Introduction

Hope you all had a good holiday season! Ranked starts in just a mere three days and to kick things off this season we're looking at buffs on a ton of new champions with some additional (but needed) nerfs on Aphelios. Check out the full scope of changes below!

Summary

Buffs: Azir, Corki, Jax, Jayce, Kalista, Nami, Sejuani, Shyvana, Varus, Vi

Nerfs: Aphelios, Aurelion Sol, Kassadin, Mordekaiser, Zyra

Tweaks: Sylas

Patch 10.1 Notes

BY SHIO SHOUJO

Welcome back, folks! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and are ready for more balance and League shenanigans in the big 2-0.

We say hello to the big boss Sett this patch, as well as a huge update to Sylas, League's other resident bad boy. His changes mainly focus on encouraging his role as a midlaner, while making sure players don't lose out on that signature bruisery playstyle he's known for.

Other than that, we have some QoL changes for Vi, Kog'Maw, Kassadin, and Jax, as well as some cautious buffs to champions that have proven to be menaces in pro play in the past. And finally, we're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game.

Happy new year!

Take this portal if you're looking for TFT's patch notes!

Hanna “shio shoujo” Woo

Patch Highlights

Freljord Sylas will be available on January 10, 2020. Sett and Mecha Kingdoms Sett will be available on January 14, 2020. Mecha Kingdoms Garen Prestige Edition, Draven, Garen, Leona, and Jax will be available on January 15, 2020.

Season Start

Ranked 2020 begins on January 10, 4:00 AM! Prepare yourself for another year of competition, salt, joyous victories, and soul-crushing losses.

Champions

Sett

The Boss

Sett comes to reign supreme in 10.1.

Universe Hub

High-res versions of Sett's splash arts are available on League Displays!

Aphelios

Base movement speed and health decreased. Infernum R AoE damage decreased on secondary targets.

Infernum should be Aphelios’ best ultimate option when 3-5 enemies are standing on top of each other, but 'best' doesn't have to mean 1-shotting a whole team. We believe we can trim some damage and still retain its position as the best against stacked enemies, so we're doing just that.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED330 ⇒ 325

HEALTH530 ⇒ 500

R - Moonlight Vigil

INFERNUM EMPOWERED AOE DAMAGE100% on secondary targets ⇒ 75% on secondary targets

Aurelion Sol

Passive stars base damage decreased.

Aurelion Sol's wave control and enemy burst potential in the early lane is a bit too high right now. While we're quelling some of that damage in the early game, we still want to let him reach those high peaks later.

Passive - Center of the Universe

BASE STAR DAMAGE16-120 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 12-120 (levels 1-18)

Azir

R base damage and wall duration increased.

With Conqueror nerfed and the fact that he's had low presence in pro play last year, we are being cautiously optimistic and giving Azir some buffs.

R - Emperor's Divide

BASE DAMAGE150/250/450 ⇒ 175/325/475

WALL DURATION3 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds

Corki

R base damage increased later.

Giving Corki some power in a place that won't greatly increase his early game waveclear, but will overall strengthen his niche as an ability-based marksman. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on his low presence in pro play.

R - Missile Barrage

BASE DAMAGE90/115/140 ⇒ 90/125/160

Jax

R now works with Guinsoo's Rageblade

R - Grandmaster's Might

GUINSOO'S RAGEBLADENow gains effects from Guinsoo's Rageblade

Jayce

Cannon Q base damage increased later.

Jayce is not in a good spot all across the board. With Kleptomancy gone, he's definitely seen better days and could use some help elsewhere. Fortunately, the Lethality buffs from the end of last year is helping a bit already, but we're also giving him back some of his more electrifying power and accentuating the burst he's known for.

Q - Shock Blast

BASE DAMAGE55/105/155/205/255/305 ⇒ 55/110/165/220/275/330

Kalista

Base health and armor growth increased.

Kalista is still pretty weak after the buffs in 9.22, so this time we're buffing her survivability in the mid-late game in order to help her get damage out in skirmishes and teamfights. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on her low presence in pro play.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH89 ⇒ 100

ARMOR GROWTH3.5 ⇒ 4

Kassadin

Movement speed decreased. R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.

Kassadin is doing a little too well in mid-tier levels of play. We're nerfing his roaming and escape potential to target the players that go unpunished in lane and have the ability to be all over the place.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED340 ⇒ 335

R - Riftwalk

DEBUFF DISPLAYKassadin's mana debuff duration now displays on R's border

Kog'Maw

R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.

R - Living Artillery

DEBUFF DISPLAYKog'Maw's mana debuff duration now displays on R's border

Mordekaiser

Passive duration decreased; movement speed now flat.

For a juggernaut, Mordekaiser is too hard to get away from and kite. That coupled with his synergy with Rylai's makes it difficult to escape from him.

Passive - Darkness Rise

DURATION5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds

MOVEMENT SPEED3/6/9% (levels 1/6/11) ⇒ 3% (levels 1-18)

Nami

E now also empowers the target's abilities.

Most enchanters are almost entirely designed to support their marksman and Nami's no exception. But we see the opportunity to broaden her utility a bit so that she can benefit both basic attacking marksmen and ability-based champions.

E - Tidecaller's Blessing

BLESSINGEmpowers the target's next 3 basic attacks ⇒ Empowers the target's next 3 basic attacks and abilities (AoE spells empowered by Tidecaller's Blessing deal 33-66% less damage to non-champions)

Sejuani

Base health growth increased. Frost Armor resistances ratio increased. E base damage increased later.

We're happy with Sejuani's identity as a scaling tank, so we're doubling down on it and buffing her scaling capabilities, while leaving her early game vulnerabilities intact.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH95 ⇒ 100

Passive - Fury of the North

FROST ARMOR10 (+0.35 bonus armor) bonus armor and 10 (+0.35 bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance ⇒ 10 (+0.5 bonus armor) bonus armor and 10 (+0.5 bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance

E - Permafrost

BASE DAMAGE40/80/120/160/200 ⇒ 40/90/140/190/240

Shyvana

Gains resistances when slaying Elder Dragon. Fury gains increased in lieu of ultimate CDR when slaying Cloud Drakes. E marked target damage ratio and monster damage cap increased.

For a dragon-killing dragon girl, Shyvana's been losing out on some of the new Rise of the Elements dragon interactions. We're fixing that and also giving her some small buffs to her sustained damage.

Passive - Fury of the Dragonborn

DRAGON SLAYERShyvana now gains 5 permanent bonus armor and bonus magic resistance for every elemental drake and Elder Dragon her team slays

RAGING WINDSCloud Drake now increases Shyvana's Fury gains by 10/20/30/40% (because her ultimate does not have a cooldown)

E - Flame Breath

MARKED TARGET DAMAGE RATIO3.25% of target's maximum health ⇒ 3.75% of target's maximum health

MARKED MONSTER DAMAGE CAP100 ⇒ 150

Sylas

Less base stats early, more later. Passive now gives attack speed. W cooldown decreased. E AP ratio increased. W, E1, and R basic attack reset removed.

Sylas has been difficult to stabilize for all brackets of players and has an extremely long record of changes since his release. Due to that, we promised that we'd do some bigger work on him outside of number tweaks that would help bring the gap between all levels of Sylas players closer.

First, we're changing his early lane to be more in line with someone like Ekko and Fizz, champions that have less control in the early laning phase, but get stronger with levels. Secondly, we're balancing him as a midlaner and prioritizing changes that encourage him to be used there instead of other lanes. And finally, by removing his E>Q combo and slowing down his basic attack pattern, we're making a good faith effort to retain his auto-weaving bruiser playstyle while also making measures against the speed in which he bursts down his enemies.

We'll be looking closely at him in the coming months to see how these changes have landed!

Base Stats

HEALTH585 ⇒ 525

HEALTH GROWTH95 ⇒ 115

ARMOR32 ⇒ 27

ARMOR GROWTH3 ⇒ 4

MAGIC RESISTANCE39 ⇒ 32

MAGIC RESISTANCE GROWTH1.25 ⇒ 1.75

Passive - Petricite Burst

PRIMARY TARGET DAMAGE RATIO1.1 total attack damage (+0.2 ability power) ⇒ 1.1 total attack damage (+0.25 ability power)

RADIUS400 range ⇒ 300 range

NEWFAST CHAINZNow grants Sylas 60% attack speed when available

PETRICITE BURST2 stacks ⇒ 3 stacks

NEWMINION EXECUTENow executes secondary target minions below 25 health

Q - Chain Lash

COOLDOWN9/8/7/6/5 seconds ⇒ 10/9/8/7/6 seconds

CHAIN DAMAGE45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 ability power) ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100 (+0.4 ability power)

DETONATION DAMAGE45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 ability power) ⇒ 60/105/150/195/240 (+0.8 ability power)

DETONATION MINION DAMAGE REDUCTION45% ⇒ 60%

REMOVEDDETONATION SLOWNo longer slows enemies hit for 2 seconds

NEWCAGEDCan no longer be cast during E - Abduct

W - Kingslayer

REMOVEDBASIC ATTACK RESETCasting Kingslayer no longer resets Sylas' basic attack

DAMAGE65/100/135/170/205 (+0.65 ability power) ⇒ 65/100/135/170/205 (+0.85 ability power)

COOLDOWN14/13.5/13/12.5/12 seconds ⇒ 14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds

REMOVEDMERCYNo longer deals 50% increased damage to targets below 40% health

INCREASED HEALHeals for 75% more if Sylas is below 40% ⇒ Heals more based on Sylas' health, up to 100% more at 40% health

COST40 mana ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110 mana

E - Abscond/Abduct

REMOVEDE1 BASIC ATTACK RESETCasting Abscond no longer resets Sylas' basic attack

E2 DAMAGE70/85/100/115/130 (+0.2 ability power) ⇒ 80/130/180/230/280 (+1.0 ability power)

REMOVEDSHIELDNo longer gains a magic damage shield for 2 seconds

COOLDOWN14 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

LOCKOUT0.2 seconds when moving if Abduct hits ⇒ 0.05 seconds when moving after Abduct

R - Hijack

REMOVEDBASIC ATTACK RESETCasting Hijack no longer resets Sylas' basic attack

Varus

Q cooldown and Blight cooldown refund decreased.

Varus' role as a poke marksman has been quite weak since his last set of major changes in 2018. For an ability-based marksman, that playstyle should be one of, if not, his strongest, so we're specifically focusing on strengthening it.

Q - Piercing Arrow

COOLDOWN20/18/16/14/12 seconds ⇒ 18/16/14/12/10 seconds

BLIGHT COOLDOWN REFUND4 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds

Vi

R now Unstoppable for its whole duration.

Giving Vi a QoL change to her ultimate, making it work more consistently against knock-ups and knockbacks and letting her stick to her target throughout the ability's duration.

R - Assault and Battery

NEWDENZEL WASHINGTONVi remains Unstoppable for the duration of her uppercut

Zyra

Empowered E slow decreased.

Zyra never had a reason to spawn multiple Vine Lashers since having one was the same as having two. But now that we made the Lashers' slow stackable, Zyra can plan her actions around the plants and actually think about which one she wants.

E - Grasping Roots

VINE LASHER SLOW30%, not stacking ⇒ 25%, stacking up to two times, but only once per plant

Support Items

We're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game in exchange for some combat stats. Tanky champions will be slightly more resilient and ability-casting champions will have more mana for abilities.

Relic Shield

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN25%

Targon's Buckler

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN50% Base Health Regeneration

Bulwark of the Mountain

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN100%

ABILITY POWER40 ⇒ 25

Steel Shoulderguards

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN25%

Runesteel Spaulders

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN50%

Pauldrons of Whiterock

NEWBASE HEALTH REGEN100%

ATTACK DAMAGE24 ⇒ 15

Spectral Sickle

NEWMANA REGEN25%

Harrowing Crescent

NEWMANA REGEN50%

Black Mist Scythe

NEWMANA REGEN100%

ATTACK DAMAGE35 ⇒ 25

HEALTH150 ⇒ 100

Spellthief's Edge

NEWMANA REGEN25%

Frostfang

NEWMANA REGEN50%

Shard of True Ice

NEWMANA REGEN100%

HEALTH150 ⇒ 100

ABILITY POWER60 ⇒ 45

Runes

Conqueror

Now shows the total healing in its tooltip.

HEALING DISPLAYNow shows the total healing gained in the tooltip, including when hovering over the rune on the scoreboard

Prototype: Omnistone

Cooldown decreased.

Omnistone continues to significantly underperform, so we're giving it a buff so it has enough power to compete with the other choices.

COOLDOWN7-3 seconds for melee champions, 11-7 seconds for ranged champions ⇒ 5-3 seconds for melee champions, 9-7 for ranged champions

Bugfixes

Warwick's Q - Jaws of the Beast no longer depletes mana or goes on cooldown if the target dies during its cast.
Ardent Censer's bonus attack speed Unique passive no longer activates on a champion that's shielding themselves
Missile-type abilities in that wouldn't normally be in your vision will no longer give you an early warning in Fog of War