Patch 6.18 notes

Yorick

Yorick, the Shepherd of Lost Souls, will be updated with the launch of patch 6.18! To learn more, check the following links:

• Reveal & Insights
• Champion Q&A
• Champion Spotlight

Yorick

Pentakill Yorick

Undertaker Yorick

Ashe

W cooldown increased.

Ashe’s Volley cooldown was originally tailored for a world where Marksmen didn’t have much access to cooldown reduction. We’re no longer in that world - Essence Reaver has worked its way into Ashe’s preferred itemization. Volley’s cooldown has become problematically low, even for an ability designed to have a low cooldown in the mid/late-game.

W - Volley

Aurelion Sol

Visual bugfix for Aurelion’s stars.

Passive - Center of the Universe

Ekko

Base AD down.

While Ekko’s not exactly up to the same ‘pure defense’ shenanigans from earlier this season, the Boy Who Shattered Ranked is just as effective as before when it comes to sticking on targets and training them down. Ekko’s supposed to lean on his mobility to dart in and out of combat while whittling opponents down. However, his raw effectiveness when standing toe-to-toe with opponents means he’s comfy just wailing on his targets and only using his mobility if he needs to escape. In the interest of keeping Ekko’s trading windows short and sweet, we’re hitting his basic attacks and Sheen scaling to enforce the notion that smart spellcasting is how Ekko should get the upper-hand.

General

Gnar

W damage down. E cooldown up.

With professional play’s return to standard lanes, we’re upping our vigilance when it comes to dealing with powerful lane bullies. As for the current toplane metagame, that means Gnar. Known for preying on tanks unable to race Hyper’s damage output, Gnar’s a little too effective at shutting down almost all forms of aggression - not just the really durable kind. We’re hitting his baseline effectiveness with respects to trading and gank-avoidance to open up the kinds of aggressive picks and pressure that should be key in punishing Gnar’s temper tantrums.

W - Hyper

E - Hop / Crunch

Lee Sin

W2's lifesteal and spell vamp increased.

One of the jungle's flashiest all-stars, Lee Sin's become a rare sight in the professional scene as of late. Like we mentioned with Gragas and Rek'Sai last patch, teams are optimizing around early-game pressure harder than ever - meaning the healthier you are, the more valuable you'll be. This means that although Lee Sin is still one of the strongest champions when you want to gank lanes, falling behind other premier junglers ever-so-slightly in health could mean all the difference when a fight breaks out. We're nudging Lee's sustain up a notch to keep him healthier in those crucial early levels.

W - Iron Will

Lissandra

Health per level down.

Lissandra’s ult is perhaps the strongest defensive ability among any of our burst mages, giving her the ability to make aggressive plays and live to tell the tale. However, her innate tankiness is also outclassing other burst mages, making her choice too easy: ult an enemy because she’s probably going to live anyway. If Lissandra expects to live through dangerous situations, she should need to ult herself or itemize defensively. Either way, we’re reducing the durability she gets just for existing.

General

Lulu

Glitterlance slow now lasts the intended duration.

In Patch 6.13, we made a few changes to Lulu, including increasing Glitterlance’s slow at lower levels. That slow increase was not in effect, so we’re updating Glitterlance with our previous intent.

Q - Glitterlance

Lux

E’s slow increased.

Compared to her game-ending burst combos, Lux is weakest while charging her lasers early on. While we’re happy with her power curve overall, we’re aiming to toss some love where to help enforce the non-damaging parts of Lux’s identity - namely, her strong kiting. While we’re going light on the changes, the added bit of disruption on her earliest rank-up should see the Lady of Luminosity able to secure more getaways from anyone looking to knock her lights out.

E - Lucent Singularity

Miss Fortune

Passive does full damage to turrets.

Miss Fortune’s doing great at the things she’s designed to do: bully opponents in lane and melt teamfights with Bullet Time. Unfortunately, she isn’t passing muster on one of the marksman class’s main jobs: damage to turrets. (We addressed the same issue with Vayne a few patches back.) While demolition isn’t meant to be one of MF’s strengths, it’s not meant to be a liability, either. Upping her reward for landing a shot on a turret brings her more in line with the expectations of her class.

Passive - Love Tap

Nocturne

E terrify duration increased.

Nocturne is League’s spookiest diver, slicing up opponents as they flee in literal terror. He’s currently seeing a bit less success than we’d like, particularly in the early-to-mid-game skirmishes he’s meant to thrive in. Upping the payoff on Unspeakable Horror will give the Eternal Nightmare a bit more time to prey upon his victims.

E - Unspeakable Horror

Rek'Sai

Base armor and armor per level down.

