Patch 7.9 notes

Riot·May 2, 2017·6 votes·208,670 views

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Howdy folks,

The midseason train is leaving the station, so hop onboard and we’ll take a look at the cargo we’re carrying.

In the first row we have the Maokai, Sejuani and Zac updates. We’re making their kits more distinct and sharpening each of their identities. With tanks on the mind we seized the opportunity to revisit our durability items and how resistances were performing in general. We have some good stuff down below with new items like Gargoyle Stoneplate and Adaptive Helm, as well as shifts of power in items like Guardian Angel and Abyssal Scepter.

Since we’re on the subject of items, we also wanted to make sure our damage items play nice with the durability changes above. We’re cool with how ability power items are doing, but to hit the right balance on the AD front we need to siphon some power from armor penetration into other stuff.

We’re also adding quests to Support starting items! We wanted supports to have more room to be interactive and meaningful in lane without throwing raw stats and gold at them. We’re also improving the clarity around how they support their team: items now have more detailed stat tracking, crowd control is more visible, and the end-of-the-game screen has some beefed up stats!

Last but not least, Rift Herald has a brand new encounter and reward. Whenever defeated, she can be summoned to wreak havoc on the closest lane - you better pay attention to her otherwise there won’t be much of your base left.

Now that we’ve gone over our itinerary, it’s time for this train to get rolling. Choo Choo.

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman

Lucas "Luqizilla" Moutinho

Mid-Patch Updates

5/5 Updates

Sejuani

Shipping the Frost Armor changes we alluded to earlier.

BUGFIX Fixed a bug causing Frost Armor not to break from instances of damage that were entirely absorbed by a shield

FROST ARMOR COOLDOWN 9 seconds at all levels ⇒ 15/12/9 seconds at levels 1/7/14

Gargoyle Stoneplate

BUGFIX The cooldown of Gargoyle Stoneplate's active effect is no longer incorrectly reduced by cooldown reduction

Warwick

CRASH FIX Fixed a crash issue Warwick was causing

Azir

BUGFIX Fixed a bug that could cause Sand Soldier attacks to sometimes not deal damage

Twitch

BUGFIX Venom Cask once again properly adds a stack of Deadly Venom as the cask explodes

Fullscreen Mode

BUGFIXES Fixed a few issues regarding fullscreen mode, such as DirectX errors, offset screens, and framerate capping

5/4 Balance Update

A few firefighting changes based on early midseason trends. We'll have additional followup in normal patches once we've had enough time to properly assess how midseason has landed.

Sejuani

Sejuani's hit the ground running harder than anticipated. We're tapping down some of her newfound strength.

NOTE: A few of the changes we want to make can't be done with the tools that ship quick balance fixes. Expect another update soon with adjustments to Frost Armor.

Base stats

HEALTH 600 ⇒ 560

W - Winter's Wrath

COST 60 mana ⇒ 80 mana

FIRST HIT DAMAGE 30/35/40/45/50 ⇒ 20/25/30/35/40

SECOND HIT DAMAGE 40/75/110/145/180 ⇒ 30/65/100/135/170

Zac

Zac's update introduced new mechanics to learn and make new decisions around. These buffs should ease the learning process a bit.

Q - Stretching Strikes

SLOW DURATION 0.25 seconds ⇒ 0.5 seconds

E - Elastic Slingshot

BASE DAMAGE 80/120/160/200/240 ⇒ 80/130/180/230/280 (reverting the original damage change)

Rift Herald

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where canceling Eye of the Herald's summoning ritual at the very end of its 0.25 second wind-up (before the uncancellable 3-second channel begins) could cause the item to go on an extremely long cooldown, preventing it from being used before it expires

Support Attack Animations

These missed the original round of patch notes so we'll call 'em out now. If something felt different in your first few matches of the patch, you weren't crazy!

Annie, Janna, Morgana, Nami, Sona, and Soraka have had non-gameplay impacting adjustments made to their attack animations
Janna, Nami, and Sona will now use their crit animations when doing empowered attacks
Janna and Nami have had adjustments to their basic attack visual and sound effects

Tank Updates

Maokai

While most tanks bring specific strengths to the table, Maokai does everything at once. So, when the Twisted Treant is at- or above-par with his classmates, he quickly becomes the go-to pick. At the same time, no specific strategy or team comp depends on Maokai’s particular set of skills to succeed. When he’s weaker than other tanks on average, he vanishes off the face of the earth.

This update's about establishing strategies and situations where you really want Maokai, as well as ones where you really don't. We're shaving away generic strengths like Vengeful Maelstrom and its damage reduction aura, and replacing them with situationally-powerful tools like Nature's Grasp, which can lock down bunches of enemies at once but requires setup to succeed. With new potential to claim and control areas (plus a clarified hatred for spellcasters), choosing Maokai is now a much more intreeguing decision.

General

TREEMOTIONAL Maokai’s VO has been updated to match his lore. He’s a mad tree, not a sad tree.

ICONS Maokai’s ability icons have been updated

ABILITY VISUALS Maokai’s ability animations and visual effects have been updated

Base stats

HEALTH 572.2 ⇒ 540

HEALTH GROWTH STAT 90 ⇒ 95

HEALTH REGEN 7 ⇒ 5

ARMOR 28.7 ⇒ 30

Passive - Sap Magic

removedSAP STACKING Sap Magic no longer uses a stacking system

newCOOLDOWN 30/25/20 seconds (at levels 1/6/17)

newRECKLESS MAGIC Each time Maokai casts a spell or is struck by an enemy’s spell, Sap Magic’s cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds (once per spellcast)

HEAL 5/6/7% maximum health (at levels 1/7/13) ⇒ 10/30/50/70/90/110/130 flat, plus 4.5/5.5/6.5/7.5/8.5/9.5/10.5% maximum health (at levels 1/6/9/11/13/15/17)

THRESHOLD Sap Magic won’t trigger if Maokai is above 95% health

Q - Bramble Smash

NAME Arcane Smash ⇒ Bramble Smash

COST 45/50/55/60/65 mana (unchanged)

COOLDOWN 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds (unchanged)

CAST TIME 0.383 seconds ⇒ 0.35 seconds

DAMAGE 70/115/160/205/250 (+0.4 ability power) (unchanged)

KNOCKBACK Enemies near Maokai are knocked back a flat distance ⇒ based on distance from Maokai (closer targets are knocked back slightly more)

MOVEMENT SPEED SLOW 20/27/34/41/48% for 1.5 seconds ⇒ 99% for 0.25 seconds

W - Twisted Advance

COST 75 mana at all ranks ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80 mana

COOLDOWN 13/12/11/10/9 seconds (unchanged)

DAMAGE 9/10/11/12/13% (+3% per 100 ability power) target’s maximum health ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.4 ability power) flat damage

ROOT DURATION 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds ⇒ 1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 seconds

updatedE - Sapling Toss

Saplings tossed into brush become empowered, lasting longer and dealing extra damage.

COST 60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 60 mana at all ranks

COOLDOWN 12 seconds ⇒ 11 seconds

SAPLING DURATION 40/45/50/55/60 seconds ⇒ 30 seconds

DAMAGE 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.6 ability power) flat damage ⇒ 45/70/95/120/145 flat damage plus 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% (+2% per 100 ability power) target’s maximum health

SLOW 50% for 1 second ⇒ 35% for 2 seconds

newFAT SAPLINGS Saplings tossed into brush last 30/40/50/60/70 seconds and have a larger detonation radius. Enemies caught in the explosion take 100% additional damage over 2 seconds.

MINION/MONSTER CAP Sapling Toss’s damage against non-champions is capped at 300 (empowered sapling damage over time has its own cap, for a total of 600 per empowered sapling)

newR - Nature's Grasp

Nature’s Grasp creates a massive wall of brambles that slowly advances forward. Each bramble damages and roots the first enemy champion hit.

BRAMBLES The wall is comprised of five brambles, each of which can affect one champion.

COST 100 mana

COOLDOWN 120/110/100 seconds

RANGE 2500

DAMAGE 150/225/300 (+0.75 ability power)

ROOT 0.6-2.4 seconds, scaling up over the first 1000 distance traveled

Splash updates

Charred Maokai

Totemic Maokai

Festive Maokai

Sejuani

Sejuani's ult is in the running for one of the strongest abilities in the game, but that distinction comes at a cost. Her basic abilities have been kept in a watered-down state to allow Glacial Prison to shine. We're evening things out by converting some of Glacial Prison's power into more impactful things for Sej to do across the rest of her kit. (Real talk, her ult was so bonkers before that the trimmed-down version is still powerful in its own right.)

In terms of what's new, we're keying into Sejuani's themes of Freljordian warleader and heavy cavalry. Frost Armor now augments her mount, Bristle, allowing Sejuani to charge into battle unfettered by slows. She calls melee allies to arms as she approaches the fray, empowering their strikes to render enemies vulnerable to Permafrost's point-and-click stun. With greater strength in her basic abilities, Sejuani’s the tank to pledge fealty to when your team prefers to get up close and personal with the enemy.

General

TITLE The Winter’s Wrath ⇒ Fury of the North

ICONS Sejuani’s ability icons have been updated

ABILITY VISUALS Sejuani’s ability animations and visual effects have been updated

Base stats

ARMOR 29.5 ⇒ 27

ARMOR GROWTH STAT 3 ⇒ 4

ATTACK RANGE 125 ⇒ 150

ATTACK DAMAGE 57.5 ⇒ 56

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH STAT 3.3 ⇒ 3

ATTACK SPEED 0.67 ⇒ 0.625

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH STAT 1.45% ⇒ 3%

newPassive - Fury of the North

FROST ARMOR: After not taking damage for a while, Sejuani gains bonus resistances and slow immunity. Frost Armor briefly lingers after Sejuani takes damage.

BONUS RESISTANCES Frost Armor doubles Sejuani’s total resistances, then adds 100 additional bonus armor and magic resist

BOAR MOBILITY Sejuani is immune to slows while Frost Armor holds

LINGER 1/2/3 seconds (at levels 1/7/14)

RECHARGE Frost Armor recharges after 9 seconds of not taking damage

ANTS Damage from minions or small monsters neither breaks Frost Armor nor interrupts its recharge timer

ICEBREAKER: Enemies stunned by Sejuani are frozen, causing her first spell or attack against them to deal bonus damage.

DAMAGE 10/15/20% target’s maximum health (at levels 1/7/14)

MONSTER DAMAGE 400

Q - Arctic Assault

COST 80/85/90/95/100 mana ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90 mana

COOLDOWN 15/14/13/12/11 seconds ⇒ 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds

DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.4 ability power) ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.4 ability power)

KNOCKUP DURATION ~0.75 seconds ⇒ 0.5 seconds

removedAREA KNOCKUP Sejuani no longer knocks up enemies around the first target hit

newW - Winter's Wrath

Sejuani swings her mace in an arc, then lashes out in a line. Both hits deal damage and apply Frost.

COST 60 mana

COOLDOWN 10/9/8/7/6 seconds

FIRST HIT Deals 30/35/40/45/50 (+1.5% Sejuani's maximum health) damage in a cone, applying Frost and knocking back minions and monsters

FIRST HIT DELAY 0.25 seconds, starting on cast

SECOND HIT Deals 40/75/110/145/180 (+4.5% Sejuani's maximum health) damage in a line, applying Frost

SECOND HIT DELAY 0.75 seconds, starting after the first hit

LIKE LUCIAN Sejuani can move freely during Winter’s Wrath. Both swings will strike in the cast direction, but their hitboxes follow Sejuani’s movement.

newE - Permafrost

FROSTY STRIKES Sejuani and nearby melee allies apply Frost with their basic attacks, stacking up to four times. Sejuani can cast Permafrost on enemies with max Frost stacks.

COST 20 mana

COOLDOWN 1.5 seconds

PER-TARGET COOLDOWN 10/9/8 seconds (at levels 1/7/14, matching Fury of the North’s breakpoints)

DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 (+0.3 ability power)

STUN DURATION 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds

updatedR - Glacial Prison

Sejuani throws her True Ice bola, damaging and stunning the first enemy champion hit. Bolas that travel before exploding are empowered.

COST 100 mana

COOLDOWN 130/115/100 seconds ⇒ 120/100/80 seconds

EMPOWER RANGE Bolas are empowered after traveling 400 distance

DAMAGE 100/125/150 (+0.4 ability power)

EMPOWERED DAMAGE 150/250/350 (+0.8 ability power)

STUN 1 second, doubled for empowered bolas (triggers - but is not prevented by - Permafrost’s per-target stun cooldown)

Empowered bolas also leave behind an ice storm that explodes after a brief delay.

STORM DURATION 2 seconds

STORM SLOW 30% while targets are inside

EXPLOSION DAMAGE 150/250/350 (+0.8 ability power)

EXPLOSION SLOW 80% for 3 seconds

Splash updates

Darkrider Sejuani

Sabretusk Sejuani

Traditional Sejuani

Zac

Zac’s already got some cool stuff going for him, particularly when it comes to diving in with Elastic Slingshot. The thing is, he uses most of his gooey flair to make his way into a fight, leaving him without anything remarkable to do once he’s there. This is a narrower problem than what our other tank updates aim to address, but bringing more of Zac’s kit up to Elastic Slingshot’s bar is a goal we feel is well worth pursuing.

Goo lets us do some thematically weird stuff - an opportunity Zac hasn’t taken full advantage of. We’re using this update to give Zac two new ways to cause chaos once he’s made his way into a fight. Zaun’s Secret Weapon knocks enemy skulls together with Stretching Strikes, and Let’s Bounce! gives him the ability to kidnap people standing on top of him. These new tools give Zac the means to shuffle opponents around the battlefield with sticky, stretchy abilities that feel uniquely his own.

General

PITCHY Zac’s voice now changes in pitch and speed based on his current size

ICONS Zac’s ability icons have been updated

ABILITY VISUALS Zac’s ability animations and visual effects have been updated

NON-ABILITY VISUALS Many of Zac’s idle, movement, and emote animations have also been updated

Base stats

#CLEANNUMBERS Rounded a bunch of stats by very small amounts. Move along.

Passive - Cell Division

All of this is unchanged but we’ll leave it here as a refresher!

Click to expand

HEAL ON GOO PICKUP 4% max health

REVIVE COOLDOWN 300 seconds

HEALTH ON REVIVE 10-50% health, based on remaining bloblet health

BLOBLET REFORM TIME 8/7/6/5/4 seconds (at levels 1/6/10/14/17)

BLOBLET HEALTH 12% of Zac’s max health

BLOBLET RESISTANCES 50% of Zac’s armor and magic resist

newQ - Stretching Strike

Zac’s arm stretches, grabbing the first enemy it hits. Zac then grabs the next enemy he basic attacks and throws them toward each other.

COST 4% current health

COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

DAMAGE 50/70/90/110/130 (+0.3 ability power)

SLOW 60% for 0.25 seconds

BONUS ATTACK RANGE 100

COLLISION DAMAGE 50/70/90/110/130 (+0.3 ability power) to all enemies in the collision area

W - Unstable Matter

All of this is unchanged but we’ll leave it here as a refresher!

Click to expand

COST 4% current health

COOLDOWN 5 seconds

COOLDOWN REFUND 1 second every time Zac picks up a Goo chunk

DAMAGE 40/55/70/85/100 flat, plus 4/5/6/7/8% (+2% per 100 ability power) target’s maximum health (max 200 versus monsters)

E - Elastic Slingshot

COST 4% current health (unchanged)

COOLDOWN 24/21/18/15/12 seconds (unchanged)

TIME-OUT Elastic Slingshot automatically cancels after 0.9/1.05/1.2/1.35/1.5 seconds ⇒ 0.9/1/1.1/1.2/1.3 seconds of channeling

REFUND ON CANCEL Canceled Elastic Slingshots refund 50% cooldown and cost (unchanged)

DAMAGE 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.7 ability power) ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.7 ability power)

KNOCKUP 1 second ⇒ 0.5 seconds

EXTRA GOO Zac spawns a chunk of Goo for every enemy champion or clone hit by Elastic Slingshot, rather than just the first (unchanged)

newR - Let's Bounce!

Zac squishes himself down on-cast, becoming immune to crowd control and slowing enemies above him while charging.

COST No cost

COOLDOWN 130/115/100 seconds

PUDDLE PHYSICS Zac is immune to crowd control while charging (can still be targeted and hit by abilities)

STICKY FEET Enemies above Zac are slowed by 30/40/50%

CHARGE TIME Let’s Bounce! becomes fully charged after 1 second and can be held for an additional 1.5 seconds thereafter

SHORT CHARGE If Let’s Bounce! is released before Zac charges for at least 1 second, Zac knocks back nearby enemies on release

Fully-charged casts cause Zac to suck up all enemies standing on top of him and carry them to the target location.

LONG CHARGE If Let’s Bounce was charged for 1 second or longer, Zac scoops up enemies above him, becoming unstoppable and carrying them to the target location

RANGE 700/850/1000

DAMAGE 150/250/350 (+0.7 ability power) to all enemies in the landing area

SLOW 25% for 0.5 seconds to all enemies in the landing area

New Durability Items

new

Adaptive Helm

Provides health and magic resist. Increases durability against repeated casts of the same spell.

Tanks have been struggling to deal with certain types of magic damage, specifically battle mages like Ryze or Cassiopeia who churn spell after spell into their enemies. Because burst mages have longer cooldowns - and rarely enough damage to one-shot tanks, tanks are less likely to die to them than they are the followup damage from marksmen. Battle mages - with their low cooldowns - circumvent that pattern by continuing to threaten tanks throughout a fight.

This leaves tanks feeling a bit underwhelmed with their available MR against battle mages. We can’t simply tune up MR items, however, without causing tanks to entirely invalidate other mages. Instead, we’re introducing Adaptive Helm to allow tanks some breathing room against persistent spellcasters. Tanks already have items that are tuned sustained damage from physical sources, with items like Randuin’s Omen or Frozen Heart helping them weather the storm. Adaptive Helm is a similar item for incoming magic damage.

COST 2800 gold

BUILD PATH Null-Magic Mantle + Spectre’s Cowl + Rejuvenation Bead + 1000 gold

HEALTH 300

MAGIC RESIST 55

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION +100%

COOLDOWN REDUCTION +10%

UNIQUE PASSIVE Taking magic damage from a spell or effect reduces all subsequent magic damage from that spell or effect by 15% for 4 seconds.

new

Gargoyle Stoneplate

Provides armor and magic resist. Gain more resistances when near multiple enemy champions. Active grants bonus health but reduces your damage; more health granted if near multiple enemy champions.

Two types of champions stack durability items: fighters, and tanks. Tanks go all in on durability, so they can keep protecting, disrupting, and enabling carries throughout a fight. Fighters, on the other hand, want to pick up a bit of durability but ultimately care about their damage as well.

This puts pure durability items in a weird place. If they provide too much raw tankiness, they risk making fighters too hard to duel. On the other hand, if they don’t provide enough, tanks eat too much ambient damage in teamfights to feel safe doing their job. We’re introducing Gargoyle Stoneplate to give tanks - and maybe fighters who have already fallen behind in the one-on-one - the option to gear up for teamfights without making them impossible to duel.

COST 2500 gold

BUILD PATH Chain Vest + Negatron Cloak + 980 gold

ARMOR 40

MAGIC RESIST 40

UNIQUE PASSIVE - STONE SKIN If 3+ enemy champions are nearby, gain 40 bonus armor and magic resist

UNIQUE ACTIVE - METALLICIZE For 4 seconds, grow in size and gain bonus health equal to 40% of your maximum health, but reduce damage dealt by 60%. If Stone Skin is active, the health increase becomes 100% instead.

Durability Item Adjustments

Health is a pretty generic stat, making you tanky against everybody. Resistances are a bit more sharpened, granting increased durability against one type of damage. And then there’s the unique effects on each item, which are much more specific. At the moment, we think items which provide health and resistances are falling too far towards the generalist end.

Most of those items split their stat value about 50/50 between health and resistances. Since health is such a generic durability stat, that gives tanks a pretty efficient one-item power spike. We want the type of damage you itemize against to be more of an intentional decision, so we’re tweaking those generalist items to be more directed in what type of damage they protect against. In other words: less health, more resistances, stronger unique effects.

Sunfire Cape

Health down, armor up. Burn radius down. Burn damage down versus champions, up versus non-champions.

Sunfire Cape has been the top lane first-buy for quite some time, and it’s not hard to see why. With waveclear, durability, and champion combat power, it has everything a growing top laner needs. We’re sharpening its identity as the “pushing” item by pushing (sorry) more strength into damage against non-champions - at the expense of dueling potency.

HEALTH 500 ⇒ 425

ARMOR 50 ⇒ 60

BURN DAMAGE 26-43 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 12-29 (at levels 1-18)

BONUS DAMAGE VS MINIONS/MONSTERS +50% ⇒ +200%

BURN RADIUS 400 ⇒ 325

Bami's Cinder

Burn radius down.

BURN RADIUS 400 ⇒ 325

Enchantment: Cinderhulk

Burn radius down. Burn damage down versus champions, up versus non-champions.

Higher burn damage to monsters should help tank jungler clear speed without overtuning their dueling potential. It also now matches Sunfire’s burn numbers, which is nice from a symmetry standpoint.

BURN DAMAGE 9-43 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 12-29 (at levels 1-18)

BONUS DAMAGE VS MINIONS/MONSTERS +100% ⇒ +200%

BURN RADIUS 400 ⇒ 325

Spirit Visage

Health down. Magic resist up. Healing bonus up.

Magic resist tank items aren’t very robust at the moment. Spirit Visage is by and far the top choice, and Banshee’s Veil is pretty much there for more stats. Spirit Visage is meant to be enticing for champions with high healing (or a strong healer on their team), but we don’t want it to outshine every other option in every other case.

HEALTH 500 ⇒ 425

MAGIC RESIST 55 ⇒ 60

BONUS HEALING RECEIVED 25% ⇒ 30%

Spectre's Cowl

Magic resist down.

Now that tanks have more magic resist options available, Cowl doesn’t need to be quite so potent on its own.

MAGIC RESIST 30 ⇒ 25

Dead Man's Plate

Health down. Armor up.

Dead Man’s Plate is designed to help melee champions close the gap so they can put the hurting on their opponents, but it was also bringing a lot of unnoticed damage of its own. We’re trimming the smaller damage moments in favor of more uptime on chasing power.

HEALTH 500 ⇒ 425

ARMOR 50 ⇒ 60

DREADNOUGHT Gain up to 12.5 Momentum stacks ⇒ 20 Momentum stacks per second while moving

SLOW Crushing Blow’s slow no longer decays over the duration

removedCRUSHING BOOP Basic attacks while below 100 Momentum stacks no longer purge current stacks to deal damage. Instead, they reduce Momentum stacks by 15 for no bonus effect.

Randuin's Omen

Health down. Crit strike damage reduction up. Active slow strength up but duration down.

Randuin’s Omen is “the health/armor item that’s pretty good against basic attacks”. We’re sharpening that even further by greatly increasing its power against critical strikes, while reducing its effectiveness against other threats.

COST 2900 gold (unchanged)

BUILD PATH Giant’s Belt + Warden’s Mail + 900 gold ⇒ Ruby Crystal + Warden’s Mail + Ruby Crystal + 1000 gold

HEALTH 500 ⇒ 350

CRITICAL STRIKE DAMAGE REDUCTION 10% ⇒ 20%

ACTIVE Slow all nearby enemies by 35% for 4 seconds ⇒ 55% for 2 seconds

Warmog's Armor

Warmog’s Heart passive activates at a lower threshold and regenerates more health.

Pulling health out of our tank items left Warmog’s Armor feeling a bit inaccessible. We’re compensating for the lower expected health from items, while also providing light buffs and quality of life improvements to its passive.

Warmog's Heart passive

ACTIVATION THRESHOLD 3000 total health ⇒ 2750 total health

HEALTH REGENERATION 3% max health per second ⇒ 5% max health per second

COOLDOWN UPON TAKING DAMAGE 8 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds

newTHEY TRIED Minion damage only puts Warmog’s Heart on a 3 second cooldown

updated

Banshee's Veil

Now a mage item! Health removed, ability power added.

For tanks, Banshee’s Veil isn’t bought for being Banshee’s Veil, it’s bought because it’s another Spirit Visage stat line. When it comes down to it, a spell shield is a much more carry-oriented ability, because tanks won’t instantly die if caught out by stray crowd control. We’re reworking Banshee’s Veil’s statline to make it more enticing to carries.

COST 2450 gold ⇒ 2700 gold

BUILD PATH Spectre’s Cowl + Negatron Cloak + 530 gold ⇒ Fiendish Codex + Null-Magic Mantle + Blasting Wand + 500 gold

newABILITY POWER 70

newCOOLDOWN REDUCTION 10%

MAGIC RESIST 70 ⇒ 45

removedHEALTH No longer grants health

removedHEALTH REGENERATION No longer grants health regen

UNIQUE PASSIVE Grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds. (unchanged)

updated

Abyssal Scepter

Now a tank item! Health added, ability power removed.

Like Banshee’s Veil, Abyssal Scepter is an item whose passive doesn’t quite line up with its statline. An area-of-effect damage amp is much more appropriate for a durable champion that’s comfortable in the thick of things, but the ability power currently on there makes it much more appropriate for mages. We’re shifting stats around to make Abyssal Scepter the item for tanks who feel comfortable sacrificing raw durability to give their team a bit more damage.

COST 2750 gold ⇒ 2800 gold

newBUILD PATH Fiendish Codex + Negatron Cloak + Amplifying Tome + 695 gold ⇒ Spectre’s Cowl + Negatron Cloak + 880 gold

newHEALTH 300

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION +100%

MAGIC RESIST 50 ⇒ 65

COOLDOWN REDUCTION 10% (unchanged)

removedABILITY POWER No longer grants ability power

UNIQUE PASSIVE Nearby enemy champions take 10% more magic damage (unchanged)

updated

Guardian Angel

Now a physical damage item! Attack damage added. Magic resist removed.

Like Banshee’s Veil, the Guardian Angel passive is much more appropriate for carries who could easily find themselves bursted in an instant and in need of a second chance. While we toyed with the idea of finding a way to make the resurrection effect available in both magic damage and physical damage forms, mages have Zhonya’s Hourglass for a stasis effect, and two stasis effects makes for a really frustrating “playing against” case. As a result, we’re retuning Guardian Angel to have more appropriate stats for carries who churn out physical damage.

TOTAL COST 2400 (unchanged)

BUILD PATH Chain Vest + Negatron Cloak + 880 gold ⇒ B. F. Sword + Cloth Armor + 800 gold

newATTACK DAMAGE 40

ARMOR 60 ⇒ 30

removedMAGIC RESIST No longer grants magic resist

UNIQUE Passive Upon taking lethal damage, restore 30% of maximum health and 30% of maximum mana after 4 seconds of stasis (300 second cooldown) ⇒ 50% of base health and 30% of maximum mana after 4 seconds of stasis (300 second cooldown)

Sterak's Gage

Base attack damage bonus up. Lifeline shield now scales with bonus health, not max health.

Sterak’s Gage is supposed to be a clutch tankiness item for Juggernauts, giving them the base damage increase and burst of durability they need to withstand focused fire. We’re doubling down on that by tying its scaling to bonus health (rather than base health) and upping the damage scaling to boot. With their health-heavy builds and base attack damage, Juggernauts (and other fighters) should feel best about these changes - especially in the late game.

HEALTH 400 (unchanged)

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE +25% ⇒ +30%

UNIQUE PASSIVE - LIFELINE Upon taking at least 400-1800 damage (based on level) within 5 seconds, gain a rapidly decaying shield for 30% of maximum health for 3 seconds ⇒ 75% of your bonus health for 8 seconds.

STERAK’S FURY When Lifeline triggers, grow in size and strength, gaining +25% additional Base Attack Damage ⇒ +40% additional Base Attack Damage

updated

Doran's Shield

No longer reduces damage from basic attacks or single-target spells. Now regenerates health after taking damage from an enemy champion.

Doran’s items give champions a lot of laning strength at the expense of mid-to-late game slot efficiency. In that context, Doran’s Shield is the item that lets you weather a tough lane, so we’re updating its passives to keep you in lane and help you last hit while you save up for your big-ticket items.

COST 450 gold ⇒ 400 gold

HEALTH 80 (unchanged)

HEALTH REGENERATION +6 flat health regeneration per 5 seconds (unchanged)

removedFLAT DAMAGE REDUCTION No longer reduces damage from basic attacks or single target spells

newSHIELD SLAM Basic attacks deal +5 damage to minions on-hit

newUNIQUE PASSIVE Regain 20 health over 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion

Lifesteal Items

Blade of the Ruined King’s 7.6 update put it on the strong side, making it the go-to item for every marksman. Alongside with a small tune down BotRK (just a small one, given the durability changes), we’re giving other items a bit more power to restore diversity to the marksman itemization landscape.

Blade of the Ruined King

COST 3300 gold ⇒ 3400 gold

Death's Dance

ATTACK DAMAGE 75 ⇒ 80

DAMAGE DEFERRED 15% ⇒ 30%

The Bloodthirster

ATTACK DAMAGE 75 ⇒ 80

Ravenous Hydra

ATTACK DAMAGE 75 ⇒ 80

Critical Strike Items

Crit is an integral part of traditional marksman itemization but it’s been underperforming for a while. We’re giving marskmen earlier access to their one-and-a-half item power spike (Infinity Edge + Zeal, generally) while also sharpening the identities of each Zeal upgrade.

Infinity Edge

COST 3600 gold ⇒ 3400 gold

Essence Reaver

COST 3600 gold ⇒ 3400 gold

Zeal

COST 1300 gold ⇒ 1200 gold

Kircheis Shard

COST 750 gold ⇒ 800 gold

PROC DAMAGE 40 ⇒ 50

Runaan's Hurricane

Runaan’s Hurricane is supposed to be about area of effect damage and waveclear, but due to all the things it offers (smoothest build path among all Zeal items, best raw single target damage per second due to the on-hit damage and best area damage) it was simply the best choice in all cases. We’re shifting power to the secondary bolts - preserving Hurricane’s identity as the area-effect Zeal upgrade - but the other things must go.

BUILD PATH Zeal + Recurve Bow + 300 gold ⇒ Zeal + Dagger + Dagger + 800 gold (total cost still 2600 gold)

removedON-HIT DAMAGE No longer grants on-hit damage

SECONDARY BOLT DAMAGE 25% total attack damage ⇒ 40% total attack damage

Rapid Firecannon

Rapid Firecannon and Statikk Shiv cannibalize each other’s strengths due to Energized proc damage not stacking between sources. We’re trying to better differentiate the two in ways that also make their combination more compelling (Long range chain lightning? We’re in there.) RFC is here to not only amp up your range but also charge your other Energized effects faster. Rapidly, one might say.

COMBINE COST 550 gold ⇒ 600 gold (offsets component item cost changes; total cost still 2600 gold)

DAMAGE TO CHAMPIONS 50-160 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 50-120 (at levels 1-18)

newRAPIDITY Attacks become Energized 25% faster

Statikk Shiv

Rapid Firecannon and Statikk Shiv cannibalize each other’s strengths due to Energized proc damage not stacking between sources. We’re trying to better differentiate the two in ways that also make their combination more compelling (Long range chain lightning? We’re in there.) Shiv already had what it needed to be the burst-oriented option (remember: the lightning can crit for double the damage) so we’re tuning it to push that distinction harder.

COMBINE COST 550 ⇒ 600 (offsets component item cost changes; total cost still 2600 gold)

DAMAGE TO CHAMPIONS 50-120 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 60-160 (at levels 1-18)

BONUS DAMAGE VS MINIONS +120% (110-264 total damage) ⇒ +65% (99-264 total damage)

Phantom Dancer

Phantom Dancer’s already doing its own thing pretty well, so we’re adjusting costs to match the other Zeal upgrades and calling it a day.

TOTAL COST 2550 gold ⇒ 2600 gold

COMBINE COST 650 gold ⇒ 800 gold

Armor Penetration Items

Let’s get straight to the point: between Lethality, Last Whisper, and Cleaver, there’s been too much armor penetration in the item system. With the shift in durability items to favor armor over health when dealing with physical damage dealers, those physical damage dealers can’t also have their current degree of effectiveness in mitigating those armor buffs.

These numbers might look kinda harsh, but most of that power was siphoned into the crit and lifesteal item buffs above.

Last Whisper

ARMOR PENETRATION 45% bonus armor ⇒ 35% bonus armor

Lord Dominik's Regards

COST 2700 gold ⇒ 2600 gold

ARMOR PENETRATION 45% bonus armor ⇒ 35% bonus armor

GIANT SLAYER DAMAGE AMP 15% ⇒ 20%

Mortal Reminder

COST 2700 gold ⇒ 2600 gold

ARMOR PENETRATION 45% bonus armor ⇒ 35% bonus armor

The Black Cleaver

ARMOR SHRED PER STACK 5% ⇒ 4%

MAXIMUM SHRED 30% ⇒ 24%

Support Items & Quests

Earn enough gold from a support item to unlock a new effect.

Playing well as a support often means intentionally foregoing actions that grant gold or experience - the two main axes of power in League. In the past, we’ve given supports their own unique items to prop up their lower gold income, but this led to problems (and subsequent nerfs) when other positions found ways to abuse them. We want to give supports additional rewards for good play that aren’t just gold and experience.

updated

Ancient Coin Line

While the Targon’s and Spellthief’s lines encourage supports to play an active role in the laning phase (last-hitting/trading), Ancient Coin’s gameplay consists of “be in lane”. We want to make Ancient Coin’s rewards less consistently safe, allowing users more ways to show off skillful aggression while giving opponents more opportunity to punish mistakes.

Favor update

WAHOO! UNIQUE Passive - Favor: Nearby enemy minions killed by anyone other than Ancient Coin’s holder have a chance to drop either a gold or mana coin to picked up by the Coin user. (Think Thresh souls.) After one coin type has spawned, the next spawn is guaranteed to be the other type.

MAGNETISM Coin pickup range scales moderately with champion attack range

GOLD COINS 20 gold for Ancient Coin, increased to 30 gold for Nomad's Medallion, Talisman of Ascension, and Eye of the Oasis

MANA COINS 8% of missing mana (minimum 15 mana)

newLET’SA GO Ancient Coin and its upgrades now grant +2 gold per 10 seconds

Supports often lag behind the rest of their team in experience, denying them access to base stats and skill ranks. Ancient Coin’s new quest gives supports a boost to stay competitive in ability ranks, granting them a skill point when they complete it.

Quest rewards

QUEST Complete Ancient Coin’s quest by earning 650 gold through its passive gold generation and the Favor passive, and upgrading to Nomad’s Medallion or higher (progress preserved through item upgrades)

YOUR EMPEROR HAS RETURNED Favor is upgraded to Emperor’s Favor on quest completion, causing takedowns on enemy champions to spawn gold and mana coins

ABOVE AND BEYOND On quest completion, gain an Elixir of Skill that instantly grants a skill point when consumed. (You still have a max of 18 skill points per game meaning you’ll finish leveling your abilities at level 17.) The elixir is automatically consumed if no inventory space is available.

Relic Shield Line

Tanks want to be more tanky. A sweet shield - regenerated over time and accelerated by executing minions with Relic Shield - should give tank supports the durability they need to withstand poke, as well as a chunk of health to bolster their initiations.

Quest rewards

QUEST Complete Relic Shield’s quest by earning 650 gold through its passive gold generation and the Spoils of War passive, and upgrading to Targon’s Brace or higher (progress preserved through item upgrades)

USE PROTECTION Relic Shield’s item line gains Shield Battery on quest completion, granting a permanent shield for 250 (+5 per level) that regenerates out of combat. Executing minions accelerates the regeneration.

Spellthief’s Edge Line

Most mage supports already churn out pretty decent damage (looking at you, Zyra/Brand), so rather than give them more damage as a quest reward, we wanted to give them something that feels distinct from the mid lane experience. Extra mobility gives them a tool to dance in and out of fights, giving them a unique reason to be played as supports, rather than mid laners.

Quest rewards

QUEST Complete Spellthief’s Edge’s quest by earning 650 gold through its passive gold generation and the Tribute passive, and upgrading to Frostfang or higher (progress preserved through item upgrades)

GOTTA GO FAST Tribute is upgraded to Queen’s Tribute on quest completion, causing procs to increase movement speed by 50% for 1 second

Tribute mechanics

DELIBERATION Individual spellcasts can only proc Tribute charges once every 1.25 seconds (ex. Morgana's W - Tormented Soil can only proc Tribute once every 1.25 seconds, but other spells that hit during the lockout will still proc Tribute)

MINION PENALTY Last-hitting minions disables Tribute for 12 seconds, refreshing with subsequent minion kills ⇒ 6 seconds, stacking per minion kill. (Reminder: this penalty only affects Spellthief’s Edge and Frostfang)

Frostfang

BASE MANA REGEN 75% ⇒ 50%

ABILITY POWER 15 ⇒ 20

Frost Queen's Claim

BASE MANA REGEN 75% ⇒ 50%

ABILITY POWER 50 ⇒ 60

Eye of the Watchers

BASE MANA REGEN 100% ⇒ 50%

ABILITY POWER 25 ⇒ 35

Contribution Clarity

Many aspects of League showcase damage and kills, but not many focus on what leads to those outputs - the stuns, heals, peels, and big beefy cows that set you up to kill the enemy squishies. We’re making the contributions of said unsung heroes more prominent, with the added benefit of improving tactical clarity for all.

This is our first step of many towards improving this space - look for more across the rest of the season.

Crowd Control Name Display

Crowd control effects can be easy to lose amidst the hubbub of battle, even moreso in a full-on teamfight. By temporarily replacing Summoner Names with the name of the effect, recognition of this vital information goes up. With this, you can tell just how many friends Amumu’s trying to make.

READING IS FUN When champions are crowd controlled, the name of the status effect replaces their summoner or champion name above their health bar until the effect ends

ICON’T BELIEVE IT Crowd control icons have been updated!

End of Game Stats

Four new stats have been added to the End of Game screen for your perusing pleasure!

TRY TO RUN ME THROUGH Damage Mitigated on Self (how much damage you reduced or blocked on yourself through your abilities and shields)

ART OF WAR Damage Dealt to Objectives (damage dealt to Epic Monsters and Structures)

LOOK TO THE HORIZON Damage Dealt to Turrets (...damage dealt to turrets.)

NEVER SEE IT COMIN’ Vision Score (measuring how effective your vision contribution and denial was)

HOLD UP ~~Crowd Control Score (duration of all crowd control you applied over the game)~~ *This one needs a bit more time in the shop. Look for it in a future patch!

Active Item Feedback

Ever wonder just how effectively you used your items? Wonder no longer, as we’re giving you numbers to track the answer to that very question. Gloat on, friends.

Knight’s Vow: Damage Redirected and Healing Received
Mikael’s Crucible: Successful Cleanses
Redemption: Healing Done and Damage Dealt

Spell Attribution VFX

It can be hard to tell, and thus appreciate, who cast certain summoner spells or items on a target. This change adds a small VFX trail from caster to castee.

Death VFX

Our old death VFX were too slow and too subtle. We want players (and viewers) to be able to instantly discern when an ally or enemy dies, so we updated the VFX to be much snappier. This better communicates the flow of a teamfight.

Active Item HUD

The active (castable) portion of our items contain a lot of power and gold-efficiency … when used. This change adds a thicker and more prominent border to our major activatable items, reminding you to take full advantage of pickups such as Redemption, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Blade of the Ruined King.

Rift Herald

Rift Herald has new visuals, a new fighting style, and can be summoned to wreak havoc to turrets.

We always wanted Rift Herald to be a compelling objective up toward top, but she’s historically failed to earn her place on the map. So, we revisited the encounter and its rewards for midseason. With a brand new fighting style (but same lack of protective eyewear), Rift Herald will feel like a more epic fight. Once defeated, the big changes come into play. She is imprisoned in a trinket that can be crushed to summon her. Once unleashed, she marches down to the nearest lane, ignoring enemy champions in her mindless drive to slam turrets (and inhibitors and the Nexus) into little pieces until killed. So maybe try to kill her while you still have a base left.

The encounter

SPAWN TIME 10 minutes (unchanged)

ATTACK DAMAGE 119-361 (based on level) ⇒ 100-250 (based on level)

ATTACK SPEED 0.667 ⇒ 0.5

ATTACK RANGE 150 ⇒ 250

EYE OPENING CADENCE Every 3 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds, reduced by 2.5 seconds per champion attack

BLIND SPOT Poking Rift Herald’s eye deals 12% of her maximum health as damage (unchanged)

LEARNT MY LESSON Rift Herald won’t open her eye below 15% health

OUT OF THE PIT Rift Herald can walk outside of the pit without losing aggro

SHE’S PATIENT Rift Herald is more lenient towards swapping targets and leashing

GOLD REWARD 50 (ish) global gold ⇒ 25 to her killer

newLEEROY At the start of the fight, Rift Herald winds up and charges forward, knocking aside enemies she passes through and damaging them for double her attack damage

newENRAGE At certain health thresholds, Rift Herald winds up for an attack that deals triple her attack damage in a cone in front of her

The reward

NEW Rift Herald is captured in the Eye of the Herald when killed. Any member of the team that killed Rift Herald can pick it up, temporarily replacing their trinket.

CHAOS! Channeling Eye of the Herald for 3.5 seconds will crush it to summon Rift Herald from the void as your team’s ally

NEW(ISH) Eye of the Herald grants Empowered Recall while held

DURATION Eye of the Herald expires after 4 minutes if not used.

Rift Herald returned

CHAAARGE When summoned, Rift Herald will head to the nearest lane and starts killing enemy minions and structures

HEALTH 4,000 - 6,400 (based on average level of game)

MOVEMENT SPEED 425

ATTACK DAMAGE 80-200 (based on average champion level of all ten players)

BASIC ATTACK 3% of Herald's current health in addition to Base AD

TURRET LEAP ATTACK When Rift Herald approaches turrets she winds up and leaps into melee range, dealing 150 damage plus 25% of her current health to the turret and herself

newENRAGE At certain health thresholds, Rift Herald winds up for an attack that deals double her attack damage in a cone in front of her (same as her encounter stage)

BLINDSPOT Poking Rift Herald’s eye deals 20% of her maximum health as damage

STAHP Rift Herald can be affected by most forms of crowd control

EYE OPENING CADENCE Every 3 seconds

DUCHESS SMASH Rift Herald disables turret backdoor defenses even when no allied minions are nearby

Champions

Magic Resist Per Level

With Aegis of the Legion's old aura out of the game, squishy champions who were relying on it to give them enough magic resist find themselves a bit on the burstable side.

HOORAY Champions who previously gained no magic resist per level now gain 0.5 per level

AFFECTED CHAMPIONS Ahri, Anivia, Annie, Ashe, Aurelion Sol, Azir, Bard, Brand, Caitlyn, Cassiopeia, Corki, Draven, Elise, Ezreal, Fiddlesticks, Gnar, Graves, Heimerdinger, Janna, Jayce, Jhin, Jinx, Kalista, Karma, Karthus, Kassadin, Kayle, Kennen, Kindred, Kog’Maw, LeBlanc, Lissandra, Lucian, Lulu, Lux, Malzahar, Miss Fortune, Morgana, Nami, Nidalee, Orianna, Quinn, Rakan, Ryze, Sivir, Sona, Soraka, Swain, Syndra, Taliyah, Teemo, Thresh, Tristana, Twisted Fate, Twitch, Urgot, Varus, Vayne, Veigar, Vel’Koz, Viktor, Vladimir, Xayah, Xerath, Yasuo, Ziggs, Zilean, Zyra

Graves

Hmmm...

Collateral Damage can have strong combo potential, but Graves can't have a built-in way to ignore its tradeoffs.

General

ONE THING AT A TIME Graves can no longer queue multiple spells during his basic attack animation

BUT WHY This prevents an unintended interaction where Graves could remain in attack range after ulting by queuing both Collateral Damage and Quickdraw during the same attack animation

Renekton

Cleanin’ up a bunch of stuff.

General

PREMEDITATION Renekton no longer ignores inputs during his ability’s cast times. Once an ability has completed, he’ll move on to the next queued action.

CONSOLIDATION Various buffs and timers tracked in the buff bar (ex. remaining time to cast Dice) are now tracked on their respective ability icons instead

Passive - Reign of Anger

BUGFIX Renekton’s first attack when (re)entering combat now properly grants the full 5 Fury

Q - Cull the Meek

BUGFIX Cull the Meek’s range now properly scales with all size-modifying effects, not just Dominus

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Cull the Meek wasn’t hitting Invisible units

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Renekton could basic attack at the same time as Cull the Meek’s damage was dealt

E - Slice and Dice

BUGFIX Fixed a timing issue that could inconsistently cause Slice and Dice to not hit enemies Renekton passes through

R - Dominus

BUGFIX No longer deals an extra tick of damage on-cast

Ryze

Spell Flux still spreads if its target dies while E is mid-air.

We’re making Spell Flux more forgiving on higher-latency environments.

E - Spell Flux

LAG FORGIVENESS If Spell Flux’s target dies while the projectile is traveling, Spell Flux will still spread to nearby enemies

Fizz

Heading off what would’ve been an unintentionally harsh interaction with Maokai’s updated passive.

W - Seastone Trident

CAN’T SAP THIS MAGIC Seastone Trident’s damage-over-time ticks, including the initial application, no longer count as spell hits (matching similar persistent effects like Teemo’s Toxic Shot)

Shen

Heading off what would’ve been an unintentionally harsh interaction with Maokai’s updated passive.

Q - Twilight Assault

CAN’T SAP THIS MAGIC Twilight Assault’s empowered attacks no longer count as spell hits

Items

Poacher's Dirk

At its old price tag of 750 gold, Poacher’s Dirk was almost always a worse purchase than two Long Swords. We want to make Poacher’s Dirk a more competitive option, but we don’t want to power creep the item system. So we’re shrinking its cost and its stats. If you have the option to get two Long Swords, you’ll probably still want to go that route. But if you can’t pony up 700 gold, Poacher’s Dirk offers a chance to recover some tempo by making riskier plays, compared to the safer - but slower - option of stacking consumables instead.

COST 750 gold ⇒ 600 gold

COMBINE COST 400 gold ⇒ 250 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE 15 ⇒ 10

COOLDOWN 60 seconds ⇒ 50 seconds

Recall VFX

Cleanin’ up a bunch of stuff.

PIXEL CONSERVATION Cleaned up some excess particles

WHERE DID MY RINGS GO Recall VFX no longer clip into the ground

Summoner Spells

Teleport

Usability improvements.

CLOSE ENOUGH If Teleport is cast off-screen, it’ll search for a nearby unit to target

HI, RUMBLE Spells can no longer be queued during Teleport’s channel time

Rotating Game Modes

Dark Star: Singularity runs from 5/4/2017 at 11 AM PT to 5/15/2017 at 11:59 PM PT. Play as Dark Star Thresh in a 3v3 match on Cosmic Ruins, a new map with a Dark Star Thresh announcer and chilling new music.

Hook or Flay opposing players and Abyss Scuttlers into the black hole in the center of the map to gain points
You’ll fly further the more damage you’ve taken, but you can’t die from health loss
The first team to 100 points wins the round, and the first team to win two rounds wins the game

You can unlock two icons for this game mode. Look out for more information as the Dark Star nears.

Queue Health Update

What does this update mean?

Ranked Solo/Duo

Ranked Flex

Bugfixes

Enemies knocked out of a dash by displacement effects are now properly locked out of other actions (ex. Flash) for the duration of the displacement
Vilemaw’s damage can no longer be avoided by standing in very specific spots along the wall
Amumu's R - Curse of the Sad Mummy VFX no longer appear in the wrong place if Amumu flashes during its cast time
Amumu's R - Curse of the Sad Mummy VFX no longer stay on the map forever if Amumu dies while casting it
Redemption no longer erroneously counts as a spellcast for effects like Tear of the Goddess
Shaco's clone no longer crashes the game if it dies in the fountain on ARAM
Instances of Deathfire Touch are no longer overwritten by new instances that would expire sooner
Singed’s Q - Poison Trail damage now increases as soon as he puts another skill point in it, rather than waiting until he toggles it off and on again
Volibear's W - Frenzy attack speed bonus now increases as soon as he puts another skill point into it, rather than waiting until the buff falls off and is reapplied
Fixed a bug that could cause Rakan’s Q - Gleaming Quill to cost no mana in certain situations
Fixed a bug preventing Rakan from reliably proccing Kalista’s W - Sentinel soul-mark damage if he attacked too quickly after the mark was applied
Udyr’s Q - Tiger Stance damage over time no longer melts wards
Cosmic Dawn Rakan no longer leaves behind a purple ghost of himself after Recalling
Similarly, Cosmic Dawn Rakan no longer turns himself purple when his Recall is cancelled
Fixed Cosmic Dawn Rakan’s Recall and death audio
Cosmic Dusk Xayah’s splash has been flipped in Xayah’s AIR client champion info page so she’s not covered up by the interface
Fixed a Mac bug causing Cosmic Blade Master Yi’s W - Meditate and R - Highlander visual effects to flicker rapidly in some situations
Fixed Conqueror Karma’s channeling animation (ex. when capturing Skarner’s Crystal Spires)

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following skins will be released in patch 7.9!

Dark Star Kha'Zix

Dark Star Orianna

The following chromas will be released in patch 7.9!

Sandstorm Ekko

Officer Vi

Warlord Shen

394 Comments

Solari FortuneMay 2, 2017186 votes

THE CIGAR RETURNS THE MEME IS FINALLY DEAD

DullfinMay 2, 201718 votes

[deleted]

SlendidMay 2, 201719 votes

Rammus

ExadianMay 2, 2017110 votes

So tanks can't have a ton of health, spell shield or GA, but Graves can have a cigar?

Final CutterMay 2, 2017116 votes

I see the meme only got reworked

halokiteMay 3, 20176 votes

I almost feel this comment deserves more upvotes than the one it's in reply to

Oh ShenanigansMay 4, 20176 votes

"LOGGED IN JUST TO UPVOTE" haven't seen that meme in a while lul

ThwartinMaPlansMay 2, 201744 votes

All the Hp nerfs are going to make true damage dealers even more of a nightmare.

Rathar DashingMay 2, 20174 votes

Like, uh, maybe Cho'gath?

Rito CoridyeMay 2, 20175 votes

Irelia will appreciate this

A Flock of DogsMay 2, 201724 votes

As a Cho'Gath main, I am very pleased. Furthermore, that self damage reduction on the new item? True damage doesn't care.

Prepare to be nom'd

PeponiPoroMay 3, 20177 votes

I have a PBE account and somehow I still didn't know that true damage wasn't affected by the damage reduction. That is somewhat horrifying.

A Flock of DogsMay 2, 201735 votes

Five Randuin's make crits deal no damage now? Pantheon can't kill you? [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Automated RivenMay 2, 201713 votes

i wonder if that is how this works. Cause that would mean that ashe can only ever do 1 aa of damage to you every 5 or so seconds and yas will never do damage unless he gimps his whole build. Just imagine a game where ashe yas trynd and panth are on the same team. You would literally be unkillable.

EvanThomasMay 3, 201730 votes

So you're saying 5 Randuin's kills cancer. I'm on board.

~~actually i'm on boards lul i'm so funny~~

Automated RivenMay 3, 20173 votes

Take my upvote

Fondling GemsMay 3, 20174 votes

I am pretty sure that each reduction is applied to the left over value.

So the first one reduces your crit dmg by 20%, the next one reduces the remaining amount by 20%, etc. So 6 Randuins would reduce a crit's damage down to 26%

Might be miss-remembering that though.

LostFr0stMay 3, 20175 votes

'Tis a unique now no?

Fondling GemsMay 4, 20172 votes

Did they swap it to unique? I know it wasn't unique before and for a while at least the passive definitely wasn't unique on the PBE.

LostFr0stMay 4, 20171 votes

! I'm not really sure now that you mention it... I was so busy looking at adaptive helm, stoneplate, and the other items I didn't pay attention to the Pbe Randuins. It doesn't say unique in-game now does it...

Fondling GemsMay 4, 20176 votes

#Stacking Intensifies

Light SovereignMay 2, 201731 votes

I Hope graves gets Lung Cancer.

SteelCrowMay 3, 20175 votes

I hope the hysteria around it does, too.

LaughingStaplerMay 2, 201726 votes

I feel retarded after reading these patch notes. It feels like they were directly dictated by a guy who had too much coffee and never once read over his work. I don't mind an informal style but there should still be SOME standards.

And then there’s the unique effects on each item, which are much more specific.

Is basic grammar that hard? This is just one example of many.

PrinceBedazzledMay 2, 201716 votes

CIGAR

NyanoMay 2, 201715 votes

All those Renekton bug fixes? Where is my boy's bug fixes Mordekaiser

ZealokaiserMay 2, 201720 votes

You must be kidding. They just stealth nerfed him with the adaptive helmet (oh you hit one Q? Good job, the next two are now 15% weaker) and item changes. If you think any of Morde's numerous, 100% repeatable bugs are ever going to be fixed, you're delusional. He hasn't seen a change at all since 6.17, and not seen a positive or impactful fix since 6.1 (when our Rito gods decided that Mordekaiser should be playable solo) . Mordekaiser mains like myself have almost entirely given up hope that their beloved champion will ever see some love in this regard, and we all just do our best to play the champion we love.

Even the way they changed the durability of items is a slight nerf to Morde, because of how he interacts with health for his shield.

No one who plays Mordekaiser wants them to rework him again. They re-worked him so he was viable for 1 niche role, and a generic (and bad) top/mid laner against people who can't escape him, and put a ton of his power budget into a passive you essentially have no control over (taking dragon) and have little to no control over (controlling dragon is an exercise is frustration).

dogownerjrMay 3, 20174 votes

"No one who plays Mordekaiser wants them to rework him again"

As a Morde main, I have to say I agree with you. I am very afraid of Riot attempting to rework him again and ruining him even more. I've said this before, but I feel the need to continue saying this. I literally would rather Riot fix Morde's 100+ bugs (https://goo.gl/B1GJn1 )than attempt to rework him and make him worse. His bugs are so impactful in every single game that fixing them is "rework" enough for my satisfaction.

its derekMay 2, 201715 votes

Does the new Banshee's give 10% CDR too? Doesn't seem to say so in the patch notes but it builds out of Fiendish Codex?

StoryDuckMay 2, 201714 votes

What are the values of Shield battery? What is the max shield value, how fast does it recharge, how much faster is the recharge when executing minions?

Colorful DreamMay 3, 20178 votes

Thank you, yes. I was wondering these same things for that passive shield as well as the speed boost for spellthief's quest: How much speed? What duration? Decay or no?

It seems they give us numbers for a great many things and then randomly forgo the details for other things. Example: They gave us exact numbers for the base-stat changes to Maokai and Sej, but when it came to Zac it's just, "Rounded a bunch of stats by very small amounts. Move along." I don't want to move along, Rito. Give us the amounts. GIVE US NUMBERS.

ShivoraMay 2, 201710 votes

Think my Cntrl+F is broken. I keep searching for the ninja tabi nerfs but I can't find them. All that keeps displaying is last whisper nerfs?

Xzavie RoombaMay 2, 20173 votes

yah i like how they nerfed lethality increased the cost of some ad items then made tank items even cheaper rip adcs for the rest of this season

Glory ln DeathMay 2, 201723 votes

I also like how they added AD to several AD items, reduced the price of big-ticket AD items (-200 cost for Infinity Edge), increased bonus damage to tanks on LDR, made Guardian's Angel a fantastic hybrid offense-defense AD item, and ADC mains still whine.

Tree GnomeMay 3, 20171 votes

LDR was clearly nurfed, bud. They buffed armor and reduced the armor pen on LDR. And they added ad to bloodthirster, sure, but the other two are bruiser items. Small cost reductions are nice though, I guess.

Glory ln DeathMay 4, 20174 votes

LDR cost was decreased by 100, Giant Slayer passive was increased from 15% bonus damage to 20% bonus damage without changing the health requirements, and armor was buffed. Those are all buffs to LDR. The only nerf was the bonus armor pen reduction, which was done to offset the armor buffs (largely because the Last Whisper items and Black Cleaver were a bit too strong before the armor buffs, anyways, which would have put them over the edge).

ForeverLaxxMay 4, 20174 votes

ADC mains will always whine if any change makes it look like they might have to take 4 attacks to kill something instead of 3.

StormdreamerMay 7, 20172 votes

Let's take stock of things for ADCs shall we? Tank items: armor up, health down, randuins buff, new damage reduction item. ADC items: LW nerf, cleaver nerf, LDR up to 20% bonus damage, crit items cheaper, Bork nerf, BT buff, new damage GA. More armor, less armor pen = bad for adcs Buff to ldr but less health in general to reach 1000 health difference making the increase in max bonus useless = bad for adcs Cheaper crit items but randuins buff, awesome new GA but OP new tank item, I think these cancel out tbh. But us 'whining' about the fact that there's STILL an item that only costs 1100 gold that BLOCKS 12% OF ALL OF OUR DAMAGE, is unreasonable to you.

Glory ln DeathMay 7, 20174 votes

1100 gold item that blocks 12% of auto-attack based damage vs 1300 gold item that cancels 35% of tanks' defenses from items, runes and masteries.

Also, most tanks get to 4000-4500 health by the end of the game, even after the health nerfs (a total of about 300 health was removed from tank items). ADCs normally only get between 2000 and 2500 health (depending on whether or not they build Cleaver). That's a 2000 health difference, when you only need 1000. And, once there is an 800 health difference, you already have more damage amp than previously.

And, if you do the math for effective health, the changes to resistance-health items were actually nerfs overall. Before the update, Sunfire gave tanks 750 effective health against physical damage, now it only gives 680. Same for the other items that were changed. It evens out to be about the same by late game, once the tank has a bunch of health, but early and mid-game are weaker to both damage types, no matter what you build.

LilFox15May 3, 201710 votes

Gargoyle Stoneplate... +Max HP... UNBENCH THE KENCH BABY TahmKench

honorspellMay 3, 20173 votes

CAJUUUUUUUUN FEEEEEEEEEESH!!!

SHSLdivaMay 2, 20178 votes

so like. are supports supposed to LIKE these changes? am i too dumb for this because they seem really fucking dumb. like uh. REALLY FUCKING DUMB.

Glory ln DeathMay 2, 201733 votes

am i too dumb for this

Yes.

For the most part, the changes are pretty dang good. The mana regen nerfs on Spell thief's line aren't awesome for its users, but it will help other supports become more viable. Ancient Coin's Quest reward will be hit or miss depending on the game, but it's certainly not bad, and the gold gen mechanic is more interactive. Everything else is pretty amazing.

Automated RivenMay 2, 20177 votes

I love the new relic shield. Now i can play tank supports and actually feel tanky.

Onyx RagdollMay 4, 20175 votes

Coin is destroyed. They took away its reliability for a minigame that gets its users killed for a reward that isn't worth it. And it doesn't even reliably drop the gold which is its main purpose for existing, to give supports who don't typically get a lot of gold to make up for it, it's locked behind random chance and an alternative drop that is completely worthless after you get your first item. It is forcing the supports who don't want to be aggressive or tanky to be both just to benefit from taking it over its counterparts.

No Tengo HambreMay 3, 20178 votes

looks down at the comments, sees no one mentioned anything about it PERSONA 5 REFERENCE IS NOT LOST UPON ME. <3 you riot. p5 battle theme is amazing

ArroweMay 3, 20178 votes

It doesn't make sense to me that Graves' ult knock-back cancel is getting removed but Riven is allowed to weave invisible auto attacks into her Q as well as many other animation cancels. I believe in animation cancel equality.