NERFPLZ.LOL Official Patch 14.9 Notes Released!

Summary:

Nerfs: Ahri, Aurelion Sol, Blitzcrank, Evelynn, Jinx, Kassadin, Master Yi, Olaf, Pyke, Skarner, Taliyah, Twitch, Urgot

Buffs: Amumu, Karma, Kennen, Malzahar, Sejuani, Seraphine

Tweaks: Akshan, Bel'Veth, Janna, Nilah

Vanguard

With 14.9, Vanguard, Riot’s proprietary Anti-Cheat system will be deployed and active in League of Legends. This means that active enforcement of Vanguard will be in effect and working hard to make sure your queues are free from scripters, botters, and cheaters! We recently released a blog detailing the “why” behind bringing Vanguard to League that you can check out here. It’s a bit of a long read, but it does have some pictures.

If you’re wondering what all you need to do to keep playing League, all you need to do is install Vanguard. If you do not have Vanguard installed when you launch the Riot Client or League it will prompt you to install it and then restart your system to ensure Vanguard is active. You will be unable to queue for or play League until Vanguard is installed and active.

If you run into any issues please check out our support articles for any troubleshooting needs involving Vanguard.

DirectX 9 Deprecation

With 14.9 we will be ending DirectX 9 support for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. To maintain the stability and performance of our games we need to deprecate support for older hardware or software that isn't widely used by players anymore. If you're currently opted into using DirectX 9, the game will automatically disable this option when we remove the support. If you were running in DirectX 9 due to hardware incompatibility issues, we recommend upgrading your devices as soon as possible, so you may continue to play.

For more information on making sure your DirectX version is up to date and troubleshooting any issues related to it check out our support article. (The link should take you directly to the DirectX section, if not you can find it there).

Lee Sin ASU

Lee Sin’s long awaited Art and Sustainability Update is here! We’ve been hard at work modernizing the blind monk for the past year, and now he’s finally ready to hit the Rift. Equipped with a brand new rig, animations, and audio we made sure to honor many of the aspects Lee Sin players have come to appreciate about him while giving him the update his dedicated players deserve. We can’t wait to see all of you try him out and InSec your opponent in style.

Speaking of skins, we’ve also made updates to 16 of them! Due to the scope of work and increased skin quality, 2 of the 16 will be receiving a small price increase accordingly. If you already own these skins you’re good to go and you’ll get the update for free, but if you don’t have them yet but want to get them at their current lower prices make sure to pick them up before Lee Sin’s ASU goes live tomorrow!

Base Lee Sin
Traditional Lee Sin (price increased from 520 RP to 750 RP)
Acolyte Lee Sin
Dragon Fist Lee Sin (price increased from 975 RP to 1350 RP)
Muay Thai Lee Sin
Pool Party Lee Sin
Knockout Lee Sin
Nightbringer Lee Sin
Prestige Nightbringer Lee Sin
Prestige Nightbringer 2022 Lee Sin
Zenith Games Lee Sin
God Fist Lee Sin
Storm Dragon Lee Sin
SKT T1 Lee Sin (Legacy skin, returning for 2 weeks)
Playmaker Lee Sin (Legacy skin, returning for 2 weeks)
FPX Lee Sin (Legacy skin, returning for 2 weeks)

Ranked Split 1 and 2 Timing

Here’s a reminder that the Split 1 end date is quickly approaching! If you’re on the cusp of hitting your Ranked goal for the season or if you’re determined to push for another two ranks, make sure to mark your calendars and get those games in because this is the last patch of Split 1. Split 2 will kick off the following day, May 15th, at noon so get ready!

Split 1 End Date: May 14, 2024 at 23:59:59 according to your server’s local time
Split 2 Start Date: May 15, 2024 at 12:00:00 according to your server’s local time

Arena

Are you ready to RUUUUUMBLE!? Arena is BACK for round 3 with all the crazy shenanigans you’ve all come to learn and love. But it’s not coming back exactly as you remember it, because we’ve been cooking up a lot of changes behind the scenes. You can read more about the exciting additions coming in round 3 here, but here’s a quick TL;DR:

We’ve doubled the lobby size from 2v2v2v2 to 2v2v2v2v2v2v2v2 to help create a wider diversity of team comps, strategies, and scenarios so each game feels unique. You’ll now also be able to queue up with party sizes between 1-8 players, so get ready to party with your friends!
There’s a new item tier called Primatic—these are build-defining items that should allow you to achieve build fantasies that you normally wouldn’t be able to! But they’re distributed just like Augments, so no guarantees you’ll always get the same ones.
We also added Anvils! They’re purchasable consumables that, when used (or automatically consumed), present three randomized selections within a defined category (similar to how augments present themselves to you). You can always re-roll… but this system will share re-rolls with your augment selections, so make sure you do so wisely!
If you feel lost, you might be in our new map! The Koi Pond enters Arena with this release. This map should feel pretty different than what you’re used to. You can’t always easily access areas of the map, but what we’re calling the “Bloom Bridge will open for you to run across throughout a particular round.. You COULD use portals and blast cones… but you might find yourself outnumbered if you play too aggressively.
Did we mention that Arena is coming back for a FOUR MONTH RUN this time? While it isn’t permanent, we want to see how players like the mode and play it when it's live for a longer period of time.
Quick heads up that the ladder won’t go live until next patch, 14.10 - so use this patch as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the changes! Oh, you want us to list out the changes? Well, that would take away the excitement wouldn’t it?
Improvements to the Arena new player experience that should result in them being placed in more skill appropriate level games and decreased queue times.
(New) Challenges are here!

ARENA CHAMPION BALANCE CHANGES

Ahri

W bonus decaying movement speed: 40% ⇒ 50%
W base magic damage: 50/75/100/125/150 ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170
E cooldown: 12 ⇒ 10 seconds
R recasts on kill: 1 ⇒ 2

Azir

Bonus Health: 0 ⇒ 0-187 (levels 1-18)
Q Cooldown: 14/12/10/8/6 ⇒ 12/10.5/9/7.5/6
W Damage: 0-77 (based on level) (+ 50/67/84/101/118) (+55% AP) ⇒ 0-77 (based on level) (+ 55/72/89/106/123) (+55% AP)
E Cooldown: 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds

Gnar

Bonus Health: 0 ⇒ 0-357 (levels 1-18)
Passive “Tired” duration: 15 ⇒ 8 seconds
Q Cooldown: 20/17.5/15/12.5/10 ⇒ 18/16/14/12/10 seconds
Q Base Damage: 5/45/85/125/165 ⇒ 20/65/110/155/200
W decaying movement speed duration: 3 ⇒ 4 seconds

Karthus

Bonus Health: 0 ⇒ 0-314 (levels 1-18)
Q Magic Damage: 45/65/85/105/125 (+35% AP) ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140 (+45% AP) (Note: This is still doubled when hitting a single target.)
W Cooldown: 15 ⇒ 12 seconds
R Cooldown: 200/180/160 ⇒ 60 seconds

Lux

Passive AP Ratio: 45% ⇒ 50%
E Slow: 25/30/35/40/45% ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60%
R Cooldown: Cooldown: 60/50/40 ⇒ 30 seconds

Shen

Bonus Health: 0 ⇒ 0-187 (levels 1-18)
R Cooldown: 200/180/160 ⇒ 60 seconds

Vex

Bonus Health: 0 ⇒ 0-612 (levels 1-18)
W Damage: 70/115/160/205/250 (+70% AP) ⇒ 90/135/180/225/270 (+80% AP)
W Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 ⇒ 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds
E Cooldown: 13 ⇒ 10 seconds
E Slow: 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60%

Xerath

Bonus Health: 0-255 ⇒ 0-493 (levels 1-18)
W Damage: 60/95/130/165/200 (+60% AP) ⇒ 90/125/160/195/230 (+60% AP)
W Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 ⇒ 10 seconds
R Cooldown: 130/115/100 ⇒ 50 seconds

Ziggs

Bonus Health (levels 1-18): 0-255 ⇒ 0-493
Q Cooldown: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 ⇒ 4 seconds
W Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds
R Base Damage: 250/400/550 ⇒ 300/450/600

Big Gameplay Changes

These are big changes, like the kind you’ll want to read about because these are the most important changes in the patch. We’ve got plenty of smaller scope balance changes but if you want the ones with the largest gameplay impact, start with these.

We’re re-tuning a bunch of fighter itemization and re-designing the purpose of Maw of Malmortius. We’re also reshaping Akshan, Bel’Veth, and Nilah while Kennen gets a new animation for his ultimate with some updated functionality. Lastly, Sejuani is getting some big buffs and Skarner is getting some big nerfs because he needs them.

Items

Hexdrinker

We’re making a small change to Hexdrinker because we’re making a bigger change to Maw of Malmortius (read more on that directly below). Our main goal here is to make MR fighter items less oppressive against AP champions while maintaining them as effective item options. For Hexdrinker, we’re simply buffing the build path while nerfing the MR which shouldn’t change too much.

Item Recipe: Long Sword + Null-Magic Mantle + 500 gold ⇒ Long Sword + Long Sword + Null-Magic Mantle + 150 gold
Magic Resistance: 35 ⇒ 30

Maw of Malmortius

We’re reshaping Maw this patch by trying to make it a powerful light fighter item (think Riven or Fiora). Omnivamp is a much more attractive stat than life steal for these fighters and some added Ability Haste should sweeten the offer. On the flip side, we’re bringing down the MR in order to make it a more clearly aggressive purchase. We also want to load its defensive power into more burst resistance and less of shutting down a mage in the 1v1. Ideally, mages can wait out the shield duration and then resume their assault while light fighters can feel like this is a more worthwhile purchase.

Total Price: 2800 ⇒ 3100
newAbility Haste: 0 ⇒ 15
Magic Resistance: 50 ⇒ 40
Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 70
Lifeline Duration: 2.5 ⇒ 3 seconds
Lifeline Buff: 12% Lifesteal ⇒ 10% Omnivamp

Death’s Dance

We’re buffing Death’s Dance with a similar goal to Maw of Malmortius: make it clearly good for aggressive, high-AD fighters. We’re wary of just how snowbally fighters can get, but being forced into melee range already makes fighter’s lives tough enough. We’ll be keeping an eye out to make sure fighters don’t get too snowbally though.

Item Recipe: Steel Sigil + Caulfield’s Warhammer + 1000 gold ⇒ Steel Sigil + Caulfield’s Warhammer + Pickaxe + 125 gold
Attack Damage: 55 ⇒ 60
Defy Healing: 50% bonus AD ⇒ 75% bonus AD

Sterak’s Gage

Sterak’s Gage has been the best-performing defensive fighter item this season so it’s receiving a nerf alongside the item buffs to Maw and Death’s Dance. The goal here is to have each of these three items serve a core subset of the fighter space: Maw for MR, Death’s Dance for armor, and Sterak’s for health.

Total Price: 3000 ⇒ 3200
Lifeline Cooldown: 60 ⇒ 90 seconds

Sundered Sky

Sundered Sky, along with Sterak’s and Eclipse, is another of the best-performing fighter items. We’re bringing down its teamfight output a little by reducing the healing and how often it can be procced in a fight.

Lightshield Strike per Target Cooldown: 6 ⇒ 8 seconds
Lightshield Strike Healing: 140% base AD (+6% missing health) ⇒ 120% base AD (+6% missing health)

Eclipse

Eclipse is currently the best-performing first slot fighter item, so we’re taking a little bit off the front-end burst in order to open up some alternative itemization options. It’ll still be the earliest power spike you can receive with its low 2800 gold price point but now it won’t be able to let you win the lane quite as hard.

Ever Rising Moon Damage: 8% (melee) / 4% (ranged) of target’s maximum health ⇒ 6% (melee) / 4% (ranged) of target’s maximum health

Champions

Akshan

Q movement speed on champion hit no longer scales with level, damage to non-champions decreased. R minimum damage per shot increased, maximum damage adjusted.

Akshan has long had two problems: First, he’s been a fairly frustrating top and mid laner to face, staying just out of reach from his melee opposition while also having incredible roam power. Second, his baseline reliability is quite low, making him incredibly hard to approach in lower-skilled play. We expect Akshan to require a lot of practice to get the most out of him, but we think we can still bring up his baseline. Due to how fair his R is (minions and turrets can block shots, in addition to champions), we think this ability could use some strong buffs that won't compromise the ability’s counter-play. These R buffs should result in up to 50% more ultimate damage in the most extreme cases late-game, but will typically be closer to 10% against low-health opponents.

Q - Avengerang

Move Speed on Champion Hit: 20/25/30/35/40% (+5% per 100 AP) ⇒ 20% at all ranks (+5% per 100 AP)
Damage to Non-Champions: 40/52.5/65/77.5/90% ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80%

R - Comeuppance

Minimum Damage per Bullet: 20/25/30 (+10% total AD) ⇒ 25/35/45 (+15% total AD)
Maximum Damage per Bullet: 80/100/120 (+40% AD) ⇒ 75/105/135 (+45% total AD)

Bel’Veth

Passive bonus attack speed adjusted, Q damage decreased, Q damage to monsters increased early game.

Bel’Veth has continued to terrorize the jungle in higher levels of play, so we’re taking a decent-sized swing at her PVP combat power in this patch. As compensation for lower-skilled play, we’re making her jungle a little more forgiving by buffing her early game monster damage. This monster damage buff then becomes a nerf at about 65 bonus AD while her PVP damage is always lower which should result in the high skill skewed nerf that the Void Empress needs.

Passive - Death in Lavender

Bonus Attack Speed per Stack: 0.28%-1% (levels 1-13) ⇒ 0.28%-1% (levels 1-17) (Note: This means that at levels 2-16, Bel’Veth will have slightly less attack speed, this is most pronounced at level 13.)

Q - Void Surge

Damage: 10/15/20/25/30 (+110% total AD) ⇒ 10/15/20/25/30 (+100% Total AD)
Monster Damage Modifier: 140% total damage ⇒ +45/55/65/75/85 flat damage (Note: This is a buff until 136 total attack damage.)

Kennen

E damage range indicator added. R animation added, can now cast while moving.

Kennen’s a pretty sad yordle in his current state, and that’s Amumu’s job. We’re giving Kennen a meaningful buff by way of making his kit more synergistic with itself. This fast-moving, zapping ninja no longer stands in place when powering up Slicing Maelstrom. We’re turning this anti-synergy with Lightning Rush into a positive one, allowing him to more quickly reach his targets. He’s also got a brand new animation for powering up his R to match the new cast paradigm!

E - Lightning Rush

newAdded a range indicator for the damage radius.

R - Slicing Maelstrom

newNew animation has been added for Slicing Maelstrom.
newKennen can now cast his ultimate while moving.

Nilah

Q minimum damage decreased, bonus attack speed increased, bonus damage based on critical strike chance decreased.

Back in 13.22, we nerfed Nilah’s attack speed from Q, which ended up nerfing her more in high level play. We’re reverting that nerf and nudging her gameplay toward consistent DPS as opposed to burst damage, so we’re returning that attack speed and instead reducing some up-front burst damage on her active instead. Nilah is a bit stronger than where we think she should be, so our intent for these changes to leave Nilah a bit weaker than she currently is, especially in lower-skilled play.

Q - Formless Blade

Minimum Damage: 5/10/15/20/25 (+90/97.5/105/112.5/120% total AD) ⇒ 5/10/15/20/25 (+90/95/100/105/110% total AD)
Bonus Attack Speed: 10-50% (based on level) ⇒ 10-60% (based on level)
Critical Strike Chance Damage Modifier: 100-220% (based on critical strike chance) ⇒ 100-200% (based on critical strike chance)

Sejuani

Passive bonus resistances increased. W damage adjusted.

Sejuani’s had the unfortunate fate of being left weaker than she ought to in order to not make the pro play jungle pool too boaring. Now that we won’t see Pro play for a few patches, we’re rushing to her aid. We’re trying to give her a mix of added damage and durability that strongly scales with her gold income, as pro junglers tend to get much less gold than the rest of us.

Passive - Fury of the North, Frost Armor

Bonus Resistances: 10 (+50% Bonus Armor/Magic Resistance) ⇒ 10 (+75% Bonus Armor/Magic Resistance)

W - Winter’s Wrath

First Hit Damage: 10/15/20/25/30 (+20% AP) (+2% of her maximum health) ⇒ 5/15/25/35/45 (+20% AP) (+4% of her maximum health)
Second Hit Damage: 20/60/100/140/180 (+60% AP) (+6% of her maximum health) ⇒ 5/25/45/65/85 (+60% AP) (+8% of her maximum health)
Maximum Damage: 30/75/120/165/210 (+80% AP) (+8% of her maximum health) ⇒ 10/40/70/100/130 (+80% AP) (+12% of her maximum health)

Skarner

Mana regen growth increased. Q damage decreased, buff no longer refreshed when hitting wards/plants. W slow decreased.

Skarner is currently very overpowered, especially in elite play, where he’s making the Rift AND enemy’s boots quake. His potent early game often ends games before other champions can reach their power spikes which is why we’re going after his early game. We’ll be doing this by taking down a mix of his early damage and his sticking power with his Q and W. The mana regen line is here to give him a bit of compensation in top lane, as he’s currently a much stronger jungler than top laner and players are clearly happy to play him in both roles.

Base Stats

Mana Regeneration Growth: 0.6 ⇒ 0.75

Q - Shattered Earth / Upheaval

Damage per Hit: 10/25/40/55/70 (+60% bonus AD) (+5% of his bonus health) ⇒ 10/20/30/40/50 (+60% bonus AD) (+5% of his bonus health)
removedQ no longer refreshes the buff duration upon attacking Wards or Plants.

W - Seismic Bastion

Slow: 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 20% at all ranks
Shield: 9% maximum health ⇒ 8% maximum health

Champion Radii (Radiuses?)

This patch we’re re-tuning champion collision, pathfinding, and selection radii in order to match gameplay with visuals more consistently.

Selection Radius is when a player's client registers that they're hovering over the target champion for declaring attacks and targeted spells. This doesn't affect attack ranges, skill shot accuracy, or anything else of that nature, just make it easier to select an enemy champion. Most champions have between 100 and 140 Selection Radius, tightly correlated with their gameplay and visuals. The changes here amount to moving champions into more normal bounds to make gameplay feel more consistent.

Gameplay Collision Radius does have gameplay impact. (It’s in the name!) Auto attack range and collision with missiles are both affected here. These changes are meant to make the game feel consistent (reduce instances of "why didn't I hit that champion?"), not make any particular champions stronger or weaker. These new values are meant to match with how big champions look in game and thus should feel better for players.

Pathfinding Radius also has gameplay impact and determines how closely units can stand together. There are several pathfinding outliers who haven’t been touched yet, but we didn’t want to let that work hold up rolling out these quality of life improvements. This patch, we generally matched champions with the standards for their new size.

SELECTION RADIUS

Alistar: 145 ⇒ 140
Aurelion Sol: 165 ⇒ 150
Azir: 88 ⇒ 120
Bard: 88 ⇒ 130
Blitzcrank: 165 ⇒ 140
Brand: 65 ⇒ 120
Braum: 100 ⇒ 130
Briar: 111 ⇒ 120
Darius: 125 ⇒ 120
Diana: 75 ⇒ 120
Gangplank: 85 ⇒ 120
Garen: 75 ⇒ 120
Gragas: 155 ⇒ 140
Jayce: 75 ⇒ 120
K’Sante: 102 ⇒ 140
Leona: 75 ⇒ 120
Lissandra: 88 ⇒ 120
Malzahar: 88 ⇒ 120
Malzahar: 88 ⇒ 120
Mega Gnar: 180 ⇒ 140
Naafiri: 111 ⇒ 120
Neeko: 90 ⇒ 120
Nilah: 75 ⇒ 120
Poppy: 95 ⇒ 100
Rengar: 70 ⇒ 120
Rumble: 165 ⇒ 140
Veigar: 93 ⇒ 100
Vel’Koz: 88 ⇒ 120
Viktor: 160 ⇒ 120
Warwick: 111 ⇒ 120
Xerath: 88 ⇒ 120
Yasuo: 75 ⇒ 120
Yone: 75 ⇒ 120
Yuumi: 120 ⇒ 100
Zac: 90 ⇒ 140
Zoe: 120 ⇒ 100

GAMEPLAY COLLISION RADIUS

Aurelion Sol: 65 ⇒ 80 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 35.)
Briar: 55 ⇒ 65 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 35.)
Darius: 80 ⇒ 65 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 26.)
K’Sante: 65 ⇒ 80. Pathfinding radius: 35 ⇒ 50
Lulu: 65 ⇒ 55 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 30.)
Milio: 65 ⇒ 55. Pathfinding radius: 35 ⇒ 30
Naafiri: 55 ⇒ 65 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 35.)
Vex: 65 ⇒ 55. Pathfinding radius: 35 ⇒ 30
Warwick: 55 ⇒ 65 (Note: Pathfinding radius unchanged at 35.)
Yuumi: 65 ⇒ 55. Pathfinding radius: 35 ⇒ 30
Zoe: 65 ⇒ 55. Pathfinding radius: 35 ⇒ 30

Small Gameplay Changes

These are smaller changes, like the kind you might not have to read, but the kind that might have made the difference in that one teamfight that cost you the game when you were Gold I at 94 LP.

Champions (Small Changes)

Ahri

W damage decreased. R cooldown increased.

As Ahri players have embraced Malignance for its strong synergy with Spirit Rush, her late-game mobility has simply gotten too high as a result. In combination with her extra R casts, her damage output has become too reliable. Nerfing the uptime of Ahri’s R and the damage output of Fox-Fire is meant to make her rely more on her skill shots and patience to achieve the same levels of success.

W - Fox-Fire

Damage: 50/75/100/125/150 (+30% AP) ⇒ 45/70/95/120/145 (+30% AP)

R - Spirit Rush

Cooldown: 130/105/80 ⇒ 130/115/100 seconds

Amumu

Base AD and base armor increased.

Amumu is one of the easiest champions to play in the game and, as a result, we expect him to be quite powerful in lower skill brackets. Right now, Amumu barely has a passing grade for most players, which means he’s just extremely weak. This patch we’re bringing up a bunch of baseline reliability in order to make his early game more comfortable and make him a bit less sad. But still a little sad because that's his thing.

Base Stats

Base Attack Damage: 53 ⇒ 57
Base Armor: 30 ⇒ 33

Aurelion Sol

E damage decreased.

Patch 14.3’s changes gave Aurelion Sol much more agency over his fate and turned him from a passive E-and-wait champion into an active participant in game. Those changes have been extremely effective, as evidenced by both a massive increase in pick rate, but also ban rate. Now that he’s got much more agency over the game, his resting win rate simply can’t be so high any more. We’re taking down his E damage, which is disproportionately powerful in lower skill brackets, just like ASol in general.

One extra call-out for those of you who are currently banning him. He received several bug fixes during 14.7 that made his Q not sneak past minions anymore and properly draw minion aggro, so you may want to try your luck against him again.

E - Singularity

Total Damage: 50/75/100/125/150 (+100% AP) ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150 (+80% AP)

Blitzcrank

Passive shield duration decreased. W initial bonus movement speed decreased.

