Patch 9.21 notes
Hi. Happy post-10-year! Did you get to catch the team's stream? We loved getting to answer your questions, play with some of you, and work on fixing some bugs that you outlined on the Boards. Thank you for interacting with us on that very special day.
We hope you enjoyed all the amazing things coming to League of Legends soon, including the preseason changes we've been alluding to for the past couple of patches. The bulk of our time is going into preparing for the Rise of the Elements gameplay update, but some notable work going live this patch includes follow-ups to the champions that received bigger changes in 9.20.
From all the past, present, and future writers of Patch Notes, thank you for making the last 10 years awesome. Here's to another 10 years of dumb jokes, obscure references, and "CTRL+F __, no results?" comments!
Mid-Patch Updates
11/01/2019 URF Update
No balance changes in this update, but we have some news for all you Golden Spatula wielders! We know that some of you were unable to play URF on the day it first turned on so we're extending it by one day! URF will officially turn off on November 9, 2019 at 7:00PM PT. We hope you've been enjoying it as much as we have!
10/30/2019 URF Balance Changes
As promised, we'll be reacting more quickly to out-of-line champions during this iteration of URF! These changes are meant to bring a few of the highest and lowest win-rate champions towards the middle.
Champions
Runes
10/28/2019 URF is now live!
We’re bringing back URF as a one-time experiment to celebrate League’s 10-year anniversary. From now until November 8, jump into cannons, wreak havoc, and rapid fire it up on Summoner's Rift. As promised in the /dev article on Nexus, we've implemented some balance changes, similar to the way we did them in ARAM earlier this year, to keep the games snappier and less "solved."
Champions
Due to our extended testing window on PBE, we’ve been able to utilize a similar balancing approach to ARAM for URF, dialing in the approach specifically for the champions that really pop off. We’ve tried to make sure we adjusted champions in ways that do not hamper their classic URF patterns, while also not invalidating other champions as reasonable options. The changes below are the adjustments made from how each champ normally is on Summoner's Rift.
Systems
To keep URF fast, we want objectives that are powerful and threaten the end of games. That being said, older iterations of URF would end too quickly once these objectives were taken.
Additionally, turret plates are great for rewarding even small amounts of lane aggression in normal SR, but the tunings for that game mode often under-rewarded the risk it takes to hit turrets in URF, especially due to the speed at which enemies arrive back in lane. We’ve reduced the risk to get early plates, and we’ve dramatically increased the reward to make these a more interesting strategic option. Changes below are the system's values in this iteration of URF.
Runes
We wanted to take a minimal change approach to runes, and tried to bring down only a few runes that really distorted the options last time URF was live. Similar to the system changes, the adjustments below are what they are now in this URF iteration.
10/23/2019 Waterwalking Bugfix
Waterwalking
Patch Highlights
Champions
Garen
E base damage per spin decreased.
Nerfing Garen after his changes in 9.20. While this change might look large, we've kept the ratios the same, so it shouldn’t feel like a huge nerf.
E - Judgment
Kayn
Q damage increased; Rhaast's modified damage ratio increased; bonus damage to monsters decreased.
Both of Kayn's forms are underperforming right now, so we're adjusting his damage to give him a bit more oomph against champions, regardless of which form you choose.
Q - Reaping Slash
Kog'Maw
Base stats rounded up. Q and E base damage increased.
Right now, Kog'Maw's E does not feel rewarding to cast, even when it lands successfully. Rather than decreasing the costs on his E's or other abilities' early ranks, we're upping their value so that Kog'Maw’s kit still has a risk vs reward element.
Base Stats
Roundin'Q - Caustic Spittle
E - Void Ooze
Lulu
E shield and damage increased later.
Lulu's transition into the mid-game could be better. We want Pix to offer more to fights and for players to make choices that are more worthwhile as Lulu scales.
E - Help, Pix!
Maokai
W cost flattened; damage increased. R root duration increased.
Maokai is underperforming across all levels of play and needs some help to keep up with his would-be lumberjacks.
Q - Bramble Smash
W - Twisted Advance
R - Nature's Grasp
Master Yi
Phantom Hits now proc Double Strike and apply Double Strike stacks.
Passive - Double Strike
Pyke
Base health growth decreased. Passive Grey Health from damage decreased.
When Pyke gets ahead, he takes advantage of the situation without any real risk, killing off folks left and right and becoming near-impossible to take down. He should still have trouble escaping after an assassination, even if he's doing very well. And if he makes a second pass at a kill, he shouldn't be at near full life.
Base Stats
Passive - Gift of the Drowned Ones
Shaco
W box duration decreased.
Shaco landed in a strong spot after 9.20, so we're doing some light touch-ups to address specific concerns about his lane presence and early jungle power.
W - Jack In The Box
Sona
Follow-up QoL change and passive bugfix for the adult woman.
General
Viktor
Base stats rounded up. Q damage increased.
Viktor is a little weaker than we expected after the changes last patch. We're going light on the follow-up, since we know people are still getting accustomed to him. We're also including a bugfix that already happened in a mid-patch update in 9.20, since we weren't able to widely message it out at the time!
Base Stats
Roundin'Q - Siphon Power
W - Gravity Field
Warwick
Q damage ratio increased later. W bonus attack speed increased.
Warwick is falling behind the pack, especially when he maxes his Q before his W. We want him to still have the option of maxing out one over the other based on the situation, but they should both be on a more equal footing.
Q - Jaws of the Beast
W - Blood Hunt
Bugfixes
- When Kindred casts W - Wolf's Frenzy, Wolf now properly attacks enemies in range when she is not attacking anything
- When walking over a Rift Scuttler Speed Shrine, champions will now have a Revealed Eyes marker over them
- Enemies spotted by Ashe's E - Hawkshot will no longer have the vision Eyes above their heads until the end of the game
- Qiyana's R - Supreme Display of Talent VFX no longer desynchronize with its effects and they properly follow the outline around terrain all the way through from the enemies' perspective if it is cast in Fog of War
- Heimerdinger's R - UPGRADE!!!'s tooltip no longer mentions that his E - CH-3X Lightning Grenade's slow is improved to 80%
- Only champions can pick up Eye of the Herald. Dashing as Yasuo through it with R - Last Breath or having the living shadow from Shadow Assassin Kayn's W - Blade's Reach stand on it will no longer have those non-champion entities pick it up
- When Sylas Hijacks Nidalee's ultimate and uses her Q - Takedown, he'll now properly do damage with it
- Aurelion Sol's R - Voice of Light's VFX are no longer globally visible in Fog of War
- Neeko can once again select herself to deactivate her disguise, putting it on a 2-second cooldown
- Kled will no longer lose his untargetable status when dismounting near turrets/walls
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: