback value empowered E provides in games where Renekton falls behind.

E - Slice and Dice

EMPOWERED DICE DAMAGE 60/105/150/195/240 ⇒ 70/115/160/205/250
EMPOWERED DICE ARMOR REDUCTION 15/20/25/30/35% ⇒ 25/27.5/30/32.5/35%

Ryze

Empowered W root duration decreased.

Ryze's pro-vs-normal discrepancy has again led to ubiquitous presence in competitive play despite rough performances everywhere else. We're targeting Ryze's E-W root for a power-down as pros are most reliably able to coordinate successful ganks and catches around it.

W - Rune Prison

EMPOWERED ROOT DURATION 2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds

Sejuani

E base damage decreased. R storm slow duration decreased.

We're reducing some of Sejuani's early clear speed and a touch of her dueling potency so she has more pronounced weaknesses against early-game junglers. We're also hitting Glacial Prison's zoning utility, a strength best leveraged by pro players, to keep her competitive presence in check while impacting her strength in normal play as little as possible.

E - Permafrost

BASE DAMAGE 30/45/60/75/90 ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80

R - Glacial Prison

STORM EXPLOSION SLOW DURATION 3 seconds ⇒ 1 second

Trundle

E cooldown increased. E slow decreased at early ranks, increased at later ranks.

Tuning down the frequency and potency of Trundle's crowd control to reduce the troll king's effectiveness at setting up ganks and favorable fights, particularly in competitive play.

E - Pillar of Ice

COOLDOWN 22/20/18/16/14 seconds ⇒ 24/22/20/18/16 seconds
SLOW PERCENT 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 15/25/35/45/55%

Vayne

Q cooldown decreased at early ranks.

More early Tumbles give Vayne more opportunities to land damage on opponents in matchups where she can be aggressive with her positioning and Q cooldowns.

Q - Tumble

COOLDOWN 6/5/4/3/2 seconds ⇒ 4/3.5/3/2.5/2 seconds

Viktor

First Hex Core upgrade cost decreased.

Lowering the Hex Core's first upgrade cost not only gives Viktor his first item spike earlier, it also means he doesn't have to stay in lane as long before recalling for the first time. This cost reduction carries forward to the Hex Core's second upgrade, only evening back out when Viktor completes the Perfect Hex Core.

Passive - Glorious Evolution

HEX CORE MK-1 COST 1250 gold ⇒ 1150 gold
PERFECT HEX CORE COST 750 gold ⇒ 850 gold

Back to top

Smite Auto-Select

Smite

Hot off the Nexus Blitz presses!
LET ME GET THAT FOR YOU If you're assigned Jungle in draft queues, you'll load into Champion Select with Smite already selected! You're still free to swap Smite out (or swap to Smite if you aren't assigned Jungle) in cases where you're running an offbeat comp or want to switch roles with a teammate.

Back to top

Minimap Icons

OK 4K Minimap icons now scale with minimap size on Summoner's Rift, Howling Abyss, and Twisted Treeline. Players with 4K monitors, rejoice!

Back to top

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug where Nunu was sometimes invisible to enemies while rolling his W - Biggest Snowball Ever! out of fog of war
  • Fixed an FPS hitching issue that occurred when Voidbringer Illaoi sucessfully Teleported while her W - Harsh Lesson attack buff was active
  • Ravenous Hunter's tooltip no longer counts healing done while you're already at full health
  • Alt-tabbing out of the loading screen while on Fullscreen settings no longer causes loading screen images to disappear when you tab back in
  • Omega Squad Veigar's W - Dark Matter warning indicator is now much clearer for colorblind players

Back to top

New Game Mode

Odyssey: Extraction

Available until October 9, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. PT

Join the crew and Ziggs as they fight their way through hordes of aliens in the co-op game mode Odyssey: Extraction. Head to the game mode primer to learn more.

Back to top

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

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

Odyssey Kayn

Odyssey Yasuo

Odyssey Jinx

Odyssey Sona

Odyssey Malphite

Odyssey Ziggs

The following chromas will be released this patch:

Odyssey Yasuo

Odyssey Jinx

Odyssey Sona

Odyssey Malphite

Odyssey Ziggs

Back to top

143 Comments

The Alireza9/11/2018, 11:25:23 PM32 votes

Like the changes on Viktor. Generally, it would be nice to see more quality of life improvements for less popular champions compared to the total annihilation of Sejuani we have on this patch.

