[Patch 3.08: Aatrox Patch] General Discussion

Aatrox

Aatrox, the Darkin Blade is in this build but will be turned on at a later date.

Annie

We've made some changes to Tibbers to make him a tankier and more threatening presence in late game team fights beyond his initial burst damage.

Summon: Tibbers

• Tibbers' Health increased to 1200/2100/3000 from 1200/1600/2000
• Tibbers' Magic Resist increased to 30/50/70 from 25/45/65
• Mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks from 125/175/225

Ashe

This change allows Ashe players to use her passive in more strategic ways beyond a level one poke or incidental crit.

Focus

• Ashe now gains 3/4/5/6 Focus stacks every second while not attacking instead of gaining Critical Strike Chance
• Ashe will critically strike on her next basic attack when she reaches 100 Focus stacks
• Initial Focus stacks are equal to Ashe's Critical Strike Chance

Corki

Missile Barrage

• Fixed a bug where Missile Barrage would sometimes fail to deal damage

Hecarim

As a strong sustain fighter, Hecarim was blowing up squishy targets with Onslaught of Shadows' high damage and on-impact fear. To balance the ability out, we've taken away the landing damage and shifted it to the riders that travel with Hecarim.

The Devastating Charge buff should let Hecarim jump over small walls and ledges to his opponents when he dashes to them. Keep in mind that when we say small ledges, there are only a few in the game like the river ramp ledges and very thin jungle walls.

Devastating Charge

• If Hecarim's target is beyond narrow terrain, Hecarim will now leap over the terrain to the target

Onslaught of Shadows

• No longer deals damage at the end location
• Rider damage increased to 150/250/350 (+1.0 Ability Power) from 100/200/300 (+0.4 Ability Power)

Karma

Focused Resolve was impractical because whenever players wanted to use it, they needed the healing up front, not over time. This change still emphasizes the "leash break" gameplay, but now appropriately rewards Karma for using Mantra on her W and keeping her enemies close.

Inner Flame

• Mana Cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70
• Explosion radius increased to 250 from 230

Focused Resolve

• Now correctly gives vision of the unit while rooted
• Mantra Bonus - Renewal
  • No longer heals over time for 25% Missing Health
  • Now heals Karma for 20% (+1% per 100 Ability Power) of missing Health immediately upon casting and another 20% (+1% per 100 Ability Power) of missing Health if the leash is not broken

Inspire

• Mantra Bonus - Defiance
  • Fixed a bug where Defiance's mini-shields weren't applying the Ability Power ratio

Kha'Zix

The changes to Kha'Zix are ultimately about giving him more viable choices when picking evolutions. Evolving Void Spikes granted such huge damage, high poke, and great utility that it was crowding out his other evolutions. Now Void Spikes gets a slow as part of the base skill, so its utility is there even at level one. Taste Their Fear's evolution was previously reliant on having targets isolated. Now it works whether they are isolated or not, but does more damage against isolated targets, making it a more reliable choice. We also increased Void Assault's damage reduction while in stealth to make it a slightly more enticing choice and to remind players of its additional utility.

Taste Their Fear

• Isolation bonus now increases damage by 45%
• Evolution adds 8% missing Health damage (Can be further increased by Isolation)

Void Spikes

• Now slows targets hit by 20% for 2 seconds
• Mana cost reduced to 55/60/65/70/75 from 60/70/80/90/100
• Bonus Attack Damage ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.9
• Evolution no longer consumes passive to apply effects--instead triples shot
• Can no longer be cast during Leap

Void Assault

• Damage reduction while in stealth increased to 50% from 40%

Kog'Maw

Void Ooze

• Fixed a bug where the slow wasn't reduced by tenacity

Lissandra

For a control mage with the kit she has, Lissandra was throwing out a lot of front-loaded damage. The intention of these changes was not only to lower her damage, but to also better highlight her in-fight control as her core strength.

Ring of Frost

• Cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 seconds from 18/16/14/12/10
• Mana cost reduced to 50 from 70
• Fixed a bug where the root failed to apply if Lissandra died

Glacial Path

• Cooldown now begins upon initial cast rather than upon recativation or at the end of the missile

Frozen Tomb

• Self-cast duration increased to 2.5 seconds from 1.5
• Slow increased to 20/30/40% from 20/20/20%
• Damage reduced to 150/250/350 from 150/300/450

Nautilus

If Nautilus gets ahead in levels, he ends up with both high damage and high tankiness when leveling Titan's Wrath first. As a strong initiator tank with high crowd control, we've reduced some of that mid-game damage output so he's less overwhelming when he snowballs.

Titan's Wrath

• Damage changed to 40/55/70/85/100 from 30/55/80/105/130
• Fixed a bug where the Ability Power ratio on hits was lower than intended

Poppy

Heroic Charge

• Spell has been refactored to better detect terrain

Sejuani

Sejuani's rework left her incredibly powerful in terms of overall damage and crowd control potential. We've tuned back some of those strengths to bring her more in line with other initiator tanks.

Northern Winds

• Bonus maximum Health ratio reduced to 10% from 16%

Permafrost

• Reduced slow duration to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds from 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3

Glacial Prison

• Reduced stun and slow duration to 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds from 1.5/1.75/2

Sona

Sona is a consistently strong support, so after we fixed a long-standing bug with Power Chord: Diminuendo we felt she would be a dominant pick without additional balancing. On that note, we've reverted some of our older changes to Sona. These changes are designed to maintain her parity with other supports by lowering her early game burst and her late game durability while making her a little more forgiving in the early game.

• Base Health increased to 450 from 410
• Base Armor increased to 11.3 from 9.3

Power Chord

• Base Power Chord damage changed to 13/20/27/35/43/52/62/72/82/92/102/112/122/132/147/162/177/192 from 8 + (10 x level)

Aria of Perseverance

• Fixed a bug where Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord: Diminuendo was not decreasing damage dealt
• Lowered the duration of Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord: Diminuendo to 3 seconds from 4
• Bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to self and healed ally reduced to 6/7/8/9/10 from 8/11/14/17/20
• Changed aura bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to 6/7/8/9/10 from 3/6/9/12/15

Thresh

Death Sentence

• Fixed a bug where Thresh could cast Flash while casting Death Sentence

Varus

Piercing Arrow

• Fixed a bug where casting Piercing Arrow while targeting an enemy would cause Varus to stop moving

Vi

Blast Shield

• Fixed a bug where Blast Shield's cooldown at higher levels was 1 second longer than intended

Vault Breaker

• Fixed a bug where casting Vault Breaker while targeting an enemy would cause Vi to stop moving.

General Champion Notes

• Targeted wall-jump abilities now check both sides of the wall for the closest location of the cursor, so players don't fail-jump into a wall, when the other side was clearly in range.
• We've added new targeting indicators to show how far the target is knocked back for the following abilities:
  • Alistar's Headbutt
  • Lee Sin's Dragon's Rage
  • Poppy's Heroic Charge
  • Vayne's Condemn
• We've improved consistency for abilities that behaved inconsistently when the targeted enemy uses Flash. We're cleaning up these interactions so that either the ability won't cast or Flash won't be used up (it will be one or the other, never both).
  • Jayce's Thundering Blow
  • Singed's Fling
  • Skarner's Impale
  • Volibear's Rolling Thunder

Changes to Slow Zones

All slow zones now update on a quarter-second interval, meaning when you move out of a slow field, the slow will wear off almost immediately unless you're hit by an ability that applies an individual slow (like Kog'Maw's Void Ooze). What this means: your champion's movement speed will be restored more quickly when leaving a slow field, but the slow within the fields have not been changed.

This change should make interacting with slow zones more intuitive while rewarding players who react quickly (as stepping out of a slow field will reward you faster). This is a small nerf to most of the champions affected, but we will be closely monitoring champions affected by these changes.

• The following abilities have had their slow refresh rate reduced to 0.25 seconds:
  • Singed's Mega Adhesive
  • Lux's Lucent Singularity
  • Gangplank's Cannon Barrage
  • Lulu's Wild Growth
  • Miss Fortune's Make It Rain
  • Trundle's Pillar of Ice
  • Varus' Hail of Arrows
  • Viktor's Gravity Field
  • Vladimir's Sanguine Pool
• Lux's Lucent Singularity also applies a 0.25 second slow to targets hit by the detonation
• Kog'Maw's Void Ooze missile also applies a 1 second slow to targets struck

We've lowered the price on a number of starting items to give players more options with consumables and general builds.

Boots of Speed

• Cost reduced to 325 from 350
• Items that build out of Boots of Speed have had their recipe costs increased by 25

Doran's Ring

• Cost reduced to 400 from 475
• Health reduced to 60 from 80
• Mana restore on kill reduced to 4 from 5

Doran's Shield

• Cost reduced to 440 from 475
• Armor reduced to 0 from 5
• Health Regen increased to 10 from 8
• UNIQUE Passive now blocks 8 damage from champion basic attacks from 6

We've removed the randomness on Madred's and Wriggle's to increase consistency while allowing players to plan out their jungle routes better. Wriggle's wasn't very enticing so we've tuned up its stats to be worthy of a slot later in the game for those who can take advantage of it.

• All instances of Rend as a passive have been changed to Maim
• Maim is now the passive that refers to dealing bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
• Butcher is the passive that refers to dealing percent bonus damage to monsters from all sources

Hunter's Machete

• UNIQUE Passive - Rend changed to UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 10 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack

Spirit Stone

• UNIQUE Passive - Rend changed to UNIQUE Passive - Maim
• Now deals 10 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack

Madred's Razors

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 60 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
  • No longer deals bonus damage to minions

Wriggle's Lantern

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 100 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
  • No longer deals bonus damage to minions
• UNIQUE Active
  • Ward duration reduced to 90 seconds from 180
  • Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds from 180
• Attack Damage increased to 25 from 15
• Life Steal increased to 15% from 10%
• Armor reduced to 25 from 30
• Combine cost increased to 500 gold from 100 (total cost increased to 2000 gold from 1600)

A few patches back we buffed a number of jungle items to make them more enticing for junglers. The changes, however, made these items so efficient that even lane champions were buying them with no regard for the Butcher passive. We still want lane champions to consider these in strategies that center on poaching jungle camps or helping with map objectives, but we ultimately want these to feel like the optimal choice for junglers first.

Spirit of the Ancient Golem

• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

• Attack Damage reduced to 35 from 45
• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

• Ability Power reduced to 40 from 50
• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

We've moved Malady's passives to the two other Attack Speed on-hit items to further solidify Nashor's Tooth's niche role as an Ability Power focused auto-attacker item, while moving the magic shred onto Wit's End to better synergize with magic damage based fighters (Sunfire Cape combines quite well with Wit's End even for champions that don't deal magic damage). Malady has been removed as it has been a poor fit in the current space that it was in.

Recurve Bow

• Cost reduced to 900 gold from 950

Malady

• Removed from the game

Nashor's Tooth

• Combine cost increased to 920 from 500
• Ability Power reduced to 60 from 65
• Additional Passive - Basic attacks deal 15 (+15% of Ability Power) as bonus magic damage on hit

Wit's End

• New Recipe: Recurve Bow + Null Magic Mantle + Dagger + 700 gold = 2400 gold
• Attack Speed increased to 42% from 40%
• Revised Passive - Basic attacks steal 5 Magic Resist from the target, stacks up to 5 times

Summoner's Rift

We've increased the initial spawn times of jungle creeps to get rid of the frustrating experience advantage players could get by killing certain jungle camps before laning phase. This was a much requested change from a lot of pro teams around the world, as the only real counter was to switch lanes or to try to prevent it altogether.

The other changes are to reassure junglers since they won't be able to start wolves or wraiths before heading to their buffs. Faster spawns will also help some champions who have exceptionally high clear times and want to just stay in the jungle. Overall, this will be a buff for junglers across the board as we've opened up additional jungle route options for them.

On that note, junglers traditionally have high impact in the early game, so there is some concern that these changes may be making them too strong in that area. We will be closely monitoring the situation to see if we need to balance further.

• Jungle
  • Wolves
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
    • Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60
  • Wraiths
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
  • Golems
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
    • Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60
  • Ancient Golem
    • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
    • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
  • Lizard Elder
    • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
    • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
  • Young Lizard
    • Base Experience granted reduced to 10 from 40

Twisted Treeline

• Enabled several items
  • Hunter's Machete
  • Spirit Stone
  • Spirit of the Ancient Golem
  • Spirit of the Elder Lizard
  • Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

Crystal Scar

• Added Dominion variants of several items
  • Tear of the Goddess (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 5 from 4
  • Manamune (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 8 from 4
  • Archangel's Staff (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 10 from 6
  • Rod of Ages (Crystal Scar)
    • Now gains stacks every 40 seconds, down from 60 seconds

Howling Abyss

• Enabled several items
  • Hunter's Machete
  • Spirit Stone
  • Spirit of the Ancient Golem
  • Spirit of the Elder Lizard
  • Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
• Shop close distance is now calculated from the spawn, not the shop
• Shop close distance increased to 1600 from 1400
• Fixed a bug causing players to become stuck if they wiggled behind blue laser turret
• Poros have gone through an 80s action movie training montage and now have some resistance to lasers

Minimap & HUD

• The Player's nameplate will now always be drawn last, causing it to always appear over ally and enemy health plates.

Item Shop

• The search terms "Spooky Ghosts", "Bork", "Botrk", "AA", "NLR", "SOTO", "SOTD", "dshield", "dblade", and "dring" have been added to the in-game item shop.

Custom Item Sets

• Item sets will no longer be lost when a player changes their Summoner name.

Game Menus

• The Key Binding page has been reorganized to be easier to use

Gifting Animation 

• Gifting animation has been updated

Custom Game Mini-maps

• Custom Game Mini maps updated to include unique mini maps for each map

• Added the ability to spectate players and teams in challenger tier via an option in the leagues menu.
• Added notifications to inform players when they are close to hitting LP decay for inactivity in ranked queues.

Behavior Alerts

The PVP.net client will display new warning alerts for players with spikes of negative activity, in order to help course-correct them as soon as possible with quick and direct feedback.

• Players with recently detected unsportsmanlike behavior will see a warning after the End of Game screen.
• Alerts will not follow every player report; alerts are targeted toward players that exhibit uncharacteristic spikes of highly negative behavior. 

• The Loading Screen no longer appears off-center in your monitor after Champ Select, when in Borderless or Windowed mode.
• Included a possible fix for an issue that would cause LoL to open in the bottom right of the screen on computers under heavy load
• Logitech monochrome keyboards should no longer clear their display when the last two heads-up buttons are pressed.
• Logitech keyboards should no longer change their brightness when your champion is dead.