Split 2 is going full steam ahead, and what better way to keep the ranked journey entertaining than with a new patch—welcome to 13.16!
In this week’s patch we have quite a few changes coming at you, both on Summoner’s Rift and in Arena. On the Rift side of things, we have some followup tweaks to Naafiri, a plan to make Shaco’s boxes a bit less magical (and annoying), quite a few buffs to a wide variety of champs, and a QoL change for everyone’s favorite Void dad. On the Arena front we’ve got 44 changes, mainly looking to bolster champions that could use the help in Arena while addressing some overperforming champions/augments/items. We also have a new batch of Immortal Journey skins gracing the Rift this patch and a Mythic Shop rotation, so make sure to check those out!
Catch a portal to the TFT patch notes here where my TFT counterpart will walk you through the nerfs to my favorite champion (Zeri)!
We have a few additional Arena balance adjustments that didn’t make it into the initial patch notes. These went live with the patch, but we wanted to make sure we shared them with all of you.
Q energy cost decreased, base damage increased.
Akali isn’t doing too great across multiple skill brackets and could use some sharper and more lethal weapons in her bag of ninja tools. Our goals in this patch are to make Akali’s energy costs less prohibitive during her laning phase and to give her trades more bite to make her opponents second guess trading into this shinobi. Believe it!
Passive mana restoration increased. Q AP scaling increased. E AP scaling increased.
Contrary to popular belief, Brand has not been on fire in solo queue, especially in the mid lane. While many players opt to play Brand as a support, we also want to make sure he’s still a viable mid-lane option. To that end, we’ll be increasing the mana restoration on his passive to help him better sustain his mana pools in mid. We’ll also be increasing the AP ratios on his Q and E to better bring out Brand’s primary strength of dealing damage, while not increasing the reasonable amount of damage his W and R already do.
Passive attacks per Headshot reduced.
Caitlyn has been hurting for a while, and her buffs from the previous patch didn't power her up as much as we had wanted. We still like her caring about auto attacks and crits, but there's only so far we're willing to push individual Headshot damage. So instead, we're providing her with more Headshots!
Q initial base damage increased, slow increased early. W base shield value increased.
Ekko has been weak across all skill brackets for some time now, so we’re looking to add some power back into his kit in a way that will benefit him in the mid lane where interacting with him is a bit more meaningful. He’s currently weak to ranged harass (as intended), but we want to make playing him a bit more bearable into those matchups, so we’ll be giving him more poke in the form of a Q1 buff, more slow/chase down potential to use W aggressively, and more base shield strength when using it defensively.
Q AP scaling increased, ultimate Q AP scaling increased. R cooldown decreased.
Karma isn’t quite hitting the bar when it comes to scaling offensively as she often has to rely on her shields or her less reliable W to contribute in fights post-laning phase. With these changes we’re looking to give Karma some more reliance on her Q come late game (as AP increases) and give her more reason to Mantra Q.
Passive on-hit damage increased.
Lucian is an exciting champion and fan favorite, but unfortunately he isn’t performing well at this point in time. We’ll be increasing the base damage of his passive in order to strengthen his role as a lane bully in a way that should still keep him out of solo lanes.
Health growth increased. Q AP scaling increased. E AP scaling increased.
Since her much needed Pro-skewed nerfs back in patch 13.12, Lulu has had some trouble getting back on her feet. While we’re hesitant to give her power that will make her much stronger in hyper-coordinated play, we do want to give her power back in a way that will benefit those that play her in solo queue. We expect some AP scaling buffs to do the trick here as they’ll give her some more offensive power, but only when she’s able to earn the gold to buy that power.
E damage tick rate increased, minion execute threshold decreased.
In this patch we’re adding some small quality of life changes to Malzahar’s Malefic Visions to address some consistency issues with last hitting using E. While the lower minion execute threshold might look like a nerf, when combined with the faster damage tick rate this should result in players more reliably getting last hits on minions and that sweet, sweet gold.
Q damage increased. E base shield strength increased.
With Milio nerfed to reduce his pro play presence, we want to introduce some less Pro-skewed buffs that are focused less on team fights where coordination maximizes output. This also gives him the option to take matters into his own hands, maxing Q earlier on and converting AP into even more success. Gold scaling and late-game power tend to be more represented in solo queue than Pro play, where players intentionally fall off of minion waves and turrets to focus more resources on the carries. You deserve that gold, Milio!
Base armor, attack damage, and attack speed decreased.
Naafiri has settled a bit stronger than we think is healthy for her long term, especially in top lane, which is roughly on par with mid lane at the moment. The fact that she's consistently able to go toe-to-toe with bruisers in brawls is a signal that her base fighting stats are a tad on the high side. So we're taking aim at both top and mid with these changes, but in a way that’s hitting top a bit harder.
E AD scaling added.
In this patch we’re looking to give AD Nidalee a little help in her cougar form so her swipes pack some punch. We’re not looking to make drastic changes to AD Nid, but just give her a little more support at the time.
