Patch 9.9 notes
Hey all. Welcome to the biggest patch of the year (so far.)
We're seeing huge changes to Aatrox and Tahm Kench, champions who've relied on specific aspects of their kit to dominate in some skill brackets of play, but make them suffer in others. Soraka's another one we're evaluating, with changes aimed at getting her back to the ally-focused support she was meant to be. A small pool of champions are also getting VFX updates, helping them feel more modern and be up to caliber in visuals to newer champions.
We're adjusting a wide assortment of runes as well, with the goal of having them compete with other runes and encourage more diverse rune paths.
Get ready for one of the longest reads of your week.
Paul "Aether" Perscheid
Hanna “shio shoujo” Woo
Mid-Patch Updates
5/2/2019 Balance Update and Bugfixes
Aatrox
Q - The Darkin Blade
Blitzcrank
Rakan
4/30/2019 Bugfix
Yasuo
Patch Highlights
Champions
Aatrox
Passive attack now also heals Aatrox and mutilation removed. Q cooldown adjusted and damage increased. W slow flattened and cooldown increased. E heal trigger adjusted. Revive no longer a baseline effect on R. Takedowns now extend R and enable revive, movement speed adjusted, increases healing. LOTS of tuning… Just read the full changelist for this one.
Where do we even begin? Since his rework, Aatrox has settled into a diving, one-shot playstyle that’s protected by the guaranteed safety of a revive. Rather than number tuning to make the revive less powerful, we’re making mechanics changes across the board to even the scales between reliable power that's valued in pro and power that's more fitting of Aatrox’s fantasy. Most notably, the revive on his ultimate is much less reliable, freeing up a lot of room to give him buffs (which make up the majority of the other changes here).
Overall, this patch pushes Aatrox toward a more bruisery, drain-tanky playstyle and his list of strengths will include more than one, all-in dive combo, accentuating his thematic as a life-draining war machine.
Base Stats
Passive - Deathbringer Stance
Q - The Darkin Blade
W - Infernal Chains
E - Umbral Dash
R - World Ender
Blitzcrank
Passive shield adjusted. R passive changed to mark targets with auto attacks and cause more damage after a delay. VFX for base and some skins updated.
While popular for his grabbing and popping, Blitzcrank really only has that one interaction up his nonexistent sleeve. We're modernizing his interactions with champions and giving him more to do when his hook is on cooldown.
VFX Updates
Passive - Mana Barrier
Q - Rocket Grab
W - Overdrive
E - Power Fist
R - Static Field
Rakan
Base health, armor, magic resistance, and magic resist growth increased. Base attack damage decreased. W dash speed increased. R cast time adjusted to disallow W or Flash during.
Rakan's R > W combo consumes too much of the power budget of his kit. His zippity-zoppity flying is what makes him unique and fun to play, so we're restricting The Quickness a bit so we can give him some buffs.
Base Stats
W - Grand Entrance
R - The Quickness
Soraka
Q cooldown and haste adjusted, empowered heal for ally and self increased, damage decreased. E cooldown decreased, cost now scales, and damage decreased late.
If Soraka is going to be a bully to her enemies in lane it should manifest through healing and supporting her ally to allow them to beat the pulp out of the enemy lane, not by whittling them down herself with non-counterable damage. While we like that Soraka can contribute a measure of poke damage to her lane, we aren't particularly happy with the fact that her E max builds offers no real counterplay for her opponents.
We're taking this opportunity to make her Q > W combo more impactful and appreciable for her carry, so players consider utilizing her more supportive nature instead of always playing her as an aggressive goat.
Q - Starcall
W - Astral Infusion
E - Equinox
R - Wish
Tahm Kench
Passive bonus damage flattened. Q slow, range, and slow increased. W CCs self for enemies and allies, and refunds mana when used on enemies. E heal and shield increased and no longer costs mana. R range decreased and cooldown increased.
Tahm Kench’s Devour does too much for a basic ability, and it makes him a huge priority pick for pros, regardless of the state of the rest of his kit. We're taking some big steps at redistributing some power, namely by significantly restricting beloved-by-pro abilities like his ally Devour and moving some power into his stats.
Base Stats
Passive - An Acquired Taste
Q - Tongue Lash
W - Devour/Regurgitate
E - Thick Skin
R - Abyssal Voyage
Simple Champion Changes
Akali
W extended duration when breaking invisibility decreased; cooldown increased early.
We want Akali to have more windows of vulnerability, especially during laning where she's often too safe in her shroud.
W - Twilight Shroud
Darius
Q healing and damage increased.
We're improving Darius' conditions for success when he gets in the thick of fights.
Q - Decimate
Ekko
Base attack damage increased. E cost decreased at later ranks.
Buffing Ekko to help him last hit in lane, clear monsters in the jungle, and better synergize with Sheen.
Base Stats
E - Phase Dive
Hecarim
Q bonus damage decreased. E min and max damage decreased later.
While we like that Hecarim ramps up over the course of a fight, his latest buffs enabled more of a bursty pop-off type affair. We're nerfing his damage all around so his targets have some semblance of a chance to survive in a drawn-out fight and when caught out in the jungle.
Q - Rampage
E - Devastating Charge
Jarvan IV
Base health, mana, and mana regen decreased. W bonus shield for each enemy champion hit decreased and flattened at all ranks. E cooldown increased.
Cleaning up some base stats and hitting Jarvan IV's fallback Q > W max build so it's less effective.
Base Stats
W - Golden Aegis
E - Demacian Standard
Kennen
E bonus resistances removed. Bonus resistances added to R.
Kennen's E max build, while niche, covers his vulnerabilities too well. We're moving around his resistances so that he doesn't get all that and a bag of chips in one ability.
E - Lightning Rush
R - Slicing Maelstrom
Kindred
Passive mark spawns later in game.
Matching some Rift Scuttler changes below. Sorry for spoilers.
Passive - Mark of the Kindred
Lissandra
W damage increased late.
The 9.7 hit to Liss was great for slowing down her waveclear. However, with Aftershock seeing nerfs this patch to hit champions like her (see Runes), we’re giving her a small bump in power that'll help in situations where she's getting all up in her enemies' faces.
W - Ring of Frost
Maokai
Q base damage increased.
Maokai is underperforming so we're giving him a little water and a smidgen of sunlight to grow into a mighty tree in the top and jungle.
Q - Bramble Smash
Morgana
E cooldown increased and shield strength decreased.
Morgana’s still too strong even with the changes in 9.7. We’re targeting her shield this time so she (and her lane partner) is a bit more vulnerable when it's on cooldown.
E - Black Shield
Rek'Sai
Base attack damage and attack damage growth decreased. Empowered Q cooldown increased. E min and true damage decreased.
Rek'Sai is another example of a champion we've been trying to quell a bit due to her status as a "must-pick" for her role. We're hitting two birds with one stone by taking some bark out of her bite and tidying up some of her base stats.
Base Stats
Burrowed Q - Prey Seeker
E - Furious Bite
Shaco
Sweeping Lens no longer reveals and immediately activates stealthed W.
Changing Sweeping Lens’ interaction with Shaco's boxes so enemies don’t completely neutralize his signature toys from a distance with little consequence.
W - Jack In The Box
Shen
Base attack speed ratio increased. E damage ratio increased.
We’re buffing Shen to help him out in the top lane.
Base Stats
E - Shadow Dash
Sylas
W base damage increased.
We stole a considerable amount of power from Sylas in 9.7, and we want to give some of it back. He'll still have the vulnerabilities we wanted to open up with those past changes, but also have a fairer chance to fight back.
W - Kingslayer
Volibear
W bonus attack speed increased.
Increasing Volibear's clear speed to help him compete with other junglers.
W - Frenzy
Items
removed
Hunter's Potion
Hunter's Potion is an underpowered and seldom-picked option for players. We're removing it from the game as we don't feel it’s necessary in the current jungle.
Manamune
Base damage increased.
Bow down Ezreal mains.
Base Stats
VFX and SFX Updates
Ashe
VFX updates across the board to clean up unnecessary noise, improve gameplay clarity, and bring Ashe more in line with newer Freljordian champions.
Caitlyn
Reinforcing Caitlyn's Piltover/hextech thematic in her VFX where it made sense, while preserving her unique feel. Effects should feel more impactful and modern, and improve gameplay clarity.
Jax
VFX are now sharper, more impactful, and clearer in gameplay.
Renekton
Cleaning up Renekton's audio so his abilities sound more clear to pair with his earlier VFX updates.
Runes
Aftershock
Resistances no longer scale with level; now scale with other bonus resistances up to a level-based cap. Damage no longer scales with AD or AP.
Aftershock is taken by a fairly wide variety of champions, especially those with access to hard CC who opt into this rune for a windowed boost of durability. Right now, it looks to be strongest on mages specifically: that extreme durability in combination with high amounts of burst damage mages can provide via Aftershock's AP ratio leaves little room for opponents to play against Aftershock mages. To combat these cases, we're specifically targeting Aftershock's scaling to better hit the same power level for all its users.
Minor Rune Tuning
We've pulled too much power out of runes in general, so we want to give back power in ways that don't favor a specific role/class too highly. We're targeting runes that, when tweaked, can better compete with Inspiration's minor runes, and avoiding sustain runes since they've been overperforming in comparison.
Bone Plating
Celerity
We're pulling back slightly on Celerity's niche status. We want more players to use it and broaden its use cases, so while these changes may not always be favorable to its old top tier users, it should be stronger overall to compete with other rune options.
Cheap Shot
Conditioning
Demolish
Ghost Poro
Magical Footwear
Magical Footwear has become its own beast that outperforms every other option by a large margin. We're reining it in a bit so that it still stays viable for many champions, but isn't so overwhelmingly better that other runes can't be considered.
Relentless Hunter
Scorch
Ultimate Hunter
Rift Scuttler
Scuttler's first spawn now happens later in the game
Right now, there's a lot of frustration between junglers and laners due to an expectation for the laner to help the jungler secure Rift Scuttler when it first spawns. At 2:00, this tension creates forced, awkward conflict between players who at that point are barely level 2, pushing players to pick junglers and laners that are strong at level 2 and 1, respectively.
By moving the Scuttler's spawn time later, players will have a bit more time to plan out and assess the game before committing to taking down the Scuttler; they'll also be less mandated to pick specific champions who are strong at early Scuttle takes.
As a note, this is also not meant to be a meaningful nerf to early game jungle experience. Since Scuttler's level is based on the average level of the game, it'll more likely than not be higher-leveled than it was when it spawned at 2:00, meaning it'll grant more gold and experience when killed.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where Frostblade Irelia's moving blades did not play sounds during her Golden Chroma respawn animation
- Fixed a bug where players who first join League Voice with Push-to-Talk enabled would pick up audio even when not pressing the associated key bind
- Elderwood LeBlanc and Ravenborn LeBlanc no longer incorrectly use base LeBlanc's R - Mimic
- Casting LeBlanc's Q - Sigil of Malice or her R - Mimic Sigil of Malice and W - Distortion in quick succession no longer sometimes fail to trigger her mark
- Taliyah's R - Weaver's Wall toggle animation no longer permanently stays on the ability icon
- When reactivated quickly Kayn's model no longer appears before R - Umbral Trespass completes
- When spectating a game, the Dragon icon no longer appears on the HUD before the Dragon is killed
- Added a feature where players get a message when they've successfully made it out of Champion Select. If unsuccessful, players will not see any message
- Reactivated Ranked Decay
- Fixed a bug in Ranked Profile display in regions where Ranked Twisted Treeline was disabled
- Fixed a bug where Kayle would sometimes freeze when casting her R - Divine Judgement and then teleport to a new location
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!
The following chromas will be released this patch:
273 Comments
What do you do / whom do you contact when Riot Support messes up MULTIPLE times and can't fix / escalate it to someone who can fix it?
tl;dr: Why does Riot not have methods to escalate issues from Player Support to people who can actually fix things? (Note: Sorry this is a long post, just want to show evidence backing up everything I'm saying as these issues have been going on for 5+ years now and are only getting worse)
The problems with Player Support (PS) not being able to do anything or find someone who can help are a constantly reoccurring theme I see pop up all over the place. The story seems to go something like this: player tries to get help by contacting PS, next PS says they can't do anything, then player tries to get PS to escalate issue to someone who can do something, and finally PS says they can't escalate it or pass it on to anyone who can help. PS does nothing, player gets no help, everyone is left frustrated and sad. See: "Agents told you eons ago wouldn't truly be wrong at the moment," where 'eons ago' is apparently less than 1 year ago (https://i.imgur.com/zEAwfCt.png / https://i.imgur.com/PALcRcq.png).
Seriously, I see this continually. Like the recent Morgana chroma debacle where a PS person said, "get used to it / hope u like it," when Morgana's chromas were mixed up (https://i.imgur.com/senpEvY.jpg). Or when you try to get clarification over something confusing, like what content is Limited Edition or Legacy or whatever (https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/8mphk9/why_is_jaximus_a_limited_availability_skin_when/), and get berated by PS saying, "dude cmon i didnt sign up for this," over minor things (https://i.imgur.com/7Jc8UGk.png).
Likewise, even when PS says they will refer the problem to someone, it is often unlikely you'll ever see it fixed. For example, I've been waiting on the Limited Edition (LE) borders for "Happy Elf Teemo" and "Union Jack Fiddlesticks" being added for over 2 years now (https://i.imgur.com/xYEG8LP.png / https://i.imgur.com/nU1FRgF.png).
Then we have major debacles with PS/Rioters saying one thing and something completely different happening. Here are 3 different PS people telling me that a lot of the 2018 Lunar Revel content wouldn't be coming back (Wukong emote, Ruby chromas, Gold chromas / https://i.imgur.com/xpZDUiY.png), something I followed up with non-PS Rioters to clarify as well. Then when the content comes back after I spent over $100 on RP just for that content based on what I was told, I get a "sadly there's really nothing I can do here" (https://i.imgur.com/npgCdwp.png)
You know what happened the last time Riot said content would "never come back" and then it did? Players got an RP refund, an icon, and a special loading screen border (https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/store/sales/plan-vintage-limited-edition-skins) or at the very least got a special version of the skin (Championship Riven: https://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-pbe-feedback/M3soEg9r-an-update-on-championship-riven / PAX Sivir: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/champions-skins/skin-release/neo-pax-sivir-and-epic-capsules)
It wasn't like this in the beta. PS worked hand-in-hand with the rest of Riot. I know that can't happen due to the scale of LoL, but you'd think they would at least have a way to escalate key issues. Instead, you have to go to some social media platform, hope your story resonates with people, and get enough traction that some Rioter with influence takes notice and does something about it. Even then it is unlikely. Another example, it's been 5 years since Hippalus and Tryndamere promised to get back to original Limited Edition skin owners better compensation ("Hip himself is working on additional (longer term) projects that should also help our most dedicated players feel appropriately recognized" https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1u4317/tryndamere_w_context_on_riot/ceeqzj4/).
I really want to support Riot Games! I've been following them since early, early closed beta. But the company has really changed from being "Player Experience First" to "do whatever we can get away with" it seems. From major fiascos within the company to sleazy marketing schemes (https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/af8642/the_psychological_manipulation_of_prestige_aatrox/), they've really changed over the years into something I barely recognize... and it hurts when a company I loved keeps doing these things and continuing like they aren't even trying to get better.
Whew. Okay, so really, who do we contact / what do we do? Why is there no team dedicated to handling escalation and things outside of the norm? We have Rioters whose sole job is about managing talking to Influencers / Affiliates / Partners (https://partners.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/), you'd think they could get someone to deal with the above issues?
TBH I think that Hunters Potion should have been an auto upgrade from refillable pot after you cleared a certain amount of camps. Sort of like Tear's upgrade. F for our fallen item.
Tahm was sitting at a 43% winrate as a support, if anything, his devour was the only thing he had going for him. This is just gonna shift him from support to toplane. Why did they have to gut my boi like that...
My best friend ;-;
Honestly the rift scuttler change is the best thing they've done to the jungle in a very long time. If you're playing a tank jungler (God bless you) and the enemy jungler is, say, Vi or Kayn, you just might as well not even walk over to the river because you know they are going to eviscerate the scuttles the moment they spawn, and you too if you dare challenge them. Pushing the scuttle timers back gives junglers with less power a chance to set up some vision or coordinate with an ally to actually have a chance not to be behind for the first 15 minutes because they can't 1-shot scuttle crabs.
I would still really like to see purple and/or green smite come back. Smite color options are really stale now. Old purple smite allowed so many cool niche junglers.
Magical Footwear is a straight nerf to all supports.
You have to take this skill due to your already low and cippled gold income and now you will get your boots even later on top of being completely dependent on your ADC in order to got the flippin Sightstone bonus from your gold income item.
Gj on making the Support role even less attractive by just nerfing and nerfing them!
Instead of doing things like "If you start with Spellthief/other gold income items Magical Footwear time will be reduced by 2 minutes".
Yikes dude! They haven’t fixed Mac voice chat yet!!! They’re looking at that, they said! They were gonna fix it, they said!!!
Come on Riot. Give melee champions a way to deal with the Shaco boxes. Now more than ever, they can only clear them out if their ADC or mage is there. At least the Temo shrooms have a very tine ring of safety that melee champions can use to clear them out when seen.
This shows up more in ARAM than the Rift, but it's still valid.
That's a horrible nerf to Tahm Kench's ally devour, as it's almost the entire reason he's valid as a support character in the first place. He has a 46% win rate in all ELOs in support and with this it could only get worst. You're going to kill this champion faster than you've ever done to any other. Playing him support is the only fun I get while playing this game and now I can't even have that. Garbage. You care more about the competitive aspect of LoL than everyone else that keeps this game alive. It's two different worlds.
Removing niche items like Hunter's Potion is is unfair and not fun, I've been playing jungle for the past 3 seasons and I love Hunter's potion, on Champs like Udyr and Xin its great so you can sustain for ever and your always ready to gank, It wasn't something that needed to be removed, all I hope is that something similar comes out for junglers to use to sustain or add in a potion that refills entirely on a kill either 2-3 charges on it so you can't mass sustain and be to broken for laners
Login just to say "R.I.P Hunters potion." I used it with certain junglers to regen after ganks so I wouldn't have to go back. 😞 Rest in Peace
Why does Riot feel the need to just unnecessarily remove jungle items from the game that are situational? Why remove hunter’s potion like they removed poacher’s dirk last year? Riot, if you don’t think the item is useful, then you don’t have to fucking buy it - but you don’t need to remove it for the people who DO find value in it.
Well, it was nice playing Kench as a support, but clearly they want him top. Rest In Peace my fishy friend. See you Top Lane.
Is anyone else mildly confused about the removal of 
? I mean, I'm just a filthy Sion jungle main, so what do I know, but I loved it? If I'm starting with a 
anyways and I have the perfect amount of gold on my first back to buy 
and why would I not want infinite sustain in the jungle? And even if no other champ in the game wants that (I buy it on other junglers too though tbh) why remove it? The only reason I can think of is rito doesn't want junglers to have good extended sustain in the jungle but the commentary certainly doesn't reflect that... O.o
We already had a life draining war machine, but that was before RIOT "reworked" Aatrox.
screams in Demacian
Gimme the Teeto changes please.
STILL NO RIVEN NERF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is he like the baby of Riot?
When will i see a buff on zed again.
When is the patch coming out?