Howdy, friends.
7.12’s the first patch in a bit that hasn’t come with a new or updated champion, but that doesn’t mean it’s one to sleep on. Required reading for your 7.12 matches: check out the support item sweep. We’re looking to create better item build diversity between tankier supports and their Enchanter compatriots, and changes run the gamut from cost adjustments up to a full-on rework to Zeke’s Harbinger (now Zeke’s Convergence). Past that, we have a healthy assortment of balance work, both to those recent projects we mentioned earlier as well as a few faces we haven’t seen for a bit.
We’ve also got some wins outside the game! This is the first patch that’ll be played fully on the 10-ban system, and we’re excited to keep watching how the ban meta shapes up. The Crowd Control Score promised in midseason is here as well! Lastly, we’ve got a swaggy pair of legendary skins for Riven and Yasuo - solo lanes have never looked so fly.
That’s it for this set of notes! Go get ‘em, champs.
Phillip "Costy" Costigan
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman
Mid-Patch Updates
06/15/2017
Champions
Camille
Passive cooldown reduced. Q2 damage increased.
It’s been awhile since our work to cut excessive strengths out of Camille’s kit and give her real weaknesses. Now that the Steel Shadow’s in a better place from an ability fairness/frustration standpoint, we’re in a good position to power her up a bit. Reducing Adaptive Defenses' early cooldown gives Camille more opportunity to play aggressively in lane, while restoring the damage we previously chopped off Precision Protocol keeps her razor-sharp throughout the game.
Passive - Adaptive Defenses
Q - Precision Protocol
Corki
Attack speed slightly up. Base AD slightly up. Autos do more magic damage rather than physical.
Last time we saw the Corkster bombing through the Rift he'd been doing so as a midlaner, packing obscene poke damage and wave-clear, a potent arsenal desirable for that role. We made some changes to curb that, but they left him feeling like a whiskey delta. We see an opportunity to help him out: we like him as a magic-damage option for the bottom lane marksman role. These changes are designed to reinforce that by making him a more palatable pick in bot lane, while further pushing his magic-damage niche.
Base stats
Passive - Hextech Munitions
W - Valkyrie
Ivern
E damage decreased.
Ivern is already pretty strong, and with the incoming changes to Athene’s Unholy Grail (see below), we only foresee him getting stronger. As a result, we're pre-emptively taking some power out of Triggerseed’s damage.
E - Triggerseed
Jax
W now grants bonus range.
Using Empowered Strike to reset his basic attack timer is Jax’s bread-and-butter, so we’re adding a little extra range to help that combat pattern feel a bit more fluid.
W - Empowered Strike
Jhin
Q base damage down but scaling up. R base damage up.
Back when landing one shot of Jhin's ultimate pretty much guaranteed hitting the rest, his high base damage was downright excessive. Now that his ultimate is less reliable, we have room to add damage back into his rotation.
Q - Dancing Grenade
R - Curtain Call
Karma
E shield decreased. Mantra’d E shield on secondary targets decreased.
Karma is already pretty strong, and with the incoming changes to Athene’s Unholy Grail (see below), we only foresee her getting stronger. As a result, we’re pre-emptively taking some power out of Inspire’s ability to nullify so much damage.
E - Inspire
E - Defiance
Kindred
Base attack damage up. E mana cost down.
Last patch we made some major changes to Kindred, aimed at better delivering on the jungle marksman fantasy. While there’s always a period of adjustment when a champion sees large changes to their base kit, Kindred came out struggling more than expected. These changes are just straight power increases across the board, and as players get less sheepish about new builds and playstyle, we should see Kindred’s eternal hunt become far more fruitful.
Base stats
W - Wolf's Frenzy
E - Mounting Dread
Malzahar
Q and R damage reduced at later ranks.
Now that Malzahar’s back in mid and speccing into damage-oriented builds, we’re tailoring his late-game damage appropriately.
Q - Call of the Void
R - Nether Grasp
Rakan
Passive shield now properly interacts with shield amplifying effects.
Turns out Rakan’s passive hasn’t been scaling with shield-amplifying effects, which the Charmer (as an Enchanter) tends to have a bunch of. Sorry, bird boy.
Passive - Fey Feathers
bugfixes
Rek'Sai
Base AD up. Armor per level up. W unburrow damage up. R more reliably hits targets.
Rek'Sai’s ability update has left her a bit on the weak side overall. We’re looking to push some base reliability back into her kit, so we’re upping the acquisition range on Void Rush and feeding her some base stats.
Base stats
W - Un-burrow
R - Void Rush
Rumble
Heat drains more slowly. Q cooldown higher early, damage increased, now does decreased damage to minions. W shield amount up, duration down. E slow and damage up.
We want Rumble’s opponents to have a clearer window to pick fights against him during laning phase. Flamespitter’s short cooldown allowed Rumble to be a constant threat against champions while taking no minion damage from trades (fun fact: ability damage doesn’t draw minion aggro), and this left no window for opponents to capitalise on him. We’re also making the heat system more intuitive and easier to pick up for new Rumble players.
Passive - Junkyard Titan
Q - Flamespitter
W - Scrap Shield
E - Electro Harpoon
Xayah
Can’t attack while casting Q, W cooldown increased.
Xayah’s bringing a little bit too much damage during longer team fights later in the game, so we’re reducing how often she gets access to her steroid.
Q - Double Daggers
W - Deadly Plumage
Zac
W and E damage reduced.
Zac’s damage is on the high side for a tank, so we’re dialing that back. We’re sure he’ll bounce back from these changes.
W - Unstable Matter
E - Elastic Slingshot
Heimerdinger & Zyra Pet Targeting
Addressing a loophole that allowed Heimerdinger and Zyra to “attack” a target without actually attacking. This let them sidestep some of the intended risks of telling turrets/plants what to attack: standing still long enough to actually fire the attack, and drawing minion aggro as a result.
Support Items
At the moment, Locket of the Iron Solari and Redemption are such a dominant pair that most supports feel forced to build those two first. This effectively denies them access to the rest of the item pool in many games, especially given the other early investments supports have to make (boots, gold item, sightstone). The overall strength of Locket and Redemption is fine, but other items can’t compete with their uncanny synergy. Locket provides your team the durability to stay in the fight, while Redemption rewards your team for doing so.
We’re refactoring both items to have a less perfect combo with each other, and ramping up their synergy with other support items. Essentially, Redemption should feel like a keystone for enchanters, and Locket for tanks. Nothing stops one set of supports from reaching across the aisle to grab items from the other class, but overall builds should feel more distinct between the classes.
Locket of the Iron Solari
Base shield value down. Bonus health ratio added to shield.
Locket of the Iron Solari lets tanks give a burst of tankiness to their team - perfect alongside their initiation or counter-initiation. However, it’s currently best-in-class on all supports, not just tanks. We’re linking Locket’s shield strength to typical tank stats so that if you want its full strength, you have to invest in it.
Redemption
Health and health regen down. Mana regen up. Heal decreased but scales better with heal amplifiers.
Redemption gives enchanters access to a heal - one of their class strengths - that excels in teamfights, but it’s currently best-in-class on all supports, not just enchanters. A spicy heal on healers is cool, but when it’s so easily accessible to tanks, the two classes lose some of their uniqueness. We’re linking Redemption’s heal strength to typical enchanter items and masteries so that if you want its full strength, you have to invest in it.
Zeke's Convergence
Now builds out of Aegis of the Legion instead of Amplifying Tomes. Passive now creates slowing storm when triggered, instead of granting ability power and critical strike chance.
When we looked at the support item landscape, we saw a lot of opportunity to amplify the Warden landscape by updating Zeke’s Convergence. Wardens excel at protecting a nearby champion, and we wanted to give them itemization that represents that fantasy. Knight’s Vow already does a good job at helping them keep their chosen target alive, but we felt there was room for an item which made them more worth the investment to keep them safe. As such, we shifted the stat palette of Zeke’s to be more tank appropriate.
We also had concerns that the item itself was too complicated to use, leading to a lot of frustrating misfires - despite its very strong high moments when used correctly. We’re making the active much more reliable to use so that Zeke’s doesn’t make you feel like you’ve spent 2400 on a gamble.
Item effects
Athene's Unholy Grail
Now converts mana regen into ability power. Less cooldown reduction.
Athene’s is in a bit of a weird spot. Its 20% cooldown reduction and regeneration (health and mana) make it feel like a pretty good early item. However, it’s in competition with Locket and Redemption, both of which are unlikely to give up their first buy priority. Rather than overbuff Athene’s to make it more competitive early, we rejiggered it into a scaling item, like Rabadon’s Deathcap for enchanters.
Point Runner makes sense for a siege themed item.
Tanks like cooldown reduction, right?
Righteous Glory
Now builds out of Glacial Shroud instead of Catalyst of Aeons. Slow nova now cannot be triggered manually, and automatically triggers once near an enemy champion.
Catalyst of the Aeons - thanks to its eternity passive - is a good item for champions who want long, extended fights where they can make the most of its mana/health restore capabilities. On the other hand, Righteous Glory is for champions who want to start a fight now. This mix of explosive and drawn out strengths is making Righteous Glory a bit too strong at everything, so we’re removing the Catalyst from its recipe and replacing it with Glacial Shroud. Separately, we’re also adding more counterplay to its active to help make it feel more fair to play against.
Price point and armor down
Price point and armor down
Ancient Coin Line
Just a few usability improvements to the coin drop mechanic.
Cost down.
Relic Shield Line
Quality of life improvements and a buff-fix to Relic Shield and its upgrades.
Bugfix
VFX updates
Support Quest Progression VFX
These status updates were a little too frequent.
Starting Items
Doran's Ring
Passive is now unique.
Stacking Doran's Ring allowed champions to bypass their weakness during laning phase, mana regeneration, in this case, and endlessly push, and shove enemies under the tower, even when behind, without any trade-off. Not cool, Nautilus.
Doran's Shield
Costs more.
Doran's Shield should be your starting item when facing a bunch of harassment at early levels, but at its current tuning it’s the best items regardless of situations. We're pulling a potion off of it both to decrease its raw effectiveness and to make it have a harder time dealing with ganks and all-ins.
Changing the icon so it doesn’t look quite so similar to another 150 gold, green, health-restoring item.
End of Game Stats
We're continuing to add more stats to make you feel as awesome in the end of game screen as you (probably) were in the game leading up to it.
Rotating Game Mode
The Hunt of the Blood Moon looms into rotation from 6/16/17 12:00 PT - 6/20/17 4:00 PT, and 6/23/17 12:00 PT - 6/27/17 4:00 PT. Sacrifice Spirits, Demon Heralds, and enemy champions to gain points and the Demon Brand buff, which turns you invisible to hunt down your enemies.
Only 21 of the most vicious champions are available for the Hunt (10 of which will be free to play while the blood moon still rises).
Happy hunting.
Chat & Friends
Making it a bit easier to track who’s been talking to you, and when.
Summoner Level Progression
We’ve made some minor adjustments to the 1-30 experience curve so players level at a smoother rate, rather than spiking at levels 5, 10, and 20. Total 1-30 experience requirements are very slightly lower.
Bugfixes
- Enemies affected by Ahri or Rakan’s charms no longer walk in the wrong direction if they cast a spell the instant before being hit by the charm
- Blade of the Ruined King's on-hit effect no longer applies a stack of The Black Cleaver
- Fixed a bug where Gargoyle Stoneplate's Metallicize self-damage reduction was applying twice to Corki's basic attacks
- Lissandra's Frozen Tomb no longer fizzles if a spellshield affecting her (ex. Banshee’s Veil) is broken within 0.25 seconds of cast start
- Shaco's Jack in the Box now correctly reveals itself from brush and Fog of War when triggered
- Heimerdinger’s CH2 Electron Storm Grenade now properly charges nearby turret beam attacks even if it kills an enemy
- Fixed a bug where, in some languages, Syndra’s Unleashed Power tooltip contained information about an in-testing mechanic that was never released
- Tahm Kench can no longer Devour a summoned Rift Herald
- Fixed a bug preventing the summoned Rift Herald from being Smited
- Akali can now properly proc >Mark of the Assassin’s bonus damage and energy restore against the summoned Rift Herald
- Pinging Rift Herald no longer produces a debug string in chat
- Fixed a bug where Ekko’s Timewinder affected too large of an area on the return when Ekko is dead
- Ekko’s Timewinder now properly applies Z-Drive Resonance on the return when Ekko is dead
- Abyssal Mask's aura range indicator now represents the actual range
- Pulsefire Caitlyn's quote when killing Gnar is no longer heard by everyone on the map
- Fixed a bug where Pulsefire Caitlyn could become covered in a blue overlay for the rest of the match if polymorphed by Lulu's Whimsy while in combat
- Fixed a bug where Lulu could get the same blue overlay if casting Whimsy on any enemy affected by an allied Pulsefire Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap
- Fixed a bug where Kha'Zix’s evolved body parts visually reverted back to base form after Lulu's Whimsy polymorph wore off
- Fixed a bug where Forsaken Jayce's recall audio desynced from the animation when enemies lost and then regained vision of him during the channel
- Jayce Brighthammer now correctly plays the electric buzz SFX for the spawning and despawning of his Acceleration Gate
- The tail end of DJ Sona's recall SFX now play consistently
- PROJECT: Yi’s death SFX now correctly play during his death animation
- Syndra’s Classic and Queen of Diamond sphere-popping SFX now correctly play during her death animation
- High Noon Yasuo now correctly shouts his VO when casting Sweeping Blade
- Fixed a bug where Veigar's laugh wasn't playing correctly when landing a killing blow with Primordial Burst
Upcoming Event
VS. begins during this patch. A world on the brink of ruin waits to be redeemed through Chaos or Order. Delve into a monumental legend and affect its conclusion by taking on event-exclusive missions. Completing missions grants tokens that help determine a victor, and you can also forge tokens into event-only loot.
None can escape destiny, but you can determine it.
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