Blitzcrank is in an interesting space. First, they’re one of the easier supports to play, which means if we expect that every champion loses some win rate from having some unskilled players, Blitzcrank should be one of the better performers. Second, Blitz is the go-to pick for auto-filled supports, which means we should see win rates lower than their actual power level. Ultimately, we think Blitzcrank is a bit too reliably able to engage without their hook or run away from mistakes. The shield duration makes it clearly long enough to tank an up-front burst of damage, but now gives opponents the option to wait it out. Overdrive’s move speed nerf makes it a bit less likely for him to close the gap for E or escape from a bad time, so make sure to use it wisely!

Passive - Mana Barrier

Passive Shield Duration: 10 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds

W - Overdrive

Initial Bonus Movement Speed: 70/75/80/85/90% ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80%

Evelynn

W slow decreased. R damage decreased.

Like Bel’Veth, Evelynn has been a large threat in higher skilled brackets of play, and as a high skill cap champion, some of that is to be expected. But even with that in mind she’s overperforming. This patch we’re taking down her ability to one-shot victims by reducing her ultimate’s AP ratio, which should make hitting the execute threshold more important to achieve kills. Nerfing her W slow also makes her have to wait to kill her prey more commonly, though it also gives her the option to drag opponents farther with the charm effect since they aren’t as slow anymore.

W - Allure

Slow: 65%⇒ 45%

R - Last Caress

Damage: 125/250/375 (+75% AP) ⇒ 125/250/375 (+65%)

Janna

W damage decreased. E shield increased.

We’ve known that Janna’s been on the strong side for a while, but wanted to see the results from the nerfs to Zaz’Zak’s and Imperial Mandate before accidentally hitting her with a double nerf. With the dust settled, we’re aiming to nerf Janna a bit while bringing her two core builds of W-max and E-max closer together. She’ll deal less damage and be less threatening as an early roamer, but still able to peel and protect her back line like the best of them. Our hope is that whichever style of Janna you prefer, you’ll have a good time playing a fun champion.

W - Zephyr

Damage: 55/90/125/160/195 (+60% AP) (+30% Bonus Movement Speed) ⇒ 55/85/115/145/175 (+50% AP) (+30% Bonus Movement Speed)

E - Eye Of The Storm

Shield: 80/115/150/185/220 (+55% AP) ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 (+55% AP)

Jinx

R cooldown increased.

Jinx is currently the most picked ADC in the game and it’s extremely… not even close. That isn’t necessarily a problem, but she’s also performing much better than she ought to, especially in higher skilled play where we expect coordinated dives and flanking to more easily shut her down. As a result, we’re taking a shot at one of her elite-skewed aspects—her ability to throw out rockets in the early game just to stop recalls to gain tempo in lane.

R - Super Mega Death Rocket

Cooldown: 70/55/40 ⇒ 85/65/45 seconds

Karma

Q slow increased. R+E shield on secondary targets increased, bonus movement speed increased.

After the dust has settled from her previous changes, Karma’s currently a little weaker than she should be, so we’d like to give her back some power that will improve her for her primary player base in support. We’re happy that she’s also viable in mid, but we’re being cautious around her potential frustration in that role forcing her ban rate back up. As a result, we’re juicing up her utility aspects more than her damage this go around.

Q - Inner Flame

Slow: 35% ⇒ 40% (Note: Mantra Q slow is unchanged at 50%.)

R + E - Mantra Defiance

AoE Shielding on Secondary Targets: 90% of Primary Target’s Extra Shield ⇒ 100% of Primary Target’s Extra Shield
AoE Movement Speed Bonus: 12% ⇒ 15%

Kassadin

E damage decreased.

Kassadin has been popping off recently and is due for a nerf to bring him back into line. We’re specifically leaving Riftwalk untouched as a large portion of his damage budget so that he has to commit to melee range in order to succeed, instead of using Riftwalk as a spacing tool and killing his opponents from range.

E - Force Pulse

Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% AP) ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+70% AP)

Malzahar

Q mana cost decreased. E cooldown decreased.

Malzahar hasn’t been in the best spot for a while now, especially in higher-skill brackets where the early game matters much more. We’re giving him some early game focused buffs this patch, which should also make some of his laning pain points feel a lot better without making his lanes more un-interactive for opponents.

Q - Call of the Void

Mana Cost: 80 ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80

E - Malefic Visions

Cooldown: 15/13/11/9/7 ⇒ 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Master Yi

E bonus true damage decreased.

While popular opinion places Master Yi as a straightforward menace in lower-skill levels with an extremely lofty late game, that’s simply not true anymore. He’s actually equally performant across all levels of play and is just about as strong in the early game as he is in the late game. He’s also simply overpowered, so we need to nerf him a bit. Tactically, we’re going after these unexpected early game strengths, which we know will disproportionately affect him in higher skill levels. We’d like if Master Yi’s power level was the result of straightforward late game DPS more than early game dueling.