When Rek’Sai was released, we positioned her as a member of the Fighter class: a durable, damage-focused melee champion that wants to hunt down prey and finish it off herself. In the months following release, however, our balance work on Rek’Sai de-emphasized her damage threat in favor of her team utility strengths. Her optimal playstyle settled into the Vanguard (offensive tank) space, and that identity mismatch has caused a lot of player frustration. So, when Rek’Sai’s competitive dominance put her on the balance radar, we resolved not to make the same mistake twice.

Overall, fixing Rek’Sai’s role requires more than being cognizant of where to cut power, and we won’t promise that this’ll be the last time Rek’Sai visits the patch notes. That said, pushing her back toward kill-or-be-killed skirmishes is the first step in the process.

General

Ryze

Realm Warp’s rank 1 tooltip and indicator have been fixed.

While we could have documented this with the other bugfixes at the bottom of the patch notes, the truth is that with a busted range indicator, most players probably haven’t been taking advantage of Realm Warp’s increased range. In other words, this bugfix might create more impact than the actual buff last patch. Hence, full-fledged patch notes.

R - Realm Warp

Shen

Passive shield and Q damage decreased.

Shen’s global presence should come at a tradeoff: when he teleports to defend his allies, he’s sacrificing his own success. If his presence doesn’t turn the tide of a fight, Shen should return to lane at a disadvantage - after all, his opponent was collecting uncontested gold and experience while Shen was elsewhere. At present, however, it’s almost impossible to put Shen on the back foot due to how much dueling strength is baked into his kit. Shen will still be able to out-trade his opponents if he can purchase the damage to do so, but will no longer be as successful without offensive items.

Passive - Ki Barrier

Q - Twilight Assault

Taliyah

Q no longer deals bonus damage to minions. E damage down.

Taliyah’s ability to impact other lanes has established her as a premiere pick for the player who wants to win by exerting pressure in other lanes. At the moment, she’s able to push waves without much thought, letting her roam to the side lanes on a whim. We want Taliyah’s roaming to require more setup so opponents have a fair chance of forcing her to stay in lane.

Q - Threaded Volley

E - Unraveled Earth

Vladimir

Q’s empowered heal down. E cooldown up, but costs less.

Vladimir’s midseason update focused on creating windows of meaningful interaction between Vlad and his opponents. Higher health costs on his abilities were meant to allow opponents to punish Vladimir for careless trades, but the Crimson Reaper’s gameplay isn’t currently delivering on that promise. Even when Vladimir suffers a bad trade, he gets to waveclear as a fallback while he sustains back up. We’re reducing Vladimir’s options while on the back foot, as well as how easily he recovers from punishment.

General

Q - Transfusion

E - Tides of Blood

Yasuo

Less attack speed per level, higher base attack speed. R’s bonus penetration only applies to crits.

Yasuo belongs to the class we’ve been calling Slayers, known informally as ‘melee carries.’ These champions (like Riven or Fiora) are nimble yet squishy duelists with the damage to slay anyone, provided they make proper use of their windowed defensive tools (like Wind Wall or Riposte) to survive. By contrast, Fighters (like Vi or Darius) can take a moderate beating as they dish out their own damage, but lack the agility of a Slayer. But what happens if a Slayer gains the tankiness of a Fighter?

Tank Yasuo happens. While lacking the explosive offense of a crit build, Tank Yasuo's damage and mobility remain above average due to his kit, while his items grant him the durability he normally lacks. We’re looking to break up the trifecta and force Yasuo to commit to just a few strengths (instead of all of them). Defensive builds will retain their stickiness, but see a sharp drop in damage. We’re happy when players adapt their styles to the needs of the game, but when Yasuo (like Ekko and Fizz before him) can cover his weaknesses without making tradeoffs, it’s not a fair experience for anyone.

General

R - Last Breath

Frozen Mallet

Health increased, attack damage decreased. Now builds out of Giant’s Belt instead of Pickaxe.

Frozen Mallet’s the kind of item that often seems less effective than it is, thanks to an odd mix of stats only a select few champions really want. That said, seeing some of those performers come to light (Gnar and Tank Yasuo being at the forefront) has shown how powerful the item can be in the hands of our stickier fighters. As a result, we're shifting its statline to favor more defense than offense to align better with the item’s identity. Mallet should be a strong (if occasional) pickup for when you want to opt-in to more of a disruptive role, rather than when you want to kill your opponents faster.

Relic Shield

Spoils of War passive heals for less.

As a group, tank supports have been muscling out their more fragile counterparts. We don’t think they’re too far out of balance (particularly after laning phase ends), but Relic Shield’s heal proc was covering up a bit too much of their intended vulnerability to poke in the early game.