BeatzBoyFTW9/11/2018, 11:21:24 PM32 votes

There's just honestly no point in playing Sejuani anymore. Proplay can seriously ruin so much when it comes to playing one of your favorite champions.

I'll only start playing her back if you guys promise to buff her back after Worlds ends.

Celiorap9/12/2018, 8:53:42 AM22 votes

Fixing nothing that needs fixing again, must be Riot balancing team!

[sg-miss-fortune]

Shoskavitch9/12/2018, 10:58:32 AM18 votes

I guess if you want to climb in SoloQ it will forever and always have to be before the month leading up to Worlds. Seriously though? What you did to Sej and the explanation? The cooldown nerf on her dash was somewhat extreme as it was but to do all this because...what? If she was played in the pro scene it wasn't because she was anything more than a meat-shield, stun-bot. Basically tank Kassadin. I haven't touched Sej but once since the nerf before this but wow do I feel for Sej mains or anyone who liked to break her out once in a while. At this point you should just not only let whoever has her keep her, but refund them the RP or BE they used to get her.

The Trundle change is almost right. Unfortunately you still leave him open to be unstoppable if any game reached a late game. Basically punishing late scaling comps that aren't as undying as he is. And your justification for the nerf (or not nerfing him more?) is due to "something, something, jungle?" What about when he wrecks top lane and then just proceeds to split push whenever he feels like it because it takes more than one person to stop him from taking tier 1 turret and inhib turret in seconds?

Also, nerfing Akali's R. Seriously? You rework this champ, make her nearly impossible to outplay or tank, and then "balancing" her is to lightly breath on her ult? Why even bother touching her at all? This is Zoe all over again except of instead of getting one shot, you just have to leave lane unless either you or the jungler happened to pick after her AND happen to play a counter. Shameful.

Kai'sa. Wow, an actual balance on a new champ? And it took less than 4 months? Color me impressed! This actually makes sense! Instead of her just becoming a monster by reaching a certain level, afk farming, and not needing to actually do anything in the way of winning lane she will have to actually engage during laning phase? And in her own lane? What sorcery is this?! Honestly, this was a good change and makes her a little more tolerable.

Poor Ryze mains. I guess worlds has no bounds to the champions that it will cause to be nerfed into the ground. The nerf before worlds last year to his ult? Good Riot. This nerf to him before worlds? Bad Riot. It isn't hard to just slightly remove some damage ya know. Why go to extreme lengths when buffing and nerfing champs? To be honest, though, I know he will get some of this back (if not all) after worlds. I can't remember the champ off the top of my head but they were nerfed into the ground as well before worlds last year and you simply reverted the changes afterwards.

Other champs I haven't talked about: Meh. Viktor changes? Ok, he needed some love. Maybe not that much but at least it was something positive. Vayne? Well, as a support secondary, I appreciate this buff as it will allow Vayne to be less of a pre-level 6 AFK farm-bot and be able to trade more with somewhat less repercussions. Renek and Aatrox? If what I read hadn't made me laugh I would've probably not been able to prevent myself from raging about this. Four words on them: They. Didn't. Need. Buffs. The Braum change: what? How come you can do small changes on him but basically delete Sej and Ryze with massive changes and buff the heck outta Renek and Aatrox? I'm so confused here.

If you read this, please just take one thing from this: Use what you did to Braum as an example of future nerfs and buffs. Small increments in either direction will be better overall for both the pro and normal communities than just saying "No. You can't play this champion." Honestly, it would've made more sense to just remove Sej and Ryze from the champ pool for worlds than to do what has been done. I can usually play devil's advocate and just go with "Oh, silly Riot. Look at those nerfs/buffs." But honestly, IMHO, you went too far with Sej and Ryze nerfs and Aatrox and Renek buffs.

And if anyone read this far, yeah I know I'm likely to get downvoted. But they're fake internet points that I don't care about. I just wanted to vent my frustrations to Riot just in case they read this.

Draconic PoweR9/12/2018, 12:00:19 AM17 votes

And STILL no buffs to RekSai ...seriously

Admiral Banana9/12/2018, 1:36:15 AM14 votes

Hey Riot, I understand nerfing because of pro play but it's very painful for the entire community. I can't remember the last time I saw a Ryze or Sejuani because of all the competitive balancing. If we could get some assurance that changes like this won't be completely forgotten after the worlds patch is set (ie Ryze and Sej get some love after the worlds patch), it would make patches like this much less painful.

Also ODYSSEY HYPE

Vonyalo9/11/2018, 10:54:49 PM11 votes

Bug with Nami Ezreal Ashe Jinx ults while your cursor is over the portrait still not fixed? Come on, how many times should I report it. It's very annoying to ult in the direction of your nexus when you accidentally move the cursor over your own portrait.

Shahamut9/11/2018, 11:13:32 PM10 votes

Im pretty sure its a bug, but when using Teleport, if you click the mini map, and there is a target (such as a tower) underneath the minimap when you click it, it will attempt to teleport you to that tower rather than your target on the mini map

Gamma Anomaly9/12/2018, 6:38:00 PM9 votes

I see Riot is still ignoring the majority of Zac players, or former players since the rework ruined him. Ready for my downvotes though.

ICanSeeUrPixelz9/12/2018, 10:49:42 PM8 votes

Once again we get to see how pro play really dictates the entire game. Sejuani is already an ok pick at best but giving her this huge of a nerf completely butchers her solo queue potential. Then the Ryze nerf. Honestly that champion needs another rework at this point. He is completely busted in pro play, so he gets so many nerfs, yet he is completely obsolete in solo queue. His R is simply a quick way to throw but in pro play it could be game changing. It's unhealthy for a champion to be so strong for such a small scope of players yet completely trash for everyone else.

MrGuffels9/12/2018, 3:38:24 AM8 votes

I really like the Viktor changes. I don't like the fact that it kills the clean numbers but I can get over it to have a better early game. Might be getting a little strong but I guess Riot wants to see him at Worlds.

Still, I think we need nerfs for Jhin and Fizz early game but Riot gunna do what Riot gunna do.

Derankèr9/13/2018, 7:16:07 PM8 votes

buff pantheon please he's trash tier atm especially in the jungle

sillyscylla9/12/2018, 12:28:04 AM8 votes

Eyyy every change has an appropriately deep explanation! And before anyone starts complaining about nerfs for pro play, you can't expect all your fav picks to be meta all the time... Sometimes you just gotta roll with the nerfs. Take it from a Dedede main in Sm4sh, it's more fun to play a bad character well than a good character poorly. At least there's a chance Sej will be rebuffed later :'v

A simple Goomba9/12/2018, 6:06:40 PM8 votes

So why the F did they remove the reroll bar in ARAM? I don't see any patch notes about that, and I swear I had seen it over the weekend? Was that some Nexus Blitz crap? If so, that's retarded.

les paul9/12/2018, 2:53:17 PM7 votes

Seems like a missed opportunity that Camille didn't get a skin for this event. Not only has she needed one for a long time, her personality and visual style seems like it would have been perfect for it.

ZT Xperimentor9/12/2018, 5:00:08 PM6 votes

Another pro patch burying any interest in the normal games, yawn-a-rama.

BardIsDaddy9/12/2018, 2:14:33 PM6 votes

Still no buffs to kalista... Thanks riot!

Gìygas9/12/2018, 8:43:02 AM4 votes

Love what you’re doing with Viktor and the cost reduction and all but I have to agree that it really sucks y’all just killed Sejuani. You’re basically giving her the Kalista treatment. Also is there anyway that after worlds you guys can try to focus on making this rarely played, low win rate champ somewhat viable again? You guys did it with Lucian and that’s great cause he’s one of the more fun adcs but after s6 kalista just hasn’t felt the same. Anyway ty for the viktor buffs.

check name9/15/2018, 4:06:28 AM4 votes

After this Sej nerf, I'm a little bothered by you guys at Riot. You tell us we (the everyday player) are the reason you're a successful company but you make decisions based on the top 2% of players? It comes across disingenuous and I feel you're ignoring your real customer base.

B0riCua9/13/2018, 5:52:28 AM4 votes

That is great and all, but when will there be a feature where I select a skin or champion in the store and an actual 3-D model of the skin and/or champion?

Worst Kayle NA9/12/2018, 4:41:54 PM3 votes

Still no HUnter's Talisman fix. Shocker.

