Patch 9.20 notes
Hi. Happy almost 10-year!
We're shipping some pretty big changes to Garen, Shaco, and Viktor this patch. Not big enough to be considered "rework"-level lists, these larger changelists are meant to excite the players of these champions, freshen up their kits, and lessen common pain points that have developed. We want to also make sure we're hitting the identities players expect of them and give them more viable and exciting playstyles that should appeal to current, past, and, hopefully, future players.
Other than that, we're keeping the scope of this one pretty small, as we move from focusing our work on Worlds-related preparations to finalizing changes and tuning for Preseason 2020.
Patch Highlights
Champions
Blitzcrank
Base armor and armor growth decreased.
We like the extra range from 9.19 but think he's a little too strong right now.
Base Stats
Garen
Passive regen more reliable. W now grants a shield instead of extra damage reduction in the first 0.75 seconds. E spins now scale with AS. R now always deals true damage; Villain passive removed.
Making big changes to our resident good guy, namely removing the Villain mechanic on his ultimate. Disliked by both Garen players and their opponents, the mechanic wasn't making his gameplay healthier and took control from Garen when choosing his targets, frequently setting him up for failure.
We're also cleaning up his passive and allowing him to gain Conqueror stacks, a Rune other juggernauts get. Garen should now feel more intuitive to play too and not so linear due to more options when considering items.
Base Stats
Passive - Perseverance
Q - Decisive Strike
W - Courage
E - Judgment
R - Demacian Justice
Ivern
Now a ranged champion. W no longer increases attack range.
Making Ivern more approachable (and stronger!) by not forcing him to get accustomed to multiple basic attack ranges.
Base Stats
W - Brushmaker
Lissandra
Passive and W damage ratios increased.
We're sharpening her niche as a bursty, engage mage while trying not to impact her pro-leaning power.
Base Stats
Round and round we go!
Passive - Iceborn Subjugation
W - Ring of Frost
Pantheon
Q base damage decreased later.
Pantheon remains a top-tier pick in more skilled games. We've decreased some of his early-game damage as it's more impactful in higher-skill ranked games. Also, a bugfix!
General
Q - Comet Spear
Qiyana
Q base damage decreased early.
We're hitting Qiyana's trade damage, especially after she hits level 3, since it is deceptively high and is making her oppressive in the early game.
Q - Edge of Ixtal
Shaco
W boxes are now AoE. More early game damage, less late game damage.
Shaco's playstyle and identity have both changed considerably post-rework, and the gameplay gains have been dubious at best. He should feel empowered to interact with enemies, especially in the early game, but struggles to do so. With these changes, we’re aiming to round out the amount of damage he deals throughout the game instead of having his damage centered around his late-game one-shot potential.
Additionally, we want to support both the more common AD and the more niche AP Shaco builds as meaningfully different playstyles. So, we've changed E's damage type and moved some ratios around to encourage each build to play differently around their abilities.
Base Stats
Passive - Backstab
Q - Deceive
W - Jack In The Box
E - Two-Shiv Poison
R - Hallucinate
Sona
QoL change for the baby girl so it's easier to know when her empowered basic attack is coming up.
Varus
Base AD increased; rounding out other stats.
Giving Varus some general, reliable power.
Base Stats
Viktor
Q no longer scales with Viktor's mana. W Augment now grants slow to other spells. R now ticks faster and moves quicker.
Giving Viktor some love by offering him more exciting Augments for his W and R, two abilities that are generally underpowered, and decreasing some of his mana dependency.
General
Q - Siphon Power
W - Gravity Field
R - Chaos Storm
Items
Locket of the Iron Solari
Active shield strength increased.
Looking to broaden the uses of the Locket, especially in a meta where there are less AoE burst champions. The change will also apply to Circlet of the Iron Solari!
Adding Friends via Social
As of 9.20, players will no longer be able to find and add friends through social media. When clicking on the "Add Friends" icon, there will no longer be an option to click on "By Social Network" and connect to your Facebook account to find friends.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where after the ally Yuumi is attached to dies while she's in Stasis (via Zhonya's Hourglass or Stopwatch), she will lose the ability to gain turret aggro for the remainder of the game
- Fixed a bug where casting R - Featherstorm with the cursor exactly below Xayah would cause the ability's rotation lock to be removed
- Nunu's E - Snowball Barrage is no longer able to slow enemies more than once within the same cast of snowballs
- When casting Wukong's R - Cyclone as Vi's Q - Vault Breaker hits and kills Wukong, Wukong's R - Cyclone no longer loses its functionality
- Diana's R - Lunar Rush's cooldown now successfully refresh even if the ability hits an enemy at the edge of an explosion from her Q - Crescent Strike
- Diana's Q - Crescent Strike explosion VFX no longer can be seen in Fog of War
- Winter Wonder Neeko will no longer lose a significant amount of base stats and the ability to basic attack when Lulu uses W - Whimsy on her as Neeko is using R - Pop Blossom while disguised
- When Lulu polymorphs Gnar with W - Whimsy just before he transforms back from Mega to base form, Gnar will no longer acquire extra buffs and have Mega Gnar's attack and crit animations and particles
- Cho'Gath's R - Feast execute indicator now properly appears on clones' health bars
- Lux's Passive - Illumination is now properly tagged as a single target ability
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!
The following chromas will be released this patch: