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Patch 8.24b notes

Riot·12/17/2018, 7:14:12 PM·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 FL12/17/2018, 11:54:19 PM124 votes

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

Tamuut12/18/2018, 7:34:48 AM27 votes

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

Zéychin12/17/2018, 8:26:02 PM17 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.

Glasss of Water12/18/2018, 1:24:45 AM14 votes

no kalista buffs :( sadboihours

KillThemJhintly12/17/2018, 9:31:23 PM14 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

Vhozek12/19/2018, 9:09:26 AM11 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.

NaturesMayhem12/17/2018, 10:42:37 PM11 votes

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

LemurMonster12/18/2018, 8:41:49 AM11 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.

BlueBilberry12/21/2018, 4:52:48 AM10 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.

WildCrazyEyes12/23/2018, 8:20:00 PM9 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.

Emo Supremo12/17/2018, 11:04:15 PM9 votes

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

WheresTheClit12/19/2018, 3:24:42 AM8 votes

Wait, who even builds Zeke's

Never Panic12/18/2018, 2:27:59 PM5 votes

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

Turslay12/24/2018, 8:03:47 PM3 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.

RekSai CoffeeCo12/18/2018, 11:49:58 AM2 votes

Where are the buffs to tiamat users for this nerf?

FOR JUSTICE12/17/2018, 7:16:23 PM2 votes

Wat Also links broke