Patch 14.20 Notes

Aphelios

Base health increased. Passive bonus AD increased.

Aphelios was hurt by Collector’s nerfs last patch and is in need of some assistance. Not only is Collector getting some help, but Aphelios is also getting some direct buffs this patch to bring him up to snuff. We’re delivering a small mix of damage and durability to his early game while still maintaining him as a late-game carry.

Base Stats

• Base Health: 580 ⇒ 600

P - The Hitman and the Seer

• Bonus Attack Damages: 4.5/9/13.5/18/22.5/27 ⇒ 5/10/15/20/25/30

Caitlyn

Attack speed ratio increased. Q secondary target damage increased.

Caitlyn isn’t hitting her targets at the moment and part of that is driven by her lack of game plans. She’s no longer a premiere lane bully and doesn’t have great late-game sustained damage either. We’d like to strengthen those aspects that she used to have so we’re giving her a little bit of help in both areas.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Ratio: 0.61 ⇒ 0.625

Q - Piltover Peacemaker

• Damage to Secondary Targets: 50% ⇒ 60% of total damage

Corki

Q mana cost decreased. W damage increased. E mana cost decreased.

We want to help Corki safely exit Pro jail so for now he’s on parole as we smoothe out his mana costs and put more emphasis on the daring part of Daring Bombardier moniker.

Q - Phosphorus Bomb

• Mana Cost: 80 at all ranks ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80

W - Valkyrie

• Maximum Damage: 150/225/300/375/450 (+150% AP) ⇒ 150/225/300/375/450 (+150% bonus AD) (+150% AP)

E - Gatling Gun

• Mana Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70

Dr. Mundo

E bonus attack damage decreased.

When tank items get stronger and overall damage goes down, Dr. Mundo gets very happy and starts to go wherever he wants. But now he’s overpowered and going places he shouldn’t, so we’re going to rein in his damage while preserving his high-end tankiness.

E - Blunt Force Trauma

• Bonus Attack Damage: 2/2.35/2.7/3.05/3.4% max health ⇒ 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3% max health

Jhin

AD growth decreased. R damage decreased.

Jhin is about as happy as a Jhin main getting a quadrakill, but he’s too strong at the moment, especially in lower skill brackets where games go later. He should be more of a utility champion and less of a late game carry, so we’re lowering his late-game guaranteed damage by reducing his ultimate damage and AD growth to a number that will make Jhin mains feel conflicted.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 4.4

R - Curtain Call

• Minimum Damage: 64/154/244 (+25% AD) ⇒ 64/128/192 (+25% AD)

Lee Sin

Base AD increased.

Lee Sin was one of the champions hit hardest by this patch and we're giving him some power back to get some pep back in his steps. We don't think his early game is strong enough considering how significantly he falls off (even more so now), so we’re buffing his clear and early skirmishing to give him a stronger chance to solidify a lead.

Base Stats

• Base Attack Damage: 66 ⇒ 69

Mordekaiser

Q single target bonus damage decreased.

Mordekaiser is one of the biggest top lane winners of the patch and needs to be reigned in a bit. His first three items are all AP and he's currently dealing some of the highest damage in the game among top laners, so we’re reducing his burst through a nerf to his main damaging ability.

Q - Obliterate

• Single Target Damage Increase: 40/45/50/55/60% ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50%

Nilah

E cast time reduced.

This patch we’re delivering a quality of life change that has been requested by Nilah players for a long time. Nilah’s E should feel smoother to cast and her movements should feel snappier.

E - Slipstream

• Cast Time: 0.01 seconds ⇒ Instant

Pantheon

W damage increased.

Pantheon’s currently struggling a bit, particularly in lower skilled brackets of play. In order to give him some help that won’t push him over the edge we’re giving his W some additional damage which should help everyone, but especially Pantheon’s that use their empowered W more frequently who tend to be in lower skill brackets.

W - Shield Vault

• Damage: 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% of target's maximum health (+1.5% per 100 AP) (+0.4% per 100 Pantheon's bonus health) ⇒ 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of target's maximum health (+1.5% per 100 AP) (+0.4% per 100 Pantheon's bonus health)

Poppy

Passive cooldown increased. Q monster damage increased. E damage decreased.

Poppy support is dealing too much damage with her Bloodsong into full tank build considering she isn’t opting into any damage items. We’re nerfing that build this patch by increasing the cooldown on her passive in a way that keeps it longer for her when going support. We’re also reducing the damage on her E since support Poppy uses this a lot, along with some compensation for jungle since she’s weaker there and could use the help.

Passive - Iron Ambassador

• Cooldown: 13/10/7 (levels 1/7/13) ⇒ 16/12/8 (levels 1/7/13)

Q - Hammer Shock

• Damage Cap vs Monsters: 30/60/90/120/150 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170

E - Heroic Charge

• Damage: 60/80/100/120/140 (+50% bonus AD) ⇒ 50/70/90/110/130 (+50% bonus AD)

Riven

Q damage increased. Recommended Runes updated.

Riven was strongly bound to Eclipse, which was one of the most-nerfed items last patch. While we’re happy with the item changes overall we need to re-assess champions who are still using these items. We want Riven to feel comfortable stacking damage, so we’re giving her better Q damage as long as she keeps building long swords. The math here works out to a stronger level 9 spike and an overall higher appetite for bonus AD.

We also dug into her recommended rune pages, which are driven by player choices, and found that there are some significantly stronger options available, so we manually replaced a few. This should make her Resolve page much more competitive with her Sorcery one.

Q - Broken Wings

• Damage: 15/35/55/75/95 (+50/55/60/65/70% total AD) ⇒ 45/75/105/135/165 (+65/70/75/80/85% bonus AD)

• Recommended Runes
  • Legend: Alacrity ⇒ Legend: Haste
  • Last Stand ⇒ Cut Down
  • Nimbus Cloak ⇒ Gathering Storm
  • Bone Plating ⇒ Second Wind
  • Unflinching ⇒ Shield Bash

Shyvana

W AP ratio decreased, R-E burn damage decreased, R AP ratio decreased.

When we changed Spear of Shojin to have less ultimate haste, Shyvana asked “What ultimate haste?” So it should come as no surprise that her core item is now even more her core item. We don’t think it’s a problem that she’s uniquely situated to ignore ability haste on her ultimate. However, it is a problem that she’s overpowered right now. She’s incredibly lethal and really evasive, leading to her snowballing and running over games too easily, so we’re dropping some of her damage and AP scaling from less meaningful places to give her opponents a fighting chance.

W - Burnout

• Move Speed: 30/35/40/45/50% + 12% per 100 AP ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50% + 10% per 100 AP

E - Flame Breath

• Dragon Form Ground DPS: 60-120 (Level 6-18) + 15% bonus AD + 20% AP ⇒ 40-100 (Level 6-18) + 15% bonus AD + 20% AP

R - Dragon's Descent

• Damage: 150/250/350 + 130% AP ⇒ 150/250/350 + 100% AP

Singed

Armor growth decreased.

Singed is another big winner from the item changes last patch, but we think he's close to where he should be so we’re only lightly nerfing him. He's meaningfully harder to kill this patch so we’re targeting his durability. We’re specifically lowering his armor growth since we'd like to reduce that stat in general, which should also give his common matchups more counterplay opportunities.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 4.2

Skarner

Passive damage decreased. E damage decreased.

Skarner has been quite strong in pro and for those that are spending the time to master him, so we want to bring his power for skilled players down a bit. Much of this mastery payoff is coming around how much value you can get out of your E, so we’re mainly targeting that with a small nerf to his passive for good measure.

Passive - Threads of Vibration

• Max Health Damage: 5-11% (based on level) ⇒ 5-9% (based on level)

E - Ixtal's Impact

• Damage: 30/60/90/120/150 (+8% of Skarner's max health) ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150 (+6% of Skarner's max health)

Tristana

E range increased. R range increased.

We delivered a micropatch for Tristana a couple days after 14.19 went live and it looks like, with critical strike builds, she's performing just about right. However, her level 1 spell ranges weren't increased to match her attack range, which we're fixing in this patch.

E - Explosive Charge

• Range: 525 ⇒ 550

R - Buster Shot

• Range: 525 ⇒ 550

Tryndamere

Attack speed ratio increased, armor growth increased.

Tryndamere got hit pretty hard when armor became better and crit items got weaker. However, we’d still like Tryndamere to have solid DPS, especially late game where he’s lacking. Since he has no built in attack speed buffs in his kit, we’re making sure he has enough access to rapid attacking and can survive shorter fights.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Ratio: 0.67 ⇒ 0.694
• Armor Growth: 4.3 ⇒ 4.8

Udyr

Awakened Q and R damage to monsters decreased. E bonus movement speed decreased.

Udyr has been pretty strong for a while now and is the premier legend in league of legends. We want to target his jungle as much as possible and leave his top lane relatively untouched, so we’re targeting the jungle modifier on his R and dropping his E movement speed to make his clear speed slower and his ganks a little bit less effective.

Q - Wilding Claw

• Awakened Q Damage Against Monsters: 20 (+100% bonus AD) (+50% AP) ⇒ 15 (+100% bonus AD) (+50% AP)

E - Blazing Stampede

• Bonus Movement Speed: 30/37/44/51/58/65 ⇒ 25/31/37/43/49/55

R - Wingborne Storm

• Awakened R Damage Against Monsters: 10-50 (based on level) ⇒ 5-35 (based on level)

Veigar

W damage decreased.

When gold became less valuable last patch, champions like Veigar who got their power from other sources understandably got much stronger, which is why he’s receiving a nerf. We’d like to close the gap between lower and higher MMR performances when doing this. Dark Matter is generally quite easy to dodge for higher-skilled players, so by lowering its impact, we can disproportionately nerf him in lower MMRs where he’s performing much better.

W - Dark Matter

• Damage: 85/140/195/250/305 (+70/80/90/100/110% AP) ⇒ 85/140/195/250/305 (+60/70/80/90/100% AP)

Yasuo

Q crit damage increased. R bonus armor penetration on crit increased.

Yasuo was unsurprisingly hit when crit itemization became weaker. However, we’d still like if he was a critical strike enjoyer, so we’re making critical strike a stronger stat for him.

Q - Steel Tempest

• Critical Strike Damage: 80% ⇒ 90% (now matches basic attacks)

R - Last Breath

• Bonus Armor Penetration on Critical Strike: 50% ⇒ 60%

Yone

Q crit damage increased.

Yone was also unsurprisingly hit when crit itemization became weaker. We’d like to make sure that landing his Qs are building crit are core to his success, so we’re delivering a small buff to that synergy.

Q - Mortal Steel

• Critical Strike Damage: 80% ⇒ 90% (now matches basic attacks)

We're adjusting the first slot Legendaries for many crit ADCs this patch. While we hit our goals of flatly nerfing everything last patch, we ended up shifting some items into spots where there was no reason to pick them.

We're lightly buffing The Collector and Yun Tal Wildarrows by making them significantly cheaper, allowing crit ADCs to hit one item at similar times to other classes. They're still tied to scaling with more critical strike chance, but now they'll stand out as actual slot-one items, instead of just "worse Infinity Edge."

On Statikk Shiv's side, it just ended up a bit stronger than the other options, so we're delivering a light tap.

Lastly, Essence Reaver's changes are meant to be power neutral with a stat reduction appropriate for its price reduction. As with Yun Tal and Collector, we want it to be enticing in the first slot.

Essence Reaver

• Item Recipe: B.F. Sword + Caulfield’s Warhammer + Cloak of Agility ⇒ Pickaxe + Caulfield’s Warhammer + Cloak of Agility
• Price: 3150 ⇒ 2900 gold
• Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 60
• Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 15

The Collector

• Item Recipe: B.F. Sword + Serrated Dirk + Cloak of Agility ⇒ Pickaxe + Serrated Dirk + Cloak of Agility
• Price: 3400 ⇒ 2950 gold
• Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 50

Statikk Shiv

• Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 35%

Yun Tal Wildarrows

• Item Recipe: B.F. Sword + Pickaxe + Cloak of Agility ⇒ Pickaxe + Noonquiver
• Price: 3200 ⇒ 2950 gold
• Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 60
• Serrated Edge Damage: 70 ⇒ 60

Fated Ashes

Liandry’s is so strong this patch that it’s beating out alternative options, so we need to power it down this patch. More context on that right below, but we’re reducing Fated Ashes’ power as part of our goal to reduce Liandry’s power.

• Damage per Second to Monsters: 25 ⇒ 20

Liandry's Torment

Liandry’s junglers ended up being the biggest winners of last patch and overall the item is so strong for those who can use it that they have no other options and are basically forced to take it. We still want Liandry’s to be a viable option for them, just not one that prevents them from buying anything else.

• Damage per Second Monster Cap: 50 ⇒ 40

Luden's Companion

We want to limit how much burst damage can come from low-commitment sources. Considering the ease at which Luden’s can apply its damage relative to Stormsurge or Lich Bane, the maximum single-target damage on Luden’s is more than we’re comfortable with. That said, Luden’s is relatively balanced overall. As a result, we’re moving around some of the math: It’ll be a bit weaker against isolated targets but deal more damage overall in all other situations.

• Fire Damage: 60 (+4% AP) ⇒ 75 (+5% AP)
• Repeated Fire Damage: 50% of initial damage ⇒ 20% of initial damage
• Maximum Single Target Damage: 210 (+14% AP) ⇒ 150 (+10% AP)

Stormsurge

Stormsurge came out as a big winner from last patch and is crowding out other itemization options. It appears to be better than Shadowflame and is keeping many mages from considering other options so we’re reducing its power to let other AP items have a chance to make it out of the shopkeeper’s store.

• Ability Power: 95 ⇒ 90
• Squall Damage: 150 (+15% AP) ⇒ 125 (+10% AP)

Thornmail

Thornmail also ended up being one of the big winners of the patch and is currently the most-built armor item in the game. There are other extremely good and underrated armor items, but most players haven’t come to realize how good Unending Despair is, yet…

• Armor: 80 ⇒ 75
• Thorns Damage: 15 (+15% bonus armor) ⇒ 20 (+10% bonus armor)

POLISHING UP RUNES

Updated most runes to be easier to read and display the most pertinent stats in the in-game display panel and end-of-game rune tab. The following runes have had QoL updates:

• Dark Harvest, Cheap Shot, Taste of Blood, Sudden Impact, Summon Aery, Arcane Comet, Nullifying Orb, Scorch, Grasp of the Undying, Aftershock, Guardian, Demolish, Font of Life, Conditioning, Waterwalking, Absolute Focus, Bone Plating, Glacial Augment, Relentless Hunter, Ultimate Hunter, Phase Rush, Zombie Ward, Adaptive Force Stat Shard, and Ability Haste Stat Shard

Phase Rush

Phase Rush is technically receiving a gameplay change as a result of using up-to-date practices for its melee-ranged split. In practice, this should be unnoticeable.

• Ranged Move Speed: 15-40% (based on level) ⇒ 18.75-37.5% (based on level)
• Melee Move Speed: 25-50% (based on level) (unchanged)

Grasp of the Undying

Grasp of the Undying has risen to the point where it’s becoming a dominant rune option, even on fighters. We’re refocusing the rune to be more about letting tanks and juggernauts use their health pools, rather than letting squishies become tankier.

• Healing: 3 + (1.2% max health) ⇒ 1.3% max health (breaks even at 3000 max health)
• Max Health per Stack: 7/4 ⇒ 5 (melee) / 3 (ranged)

Nimbus Cloak

Changing Nimbus Cloak to decaying movement speed was intended to be a power neutral change, but ended up hitting the rune a bit harder than intended so we’re giving it back a tad more movement speed.

• Decaying Bonus Movement Speed: 12-35% (based on summoner spell cooldown) ⇒ 14-40% (based on summoner spell cooldown)