Patch 13.7 Notes

Alistar

Base armor and health increased.

Alistar is a big, beefy support that likes to charge his enemies and toss them up into the sky. As other squishier champions have come to fill similar roles, we want to make Alistar a bit better at doing what he loves: milking his enemies for gold. These base health and armor changes should give him even more beefiness and the ability to brawl harder in the early game.

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 44 ⇒ 47
• Base Health: 670 ⇒ 685

Annie

E cooldown increased, shield value decreased.

Annie has been burning her enemies in the bot lane with her updated Molten Shield. Maxing shield as a support makes sense for its defensive capabilities, but it also gives Annie a considerable amount of reflection damage and a cheap way to quickly build up her stun. We still like the idea of Annie helping out her allies, but we're bringing the choice between supportive and carry outputs a bit closer.

E - Molten Shield

• Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds
• Shield Amount: 60/100/140/180/220 (+40% AP) ⇒ 60/95/130/165/200 (+40% AP)

Azir

Base armor increased, attack speed growth increased. Passive duration and cast range increased. Q mana cost increased, stab range decreased. W damage increased, mana cost now decreases with rank. New recommended skill order.

Please max W now. There are three goals with these changes: First, strongly signal to players that W max is the way to go. Seriously, W max is currently the overall stronger build for Azir and makes for a much easier to balance champion long term. If he's not forced to be balanced around pro play with unending poke in lane, then he has room for a lot more power in the hands of a lot more players. This patch contains that power.

Please max W now. Second, there are a few edges to sand off: Currently Azir Q can hit an enemy while still being out of auto-attack range, meaning right clicking after Q can make him walk forward. This is still a direct nerf, of course, but a pretty small one as the ability currently has around 1200 units of reach, which is going down about 4%. His passive Sun Disc summoning range is being increased to match his would-be attack range against a living turret and the duration of that Sun Disc is going up to keep it from falling over quite so quickly while he's still standing beside it.

Also, please max W now. Third, there are some direct buffs: A modicum of armor should help him in a very AD-heavy solo queue environment… provided he doesn’t take over top lane, which we’ll be keeping an eye on. The attack speed growth allows him to match his prior levels of attacks per second from W's passive stats, while still enjoying the higher damage per hit from 13.5. This should make Azir a great high-DPS soldier commander while retaining the gains made from taking away his poke identity. The goal of these changes is to add more power to his W max build. If this list overshoots that goal, there are likely to be some nerfs coming his way.

In summary, please max W now.

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 19 ⇒ 22
• Attack Speed Growth: 5% ⇒ 6%

Passive - Shurima’s Legacy

• Duration: 30 seconds ⇒ 45 seconds
• Cast Range: 500 ⇒ 700

Q - Conquering Sands

• Mana Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110
• Stab Range: 370 ⇒ 325

W - Arise!

• Magic Damage: 0-110 (based on level) (+50/60/70/80/90) (+55% AP) ⇒ 0-92 (based on level) (+50/67/84/101/118) (+55% AP) (Note: Assuming W max, this is a damage per hit buff that scales from +0 to +10 by level 11 and then stays there.)
• Mana Cost: 40 at all ranks ⇒ 40/35/30/25/20

Miscellaneous

• newRecommended Skill Order: The game will now recommend maxing W first.

Graves

Passive critical strike bonus increased. R cooldown decreased early.

Graves' critical strike builds were nerfed back in patch 11.22, and haven't really recovered since the Durability Update, where he's found a home in extremely durable builds (and a certain glaive). We want to open up more creative builds for him while giving him a bit of a damage and utility bump with a higher uptime on Collateral Damage.

Passive - New Destiny

• Critical Strike Bonus Per Pellet: 20% ⇒ 30%

R - Collateral Damage

• Cooldown: 120/90/60 seconds ⇒ 100/80/60 seconds

Kalista

Attack damage growth increased. Passive ceremony duration decreased, Kalista now forced to channel.

Kalista has frequently been a pro-bound champion but hasn't seen much play so far this year. So we're being very cautious with giving her some power heading into the Mid-Season Invitational. Additionally, some tweaks to her Oathsworn Bond ceremony should let the two of you get onto the Rift a bit sooner than before, which isn't meant to be a significant change in power per say, but should still feel better.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage Growth: 3.5 ⇒ 3.75

Passive - Oathsworn Bond

• Oathsworn Ceremony Duration: 12 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds (Note: This begins when Kalista activates her Black Spear.)
• newRide Together, Channel Together: Kalista is now forced to channel on the Black Spear while her Oathsworn is reviving

Katarina

Passive AP ratio increased. R base AD ratio decreased, attack speed scaling increased.

Katarina's various builds require some re-tuning occasionally. We are giving AP builds a slight buff so they stand clearly above the other builds as her primary playstyle, and also buffing the AD+AS builds as those aren’t performing well at the moment.

Passive - Voracity

• Sinister Steel Dagger Magic Damage: 68-240 (based on level) (+ 60% bonus AD) (+65/75/85/95% (levels 1/6/11/16) AP) ⇒ 68-240 (based on level) (+ 60% bonus AD) (+70/80/90/100% (levels 1/6/11/16) AP)

R - Death Lotus

• Physical Damage per Dagger: 18% (+30% per 100% bonus AS) bonus AD ⇒ 16% (+50% per 100% bonus AS) bonus AD

Kha’Zix

Q isolation range requirement decreased. W slow decreased, slow vs isolated targets decreased. R buff duration increased.

Kha’Zix hasn’t had the sting he once had, often relying on his W spam poke-and-catch fighter builds to find success. We want to make sure that Kha’Zix, with any of his builds, is actually able to jump on isolated enemies and kill them. His isolation mechanic is too skewed toward enemy counterplay so he has very little leeway on it proccing, so we want to make it a bit less punishing for Kha. (Note: a lower isolation range requirement means the enemy is substantially more likely to be isolated and is a buff).

We expect fighter Kha’Zix to remain powerful, but these changes should make all of his builds more competitive. It's not clear how much power these isolation changes pack, so we’ll keep a close eye on them and adjust as needed.

Q - Taste Their Fear

• Isolation Range: 425 ⇒ 375

W - Void Spike

• Evolved Slow: 60% ⇒ 40%
• Evolved Slow Against Isolated Targets: 90% ⇒ 75%

R - Void Assault

• Buff Duration: 10 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds

Lee Sin

Base AD decreased, base armor decreased.

You’ve seen Lee Sin on the biggest stages like MSI and Worlds. It’s no surprise that he’s a favorite jungler at the pro level. But we don’t want him to be so strong he overshadows all other viable junglers. At this point in time Lee’s early game power is what’s pushing him into the top tier, so we want to bring them down just a tad.

Base Stats

• Base Attack Damage: 68 ⇒ 66
• Base Armor: 36 ⇒ 34

Olaf

Passive attack speed reduced early. Q base damage decreased.

Olaf has been at the top of the top lane food chain for about 3-4 patches now with his win rate sitting at a stable 52-53% according to our data. His early Q damage gives him the ability to run down lane opponents who try to interact with the wave and win almost every trade due to the high base damage and cooldown refresh. This change is meant to lower early Q power. Olaf's passive also plays into this early game dominance, so we’re adjusting the attack speed portion at early levels to be less powerful.

Passive - Berserker’s Rage

• Attack Speed: 60-100% (based on level) ⇒ 50-100% (based on level)

Q - Undertow

• Physical Damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+100% bonus AD) ⇒ 65/115/165/215/265 (+100% bonus AD)

Rammus

W armor scaling decreased.

Rammus has been a high win rate champion for about half of all players over the last several patches, which is just too high for a champion to reasonably maintain. We can’t let this roll anymore. Tactically, we’re tuning his late-game power, which tends to most strongly affect the outcome of his games.

W - Defensive Ball Curl

• Bonus Armor: 35 (+40/55/70/85/100% total armor) ⇒ 35 (+40/50/60/70/80% total armor)

Sejuani

Passive damage cap against monsters decreased. Q cooldown increased. R cooldown increased.

Sejuani is a very safe early pick for pro play since she brings a lot of utility to the team and synergizes well with melee carries like Sylas, Jax, Fiora, and so on. She does a little bit of everything too well, so we want to reduce her ability to quickly clear objectives with coordinated melee teammates and to increase her overall down time with nerfs to Q and R cooldowns. This way, Sejuani will need to be more committed when she decides to engage with her high cooldown abilities.

Passive - Fury of the North

• Damage Cap against Epic Monsters: 300 ⇒ 250

Q - Arctic Assault

• Cooldown: 18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds ⇒ 19/17.5/16/14.5/13 seconds

R - Glacial Prison

• Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds ⇒ 130/110/90 seconds

Thresh

Q cooldown refunded on hit decreased.

Patch 13.4 gave Thresh a lot of changes and has support players around the world hooked on Death Sentence. Unfortunately, his opponents have also been hooked on Death Sentence far too frequently. Recently it’s been too easy to lock an opponent down in a chain-CC combo with no chance to escape, so lowering the refund here should give opponents more opportunity to slip out between Thresh’s Q casts.

Q - Death Sentence

• Cooldown Refunded On Hit: 3 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Veigar

Q AP ratio now scales with level. W AP ratio now scales with level. E VFX adjusted. R AP ratio now scales with level.

Veigar has been strong in the bot lane for a very long time because his relatively bad wave control and good gank set up fit better into the duo lane dynamic than mid. However we still feel most Veigar players want to play him in mid, and we want to support that as his primary role. We are taking this opportunity to nerf him in a way that pushes his scaling to be more level dependent, which biases towards solo lanes.

Q - Baleful Strike

• AP Ratio: 60% at all ranks ⇒ 45/50/55/60/65%

W - Dark Matter

• AP Ratio: 100% at all ranks ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110%

E - Event Horizon

• Sneaky Stuns: Veigar can no longer hide his E VFX from enemies by placing it inside certain walls.

