Oh. Hello.
This patch, we’re flipping over to focusing on champions. Past the usual balancing, we’ve given adjustments to four friends: a follow-up buff to a catfish, a sweeping pass to solve some persistent issues with a dancer, a helping hand for a purple doctor in the jungle, and a boost to a fawn's solo combat. Then, we're also bringing down the power in Stridebreaker's slow, and giving some love to its favorite buyers (Darius and Garen) to compensate.
And with Sentinels of Light comes a new event game mode, Ultimate Spellbook! Channel your inner Sylas and be prepared for an ult-erly good time.
We’ll see ya in the next one.
Take this portal to the TFT patch notes to check out the last patch before our Mid-Set, Reckoning: Dawn of Heroes!
Q can no longer be cast when dashing with E. R base recast damage decreased.
The last set of changes in patch 11.6 brought Akali back in line in Average and Elite levels of play, but she’s still a force to be reckoned with in the Pro scene. With this change, she’ll be slowed down before her full burst of damage, giving enemies a chance to strike back.
Passive Noxian Might bonus attack damage increased. E cooldown decreased.
With the removal of Stridebreaker's dash in 11.13, Darius could use some help getting his enemies in position for that sweet, sweet dunk. Reverting his nerf in patch 11.2, which was a direct result of his access to a dash.
Base attack speed increased. Passive health regen now scales; cooldown increased early. Q now heals more when it hits a monster. E now swats small monsters and does more damage to monsters.
The good doctor has been going where he pleases in top lane, but has been significantly behind in the jungle. In order to keep both roles at a similar level, we’re giving him several buffs that should help start the meatball rolling in the jungle, while also tapping down his laning power and sustain. These changes should also set him up for our next patch, where we plan to further doctor him up for all roles and skill levels.
Q bonus movement speed increased. R damage from target’s missing health increased.
To adjust for changes to Garen’s most loved items this patch (Stridebreaker and Dead Man’s Plate), we’re bumping up his movement speed. We’re also adding extra oomph to his ult so that even if he can’t get to squishier targets, his ult will be more powerful against tankier frontlines.
Base attack damage increased.
Buffing up Graves the only way we know how (and also, he’s been really struggling in the current meta).
Base movement speed increased.
With long cast times and highly-predictable plans of attack, Illaoi can’t really adapt on the fly. While immobility is an important weakness for juggernauts, this has significantly gated her performance in higher skill tiers, making her more pub stompy than is long-term healthy. With more movement speed, she’ll be more able to dodge skillshots, close gaps, and be in the right place at the right time. Overall, this should help her feel more adaptable while also leaving her in a better position for future tuning.
Base health and magic resist decreased; health growth increased. Passive max stacks decreased, bonus attack speed per stack decreased early but increased later; empowered damage decreased. Q bonus damage to minions now scales with champion level. W damage reduction now works against magic damage; maximum damage increased. E can no longer be recast while CC'd. R has a new passive.
We’ve got a set of changes for Irelia, who’s been dealing with some long standing issues. The gist: We’re smoothing out her power curve, toning down her dominance in Pro play by giving her enemies more opportunities for counterplay, and polishing up her kit to make it feel better to play overall.
For more insight, we get into it in this Quick Gameplay Thoughts article!
E base shield increased later.
With patch 11.13’s nerf to Shurelya’s Battlesong and the popularity of a certain snake's tooth, Ivern has felt weaker in the jungle. We’re returning the shield power that he lost in 11.3 so that he can protect his friends (and the forest) a little better.
Base attack damage decreased.
Karma has risen in the ranks of Pro play as a safe top or mid pick that scales well with other carries. We’re drawing back her solo lane power by lowering her ability to consistently harass and push waves against short-ranged enemies.
Base health regen decreased; armor increased. Passive damage increased and now heals. Q cost increased; max stacks decreased; bonus movement speed per stack decreased and lasts longer; cooldown now scales; base damage increased. W damage increased. E cooldown increased; slow is now flat; damage increased. R damage ratio increased; sleep duration decreased; slow decreased and no longer increases over the duration.
You know there’s a lot coming up when the summary line is a paragraph, so here’s the TL;DR—we’re buffing Lillia so that she’s less bashful when bonking down enemies in solo combat.
How? We’re shifting some of her power out of her fast clear and coordination-dependent CC, which are often leveraged in higher levels of play into duel-focused strengths. This means that we’re bringing down her early game clear and movement speed, but helping her quickly recoup the losses once she gets her hooves on some AP and reaches mid-to-late game. With the addition of innate sustain, she’ll be able to stay healthy in extended fights and when she isn’t able to perfectly clear camps.
Base health reduced. Q damage ratio decreased.
Malzahar was one of the few mages that was already strong before the buffs to mana Mythics last patch. Now that we know exactly where he’s landed, we know just how much to reel him back in. We're lowering the scaling on Malzahar’s Q so that his power continues to come from his most unique and character-defining abilities.
Passive damage decreased against minions.
Nocturne has been a consistent force to be reckoned with, but the Stridebreaker reshape kicked him into overdrive. We're nerfing Stridebreaker this patch, but we don't expect that to fully knock him down from his pedestal, particularly in lane. One of Nocturne’s key strengths is his ability to sit in lane and sustain off of waves, shrugging off most harass that comes his way. Similar to the reasoning behind Viego’s nerf last patch, Nocturne is relying on an unhealthy pattern of resourceless sustain. He should be earning his keep instead of relying on his passive, and opponents should feel like they can make a dent in his shadows.
Q1 base damage increased, Q2 base damage increased later.
The nerf to Prowler’s Claw in patch 11.13 left Rek’Sai very sad. We’re giving her some direct compensation with a touch of mid-game burst.
Q damage increased.
The Songstress has been feeling out of tune in both support and mid, so we’re helping her practice her scales (damage scaling, you know?) on one of her more aggressive abilities.
Base health and movement speed reduced.
Whether AD or AP, Jungle Shaco is simply very strong. We’re targeting both builds by making him a little more squishy and a little less slippery, given his many tools of elusion and mayhem.
Passive bonus damage now scales. Q now deals Passive damage to enemy champions; heal scaling updated. W cooldown refund bugfix; cooldown and mana cost refund increased. R base shield increased early; ally self slow decreased early.
One of our goals with Tahm Kench’s mini-rework in 11.13 was to get him off the "he can't be buffed because of Pro play" bench, and to help him find more success as a support. As of right now, we suspect he’s weaker than where he should be, so we’re cautiously buffing him until we have conclusive results from Pro play.
Another goal was to push the Kench more towards support, whereas before he was mostly seen in the jungle or top lane in solo queue. He’s not seeing as much support play as we expected, so we’re adjusting his scaling to be less gold and experience dependent.
Q cost decreased. E cost decreased.
Taric has been in a constant struggle with mana dependence this season, so we’re directly dropping his costs so he can sparkle like the enchanting jewel he is.
W cooldown increased later.
Xin Zhao is at the top of his game and the jungle roster, especially with recent nerfs to his competitors (Rumble and Udyr). To knock him down a peg, we’re reducing how often he’s able to threaten enemies at a distance.
Base mana reduced.
Bot Ziggs has been toeing the line for a while now, and with his 11.12 buffs, 11.13 mage item buffs, and his unending supply of bombs (where does he even pull them out from?), he’s finally crossed it. Although his buff in 11.12 lent a hand to this, we believe those changes were important to help Ziggs’ abilities deliver on their gameplay promise, so we’re opting for a nerf that should hit his bot lane early game the hardest.
Dead Man's Plate’s changes from last patch led to a win rate drop for tanks since it lost movement speed and gained damage-scaling. To offset, we’re upping its armor to give tanks more tank to tank.
Stridebreaker landed strong after its change last patch. One of our goals for the item was to give fighters a way to stick to a target for a period of time, but they don’t need to bring their unlucky foe to a complete standstill to do that. So we’re toning down how much it can slow, but keeping its slow over time.
Also, we did an oopsie—the changes also caused Stridebreaker to lose 5 AD on completion. That’s fixed now.
Sentinels of Light brings a new event game mode, Ultimate Spellbook! In this mode, you'll pick a different champion's ultimate to use instead of a second Summoner Spell to pull off the wombo combo of your dreams!
We're making an under-the-hood change to move League's penalties onto our Riot-wide system. The only immediate impact is a change to how chat restrictions work, since the Riot-wide system uses time-based restrictions.
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: