Patch 7.24b notes

Riot·Dec 14, 2017·7 votes·129,898 views

Happy Snowdown, summoners!

We've mentioned a few times that there'd be one more set of balance changes before the end of the year. Well...here it is! "7.24b—the b is for balance!" Unlike standard patches, this one doesn't require a download, so if you're reading these notes within six-ish hours of publication, watch for a ticker to confirm we're live.

Back to the patch! Today's big theme is toplane—particularly the fighters and items that call it home. Many have felt the pain of losing Fervor, and while we buffed a few in 7.24 proper, we're targeting a few more today. We're also looking at a few champs south of baron pit that are doing too well (~Hello Corki, my old friend~), and have power adjustments to the Sorcery path to boot. Worth mentioning: even though we're balancing about as many things as a regular patch, our changes are numbers-only (except for Zoe). Stability's the name of the game today.

As a note for the patch notes themselves, we're trying a new structure that groups changes by theme, rather than content type. That also means we're writing context on a per-theme level, rather than per-change as usual (with a few exceptions). Let us know what you think!

Wrapping up, we here in the patch notes crew wish you happy holidays and a tilt-free remainder of preseason. GGWP 2017; here's to 2018!

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman

Lucas "Luqizilla" Moutinho

Tooltips Note

Since this isn't a full-fledged patch, ability and item tooltips will be out of date for a while. Sorry!

Top Lane

With the removal of Fervor, and Summon Aery being particularly good on poke top laners, the top lane landscape has been rough for fighters. We're buffing up some of the worst-hit fighters, giving the Tiamat line some love, making Giant Slayer less effective against fighter item builds, and bringing down certain ranged top laners who abuse the new poke masteries like Arcane Comet or Summon Aery.

Aatrox

Base stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 68 ⇒ 70

Q - Dark Flight

BASE DAMAGE 10/35/60/95/120 ⇒ 20/50/80/110/140

E - Blades of Torment

BASE DAMAGE 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240

Jayce

Q - Shock Blast

BASE DAMAGE 80/130/180/230/280/330 ⇒ 70/120/170/220/270/320

E - Thundering Blow

COOLDOWN 15/14/13/12/11/10 seconds ⇒ 20/18/16/14/12/10 seconds

Kayn

Yeah, yeah, Kayn isn't a toplaner. He's got similar issues as other fighters on this list, though, so we're lumping him in for solidarity.

Base stats

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 2.8 ⇒ 3.3

Passive - The Darkin Scythe

RHAAST SPELL VAMP VS CHAMPIONS 25% + 1% per level (max 43% at level 18) ⇒ 34% + 0.5% per level (max 43% at level 18)

Kled

Base stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 63 ⇒ 65

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3 ⇒ 3.5

E - Jousting

BASE DAMAGE 25/50/75/100/125 ⇒ 35/60/85/110/135

Renekton

Base stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 66 ⇒ 69

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3.1 ⇒ 3.75

Teemo

Base stats

HEALTH GROWTH 94 ⇒ 90

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 58 ⇒ 54

Yasuo

Base stats

MAGIC RESIST GROWTH 0.5 ⇒ 1.25

Q - Steel Tempest

BASE DAMAGE 20/40/60/80/100 >> 20/45/70/95/120

R - Last Breath

CAST RANGE 1200 ⇒ 1400

Tiamat Line

Tiamat

ATTACK DAMAGE 20 ⇒ 25

Titanic Hydra

ATTACK DAMAGE 35 ⇒ 40 (otherwise you'd lose AD by upgrading!)

Ravenous Hydra

ATTACK DAMAGE 80 (unchanged)

Giant Slayer Line

Giant Slayer

HEALTH DIFFERENCE FOR MAX DAMAGE 1000 ⇒ 2000

Lord Dominik's Regards

HEALTH DIFFERENCE FOR MAX DAMAGE 1000 ⇒ 2000

Lethality Items

We added 2 lethality to the Serrated Dirk items when preseason began, but it turns out we probably didn't need to. This is a hit to Pantheon, by the way, in case you were CTRL+F'ing him.

Serrated Dirk

LETHALITY 12 ⇒ 10

Duskblade of Draktharr

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Edge of Night

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Youmuu's Ghostblade

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Mid Lane

The mid landscape is in flux, thanks to preseason changes to runes and base magic resist. That's left a few champions well above or below the curve, and we're taking this moment to hit some of the more notable outliers.

Azir

W - Arise!

SOLDIER DAMAGE, LV 1-6 60/62/64/66/68/70 (unchanged)

SOLDIER DAMAGE, LV 7-12 75/80/90/100/110/120 ⇒ 72/75/80/85/90/100

SOLDIER DAMAGE, LV 13-18 130/140/150/160/170/180 ⇒ 110/120/130/140/150/160

Cassiopeia

Q - Noxious Blast

COST 60/65/70/75/80 mana ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70 mana

E - Twin Fang

BONUS DAMAGE VS POISONED TARGETS 10/30/50/70/90 (+0.5 ability power) ⇒ (+0.6 ability power)

Corki

Base stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 63 ⇒ 60

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3.5 ⇒ 3

Q - Phosphorus Bomb

BASE DAMAGE 75/120/165/210/255 ⇒ 75/115/155/195/235

Katarina

E - Shunpo

BASE DAMAGE 30/45/60/75/90 ⇒ 15/30/45/60/75

PADDLE JUMP When Zoe casts R - Portal Jump while a Paddle Star is active, the star's travel range now changes when Zoe reappears at the cast location, rather than as soon as Portal Jump is cast.

EXCUSE ME? The timing of Zoe's Q - Q - R combo is less forgiving

Bot Lane

The damage being thrown around bot lane is a bit too high for our liking, and a large part of that is the combination of sorcery poke and the all-in strength of lethality marksmen. On the poke end, Miss Fortune is spamming Make it Rain for Arcane Comet procs a bit too enthusiastically—rain is fine, but right now it's a downpour. For all-ins, the biggest non-lethaltiy offender is Leona, and the lethality changes we mentioned above cover the marksman side of the issue.

Ezreal

Base stats

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH 2.8% ⇒ 1.5%

Leona

Q - Shield of Daybreak

BONUS DAMAGE 30/55/80/105/130 ⇒ 10/35/60/85/110

Miss Fortune

E - Make It Rain

COOLDOWN 14/13/12/11/10 ⇒ 18/16/14/12/10

Lethality Items

Same stuff as above, but this time we'll say "Jhin" for the CTRL+F crew.

Serrated Dirk

LETHALITY 12 ⇒ 10

Duskblade of Draktharr

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Edge of Night

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Youmuu's Ghostblade

LETHALITY 20 ⇒ 18

Rammus

(Sorry, Rammus... you didn't fit into any of the other sections. Hope that's...OK.)

We added the new innate bonus attack speed stat as another way to tune champions (especially junglers), but in the case of Rammus, his ganks are strong enough that he doesn't need the early boost to his clear speed.

Base stats

removedINNATE BONUS ATTACK SPEED Rammus no longer starts the game with 15% bonus attack speed

Sorcery Runes

The Sorcery path offers too much early power. We're hitting its damage (twice, if you take Scorch) as well as the mana sustain it provides.

Sorcery Path Bonuses

SORCERY + ANY SECONDARY 15 attack damage or 25 ability power, adaptive ⇒ 12 attack damage or 20 ability power, adaptive

INSPIRATION + SORCERY 16 attack damage or 27 ability power, adaptive ⇒ 13 attack damage or 22 ability power, adaptive

Manaflow Band

COOLDOWN 60 seconds ⇒ 75 seconds

Scorch

DAMAGE 30-60 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 20-60 (at levels 1-18)

315 Comments

ShadowParkerDec 14, 201747 votes

I actually very much preferred the old style of patch notes. It felt like it offered more context for each individual change compared to what it is now.

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 14, 201732 votes

This was due to the format of this patch and way we were pushing it out. We're likely going to use this format in the future, but with the context. Some regions weren't going to be able to translate these notes with all the context, so we opted to keep it brief only for 7.24b

Who is TaliyahDec 14, 201711 votes

could you think about giving mages some bonus attack speed?

For example. I really liked to play Taliyah with 5% attack speed rune in the old system, as it was much smoother to last hit minions that way.

KwualDec 14, 201725 votes

lol what

StiylMagnus931Dec 14, 201723 votes

Anyone who's played a bit of Lux would know what he's gettin' at.

MinardeDec 14, 201712 votes

If you're going to continue with this format, please don't group changes by position. It makes it more difficult to check for changes for non-SR or even just off-meta players. Mid-Jayce or Jungle-Aatrox players might not know to check under "Top Lane" in these notes. Kayn's little blurb even acknowledged the potential confusion.

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 15, 201715 votes

Yep totally. We're probably going to try experimenting a bit more with patch notes in general - but we currently think there's probably a better way than just a long list of every single change in the game. Could end up being a "turns out it wasn't broke, let's not fix it", but for now I do think there's a better way for us to experiment with ways that better outline where our changes are targeted. Totally could be wrong though! We'll be checking for feedback!

Mysticman89Dec 15, 201722 votes

For what it's worth I do like having a full list of every single change somewhere.

Maybe the main patch notes aren't the ideal place for it if it's TMI for the average player, but I like having a complete list somewhere (maybe a link from the patch notes to a forum thread or something) of all changes, however minute. Occasionally theres subtle stuff where I want to double check if I'm just crazy or if a thing really did change, and other times undocumented changes seem like bugs if not listed even if they were intentionally changed.

DicersonDec 15, 20173 votes

Maybe you could group them based on Severity and Nature, like a section for Major/Minor Buffs/Nerfs each?

AyuuDec 19, 20175 votes

I agree with Mysticman89--please keep the detailed patch notes somewhere, I really enjoy reading it on the train to/from work. It oddly makes me feel complete knowing everything that's changing in the game and also gives me more ideas for theorycrafting.

[sg-soraka]

SoracchiDec 15, 20173 votes

I would say the writing change makes more sense writing the patch notes according to general themes.

Just don't lose the normal sass, which is enjoyable when reading through number changes (usually lodged in with the reasoning / abuses with why that champion is getting that change).

If you deliver equal goofiness with this style, show the information however you want.

The context I think is so important and why this patch looked boring and less individualized for champs. I think we just need more time to see what a normal patch notes looks like after Holidays.

Kei143Dec 15, 20176 votes

Please don't.

This format of lanes just gives more "power" to those META sheeps and they'll start harassing us creative players even more.

I mean, if your subsections were: Buffed, Power shifted, Nerfed, mini-rework; or Roles in general, then I'll be all for it. But please not for laning positions.

EDIT: I guess it's because of the new format, I'm not used to seeing the context in the top of all the champs as a group. I like the context part, I still don't like how it's lumped into lanes. Maybe next time you can change the subsection name to something like "Skirmishers VS Range"?

ZaelphycDec 14, 201727 votes

Sometimes I wonder if people actually know what they are talking about when they post comments.

Sebastit7dDec 14, 201719 votes

Fun Fact, They don't*[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]*

PoulpenguinDec 14, 201717 votes

Tryndamere winrate dropped ~3% since preseason (~51.5% to ~48.5%)... needs your love plz </3

rtbf36932793Dec 14, 201724 votes

Fiddlesticks has been receiving indirect nerfs with no buffs for 2 full seasons. Riot only cares about around 30 champions, the rest just needs not to be overpowered.

Despin1996Dec 15, 20177 votes

2 full seasons? He was buffed in 6.1, given a slight update in 6.9, buffed in 6.24, and again in 7.6. What are you talking about?

VickoDec 14, 201716 votes

What about fixing the minion glitch that's affecting FPS across the board?

Samuel MurphyDec 14, 201712 votes

It is not that I dislike this style of Patchnotes, But I just LOVED the old style. I like getting insights on all the changes

str8 hambushDec 14, 201712 votes

Where are the Ornn nerfs???????????????????????????

V34Dec 15, 20177 votes

they are waiting too release the new ornn skin before they nerf him

WL PhynnDec 14, 201710 votes

No wonder Teemo was so strong his AD growth was 58! Thank you riot for bringing it down to 54 Im sure hell fun to play against now /s

TerozuDec 14, 201713 votes

You dont even realize how large a nerf that actually is lol.

White YerbaDec 14, 20174 votes

i think they do, that's why they said "I'm sure he'll be fun to play against now" and not something like "wow c'mon rito teemo op op nerf pls"

leaguewutDec 14, 20174 votes

Did you see the "/s"

Ang3lF15hDec 15, 20173 votes

is /S sarcasm ?

GarthBrooksXDDec 14, 201721 votes

The balance team actually must hate Teemo but he was already the recipient of nerfs to aery, celerity, coup de grace, alacrity, taste of blood... then THIS hotfix sorc tree damage nerf, scorch, manaflow band, plus buffs to almost all his opponents and then top it all off with -4 ad and hp growth subtract.

I guess the saving grace is that Teemo can still use the domination, inspiration, or precision tree as primary. Maybe thats why they decide to give a direct punch to the groin to accompany all the other things in this patch that are all directed at him.

It really is just sad that pantheon and jayce can just have a free ride as top tier top laners for eternity with only minor nerfs occassionally and they generally benefit from nearly every game changing patch riot puts in. But then Teemo is strong for just a moment and they nerf him in every way possible.

Also lovely how they do nothing about boring champs like Maokai and Ornn who are just soooo entertaining to watch in pro play. ctrl f Maokai ornn olaf oh nothing. Ctrl f hashinshin youtube videos so we can listen to the greatest riot hate baby of all time on how to balance.

/end flame

TeknomanDec 15, 20174 votes

Couple things, Inspiration and Domination on Teemo is absolute garbage(this is a fact no need to further elaborate). Secondly you said Teemo was strong, when was this? I been playing since S4 can't ever remember teemo being "Strong".

GarthBrooksXDDec 15, 201719 votes

Don't claim facts without evidence unless ur running for president. He has been very strong with 53%+ wr all preseason.

Also, klepto and electrocute work well. You can see the stats on those choices op.gg

His BenevolenceDec 15, 201718 votes

I totally understand why you feel that way, but if you think Teemo has it bad right now, Sona would like a word with you. They lowered her healing by a bit, not too bad. Then they cut her aura damage in half and raised the mana cost by 33% on her only particularly useful laning tool. That has to be one of the harshest nerfs I've ever seen in League of Legends beyond hotfixes for new champions. Oh and they made her even more squishy. On top of that they nerfed manaflow band which allowed her to cast spells with any regularity. Scorch nerfs. Klepto nerfs. Aery nerfs. Sorc tree nerfs. Potential enchanter item nerfs. She was a bit strong when the new runes first came out, so something needed to go but this was drastic. Ezreal and Leona were just as bad of bot lane offenders but they got slaps on the wrist while she got gutted. From one of the better supports to one of the worst. Even some lulu and Janna mains are a bit concerned with the balance team's sudden apparent hate-nerfing of Sona. I used to only play mid but I found I enjoyed Sona and started playing support. Now that she's about as useful as a minion, I guess I'll go back to only playing mid.

AzurithDec 15, 201720 votes

Sona definetly deserved a nerf as she became way to powerful and at times down right oppressive during the preseason, but I honestly completely agree with you. The nerf was way to harsh and did indeed leave her completely gutted. I am an ADC main so I rarely played her myself, but it kills me to see a beloved and mighty champion, or any champion for that matter, nothing but a hollow empty shell of what they once were.

For Sona, it hits me a little more personally as she was my girlfriend's favorite and main champion. Now she hardly plays League at all and if she does she ends up miserable. Some people litterally only enjoy playing one champion rarely if it all playing another.

What follows is just my opinion on how Riot should approach nerfs and buffs, warning 3 minutes to long of a read ahead with no tl;dr:

To often the League community is so sick and tired of an oppressive champion that they will refuse to acknowlege that a nerf broke them to unplayable status. Letting their feelings overcome their reason and any intelligence they possess. This results in them shutting down any who try to point out the true result of a nerf on one of these champions. Unfairly using the champions previous status as a reason to leave the nerf as is, and even at times flat out denying that the champion is in a unviable state saying they are as OP as ever despite being completely untrue. This sadly results in Riot not noticing the true outcome of their nerf, having to now let data be gathered over time rather than be able to hear that champion's experienced player bases opinions on the results.

The goal to nerfing or buffing a champion is and should be to get them to a 50% winrate, or as close as possible to it excluding the trend of whatever the meta currently is. Anytime a nerf takes a champion from to far above the 50% mark to too far down below it, Riot should go back and re-tweak the numbers a bit that the nerf hit. Not completely reverting them to what they were, but instead a small enough boost to see if it gets them back closer to that 50% goal.

I think Riot to often leaves champions unintentionally in a broken or unviable state for far to long, that it becomes to difficult to pinpoint exactly what needs to be tweaked to fix them. With leaving the original cause as is for an extended amount of time, during which changes in the game are occuring and building up elsewhere, it becomes next to impossible to pinpoint what exactly needs to be changed. Meanwhile nerfs to Keystones and Runes the champion also relies on are being applied to hit the new OP champs that replaced them. Further reducing and worsening the state of their unplayable/unviable status. This, imo, to often results in either over buffing the champion again or sadly leaving them so badly broken a rework becomes inevitable down the line.

I believe this result can, and should, be a little more easily avoided by doing what I mentioned above. It is true, that sometimes a reversion, even if minor, will not restore a champion's playability completely if at all. But by ensuring that a nerf or buff doesn't remove a champion to far away from the 50% line by tweaking the exact same nerf or buff a little as soon as the next patch, it will become easier to identify where and how changes elsewhere affect a champion's winrate. This will hopefully result in more champions being viable, killing the myth of champion favortism by Riot and enriching League's modern legend and experience.

SidheDec 16, 20174 votes

Azurith, this is the most intelligent thing I've seen so far on this board, and I hope like hell that Riot takes note of it, because it's spot on!

AzurithDec 18, 20175 votes

Haha thank you, you have no idea how good it makes me feel to hear you say that, honestly thought I would get flamed for it.

I honestly spent over 2 hours writing that and making it as unbiased and neutral as possible while retaining honesty. Sadly, I spent so much time on it I decided to tweak the first paragraph and make a separate community discussion off of it. The result was it got buried and went unnoticed.

Even though I probably ended up waisting those 2, almost 3, hours of my life for nothing, it honestly makes me feel good that at least a a few people read it and liked it, and you in particular commented to let me know. So thank you :)

NoxusX3Dec 24, 20173 votes

^^^^^^^^^^ THIS.

Daedric EtwahlDec 14, 20179 votes

I have to say I think I much prefer context for each individual champion more than the broad context by role. It gives more insight to each particular change.

RedPanndaDec 14, 20179 votes

Lets all remember to be chill folks, attack the ideas not the person making them. :)

[slayer-jinx-wink]

Gamma AnomalyDec 15, 20179 votes

Buff Kayn because he isn't as powerful as Riot wants, keep Kindred Udyr the same because who cares about them right?

Darknife3Dec 15, 20173 votes

kindred and udyr are in pretty good spots right now. Not overpowered, but still playable.

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=forest+within

forest climbed to masters this preseason with a 90% win rate on kindred. Its now down to 70%, but masters is harder than diamond obviously.

Gamma AnomalyDec 15, 20175 votes

{quoted}

kindred and udyr are in pretty good spots right now. Not overpowered, but still playable.

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=forest+within

forest climbed to masters this preseason with a 90% win rate on kindred. Its now down to 70%, but masters is harder than diamond obviously.

I already know Kindred is certainly playable. But Kayn is as well, in fact I dare say without these buffs he's definitely worth picking, and in certain cases worth banning. I don't know much about Udyr, no idea about his state. But Kindred isn't worth picking when you can just have Ezreal do what they do better. Maybe if this were pre-rework Kindred I'd say otherwise, since they could still shred tanks. I just want to pick Kindred and not have my team hate me for it before the game even begins.

CheshireGameDec 14, 20176 votes

When they say Control F, what does that mean? I never have done that in game

nosepuedeordenarDec 14, 20176 votes

Control-F is "find in page" on most internet browsers.

So if you're a Pantheon main and you come to the page and just hit "control-f" and type in "Pantheon," you will find out how Pantheon is being affected in this patch....

Solari FortuneDec 14, 20177 votes

it is for those who press Control + F on the Patch Notes Site to find a particular champ without having to scroll

grarrrgDec 14, 201724 votes

Not sure if trolling... CTRL+F is not for in game. It's basically the default for the FIND command in windows. In your web browser, hit CTRL+F and a little box will appear, you type "Panth..." in the box, and it will find you any/all instances of that text on the page you are looking at.

Goddamn Im sexyDec 14, 20175 votes

Rito, can you please make nid spears do more the father away she is?!?! Like the good old days of nidalee?!?! Specially when Zoe's Q is pretty much the old nid's q? ;_;

Aya UcchiDec 14, 201717 votes

Copy pasta from wiki, Aspect of the Cougar HUMAN FORM - ACTIVE: Nidalee hurls a javelin forward in a line, dealing magic damage to the first enemy it hits, which is increased by 0% - 200% **(based on distance traveled). ** I'm pretty sure that means does more dmg the farther it goes????

Archon WardenDec 14, 201716 votes

yeah when the spear lands it does more the farther it goes, what Ms Believer is talking about was how Nidalee used to work when the damage was based on how far the spear was from her character, so you chuck it then run backwards for a huge chunk at a time.