[Patch 3.10a: Worlds Balance] General Discussion

Leblanc

Summary: LeBlanc’s base health regeneration and attack damage per level have been slightly increased.

Context: With unorthodox skills, unmatched mobility and a supremely squishy face, LeBlanc’s always been a difficult champion to master. While this is intended, the changes we made to her in Patch 3.9 made her even more vulnerable, especially during her laning phase. These minor buffs should improve her play experience and even her out a little.

• Base health regen increased to 7.05 (from 5.05)


• Attack damage per level increased to 3.5 (from 3.1)

Master Yi

Summary: Highlander now reduces ability cooldowns per kills and assists by a percentage amount rather than a flat second reduction. This means Master Yi will never get a “full reset” to chain Alpha Strikes together even if he kills with his first Alpha Strike. Additionally, Master Yi’s attack speed per level has been reduced, while Meditate’s damage reduction at later levels has been increased. Wuju Style’s passive attack damage bonus is now higher at earlier levels and lower at later levels.

Context: New Yi quickly emerged as a powerhouse champion, and while we soon identified the need to reduce his power, we wanted to do it in an intelligent way that created windows of opportunity for both Yi and his opponents, rather than by simply reducing his overall damage. We like Highlander’s reset mechanic, but the flat second reduction on it meant that solid Yi players could effectively chain Alpha Strikes together with no window of vulnerability after scoring a kill. These changes mean Master Yi needs to land a few basic attacks after earning resets in order to Alpha Strike, which should give his opponents opportunities to fight back. Yi’s Meditate buffs give him ways of bridging those cooldown gaps defensively if needed, and offer more viable options when upgrading abilities.

General

• Attack speed per level decreased to 2% (from 2.75%)

Double Strike

• Fixed a bug where the second strike would damage targets even when Master Yi was blinded

Meditate

• Damage reduction increased at later ranks to 50/55/60/65/70% (from 40/45/50/55/60%)

Wuju Style

• Passive attack damage bonus changed to 10% at all ranks (from 7/9/11/13/15%)

Highlander

• Now passively reduces the remaining cooldown for Master Yi's basic abilities by 70% on a kill or assist (instead of 18 seconds on kill or 9 seconds on assist)

Riven

Summary: Riven can now leap over walls with the third hit of Broken Wings.

Context: Riven's Broken Wings started crossing walls on live following a few engine fixes. We looked at this and decided we want to fully support the emergent gameplay while cleaning up the ability’s environmental interactions. This change promotes Riven’s high mobility playstyle and skirmish play pattern, so we’ll balance around it rather than simply remove the change if it affects her power significantly.

General

• Fixed an issue where several of Riven's particle effects were missing

Broken Wings

• Third hit now knocks up affected targets rather than knocking them back


• Only the third cast can now leap over walls


• Hitbox has been retuned to more closely match the particles

Shen

Summary: Shen’s Feint shield has been weakened, while Stand United can now be interrupted by root effects.

Context: As a dominant force in the competitive scene, Shen gets just a little too tanky in the late game – to the point where even primary damage dealers have a tough time eating through his shields. This small nerf should reduce some of Shen’s strong dueling potential. Additionally, our Stand United change has been brought in to increase the consistency with which we handle delayed movement abilities. Specifically, Shen’s Stand United channel will be interruptible by root effects, similar to Twisted Fate’s Gate. We’ll continue looking at other cases in the future.

Feint

• Shield amount reduced to 60/100/140/180/220 (from 70/115/160/205/250)

Stand United

• Can now be interrupted by root effects

Twitch

Summary: Twitch’s Expunge now deals less damage at early to mid levels.

Context: Currently Twitch's laning phase trades are too strong, even when he’s forced to pop Expunge before reaching full stacks of Deadly Venom. These changes should balance out the Plague Rat’s early game power without affecting his team fight potential.

Expunge

• Base damage reduced to 20/35/50/65/80 (from 40/50/60/70/80)

Zac

Summary: Zac's passive healing blobs will now be harder to pick up for both him and his opponents. Additionally, Zac’s ult no longer grants him Tenacity while active.

Context: Previously, Zac’s pickup range was so large he would sometimes regain health from his blobs even if he stood still after using an ability. The blob radius change creates more potential counterplay in lane, since Zac and his opponents now have to specifically move to blobs to regain or deny health. The tenacity portion of Let’s Bounce has removed to allow for more gameplay in fights, notably by giving enemies the chance to lock Zac down while protecting vulnerable targets.

Cell Division

• Blob absorption and squish radius reduced to 25 (from 100)

Let's Bounce

• No longer grants tenacity


• Fixed the tooltip to state that Zac removes all slows affecting him upon activation

NOTE: If an item value or statistic is not mentioned, it is still present on the item.

Bilgewater Cutlass

• Range reduced to 450 (from 550)


• Active now takes into account the bounding boxes for each champion

Blade of the Ruined King

• Range reduced to 450 (from 550)


• Active cooldown increased to 90 (from 60)

Locket of the Iron Solari

• Fixed a bug where it was granting more health regen than intended

Spirit Visage

• Combine cost increased to 500 gold (from 375). Total cost increased to 2750 gold (from 2625)

Phage & Trinity Force’s Icy Passive

Summary: Phage and Trinity Force no longer have the “Icy” slow passive. Instead of a percentage chance to slow an enemy champion on hit, these items now grant movement speed for a short duration of time, along with even more movement speed on minion, monster, and champion kills. Frozen Mallet’s function remains unchanged, but its recipe has changed.

Context: Following the nerfs to Blade of the Ruined King, we wanted to create more tools to help bruisers stick to their targets. Ultimately we focused on in-skirmish mobility as a valuable and healthy stat for all champions.

Phage

• UNIQUE Passive - Icy removed


• New UNIQUE Passive - Rage: basic attacks grant 20 movement speed for 2 seconds on hit. Minion, monster, and champion kills grant 60 movement speed for 2 seconds


• Combine cost reduced to 375 gold (from 590). Total cost reduced to 1250 gold (from 1465)

Trinity Force

• UNIQUE Passive - Icy removed


• New UNIQUE Passive - Rage: basic attacks grant 20 movement speed for 2 seconds on hit. Minion, monster, and champion kills grant 60 movement speed for 2 seconds


• UNIQUE Passive - Spellblade


• Damage increased to 200% base attack damage (from 150%)
• Due to Phage's price reduction, total cost is now 3628 gold (from 3843)

Frozen Mallet

• Recipe Changed: Giant's Belt + Pickaxe + Ruby Crystal + 950 gold = 3300 total gold


• UNIQUE Passive – Icy retained

Summoner's Rift

• Lesser Wraith


• Fixed a bug where lesser wraiths were granting less experience than intended (4 instead of 15)

Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar

• Blade of the Ruined King


• Now available on the Crystal Scar
• Entropy


• UNIQUE Passive - Icy removed


• New UNIQUE Passive - Rage: basic attacks grant 20 movement speed for 2 seconds on hit. Minion, monster, and champion kills grant 60 movement speed for 2 seconds


• Due to Phage's price reduction, total cost is now 3400 gold (from 3615)
• Kitae's Bloodrazor


• Removed from the Crystal Scar

Howling Abyss

• Poros


• No change. Still awesome