Patch 8.19

Patch 8.19

Welcome to the second round of changes focused on the World Championship, which starts next week! You might be wondering where the massive pro patch is this year—last year’s World’s patch had 23 changes, after all. This patch, rather than trimming power from the top picks in pro play we’ve been seeing, we’re going to be giving a few nudges to other champions that should help keep them in check. We don’t want to invalidate practice the pros have been putting in for the largest tournament of the year, so we’re just going to see if we can give them a few more options to consider. For buffs, we’re focusing on champions who could use a little extra power for competitive viability who also have some breathing room for the rest of us who haven't reached pro status (yet). We’ll follow up if anything gets out of hand.

We're also including a care package of visual and audio updates for a few older champions and effects. This should spruce things up both in your games and on your screens as you watch the tournament unfold.

Let’s get into it.

Richard "MapleNectar" Henkel
Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights Champions Items Champion VFX & SFX Updates Movement Speed Slow VFX Objective Steal Announcements Profile Page Normal Draft matchmaking Bugfixes Upcoming Skins, Chromas & Icons

Patch Highlights[]

Youtube link

Champions[]

Darius
W base damage increased. E armor penetration increased.

As a valuable counter pick to tanks in top lane, we’re looking to help Darius cleave through some of that armor to encourage teams to think strategically when drafting top lane champions. Although it’s somewhat generic power, percentage armor penetration is considerably more effective against champions like Cho’gath and Ornn than against other fighters like Camille or Aatrox.

W - Crippling Strike

RATIO :	[40/45/50/55/60%]
⇒	50/55/60/65/70%	total attack damage

E - Apprehend

PASSIVE ARMOR PENETRATION :	[10/15/20/25/30%]
⇒	15/20/25/30/35%

Fiora
Healing from passive procs increased.

Fiora is a really sharp champion, with matchups where she dominates and matchups where she struggles to gain an edge. We’re being careful with her, but our changes in 8.17 still haven’t gone far enough to reward aggressive play in lane. Increasing the sustain she gets when going for vital procs on her opponents should help resolve this.

Passive - Duelist's Dance

VITAL HEALING :	[25-110]
⇒	40-115

Q - Lunge

BUGFIX : Lunge will once again correctly prioritize champions and vital procs over killable minions.

		Kha'Zix Passive damage buffed. W slow increased.
	Kha’Zix has been struggling since our changes to his evolved R in patch 8.11. We’d like to give it a bit more oomph in a way that relies on the clever use of ultimate casts to eke out the full value. We’re also amping up the utility of Void Spikes to help Kha’Zix set up plays in ways that aren’t just… murdering you faster.
		Passive - Unseen Threat BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE RATIO : [0.2] ⇒ 0.4 W - Void Spike EVOLVED NON-ISOLATED SLOW : [40%] ⇒ 60% EVOLVED ISOLATED SLOW : [80%] ⇒ 90%

Elise
W and E cooldown decreased in Spider Form.

Elise used to dominate the early game and facilitate aggressive plays across the map. We want to bring that back, so we’re decreasing the cooldown on some of her playmaking tools so she can more frequently seek out risky opportunities to dominate her opponents.

W - Skittering Frenzy

COOLDOWN : [12] ⇒ 10 seconds

E - Rappel

COOLDOWN :	[26/24/22/20/18]
⇒	22/21/20/19/18	seconds

Jarvan IV
Passive cooldown decreased.

Jarvan IV has been pretty absent from the meta for the past year and needs a bit more power for players who want to flex him into top lane or jungle. Passive procs enable a faster clear and also encourage an aggressive trading pattern if played in the top lane.

Passive - Martial Cadence

NEW Martial Cadence now has a visual effect indicating its per target cooldown

PER TARGET COOLDOWN :	[10/8/6 at levels 1/7/13]
⇒	6 at all levels

BUGFIX : Tiamat passive will now consistently work when hitting a target with Martial Cadence

Nunu & Willump
AP scaling on Q’s heal increased. E AP ratio increased.

Since Nunu & Willump’s release, we’ve seen a large number of players trying for the super-hype Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark AP snowball builds. While his tank build is seeing far more success, we want to try to support the fun playstyle that meshes well with their whimsical thematic.

Q - Consume

HEALING RATIO : [0.5] ⇒ 0.70 ability power

BUGFIX : Tooltip now accurately reflects how much healing Nunu and Willump get from champions

E - Snowball Barrage

MAX 9 SNOWBALL HIT RATIO : [0.45] ⇒ 0.54 ability power

WILLUMP’S TURN (ROOT DAMAGE) : [0.5] ⇒ 0.8 ability power

W - Biggest Snowball Ever!

NEW Willumps transition to walking after he finishes rolling his snowball will now feel smoother.

Janna
Passive movement speed to damage conversion increased.

Janna is currently struggling to find a home in the bot lane in a meta dominated by some of her beefier counterparts. Her defensive attributes are already as powerful as we’re comfortable pushing them right now. We’re increasing her early game poke damage for players that are able to play her aggressively and want to harass their opponents every chance they get.

Passive - Tailwind

BONUS MOVESPEED CONVERSION TO DAMAGE :	[15/25/35% at levels 1/7/13]
⇒	25/35% at levels 1/10

Thresh
Q mana cost and early cooldown decreased.

Against a cast of champions that can reliably shut Thresh out of making aggressive plays in lane, he needs more opportunities to throw hooks in the early stages of the game. We don’t want to make his hooks hit harder, or cc for longer, so we’re just bumping up how frequently he can cast them.

Q - Death Sentence

MANA COST : [80] ⇒ 60

COOLDOWN :	[20/18/16/14/12]
⇒	16/15/14/13/12

Pyke
Early ult damage increased.

Pyke’s performance scales down pretty steeply when played against higher-tier opponents who more frequently dodge his fairly projected abilities. We think his reliability is in a pretty solid spot, but want to increase the damage payout Pyke gets for hitting good ults that help close out fights. This power only impacts his early and mid game, and his damage from levels 11-18 is unchanged.

R - Death From Below

BASE DAMAGE (BREAKS EVEN AT LEVEL 11) :	[200 / 250 / 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 475 / 500 / 525 / 550 / 575 / 590 / 605]
⇒	250 / 290 / 330 / 370 / 410 / 450 / 475 / 500 / 525 / 550 / 575 / 590 / 605

		Tahm Kench Base HP down; HP per level up.
	Similar to Braum last patch, we’re looking to drain some of Tahm Kench’s baseline sturdiness. Reducing Tahm’s base HP should make him rely more on his defensive tools to find success in lane, while increasing his HP gained per level will make it slightly easier for him to wade into the enemy team late game.
		Base Stats HEALTH : [610] ⇒ 540 HEALTH GROWTH : [95] ⇒ 102 R - Devour BUGFIX : Allies Tahm Kench has devoured will no longer sometimes be targetable when first swallowed.

Kog'Maw
Base movement speed increased. R range increased.

In a meta that often sees two or more tanks on a team and short-range ADCs in bot lane, Kog’Maw has been surprisingly absent. We’re giving him some base movement speed to help him kite aggressively and go for trades against some of those short-range champions like Kai’sa and Xayah. Early game buffs to his ult’s range will also help him chase down opponents after ganks or trades.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED : [325] ⇒ 330

R - Living Artillery

RANGE :	[1200 / 1500 / 1800]
⇒	1300 / 1550 / 1800

Items[]

		Liandry's Torment Passive max HP burn increased. AP decreased.
	Liandry’s has a pretty clear purpose—build it when you have damage over time and CC in your kit, or when the enemy has a really tanky team. While it has a solid set of core users who meet the first condition, it could do a better job of dealing with multiple tanks. We’re adding more max HP burn to address this while reducing its AP to limit burst power slightly.
		ABILITY POWER : [80] ⇒ 75 Torment: DOT AGAINST NON IMPAIRED TARGETS : [1%] ⇒ 1.5% Max HP per second DOT AGAINST IMPAIRED TARGETS : [2%] ⇒ 2.5% Max HP per second

Champion VFX & SFX Updates[]

We've updated audio and visuals for a bunch of champions!

Jarvan IV

VISUALS : Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO : Non-VO AUDIO has been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base SFX

BUGFIX : Jarvan IV now properly plays his dunk animation when casting Cataclysm

Lee Sin

VISUALS : Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO : Non-VO AUDIO has been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base SFX

KNOCKOUT : Knockout Lee Sin's Safeguard shield VFX have been updated

POOL PARTY : Pool Party Lee Sin's Q2 - Resonating Strike marker has been updated

GOD FIST : God Fist Lee Sin's Tempest VFX more clearly indicate the hitbox

Veigar

VISUALS : Basic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base VFX

AUDIO : Non-VO audio has been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base SFX

BAD SANTA : Bad Santa Veigar has also received VFX updates

LEPRECHAUN : Leprechaun Veigar has also received VFX updates

Vi

VISUALS : Basic attack and ability visual effects have been cleaned up for base Vi and all skins using base VFX. This update also optimizes Vi to run more smoothly on slower computers.

SSG Ezreal

VISUALS : Though technically unrelated to the above, SSG Ezreal's ability VFX have received a clarity pass

Movement Speed Slow VFX[]

The default visual effect for movement speed slow effects has been updated!

Objective Steal Announcements[]

Baron Nashor, Rift Herald, and Dragon steals are now celebrated (or "celebrated", depending on which side of the steal you were on) via chat call-outs and announcement banners!

Profile Page[]

In preparation for the 2019 ranked changes and the return of Clash, the profile page design has been revamped. A couple of the profile icons will remain empty for a while, but that should change soon.

Normal Draft matchmaking[]

Also in preparation for Ranked 2019, we’re now previewing positional matchmaking in Normal Draft only. This means you’ll be matched based on the position you were assigned instead of just having one rating in the background. This should make matchmaking better across the board, and tangibly better when playing secondary and autofilled games. We’re also testing position detection, which determines what position you actually played on the end of game screen. Let us know if it does you wrong.