Patch 8.19 notes

Riot·Sep 25, 2018·2 votes·165,919 views

Welcome to the second round of changes focused on the World Championship, which starts next week! You might be wondering where the massive pro patch is this year—last year’s World’s patch had 23 changes, after all. This patch, rather than trimming power from the top picks in pro play we’ve been seeing, we’re going to be giving a few nudges to other champions that should help keep them in check. We don’t want to invalidate practice the pros have been putting in for the largest tournament of the year, so we’re just going to see if we can give them a few more options to consider. For buffs, we’re focusing on champions who could use a little extra power for competitive viability who also have some breathing room for the rest of us who haven't reached pro status (yet). We’ll follow up if anything gets out of hand.

We're also including a care package of visual and audio updates for a few older champions and effects. This should spruce things up both in your games and on your screens as you watch the tournament unfold.

Let’s get into it.

Richard "MapleNectar" Henkel

Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Mid-Patch Updates

9/26/2018 Balance Update

Fiora

Adjusting Fiora's passive numbers to account for an 8.18 bug that made her buff less impactful than intended.

VITAL HEALING 35-110 ⇒ 40-115

Champions

Darius

W base damage increased. E armor penetration increased.

As a valuable counter pick to tanks in top lane, we’re looking to help Darius cleave through some of that armor to encourage teams to think strategically when drafting top lane champions. Although it’s somewhat generic power, percentage armor penetration is considerably more effective against champions like Cho’gath and Ornn than against other fighters like Camille or Aatrox.

W - Crippling Strike

RATIO 40/45/50/55/60% total attack damage ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70% total attack damage

E - Apprehend

Passive Armor Penetration 10/15/20/25/30% ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35%

Fiora

Healing from passive procs increased.

Fiora is a really sharp champion, with matchups where she dominates and matchups where she struggles to gain an edge. We’re being careful with her, but our changes in 8.17 still haven’t gone far enough to reward aggressive play in lane. Increasing the sustain she gets when going for vital procs on her opponents should help resolve this.

Passive - Duelist's Dance

Vital Healing 25-110 ⇒ 35-110

Q - Lunge

BUGFIX Lunge will once again correctly prioritize champions and vital procs over killable minions.

Kha'Zix

Passive damage buffed. W slow increased.

Kha’Zix has been struggling since our changes to his evolved R in patch 8.11. We’d like to give it a bit more oomph in a way that relies on the clever use of ultimate casts to eke out the full value. We’re also amping up the utility of Void Spikes to help Kha’Zix set up plays in ways that aren’t just… murdering you faster.

Passive - Unseen Threat

Bonus Attack Damage Ratio 0.2 ⇒ 0.4

W - Void Spike

EVOLVED NON-ISOLATED SLOW 40% ⇒ 60%

EVOLVED ISOLATED SLOW 80% ⇒ 90%

Elise

W and E cooldown decreased in Spider Form.

Elise used to dominate the early game and facilitate aggressive plays across the map. We want to bring that back, so we’re decreasing the cooldown on some of her playmaking tools so she can more frequently seek out risky opportunities to dominate her opponents.

W - Skittering Frenzy

COOLDOWN 12 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds

E - Rappel

COOLDOWN 26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 22/21/20/19/18 seconds

Jarvan IV

Passive cooldown decreased.

Jarvan IV has been pretty absent from the meta for the past year and needs a bit more power for players who want to flex him into top lane or jungle. Passive procs enable a faster clear and also encourage an aggressive trading pattern if played in the top lane.

Passive - Martial Cadence

new Martial Cadence now has a visual effect indicating its per target cooldown

PER TARGET COOLDOWN 10/8/6 at levels 1/7/13 ⇒ 6 at all levels

BUGFIX Tiamat passive will now consistently work when hitting a target with Martial Cadence

Nunu & Willump

AP scaling on Q’s heal increased. E AP ratio increased.

Since Nunu & Willump’s release, we’ve seen a large number of players trying for the super-hype Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark AP snowball builds. While his tank build is seeing far more success, we want to try to support the fun playstyle that meshes well with their whimsical thematic.

Q - Consume

HEALING RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.70 ability power

BUGFIX Tooltip now accurately reflects how much healing Nunu and Willump get from champions

E - Snowball Barrage

MAX 9 SNOWBALL HIT ABILITY POWER RATIO 0.45 ability power ⇒ 0.54 ability power

WILLUMP’S TURN (ROOT DAMAGE) 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power

W - Biggest Snowball Ever!

new Willumps transition to walking after he finishes rolling his snowball will now feel smoother.

Janna

Passive movement speed to damage conversion increased.

Janna is currently struggling to find a home in the bot lane in a meta dominated by some of her beefier counterparts. Her defensive attributes are already as powerful as we’re comfortable pushing them right now. We’re increasing her early game poke damage for players that are able to play her aggressively and want to harass their opponents every chance they get.

Passive - Tailwind

Bonus movespeed conversion to damage 15/25/35% at levels 1/7/13 ⇒ 25/35% at levels 1/10

Thresh

Q mana cost and early cooldown decreased.

Against a cast of champions that can reliably shut Thresh out of making aggressive plays in lane, he needs more opportunities to throw hooks in the early stages of the game. We don’t want to make his hooks hit harder, or cc for longer, so we’re just bumping up how frequently he can cast them.

Q - Death Sentence

MANA COST 80 ⇒ 60

COOLDOWN 20/18/16/14/12 ⇒ 16/15/14/13/12

Pyke

Early ult damage increased.

Pyke’s performance scales down pretty steeply when played against higher-tier opponents who more frequently dodge his fairly projected abilities. We think his reliability is in a pretty solid spot, but want to increase the damage payout Pyke gets for hitting good ults that help close out fights. This power only impacts his early and mid game, and his damage from levels 11-18 is unchanged.

R - Death From Below

Base Damage (breaks even at level 11) 200 / 250 / 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 475 / 500 / 525 / 550 / 575 / 590 / 605 ⇒ 250 / 290 / 330 / 370 / 410 / 450 / 475 / 500 / 525 / 550 / 575 / 590 / 605

Tahm Kench

Base HP down; HP per level up.

Similar to Braum last patch, we’re looking to drain some of Tahm Kench’s baseline sturdiness. Reducing Tahm’s base HP should make him rely more on his defensive tools to find success in lane, while increasing his HP gained per level will make it slightly easier for him to wade into the enemy team late game.

Base Stats

Health 610 ⇒ 540

Health Growth 95 ⇒ 102

W - Devour

BUGFIX Allies Tahm Kench has devoured will no longer sometimes be targetable when first swallowed.

Kog'Maw

Base movement speed increased. R range increased.

In a meta that often sees two or more tanks on a team and short-range ADCs in bot lane, Kog’Maw has been surprisingly absent. We’re giving him some base movement speed to help him kite aggressively and go for trades against some of those short-range champions like Kai’sa and Xayah. Early game buffs to his ult’s range will also help him chase down opponents after ganks or trades.

Base Stats

Movement Speed 325 ⇒ 330

R - Living Artillery

Range 1200 / 1500 / 1800 ⇒ 1300 / 1550 / 1800

Items

Liandry's Torment

Passive max HP burn increased. AP decreased.

Liandry’s has a pretty clear purpose—build it when you have damage over time and CC in your kit, or when the enemy has a really tanky team. While it has a solid set of core users who meet the first condition, it could do a better job of dealing with multiple tanks. We’re adding more max HP burn to address this while reducing its AP to limit burst power slightly.

ABILITY POWER 80 ⇒ 75

Torment:

DoT against non impaired targets 1% Max HP per second ⇒ 1.5% Max HP per second

DoT against impaired targets 2% Max HP per second ⇒ 2.5% Max HP per second

Champion VFX & SFX Updates

We've updated audio and visuals for a bunch of champions!

Jarvan IV

VISUALS Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO Non-VO audio has been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base SFX

BUGFIX Jarvan IV now properly plays his dunk animation when casting R - Cataclysm

Lee Sin

VISUALS Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO Non-VO audio has been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base SFX

KNOCKOUT Knockout Lee Sin's W - Safeguard shield VFX have been updated

POOL PARTY Pool Party Lee Sin's Q2 - Resonating Strike marker has been updated

GOD FIST God Fist Lee Sin's E - Tempest VFX more clearly indicate the hitbox

Veigar

VISUALS Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO Non-VO audio has been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base SFX

BAD SANTA Bad Santa Veigar has also received VFX updates

LEPRECHAUN Leprechaun Veigar has also received VFX updates

Vi

VISUALS Basic attack and ability visual effects have been cleaned up for base Vi and all skins using base VFX. This update also optimizes Vi to run more smoothly on slower computers.

SSG Ezreal

VISUALS Though technically unrelated to the above, SSG Ezreal's ability VFX have received a clarity pass

Movement Speed Slow VFX

The default visual effect for movement speed slow effects has been updated!

Objective Steal Announcements

Baron Nashor, Rift Herald, and Dragon steals are now celebrated (or "celebrated", depending on which side of the steal you were on) via chat call-outs and announcement banners!

Profile Page

In preparation for the 2019 ranked changes and the return of Clash, the profile page design has been revamped. A couple of the profile icons will remain empty for a while, but that should change soon.

Normal Draft matchmaking

Also in preparation for Ranked 2019, we’re now previewing positional matchmaking in Normal Draft only. This means you’ll be matched based on the position you were assigned instead of just having one rating in the background. This should make matchmaking better across the board, and tangibly better when playing secondary and autofilled games. We’re also testing position detection, which determines what position you actually played on the end of game screen. Let us know if it does you wrong.

Bugfixes

Dark Harvest’s dropped Soul Essence particle is now brighter and clearer for colorblind players.

Upcoming Skins, Chromas & Icons

The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash!

Championship Kha'Zix

The following chromas will be released this patch:

Championship Kha'Zix (Golden)

Championship Kha'Zix has an additional 24 chromas; one for each Worlds team!

Jakarta 2018 Icon

Celebrating League of Legends' participation in a continental multi-sport event in which China secured 1st place.

280 Comments

koocharioSep 25, 2018230 votes

I'm sure Kha won't be broken at all in 8.19... after all, there were already several Kha mains in high ELO even with no buffs. This doesn't feel like forcing a meta at all. It feels like deserved balance changes. It DEFINITELY isn't related to the upcoming Championship Kha'Zix skin either.

Oh wait... most of the changes in the last few patches are NOT about correct objective balance. They are about forcing certain comps/picks/strategies to be dominant because Riot thinks they're more entertaining than actually having a properly balanced and diverse game.

Is competitive integrity and FAIR balance really not on Riot's priority list anymore? There are so many champions struggling more than Kha even if they're not as "flashy" or popular. Those aren't even small buffs and he already had a good play rate in high ELO, as well as an above average win rate. It's hard to believe they really don't realize that they're just butchering balance with changes like this or for Pyke. Even the Lucian changes were pretty obviously over the top and he's now the best performing ADC in high ELO despite an enormous play rate.

If Riot's going to switch to milking people with unwarranted buffs for skins or just because they want to showcase what they think are the "most fun" champions at a big tournament, they're going to lose respect/credibility/trust almost instantly and the game's player base along with it. Favoritism or skins should not play a role in balance. Riot should have a contract with the community where they abide by this.

If League is to be a game with longevity, it needs to have an unbiased custodian (perhaps an independent organization). This shows a really irresponsible attitude on Riot's part. It makes a mockery out of people's time in ranked. Someone who's not even good at some of these champions will often see more success than another player with extreme skill on an unloved champion. There shouldn't be such large deltas between the effectiveness of champions and their power levels. Riot has to make a commitment to real balance if they want this game to be taken seriously as a competitive endeavor. When they make changes which clearly distort balance, it devalues the time everyone puts into the game to be good.

EDIT:

I may have overreacted to the Kha buffs! It remains to be seen but he's not too crazy yet based on the limited sample size so far. However, his play rate shot up a lot so that's always going to depress win rates. On paper, they still seem incredibly scary though and I think having such high damage already + more utility may incentivize tankier builds like Warrior-BC-Sterak's since you're often overkilling targets.

I don't really have a problem with Kha being buffed if it's just a small nudge towards viability at the highest levels (although he saw some play even before). I thought that he was being overbuffed specifically to make him a nearly guaranteed pick at Worlds. Ideally, I think every champion should be viable at every level but I don't want the balance team to force a certain meta. It should develop organically and not because something is suddenly broken tier etc. That's all.

Bruised EgoSep 25, 20188 votes

Same thing that was running through my mind. Kha is already being used to high success in high elo and now they're buffing him substantially. Welp, guess I'm banning Kha now 100%.

Talon GerrardSep 25, 201827 votes

Also gotta keep in mind that Riot is also likely being pressured to do this by the company that bought them out. Oh let's have Riot make a skin and buff up an already successful champion to attract even more attention to it and make people want to play the champ and buy the skin because people won't buy the skin if they don't want to play the champ and the more money Riot makes the more money we make. Plus we own them. Riot was a LOT cooler before they were 100% bought out by Tencent. They interacted with the community more and actually listened to the community, had more contests and special events, and the game was more popular and loved around that time. That was just under three years ago. Tencent still had a 93% share before then but Riot was still much better.

Summonerrr 1Sep 26, 201814 votes

Being a sellout isn't a good excuse for being a ****ty company though.

DweeblesSep 25, 201810 votes

It is tough making the decisions on the balance team I'm sure. And it is worlds time too. But it does make you wonder how long a community will stay around a game where the professionals are the priority bunch of a mega video game! I hope Riot doesn't assume that those people who aren't pros, are only cash cows for the game. :(

Summonerrr 1Sep 26, 20186 votes

I haven't logged in to comment in nearly a year and decided to simply to upvote this. I agree wholeheartedly, if they're not extremely careful and work hard to do some serious damage control, this type of BS can and WILL shorten the already shrinking life expectancy of LoL by even more years. I mainly play premade 5's because of their lack of commitment to player behavior moderation, but this change and those like it that are just a giant one-ingered salute to LEGITIMATELY the other 85% of players is just insulting. Enough is enough.

Cannot. Stress. This. Enough.

Looks like I'll be playing even more 1-game-a-day Coop vs. A.I. to keep my win of the day going and continue my quest to unlock all champions with B.E. then only play every few days.

Flowsy Sep 25, 201864 votes

How are Graves, Irelia, and Kaisa untouched????????? What a complete joke.

you have 2 iqSep 25, 201833 votes

Looking at the patch notes its pretty obvious that there is certain champs they want to be played at worlds to make it more entertaining for the viewers, irelia and kaisa have fast paced play styles after mid game power spikes, also peep how akali wasn't touched either, they want the games at worlds to be fast paced and fun to watch. I expect these champs will receive nerfs in later patches after worlds.

CanadianShougunSep 26, 201817 votes

Every year they do this fucking shit. as a long time league player, it tilts me. It fucking tilts me. They don't listen to the community till months after we complain. Yet if a pro uses it in their match it receives an instant nerf. My source is the teemo nerf.

I7A6X2v2Sep 25, 201861 votes

The Darius buff is disgusting...

Thanos Is RightSep 26, 201819 votes

Literally. Anything for the pros though.

GlaricionSep 26, 20189 votes

Just remember, being within 20% of Darius' CS and dying to him less than 2 times means you won the lane. Well, maybe 15% now.

He might make the first 15 minutes of the game a stressful slog, but he doesn't scale into the teamfighting stage as well as others.

OSAY9Sep 27, 20185 votes

it makes you wonder if they even play this game

DisulfiramSep 25, 201860 votes

Lol community: "RITO pls reduce all damage!"

Patch notes:

damage increased
damage increased
cooldown reduced
damage increased
mana cost reduced
damage increased
damage increased
damage increased
hp reduced
damage increased
damage increased

[sg-janna]

Agent FrostSep 25, 201855 votes

As a Graves Main, I am demolished by Not a single Graves Nerf, at all. I just want to be able to have fun playing my champion again, I would rather get flamed for picking Graves, then get flamed for doing bad because he is "overpowered" it sickens me that not even a base ad nerf, or a nerf to grit, OR SOMETHING ANYTHING, just hit him so he is not top tier like hes been for 6 months, I'm losing my mind

pogcornSep 25, 201819 votes

yea im not sure why he needs to be a tank while dealing assassin damage while playing like a bruiser

those smoke doesnt need to slow people. He doesnt need all those base states buff

Add92Sep 25, 201814 votes

you are a decent human being .

KillThemJhintlySep 25, 201852 votes

But did Pyke really need a buff? lol*[slayer-jinx-unamused]*

Gamma AnomalySep 25, 201834 votes

Does Riot expect no one to play their game during this patch that is so obviously geared towards what they want to see out of pro play? I feel like they just gave us a huge middle finger by releasing this patch.

ElusiveChicken7sSep 25, 201810 votes

This patch is specifically for pro play, which I dont necessarily mind, but these kha changes will single handedly warp the entire meta.

Mighty QueenSep 25, 201826 votes

Can someone explain the reason behind Darius's buff to me pls...

enesesSep 26, 201840 votes

I don't know if you're new to Riot-speak, so I'll translate the last sentence of their explanation for this buff: "Even though percentage armor penetration is generic and will mess up the top lane, we want to see Darius get played in Worlds."

memiuxSep 25, 201825 votes

Bring back Nexus Blitz please!

Frozen WaterSep 25, 201819 votes

How do we get the icon

KnaggaSep 25, 201817 votes

[deleted]

SammehSep 25, 20188 votes

The people working on the skins are not the same people balancing the game

Moonboy65Sep 25, 201814 votes

Hextech Malzahar not in the patch notes?

JesselegendSep 25, 201813 votes

As a kench main, i feel great. I mean kench will have 0% ban rate now.

EleshakaiSep 26, 201811 votes

I'll still ban him, just to make sure it's not 0.

JmannNobodySep 26, 201813 votes

Can we just give the pros separate balance from us normal people. Or not warp the meta for flashy play that me and large portion of the community don't care about. I mean looking at your numbers on Twitch 99% of players don't care.

Summonerrr 1Sep 26, 201810 votes

sarcasm incoming

Way to go Riot Game, you really overdid yourselves this time. Job well done. Now nobody will ever doubt that you're keeping the values you originally built yourselves upon of listening to your community and not pandering to a small minority or the dollar. Nobody will ever suspect that you threw caution to the wind and outright just forced specific meta picks for your new step-daddy Tencent's cash crop appearance of the year, League of Flashy Plays that over 50% of active consistent players don't even care about or get affected by. end sarcasm

I am really disappointed that so many good Rioters left instead of fighting to prevent this company from becoming the shame that it cannot see itself turning into.

A developer without its soul.

DonezoTheClownSep 26, 201810 votes

Instead of the nerfs to OP champs that we ask for, we get a patch completely dedicated to buffs focused on champs that are not struggling whatsoever in the current meta. Thanks, Riot...

SockyrockysockSep 26, 201810 votes

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME RIOT REALLY NERF AKALI FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND WHY DOES PYKE NEED BUFFS WTF IS THAT ARE YOU BRAIN DEAD OMFG

Carrie PigeonSep 25, 20189 votes

In a bug fix you mention colorblind players. Any plans to add another colorblind mode for those who don't have red-green colorblindness?

VhozekSep 26, 20189 votes

Riot: We should nerf Trundle cause he's becoming relevant (barely) Also Riot: We should buff Darius even though he's been very relevant since the juggernaut update.

Talon GerrardSep 25, 20188 votes

Riot: Let's overbuff Nunu and say we did it to make him more fun but not buff the one ability we said we were trying to make playstyle around.

DeezNutsGottemSep 26, 201815 votes

Out of all the champions, you are complaining about the Nunu buffs? He's sitting on a 46% winrate and the 2nd lowest in the jungle. His E desperately needed a buff, you throw 3 snowballs that deal negative damage and after like 2 seconds you get a root.

InsharaiSep 25, 20187 votes

Thank you for the Fiora fix! As for the rest of this patch, suspect =/

iMasterBait69Sep 25, 20186 votes

What happened to hextech malz

WoΘxerSep 26, 20186 votes

Darius, Kha'Zix, Pyke buffs for what the hell reason?

BaconBigBoy22Sep 26, 20186 votes

Horrible patch in my opinion

majorwaffle13Sep 26, 20186 votes

there Riot goes pushing the meta again instead of caring about balance issues. This patch is solely to force champs like Zix, Darius, and Fiora into Worlds. This is a big fat middle finger to the rest of us in plat or below saying, "we don't care about balance for you guys we just wanna make money and do what we want" Riot is going to continue losing players and viewers because of this mentality.

i luv lampSep 26, 20186 votes

So are we still pretending that Akali is not a huge gaping problem? Or are we still going with the "since Akali has a low win rate that justifies us not touching her"?

Asking for a friend.

cPXt3JHpf4Sep 27, 20186 votes

I can't wait until this season over and the entire balance team is fucking gone

KMS CyrektSep 27, 20186 votes

Can we please not repeat 2015 worlds again thx

PraySauceSep 28, 20185 votes

Patches based on community feedback? What a lie. More like based on pro play. Shameful.

PalavenSep 25, 20184 votes

I thought having different ranks based on position had been scratched due to the amount of negative feedback. Please don't tell me this is back on board again!

Add92Sep 25, 201825 votes

It has never been scratched, Riot just looked at the complete rejection of their idea and made a post saying " we look at your feedback and you guys are excited about it " LOL

KelyxTheMageSep 26, 20188 votes

Except a role based system is what we need. Like, what if I'm a diamond level Support, but decide to play Top, yet I put out a silver level Top? That's not fair to those who are actually putting out Diamond level skill.

I am DadSep 27, 20184 votes

"Kha’Zix has been struggling since our changes to his evolved R in patch 8.11." Excuse me wait Uh hol up Am I playing the same game as these people? Do they even play the same game as I do? What is going on?