Q damage adjusted
Rek'Sai has been performing far too well ever since her 13.11 update and while she's been tapped down a couple times in previous patches, she's still the absolute queen of the early game and still stronger than she was in 13.9. She simply can't have the level of early dominance she currently has, especially in higher skill brackets where players are better at warding (which she can bypass) and closing out early leads (which she easily secures).
This change of converting Q into Total Attack Damage is a damage nerf until champion level 13, where it turns into a buff, and is also extra incentive to finish maxing Q, since ranks now add functional base damage and gold scaling.
Base mana regeneration decreased. W mana cost increased.
AP support Shaco has been more of a menace than usual in some skill brackets due to his painfully magical Jack in the Boxes. It’s currently too easy for Shaco to counter multiple champions that want to engage by creating a minefield of boxes in lane (and eventually the enemy jungle), so we want to increase the mana restrictions that prevent him from going on a box planting spree.
W AoE and on-hit damage decreased.
Shyvana gained a lot of power in 13.14 and while she was tapped down in 13.15 and her AP builds are about where they were before, her AD builds have taken off. We'd like to keep AD as her optimal build, but it's just performing too well. This patch, we're weakening her lowest-gameplay skill that only succeeds when she's stat-checking her enemies.
Base mana increased.
Regular Sylas players frequently run out of mana as they max W, whereas Pro Sylas's max Q. This buff is primarily intended to reduce how mana gated Sylas is in regular play, but it's also a change Pros will value due to it being a base stat increase.
Legend has it that no champion has ever taken down this foe. It fears nothing. Except bugs. Bugs scare it.
Target Dummy recently threw its Teemo hat into the Arena but so far its performance has been… not so great. In this patch we’re looking to eliminate Target Dummy’s sluggishness by buffing up its Movement Speed, and fixing a few bugs that kept it from being its tankiest self. Also I guess you can test Move Speed effects and high damage spells better or whatever.
Base armor and armor growth increased, base health and magic resistance decreased.
Tristana has been terrorizing the mid lane in pro play recently, as she's simultaneously a hard-to-gank lane bully and a solid late-game scaling crit marksman. We'd like her to be largely unaffected by these changes in bot lane, where physical damage is more prevalent, but be weaker against mages who should be able to fight back.
Mana regeneration growth increased. Q mana cost decreased. W mana cost decreased.
Wukong has been a highly contested Pro jungler this season, but he hasn’t been performing well in solo queue. In order to put power back into his kit without much Pro play risk (he’s had low presence for the past two patches), we’ll be reducing the mana costs of his abilities to increase his trade frequency, which should help him in the top lane significantly more than jungle.
Our reworked Axiom Arc changes weren’t quite enough to put this new item on the radar for users, so we’re going a bit riskier with the ultimate cooldown refund in hopes it’ll help the item find its place on the Rift. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this change to ensure it’s shaping up as we hope, but we’ll make more changes if necessary.
Duskblade frequently finds itself in the hands of fighter champions which is something we’re looking to curb this patch, however, it's also overperforming on assassins in general. The low cooldown on its active is a big reason fighters like this item, so we’re opting to increase the cooldown substantially to discourage them from picking it up, while reducing the missing health damage to bring the item’s overall strength down (which we’ll be offsetting for assassins by buffing the lethality legendaries this patch).
Prowler’s Claw’s current cooldown is a bit too long for a lot of users that would like to pick up this item, so we’re lowering the cooldown to help make it a bit more accessible for these champions while slightly increasing the damage it can provide to make it a more worthwhile purchase.
As far as its assassin users are concerned, Serpent’s Fang is sitting at a reasonable power level but remains a niche purchase, so we’d like to give it some more generic power to help it break out of the "only purchase versus shielders" position it’s found itself in. A small lethality buff should help this item be a bit more desirable for any assassins looking to shred shields.
Umbral Glaive isn’t as strong as it needs to be, often letting down the champions that this item naturally synergizes with (hello Pyke). We’re giving it a small lethality buff to make it slightly more dangerous in the hands of its users.
Having tapped down a lot of the powerful Arena competitors last patch, in this patch we’re focusing more on bolstering up champions that haven’t been able to find as much success in the Arena. We’re still tackling some of the strongest champions, Augments, and items with some nerfs, but primarily focused on giving weak ones some more power to compete.
It’s no secret that some players use surrender votes to project their dissatisfaction with either the current game state or their teammates. While it’s okay to get frustrated because you’re struggling in the game, we don’t think it's okay to misuse features within League to bother and harass teammates. With this change we’re looking to restrict surrender vote spamming and make the act of calling a surrender a little bit more a team action. We’re also taking some time to make the surrender process a bit cleaner overall.
After our last round of ARAM balance changes, we've managed to address urgent under/overperforming champions, but we want to let the dust settle before making more adjustments. We're not done balancing ARAM by any means, but we want to collect information on which champions really need to be addressed instead of making minor changes to a few champions.
ARAM Clash is BACK BABY! Here’s a look at the upcoming ARAM Cup dates:
Some additional and new notes on ARAM Clash:
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: