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We've mentioned a few times that there'd be one more set of balance changes before the end of the year. Well...here it is! "7.24b—the b is for balance!" Unlike standard patches, this one doesn't require a download, so if you're reading these notes within six-ish hours of publication, watch for a ticker to confirm we're live.
Back to the patch! Today's big theme is toplane—particularly the fighters and items that call it home. Many have felt the pain of losing Fervor, and while we buffed a few in 7.24 proper, we're targeting a few more today. We're also looking at a few champs south of baron pit that are doing too well (~Hello Corki, my old friend~), and have power adjustments to the Sorcery path to boot. Worth mentioning: even though we're balancing about as many things as a regular patch, our changes are numbers-only (except for Zoe). Stability's the name of the game today.
As a note for the patch notes themselves, we're trying a new structure that groups changes by theme, rather than content type. That also means we're writing context on a per-theme level, rather than per-change as usual (with a few exceptions). Let us know what you think!
Wrapping up, we here in the patch notes crew wish you happy holidays and a tilt-free remainder of preseason. GGWP 2017; here's to 2018!
Paul "Aether" Perscheid
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman
Lucas "Liquizilla" Moutinho
With the removal of Fervor, and Summon Aery being particularly good on poke top laners, the top lane landscape has been rough for fighters. We're buffing up some of the worst-hit fighters, giving the Tiamat line some love, making Giant Slayer less effective against fighter item builds, and bringing down certain ranged top laners who abuse the new poke masteries like Arcane Comet or Summon Aery.
We added 2 lethality to the Serrated Dirk items when preseason began, but it turns out we probably didn't need to. This is a hit to Pantheon, by the way, in case you were CTRL+F'ing him.
The mid landscape is in flux, thanks to preseason changes to runes and base magic resist. That's left a few champions well above or below the curve, and we're taking this moment to hit some of the more notable outliers.
PADDLE JUMP : When Zoe casts Portal Jump while a Paddle Star is active, the star's travel range now changes when Zoe reappears at the cast location, rather than as soon as Portal Jump is cast.
EXCUSE ME? : The timing of Zoe's R combo is less forgiving
Bot Lane[]
The damage being thrown around bot lane is a bit too high for our liking, and a large part of that is the combination of sorcery poke and the all-in strength of lethality marksmen. On the poke end, Miss Fortune is spamming Make it Rain for Arcane Comet procs a bit too enthusiastically—rain is fine, but right now it's a downpour. For all-ins, the biggest non-lethaltiy offender is Leona, and the lethality changes we mentioned above cover the marksman side of the issue.
Rammus (Sorry, Rammus... you didn't fit into any of the other sections. Hope that's...OK.)
We added the new innate bonus attack speed stat as another way to tune champions (especially junglers), but in the case of Rammus, his ganks are strong enough that he doesn't need the early boost to his clear speed.
Base stats
INNATE BONUS ATTACK SPEED Rammus no longer starts the game with 15% bonus attack speed
Sorcery Runes[]
The Sorcery path offers too much early power. We're hitting its damage (twice, if you take Scorch) as well as the mana sustain it provides.
Sorcery Path Bonuses
SORCERY + ANY SECONDARY :[15 AD or 25 AP, adaptive]⇒ 12 AD or 20 AP, adaptive
INSPIRATION + SORCERY :[16 AD or 27 AP, adaptive]⇒ 13 AD or 22 AP, adaptive