Patch 9.10 Highlights

This Patch features a number of buffs on champions coupled with a few "tweaks" that look like they're really meant to be nerfs. We'll see how Master Yi and Riven players adjust to the changes, but overall their playstyles are certainly going to need to be adjusted a bit to take into account the new timings.

Summary

Buffs: Brand, Caitlin, Fiora, Graves, Shaco, Soraka, Xin Zhao, Zyra
Nerfs: Vayne
Tweaks: Master Yi, Riven, Tryndamere

Patch 9.10 notes

BY AETHER, SHIO SHOUJO

Hello fur-ends! Welcome to 9.10, the one where we greet the one, the only, the purr-fectly wonderful, Yuumi!

This patch, while smaller than the last, contains changes to some of the more spicy champions across various skill brackets like Master Yi, Riven, and Vayne. We're also following up on the changes we made to Soraka last patch to continue to encourage her ally-supporting playstyle and buffing a few champions who've been faltering as of late.

In addition, we've made some adjustments to Conqueror and Guinsoo's Rageblade due to their overperformance and must-pick natures for their core users.

Meow, let's jump right in!

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Hanna “shio shoujo” Woo

Patch Highlights

Champions

NEW

Yuumi

Meow meow meow. Meow mew. Meow cat meow mew 9.10, mewo.

High-res versions of Yuumi's base and release skin splash art are available on League Displays!

Brand

E damage increased late; ratio increased.

Spritzing some oil on Brand to conflagrate his eternal flame. The change favors mid-lane Brand more than his support counterpart, but he'll be a bit hotter no matter where he goes.

E - Conflagration

MAGIC DAMAGE70/90/110/130/150 (+0.35 ability power) ⇒70/95/120/145/170 (+0.45 ability power)

Caitlyn

W headshot damage increased.

Helping Caitlyn out in a way that doesn't affect her already strong waveclear and late game, by focusing on when she successfully maneuvers her traps for maximum damage.

W - Yordle Snap Trap

HEADSHOT BONUS DAMAGE40/90/140/190/240 ⇒60/105/150/195/240

Fiora

W now blocks Braum's and Kennen's stuns rather than preventing them from proccing.

Previously, Fiora's Riposte stopped some champions' last passive stack from being applied, which effectively delayed the following stun rather than blocking it.

W - Riposte

INTERACTIONS WITH DEBUFFSRiposte prevents Braum and Kennen from applying the last stack of their passives ⇒ allows Braum and Kennen to apply the last stack of their passives, blocking the stun (and still blocking the damage from the attack)

Graves

Q damage increased late.

Overall, Graves was feeling underwhelming, so we're giving him some power in a place that can be counterable.

Q - End of the Line

DETONATION DAMAGE85/115/145/175/205 ⇒ 85/120/155/190/225

Master Yi

Q cast time removed, adjusted target scanning. W cast time removed. E no longer grants AD while not on cooldown. R movement speed increased and adjusted.

We want to increase the satisfaction on key parts of Master Yi's kit while nerfing him in ways that'll help out those who don't know how to counter him. Those with more experience won't find Master Yi significantly better or worse, but he won't continue to dominate in average play.

Q - Alpha Strike

REMOVEDCAST TIMENo longer takes 0.1 seconds to cast

NEWBETA STRIKEIf Master Yi has struck fewer than the maximum amount of times he can with Alpha Strike and there are no other nearby eligible targets, he will now strike the same target for 25% of the damage before checking for nearby targets again

W - Meditate

REMOVEDCAST TIMENo longer takes 0.05 seconds to cast

E - Wuju Style

REMOVEDNo longer grants 10% attack damage while not on cooldown

R - Highlander

MOVEMENT SPEED25/35/45% total movement speed ⇒ 35/45/55% bonus movement speed

Riven

Q cooldown now scales. E cooldown increased.

We're looking to target a consistent point of frustration that players face when playing against Riven—her up-time defense from spamming E. While she'll now be able to cast her Q more often, playing against her will be more manageable overall and she'll have more points of vulnerability when her E is down.

Q - Broken Wings

COOLDOWN13 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

E - Valor

COOLDOWN10/9/8/7/6 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

Shaco

R casts adjusted.

We're modernizing Shaco's ultimate.

R - Hallucinate

APPEARRandom position 50-250 range in any direction around cast position, facing a random direction ⇒ 200 range in the direction of Shaco's cursor, facing the clone

CLONE APPEARRandom position 50-250 range in any direction around cast position, facing a random direction ⇒ 200 range in the opposite direction of Shaco's cursor, facing Shaco

Soraka

Q movement speed increased; decays more slowly.

Following up on the 9.9 changes to Soraka, since we missed on the power level a bit back then. These changes should be significant enough that Starcall's haste should now be a relevant factor when Soraka and her allies make heat-of-the-moment choices.

Q - Starcall

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED14/18/22/26/30% ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35%

MOVEMENT SPEED DECAYRapidly ⇒ Significantly less rapidly

Tryndamere

E cooldown decreased. AP ratio decreased.

Tryndamere is struggling in a world with more mobile, ranged opponents in the top lane. We're helping his mobility so he can find more of a footing in those matchups.

E - Spinning Slash

COOLDOWN13/12/11/10/9 seconds ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

RATIO1.0 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power

Vayne

R Tumble cooldown reduction now scales.

Similar to Riven, we want to work on targeting the frustration around playing against Vayne beyond just her raw stats. Right now, Vayne ramps up a little too early and is especially frustrating because of how often she goes invisible. These changes should lessen her power spike at level 6.

R - Final Hour

TUMBLE COOLDOWN REDUCTION50% at all ranks ⇒ 30/40/50%

Xin Zhao

Q cooldown decreased.

Now that Scuttler spawns later, other champions aren't forced to fight Xin as much at his biggest power spike. But because of that, his niche as an early game powerhouse doesn't have as big of an impact, especially on the outcome of a game. We can now help him out so he can do better throughout a game without worry.

Q - Three Talon Strike

COOLDOWN9/8/7/6/5 seconds ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds

Zyra

Plants no longer take additional damage from basic attacks that do not trigger on-hit effects.

Reducing the damage Zyra's plants takes, especially from those that shouldn't trigger additional effects.

Passive - Garden of Thorns

FERTILIZERDamage from basic attacks that doesn't trigger on-hit effects (ex. Corki's Hextech Munitions, Miss Fortune's Love Tap, etc.) no longer deals a separate instance of damage to Zyra's plants

Items

Essence Reaver

Attack damage increased.

We're giving Essence Reaver's core users more motivation to consider it as their attack damage option.

ATTACK DAMAGE65 ⇒ 70

Guinsoo's Rageblade

Phantom Hit frequency decreased. Armor and magic penetration increased and flattened.

Rageblade gives too much power to champions whose abilities naturally align with the frequency of Phantom Hits. We'll be keeping an eye on how much these core users are affected since we still want to keep their Phantom Hit synergy relevant—just not as unilaterally success-defining as it currently is.

PHANTOM HIT FREQUENCYEvery 2 attacks ⇒ Every 3 attacks

ARMOR PENETRATION6% (+0.5% per level, 15% max) ⇒ 15%

MAGIC PENETRATION6% (+0.5% per level, 15% max) ⇒ 15%

Hunter's Talisman

Champions' pets' attacks now also apply burn.

Since pets feel like a champion's ability and abilities trigger Hunter's Talisman's burn, we're making it so that pets also apply that burn.

NEWHOT DOGSPassive burn effect now applies on attacks from pets

ITEM FAMILYAlso applies to all of Hunter's Talisman's upgrades (Stalker's Blade, Skirmisher's Sabre, and all their variants)

Runic Echoes

Combine and total costs decreased.

Letting Runic users get their jungle enchanted item sooner so they can compete with other types of junglers, as well as encouraging non-users to experiment with the item.

COMBINE COST375 gold ⇒ 250 gold

TOTAL COST2625 gold ⇒ 2500 gold

Runes

Conqueror

True damage and healing decreased.

We hear you. It's too strong, so we're nerfing it.

GR8At full stacks, 10% ⇒ 8% of the damage dealt against champions is converted to true damage and healing

ARAM Balance Changes

As promised, we're continuing to update and make adjustments to ARAM following our experimental changes from 9.7. In 9.10, you'll see more balance changes to champions and runes, as well as some tweaks to the scaling tower damage and minion waves.

ADDITIONAL TURRET DAMAGEChampion damage to turrets increases after the first 15 minutes, maxing at +15% at 25 minutes ⇒ 18 minutes, maxing at +25% at 30 minutes

MINION WAVE FREQUENCYMinion waves spawn faster after the first 15 minutes of the game, maxing at 15 seconds between waves at 25 minutes ⇒ 18 minutes of the game, maxing at 13 seconds between waves at 30 minutes

MINION MOVEMENT SPEEDMinions speed up after the first 15 minutes of the game ⇒ 18 minutes of the game

DEATH TIMER AT LEVEL 1845 seconds ⇒ 40 seconds

9.10 champion nerfs

AATROX+10% damage done & -10% damage taken ⇒ No changes

JANNA+10% damage taken ⇒ +10% damage taken & -8% shielding done

MAOKAI-8% damage dealt & +8% damage taken ⇒ -12% damage done & +12% damage taken

SONA-10% damage dealt & -25% healing done & +12% damage taken ⇒ -10% damage dealt & +12% damage taken & -15% shielding done & -15% healing done

9.10 champion buffs

AZIR+5% damage done

KALISTA+5% damage done

KATARINA+8% damage done & -8% damage taken

MORDEKAISER+5% damage done & -5% damage taken

TALIYAH+5% damage done

TRISTANA+5% damage done

ZAC+5% damage done & -8% damage taken

ZOE+5% damage done

9.10 rune adjustments

GATHERING STORMAdaptive force every 7 minutes ⇒ Adaptive force every 6 minutes

DEMOLISH100 (+0.35 of your maximum health) bonus physical damage to structures at max stacks ⇒ 50 (+0.2 of your maximum health) bonus physical damage to structures at max stacks

Bugfixes

Rakan can now properly recast E - Battle Dance even when his mana is lower than the ability's cost
Tahm Kench's W - Devour's tooltip now properly displays its AP ratio
Gun Goddess Miss Fortune now properly laughs during R - Bullet Time
Papercraft Nunu & Willump no longer uses base Nunu & Willump's W - Biggest Snowball Ever!