R - Primordial Burst

• AP Ratio: 75% at all ranks ⇒ 65/70/75%

Vi

Q base damage decreased, AD ratio increased. E base damage decreased, AD ratio increased, AP ratio increased.

Vi is currently beating up the pro play scene thanks to her ability to build tanky and still deal large amounts of damage. Our goal with these changes is to bring the damage down on her tankier builds and shift that power into AD ratios to reward those Vi AD stackers out there.

Q - Vault Breaker

• Minimum Physical Damage: 55/80/105/130/155 (+70% bonus AD) ⇒ 45/70/95/120/145 (+80% bonus AD)
• Maximum Physical Damage: 110/160/210/260/310 (+140% bonus AD) ⇒ 90/140/190/240/290 (+160% bonus AD)

E - Relentless Force

• Physical Damage: 10/30/50/70/90 (+110% AD) (+90% AP) ⇒ 0/15/30/45/60 (+120% AD) (+100% AP)

Wukong

Base attack damage decreased. W cooldown adjusted. E bonus attack speed decreased.

Wukong jungle hasn’t been monkeying around in pro play and solo queue. In this patch, we’re looking to tone down his early game pressure by reducing his base damage and his clear speed that comes with his E. We’re also lowering the incentive to max W second, as it currently gives a lot (10 mana less, 2.5 seconds less) per point.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage: 68 ⇒ 66

W - Warrior Trickster

• Cooldown: 22/19.5/17/14.5/12 seconds ⇒ 22/20/18/16/14 seconds

E - Nimbus Strike

• Bonus Attack Speed: 40/45/50/55/60% ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55%

Yasuo

Passive shield stronger at later levels.

After the marksman item adjustments we introduced back in patch 13.1b, Yasuo fell behind the power curve and got the wind knocked out of him. These adjustments should help him get some wind behind his sails which should help him find some more flow.

Passive - Way of the Wanderer

• Shield Amount: 100/105/110/115/120/130/140/150/160/170/180/200/220/250/290/350/410/475 ⇒ 100/105/110/115/125/135/145/160/175/195/220/250/275/325/375/425/500/575

E - Sweeping Blade

• Damage Increase per Stack: 25% of E’s base damage ⇒ 15-25% of E’s total damage (scales linearly, levels 1-18)
• Maximum Stack Amount: 2 ⇒ 4

Zeri

Health growth decreased. Passive shield absorption decreased. R AD scaling decreased.

Zeri's been a mainstay of the Marksmen meta throughout the year, and finally has risen to the absolute top with buffed items and nerfed competition. With the newfound durability in her runes and Marksmen items, she doesn't need as much innate durability. We’re also zapping some of her guaranteed burst damage, which is uncharacteristically high for a hyperscaling DPS champion.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 115 ⇒ 110

Passive - Living Battery

• Shield Absorption: 60% of damage dealt ⇒ 45% of damage dealt

R - Lightning Crash

• Magic Damage: 175/275/375 (+100% bonus AD) (+110% AP) ⇒ 175/275/375 (+85% bonus AD) (+110% AP)

Death’s Dance

In patch 13.1, we did a large pass on Fighter items in an effort to sharpen each item's choice and generally reduce unneeded Ability Haste. Death's Dance took one of the hardest hits when we introduced these changes. With subsequent changes to Marksmen and Seraph's Embrace/Rod of Ages, Fighters have struggled when on even footing in duels (and especially teamfights) versus classes they once bested. We’re reverting Death's Dance to give fighters slightly more power in elongated fights but still keeping the tradeoffs in reduced haste compared to Black Cleaver and Ravenous Hydra builds.

• Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 55
• Ability Haste: 0 ⇒ 15
• Armor: 50 ⇒ 45
• Item Recipe: Pickaxe + Chain Vest + Pickaxe + 750 gold ⇒ Pickaxe + Chain Vest + Caulfield's Warhammer + 525 gold

Catalyst of Aeons

Catalyst of Aeons, in its current state, is significantly cheaper than Lost Chapter which has turned it into a dual threat. Not only is it the preferable scaling item, but due to the lower cost it has become a better laning phase option than Lost Chapter which seems counterintuitive for a scaling item. This adjustment should help make itemization choices for mid mages a bit more competitive.

• Health: 225 ⇒ 300
• Combine Cost: 350 gold ⇒ 550 gold
• Total Cost: 1100 gold ⇒ 1300 gold

Abyssal Mask

• Health: 500 ⇒ 550
• Combine Cost: 650 gold ⇒ 450 gold

Rod of Ages

• Combine Cost: 415 gold ⇒ 215 gold

Grievous Wounds Items

• Shields Can’t Save You Now: Items that apply Grievous Wounds on damage dealt to the target will now apply it even if the damage you dealt was completely nullified by a shield. Grievous Wounds will still not apply to Invulnerable targets or targets who blocked the spell with a spell shield.