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Patch 8.24b notes

Riot··10 votes·157,961 views

Season’s greetings all! This not-technically-a-patch (no skins or new features) brings one more round of balance changes to stuff your stockings with. You'll notice most of these patch notes are light on context, which is because most of the changes are in the "simple buff" or "simple nerf" spaces—we basically just want a champ or item to be stronger or weaker without significantly changing decision making. Pyke and Akali are the two exceptions, so we stuck 'em at the top.

Since this is a small patch we'll share a quick preview of 9.1, the first patch of next year. Expect to see a bunch more buffs to individual marksmen as well as sizable changes for Ornn and Sejuani to bring their regular play and pro play performances closer in line with each other. We'll also be following up on preseason's rune changes.

That's it for us! We on the patch notes team wish you a happy Snowdown and thank you for reading through over 72,000 words of patch notes this year. See you in 2019!
Paul "Aether" Perscheid

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Nexus Blitz

If you missed it, we dropped a big balance update last week. Check out the details here!

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Akali & Pyke

Akali

Akali can be more effectively counterattacked when revealing herself from Shroud. 8.24 shroud duration nerf reverted.

Our goal this patch is to give enemies a real chance of throwing a counterpunch when Akali emerges to strike, rather than waiting Shroud out from a safe distance. They'll still need quick fingers and a clear plan, but they won’t be left without options. Targeted abilities still complete when Akali re-stealths mid-cast, skillshots are easier to aim, and basic attackers have slightly longer to get a hit off before she becomes unselectable. With the increased danger Akali faces when un-stealthing, we're reverting 8.24's Shroud duration nerf since enemies now have better means of fighting back.

W - Twilight Shroud

newPRESTEALTH Akali now briefly obscures (opponents can see her outline but not target her) before stealthing or re-stealthing even if enemies don't have true sight in the area
newFOLLOWTHROUGH Targeted abilities and uncancellable basic attacks (ex. Nasus's Q - Siphoning Strike are no longer canceled when Akali stealths or re-stealths
RE-STEALTH TIMING 0.9/0.8/0.725/0.625 seconds at levels 1/6/9/12 ⇒ 1/0.9/0.825/0.725/0.625 seconds at 1/8/11/20/30 minutes
REVERTED 8.24's nerf has been reverted in favor of the above changes. Duration restored to 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 seconds (max 2 second extension) ⇒ 5/5.5/6/6.5/7 seconds (max 3 second extension).

Pyke

Magic resist growth decreased. Q deals less passthrough damage to minions and monsters. R execute threshold decreased late.

League's assassin support has become a problematic mid laner despite relatively reasonable performances in bot lane. The nerfs below are all tailored to hit mid Pyke hardest, whether by the strengths mid laners need (protection against burst magic damage; waveclear) or by the strengths Pyke has an easier time accruing in mid (level scalings).

Base Stats

MAGIC RESIST GROWTH 2 ⇒ 1.5

Q - Bone Skewer

MINION & MONSTER DAMAGE 50% to secondary targets ⇒ 30% to secondary targets (tooltip will be updated in 9.1)

R - Death From Below

Reminder: Enemies above the execute threshold take physical damage equal to the threshold instead.

EXECUTE THRESHOLD, LV 6-9 250/290/330/370 (unchanged)
EXECUTE THRESHOLD, LV 10-13 410/450/475/500 ⇒ 400/430/450/470
EXECUTE THRESHOLD, LV 14-18 525/550/575/590/605 ⇒ 490/510/530/540/550

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Simple Buffs

Caitlyn

Q base damage increased; passthrough damage decreased. R range increased.

We're giving Caitlyn some lane power in Piltover Peacemaker's first hit and punching up the unique strength Ace in the Hole brings to the Sheriff's arsenal.

Q - Piltover Peacemaker

BASE DAMAGE 30/70/110/150/190 ⇒ 50/90/130/170/210
RATIO 1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6/1.7 total attack damage (unchanged)
PASSTHROUGH DAMAGE 67% ⇒ 60%

R - Ace in the Hole

RANGE 2000/2500/3000 ⇒ 3500 at all ranks

Corki

R damage increased.

Upping Corki's poke damage.

R - Missile Barrage

BASE DAMAGE 75/100/125 ⇒ 90/115/140
THE BIG ONE BASE DAMAGE 150/200/250 ⇒ 180/230/280

Singed

Base health increased. Fling damage increased early.

These changes help Singed compete for presence in his early lane.

Base Stats

BASE HEALTH 580 ⇒ 610

E - Fling

DAMAGE 4/5/6/7/8% target's maximum health ⇒ 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% target's maximum health

Tristana

E damage increased.

Improving Tristana's ability to blow people up in the mid-game.

E - Explosive Charge

BASE DAMAGE 60/70/80/90/100 ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110
RATIO 0.5/0.65/0.8/0.95/1.1 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.5/0.7/0.9/1.1/1.3 bonus attack damage
MAXIMUM DAMAGE 132/154/176/198/220 (+1.1/1.43/1.76/2.09/2.42 bonus attack damage) ⇒ 154/176/198/220/242 (+1.1/1.54/1.98/2.42/2.86 bonus attack damage)

Varus

W-empowered Q damage increased late. R damage increased early.

Upping Varus' strength as he hits his early- and mid-game spikes.

W - Blighted Quiver

UNCHARGED ACTIVE DAMAGE 6/7/8/9/10% target's missing health (levels 1/4/7/10/13) ⇒ 6/8/10/12/14% target's missing health (levels 1/4/7/10/13)
FULLY CHARGED ACTIVE DAMAGE 9/10.5/12/13.5/15% target's missing health (levels 1/4/7/10/13) ⇒ 9/12/15/18/21% target's missing health (levels 1/4/7/10/13)

R - Chain of Corruption

DAMAGE 100/175/250 (+1.0 ability power) ⇒ 150/200/250 (+1.0 ability power)

Warwick

Base AD increased.

Giving Warwick a bit more bite.

Base Stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 63 ⇒ 65

Forbidden Idol Line

Forbidden Idol cooldown reduction increased. Heal and shield power increased on its upgrades.

Earlier in the season, enchanters were outperforming their mage and tank support counterparts so we nerfed the Idol line and the duration of individual shield abilities. Since then, the tables have turned and enchanters are the ones struggling to make an impact even in a damage-heavy meta where their talents could be put to good use. We're reverting near-half of our earlier pass by restoring the majority of the Idol line's strength, with the shield duration nerfs ensuring larger shields are still fairer to play against.

Forbidden Idol

COOLDOWN REDUCTION 5% ⇒ 10%

Ardent Censer

HEAL AND SHIELD POWER 8% ⇒ 10%

Mikael's Crucible

HEAL AND SHIELD POWER 15% ⇒ 20%

Redemption

HEAL AND SHIELD POWER 8% ⇒ 10%


Known Bug - In-game tooltips won’t reflect the change but it’s just the tooltips! Rest assured, your heals and shields will be larger!

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Simple Nerfs

Alistar

Trample damage decreased early.

Reducing Alistar's early lane pressure so one good trade doesn't auto-win him the rest of lane phase.

E - Trample

BASE DAMAGE 100/125/150/175/200 over 5 seconds ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200 over 5 seconds
EMPOWERED ATTACK BONUS DAMAGE 55-310 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 35-290 (levels 1-18)

Cassiopeia

Q damage decreased late; cost increased late.

We're bringing Noxious Blast's high-rank power down, based on Q-max's emergence as a dominant strategy.

Q - Noxious Blast

COST 50/55/60/65/70 mana ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90 mana
BASE DAMAGE 75/125/175/225/275 ⇒ 75/120/165/210/255

Kassadin

Health regen reduced.

Tying Kassadin's early-game survivability more tightly to his Q shield.

Base stats

BASE HEALTH REGEN 8 ⇒ 6

Neeko

Q damage decreased.

Neeko's strength has moved toward healthy levels as players grow accustomed to the mind games her passive and W create. A small reduction to her early-game pushing and lane control is about all she needs right now; we'll continue monitoring how she settles in over the holidays.

Q - Blooming Burst

INITIAL BASE DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 ⇒ 70/115/160/205/250
BASE BOUNCE DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 35/55/75/95/115

Tiamat

Cost increased.

We're increasing the investment required to grab Tiamat's dueling and waveclear benefits for champions who plan to sit on it rather than quickly upgrading to a Hydra.
COST 1200 gold ⇒ 1325 gold
UPGRADES Ravenous Hydra and Titanic Hydra cost 125 less gold to upgrade; total costs unchanged

Zeke's Convergence

Ally basic attack burn reduced.

We're bringing down Zeke's' offensive capabilities so other tank support items can be considered.
CONDUIT Your linked ally's basic attacks burn enemies for 50% ⇒ 30% bonus magic damage over 2 seconds

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Outer Turrets

Resistances after turret plating falloff increased.

Turret plating's done its job of extending lane phase for cases where teams burn down turrets as quickly as possible. In less violent lanes, though, outer turrets fall too easily once plating falls off. They'll now keep the baseline resistances they have at game start, with plating falloff only removing the extra resistances granted by broken plates.
ARMOR AND MAGIC RESIST AFTER PLATING FALLOFF 0 ⇒ 40

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184 Comments

Best Veigar FL124 votes

What if you just let turrets be able to reveal Akali?

Pals Before Gals15 votes

What if you just shut up about Akali for one minute and check winrates?

Wendígo40 votes

What if you stop caring about winrates. Sincerely, -everyone above level 30

mage19211719 votes

Winrates are a good indicator of how viable a chmapion is. Now, what it DOESN’T reflect are things like how hard they snowball once they do win early, how poor they perform when they lost early, how much counterplay there is against them, and things like that.

But it’s just foolish to say winrates just straight up don’t matter.

Häßlich3 votes

It's been a pretty bad argument for a long time because it lacks nuance. Winrates should be among the last in a list of things to consider when thinking about champion balance.

Ozzburne13 votes

{quoted}

It's been a pretty bad argument for a long time because it lacks nuance. Winrates should be among the last in a list of things to consider when thinking about champion balance.

Because winning the game isn't the goal or anything

Best Veigar FL59 votes

There's no reason to nerf shroud in all these different ways when you could just do one simple nerf. No need to over-complicate things.

YourAbsolution44 votes

agreed....just get rid of the true stealth and she becomes decent again.

Cöup26 votes

I'd be ok with her having one stack of true stealth per shroud cast. Her ability to pressure under turret is good but it shouldn't be as oppressive as true stealth for the entire time. To elaborate, upon entering shroud grant true stealth one time only. Upon leaving and reentering grant invisibility/stealth (the one eve and twitch have)

Shabada644 votes

That's camouflage...

xStormaggedonx5 votes

I mean, I think it's really good that they're adding actual downsides for her revealing herself. Being able to stay hidden and still pump out damage is absurd; being able to counterattack and making it actually risky is good.

The Harrowing6 votes

How are winrates even a valid stat when she's almost always banned?

Pals Before Gals8 votes

by your logic we would be having the same problems with yasuo, kaisa, neeko, etc.

Dilapidated4 votes

We do have problems with those champions lol. Kai sa had a 80.5% presence during Worlds this year. Yasuo is always going to be banned. Neeko just came out and people would rather not play agains her because new champions tend to be overtuned. It's the same for Season 3 Kassadin. He had a low winrate but he was almost permabanned

Tamuut27 votes

That's a gamebreaking Warwick buff, I have no idea how the meta will react to that monumental shift.

Avereo12 votes

Yeah, I'm honestly going to ban him every game from now on.

Tamuut12 votes

He used to be absolutely unusable, but this just makes him broken as fuck. He might have been viable if they only increased it by one, though.

DeracadaVenom3 votes

I can’t ban him every game I’m busy banning Yasuo :(

Tamuut4 votes

Don't worry, I think they will lower his HP by 1 point soon, so he will be thrown away.

Zéychin17 votes

I feel like Alistar is being nerfed because he is able to tank harder than other tanks with fewer items due to his ultimate, when the real issue is that there is so much damage in the game that other tanks can't tank effectively. (He got 40 base HP removed in last nerf, now he loses damage.)

Full Disclosure: I play a lot of Alistar, but I hardly see his damage as the problem unless the enemy squishy is 0/5 and AFK pushing alone.

FlameHalbrdOkido4 votes

"the real issue is that there is so much damage in the game that other tanks can't tank effectively"

agreed

wats wrong with dmg being reduced tho? Especially on a tank. I say the more dmg gets reduced the better.

Zéychin3 votes

My argument is that the champion's numbers have historically been fine, but the changes to runes, items, and champions' base stats have either increased damage or removed defensive stats over time. Riot has admitted that the defensive options offered currently are weaker than before Runes Reforged and that they will be getting a second pass for adjustment.

KillThemJhintly14 votes

Hopefully these Akali changes will stop her being banned EVERY SINGLE GAME. Once people realize that Akali is NOT broken and that she only has a 44% winrate hopefully the ban rate will drop. These changes to her shroud will help stop those people who ban her from crying about how OP she is, and still make Akali playable for those of us who use her.Akali

Stop Int30 votes

Honestly, I feel like she really is OP and ban worthy. I think the winrate comes from her only being let into very few games and people jumping on the opportunity to play her even if she's really bad against the enemy team. I don't at all consider myself an Akali player but i played her about 9-10 games to see what the hype was about and I don't remember having less than 15 kills (or even double digit deaths) in any of them, because it's so easy to blow people up, you just R > E > E > Q > R and anyone without 120+ MR gets a grey screen. A hyper-mobile champ with heals in her kit and true invisibility + stupid damage will always be my ban choice.

Pals Before Gals4 votes

It's funny how you assume people will just stand still and watch as you use your full combo + ult on them :)

YourAbsolution25 votes

it doesn't matter if they stand there or try and move. The only way to avoid death with akalis full combo is to either stopwatch or to flash the second part of her ult and even then you're not guaranteed to live lol

Best Veigar FL15 votes

As long as shroud is frustrating to play against people won't care if she has a 30% winrate they will still ban her as often as they do. I personally don't have a problem with her on specific champs but I can understand why people dislike playing against her.

Häßlich11 votes

Would rather they just revert her, tbh.

Glasss of Water14 votes

no kalista buffs :( sadboihours

Osaka Bondage8 votes

Now that Guinsoo's been edited to help nerf Kai'Sa, Kalista is pretty much without a good 2nd item. I guess Guinsoo second or third wasn't that good in the first place, but at least the rage stacking helped her out a lot. Nooooow...

Ah well, it's not like I'm Diamond and playing her. It's still fun to destroy bronze and silver players who have never played against her and don't know how to counter her.

NaturesMayhem11 votes

Thanks for the Akali changes. People have been begging for a change in the shroud for a long time now, even before release.

LemurMonster11 votes

The problem with these so called buffs are you doing it wrong.. Why are you guys not nerfing burst & poke mages among with Lucian ?? You are just escalating the problem more. There was a reason why adcs got nerf to begin with.

Vhozek11 votes

Just keep banning Akali until we get the nerf she deserves. What is that you ask? You know it. The turret knows it. Don't play dumb.

BlueBilberry10 votes

Quote: "We're bringing down Zeke's' offensive capabilities so other tank support items can be considered." Colour me mystified.

There are other tank support items? Such as? Locket? Wasn't that nerfed in 8.7 (cooldown and shield strength)? Righteous Glory? Nerfed in 7.12 and 7.19, right? Ditto for Knight's Vow in 7.15 and 7.18 (health, cooldown and cost nerfs). Still amazed that the Riot devs think that there are actually items that are aimed specifically at tank supports...beyond those three, it really is a stretch...

Moreover, the tank support item nerfs keep getting the same explanation - nerfed for the sake of other items. This broken record is getting tiresome.

Emo Supremo9 votes

Where is the Jinx buff? She's still almost unplayable ):

Owen78 votes

When is Jinx not unplayable? Surely you are used to it now? - Riot probably

WildCrazyEyes9 votes

Hey Riot as a player who has played this game for a while I've noticed that minion block has gotten to point where you can end up being auto pathed around entire waves or stuck on a minion in some situations. Auto pathing its self has also been getting a little worse. Just curious if you plan on fixing these things or are already looking into it.

WheresTheClit8 votes

Wait, who even builds Zeke's

PMA Player3 votes

anyone out of bronze.

Never Panic5 votes

nice work on not fixing the issue with pyke getting all his health back by pressing w

Legãcy5 votes

you mean him utilizing his passive?

Turslay3 votes

I can already tell that that they are going to nerf akalli like 4 more times until they nerf the real problem and the she will be unplayable. Yes she is strong, but if you nerf all of the aspects of shroud that are fine before you nerf the one thing that needs to go. When you finally do hit the thing that needs to go she will be too weak to play.

FOR JUSTICE2 votes

Wat Also links broke

RiotCidem8 votes

Hi! Apologies for any broken links you've experienced. All links should be working now. Let me know if you're still experiencing any issues.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Vekkna3 votes

Why was Katarina not included in today's patch?

LoneEternity6 votes

More like, Why is Kai'sa still not addressed in a patch? Even in high elo she's dumb

solo lane diff4 votes

All ADC's that build crit are weak, thus they buffed the weakest ones this patch. Kaisa may be at best the 4th best ADC behind the non crits of lucian ezreal and draven. Crit is still super weak including Kai'sa

RekSai CoffeeCo2 votes

Where are the buffs to tiamat users for this nerf?

Mechmanxd4 votes

They are nerfing champs that sit on it bc they are too strong. Like irelia or jax. This doesn't affect anyone who finishes hydra instead of sitting on tiamat.

True Garen9 votes

{quoted}

They are nerfing champs that sit on it bc they are too strong. Like irelia or jax. This doesn't affect anyone who finishes hydra instead of sitting on tiamat.

Of course it affects them. Just, it affects the others MORE.

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