Vhozek9/12/2018, 9:10:58 AM3 votes

Trundle can't catch a break, he was barely at the low end of the tier list for junglers in all tier lists I checked out and IMMEDIATELY gets shut down by Riot. He's also incredibly easy to counter in any other lane.

CorvineRabid9/12/2018, 3:24:59 PM3 votes

Very good idea for the smite auto-select, won't forget my smite this time item 3105

Xeros Sturn9/12/2018, 4:51:57 PM3 votes

With the nerfs to a few jungles, can you guys make Skarner and Reksai a little more... relevant I guess? On a second note... Void born Xerath please!!

HugeAn1meSword9/13/2018, 4:13:49 AM3 votes

definitely can say this... has anyone outside of myself noticed that*[slayer-jinx-catface]* isn't as flat chested in the new skin?

GundayMonday9/13/2018, 2:44:35 PM3 votes

Have played over 10k games of Sejuani and have over 2million mastery on her across all of my accounts. She is unplayable in solo queue this season and I've given up trying. Feels super bad to be incredibly weak and only able to win games if at least one of your teammates that do damage is hyper-competent. Can you please re-work her kit so us non-pros can play the champion too? Understand that she's super strong with the right comp (melee teammates), but you rarely get that in regular ranked play. Seems rough to balance around specific team comps instead of the champion herself. Rito pls?

FatherOfDerp9/14/2018, 9:21:54 PM3 votes

Request for theme friendly buffs on Shyvana.

Option 1: Add lifesteal vs jg creatures. No impact on clear speed but would improve quality of life and give Shyvana more oppertunities to affect the map earlier in the game rather than forcing her to farm for the first 10 minutes every game.

Option 2: Add a .1 second stun to the Q. Wouldn't affect jg clear speed but would reduce damage taken early game and would give shyvana more opportunities to make plays early game.

Option 3: Buff her passive. from 5/10/15/20/25 to 5/15/30/50/75 total AR/MR on each elemental dragon. The current passive does not reward Shyvana enough for successfully taking dragons. If you manage to take all of the dragons you damn well deserve to be rewarded for it. But it still wouldn't be too outrageous with only 3 dragons taken which is really common in games. There are other champions like veigar, kindread, nasus and chogath who have infinity scaling abilities so why not give Shyvana something to compete with these op monsters.

x The DK Crew9/15/2018, 2:25:15 AM2 votes

As a Malphite main for like 8 years now and having him get yet another skin, I'm really, really tired of seeing the same champs get new skins when they have 6-10+ already, not even counting all the chromas to go with them. Ornn, Ivern, Kled...they all have one skin. Many others only have two.

I get that the champs with the most skins are the 'money makers' and all, but Riot is not going to run out of money. And there is plenty of fun stuff you could do as far as animations, unique sounds, etc. with ^ those guys and the others who don't see as much purchasable cosmetic love. Throw the skinless bastards a bone, they're not a pack of chicken breasts.

DOMLOL9/13/2018, 7:35:47 AM2 votes

Shouldn't this be renamed? 1 second does NOT fits the definition of Glacial Prison. When 3 seconds literally felt like forever. Can we settle on 2 seconds?

R - Glacial Prison

STORM EXPLOSION SLOW DURATION : 3 seconds ⇒ 1 second

flam3n9/15/2018, 5:49:50 PM2 votes

I don"t watch or care for pro play at all. I can careless if a champion is really strong once you have played so much. I have very limited time to play LoL I do not have 10 hours to pour into league every day i am lucky if i get to play that much on the weekend. You continue to ruin the game nerfing champs around pro play. Sejuani has 45.45% win rate and you nerf her. I am so fucking sick of playing a champion and either you nerifng them around pro play or completely destroying them with reworks. Akali was the best rework that you have done in quite sometime it is only a matter of time before you ax her because some Korean challenger that player plays 8+ hour a day and smashes face with her while us noobs that have jobs and only have a few hours on the weekend to play and that is only if we don't have house work we have to do 44.38%. When are you going to realize your ruining your game for the everyday man that made your game very popular.

crispy669/26/2018, 9:21:48 AM2 votes

It's so sad that smite has to be auto selected for junglers meaning a lot of players have absolutely zero awareness the moment they get into champ select, those careless players that don't leave fountain until minions start spawning