E - Wuju Style

Bonus True Damage: 30/35/40/45/50 (+30% bonus AD) ⇒ 20/25/30/35/40 (+30% bonus AD)

Olaf

Q damage decreased, bonus damage to monsters increased. R passive resistances decreased.

Olaf is currently too lane dominant up in top lane and his late game resists make him disproportionately good against magic damage, specifically flat magic penetration, which we’d like to soften. This still leaves Olaf as a fairly tanky late game champion, but makes him rely more on his W and life steal to achieve that.

Q - Undertow

Damage: 65/115/165/215/265 (+100% bonus AD) ⇒ 60/110/160/210/260 (+100% bonus AD)
Bonus Damage to Monsters: 5/15/25/35/45 ⇒ 10/25/40/55/70

R - Ragnarok

Passive Resistances: 10/20/30 ⇒ 10/15/20

Pyke

W mana cost increased, cooldown increased.

Pyke’s had his ups and downs throughout the years and right now he’s on one of his stronger stints. We think his damage is at an appropriate level for what Pyke needs to succeed, but we’d like to weaken his roaming power and ability to bypass wards, as he’s especially stronger in higher-skilled play for those very reasons.

W - Ghostwater Dive

Mana Cost: 50 ⇒ 65
Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

Seraphine

Q AP ratio increased.

With bot lane APC Seraphine becoming weaker, Seraphine support finally has room for buffs! We’re playing up her damage a little bit as we think she can comfortably sit as one of the higher damage supports.

Q - High Note

Damage: 60/85/110/135/160 (+50% AP) ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160 (+60% AP)

Taliyah

Q mana cost increased, damage to monsters decreased.

Taliyah has been rocking in the mid lane for a while now, so we’d like to bring down her laning phase power a bit via how many rocks she can throw. We’re making a smaller nerf to her jungle by slowing her mid- and late-game jungle clears, which are exceedingly fast at the moment. She’ll definitely still be strong, but that’s intended since she provides variety as one of few notable mage junglers.

Q - Threaded Volley

Mana Cost: 55/60/65/70/75 ⇒ 65/70/75/80/85 (Note: Mana cost of 20 on Worked Ground unchanged.)
Bonus Damage to Monsters: 25 (+10% AP) ⇒ 25 (+5% AP)

Twitch

Base health decreased, health growth increased. W slow AP ratio decreased. R bonus AD decreased.

Once Infinity Edge was buffed, Twitch started to catch on as an under-the-radar strong ADC, steadily increasing his pick and ban rates over the last couple patches. As our nerf strategy tends to be that we’ll only nerf things once players have caught on, players have officially caught on—so we’re nerfing him. The goals of our changes here are to nudge Twitch away from simply being yet another late-game hyper carry (as there are already plenty of those). We’re also lightly tapping down AP Twitch so that it doesn’t become his de-facto build as it’s already strong too.

Base Stats

Base Health: 682 ⇒ 630
Health Growth: 100 ⇒ 104

W - Venom Cask

Slow: 30/35/40/45/50% (+6% AP) ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50 (+5% AP)

R - Spray and Pray

Bonus Attack Damage: 40/55/70 ⇒ 30/45/60

Urgot

Armor growth decreased.

Urgot’s one of top lane’s top performers at the moment, so we’re giving him a fairly small nerf. We’re picking his late-game armor as it’s one of the highest in the game, and his stat line isn’t meant to read so similarly to pure tanks.

Base Stats

Armor Growth: 5.45 ⇒ 5.0

ARAM Balance Changes

Hello ARAMers,! We’re wrapping up our work on Arena this week so we have another light patch for the Howling Abyss in store.

At this point it’s quite clear that Smolder is becoming an ARAM menace, so we’re aiming to tune him similar to other infinite stacking champions. We will keep an eye on him to see whether spell specific tuning is needed after these changes though. We’ll also be slowly removing Hwei and Nami buffs since they’ve gotten some buffs on Summoner’s Rift recently (which are all inherited by ARAM).

Lastly we have Hubris. We’re experimenting with this split in ARAM to target buffing melee assassins without buffing AD casters too much. Let us know how it feels and hope you guys enjoy ARAM and Arena!

NERFS

Hwei: Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 10
Nami: Healing Received: 95% ⇒ 90%; Damage Dealt: 100% ⇒ 95%
Smolder: Ability Haste: 0 ⇒ -10; Damage Taken: 100% ⇒ 105%

ITEM ADJUSTMENTS

Hubris: Passive: 10 + (1*statues) AD, Buff duration 45 seconds (all users) ⇒ 15 + (2*statues) AD, Buff duration 90 seconds (melee users), 10 + (1*statues) AD, Buff duration 45 seconds (ranged users) (Note: This passive change will also be inherited by the Ornn upgrade, Ataraxia.)

MSI Clash

It’s time for the MSI Clash tournament! What better way to celebrate the best coming together to fight it out than with a tournament of our own. And while winning might not get you a ticket to Worlds, you can win the hearts of your teammates (not guaranteed though).

Registration Begins: April 29 @ 11:00 AM (Local Time)
Tournament Dates: May 4 and 5 (~4-7 PM Local Time, varies by region)

If you have any questions or you're just looking for the full 2024 clash schedule, make sure to check out our Clash FAQ support page.

Behavioral Systems

While we do punish leavers, chat abusers and players who exhibit other disruptive behaviors, we also know that being on the receiving end of this behavior isn’t fun for anyone. And getting indirectly punished by losing LP or having your time wasted can be frustrating. In order to make this less painful moving forward, we’ll be providing consolations when a verified leaver or feeder is identified in your game. Depending on your situation, these consolations may include the following:

LP Consolation
Autofill Protection
XP Boost
ARAM Rerolls

Additionally, warnings will now be issued for players who have received a large volume of reports, requiring them to review and accept our Code of Conduct before proceeding. If the player continues to receive high volumes of reports they will be punished.

Mythic Shop Rotation

LEE SIN ASU "KICK"OFF

Where could Lee Sin hop to without a reliable ward(robe). With Lee Sin’s ASU making its way onto the rift we’re bringing back his Prestige Nightbringer skin in the Mythic Shop. Act fast because it’ll be gone in the shop rotation coming in 14.10, next patch.

Bugfixes & QoL Changes

QoL CHANGES

Fiora’s E now defaults to the highest damage effect between Sundered Sky and her E2 when Sundered Sky and E2 are both active at the same time.

BUGFIXES

Fixed a bug that caused buying and selling / refunding the jungle item immediately to give reduced XP from lane minions for the rest of the game.
Fixed a bug that caused Master Yi’s double strike to consume Hail of Blades stacks.
Fixed a bug that caused Graves’ auto attacks to not utilize Sundered Sky.
Fixed a bug that caused Aatrox’s W chains to deal damage after the target had left the applicable zone.
Fixed a bug that caused Kled’s W to not apply spell effects on the fourth hit.
Fixed a bug that caused Yone to gain a charge on his Q if the target had dodged the spell.
Fixed a bug that caused Gwen W to not factor in AP from conversions or adaptive force when calculating the armor and magic resistance buff.
Fixed a bug that caused Sylas to not gain a charge of Essence Rush on takedown when he had stolen Ahri's ultimate.
Fixed a bug that caused Rengar to lose the reduced cooldown from Navori Quickblades after exiting his empowered state.
Fixed a bug that caused Knight’s Vow’s VFX to be visible to the enemy team.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner to be able to refresh his Q buff duration by hitting wards or plants.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner to be able to take Hexgates while using his Impale.
Fixed a bug that caused Nocturne’s Passive VFX to persist if the passive came off of cooldown while he was Polymorphed by Lulu.
Fixed a bug that caused Illaoi’s E to make Briar’s R to last indefinitely.
Fixed a bug that caused Neeko recasting W to move her clone to count as a spell cast towards abilities such as Kassadin’s E stacks.
Fixed a bug that caused Sylas hijacking Taliyah’s R, mid-cast, to give Sylas only the recast option of the ability.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s Impale to make him briefly invisible inside of bushes.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s E to sometimes make both Skarner and enemies being moved through a bush to briefly disappear.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s E to not proc Fiora’s W, meaning she couldn’t stun enemies after parrying.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s E to be unable to stun an enemy if the wall he moved them into was too thin.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s E to stop if the targeted champion was hit by CC while having a spellshield.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s E to cause unnatural camera movement if grabbing an enemy from the other side of a wall.
Fixed a bug that caused Smolder’s ultimate ability icon to show as available after casting it.
Fixed a bug that caused Lux’s E and Xerath’s W to fail to detect enemies when cast into certain walls.
Fixed a bug that caused several issues with Sandscourage Skarner’s SFX.
Fixed a bug that caused Skarner’s exit wall SFX to play later than intended.
Fixed a bug that caused Mikael’s Blessing to not Cleanse Renata’s R from allied champions.
Worldbreaker Malzahar’s Nether Grasp (R) VFX now fires from his mouth as intended.
Arclight Brand’s Blaze (P) VFX no longer renders over impassable terrain.
Apocalyptic / Vandal / Arclight / Eternal Dragon Brand's Blaze (P) no longer causes red pixel VFX to appear when enemies are affected while Players hover cursor over.
Immortal Journey Kayle now has a unique HUD portrait splash art at pre-level 11.