Patch 9.1

Overview

Patch 9.1

Welcome, one and all, to the first patch of 2019! We hope the holidays treated you well and you're rested up and ready for a fresh new year of League. Let's get into it!

At the top of the notes you'll see a special section for Kalista, Ornn, and Sejuani, all of whom have been much stronger in pro play than regular play. In all three cases, we're reducing the utility they offer to coordinated teams and offering them strength that's less tied to perfect timing, positioning, or communication. From there, we move into the bulk of our champion changes which feature direct buffs to a bunch of marksmen. In each case, we accentuated the unique strengths or highest moments they're picked for, but the impetus for all of them is the same: Marksmen on the whole ended 2018 in a rough spot. We've got some item work in the patches to come as well, so 9.1 isn't the end of the road to recovery. After that, the balance updates wrap up with rune adjustments, including a usability buff to Hail of Blades for champs with attack resets.

Best of luck in your matches on 9.1!

Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Kalista, Ornn, Sejuani Champions Jungle Items Runes Turret Assists Ability Ping Improvements Ability Icon HUD Bugfixes Upcoming Skins & Chromas

Kalista, Ornn & Sejuani[]

Kalista
Base AD, AD growth, attack speed growth increased; W Oathsworn AD bonus removed. Q damage increased. E deals less damage to epic monsters.

When we say "Kalista," League vets immediately think "nerfed because of pro play." It's been a minute since we've tried to shift her strength toward less team-coordination-dependent power, but we're taking a fresh stab at it here. Kalista's offensive strength is no longer tied to being near her Oathsworn and her ability to turn Rend into a better Smite is greatly diminished. In return, she's gaining a bunch of personal power she can use in any situation.

Base Stats

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE : [62] ⇒ 67

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH : [3.6] ⇒ 4

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH : [3.5%] ⇒ 4%

Q - Pierce

BASE DAMAGE :	[10/70/130/190/250]
⇒	20/85/150/215/280

W - Sentinel

OATHSWORN EMPOWERMENT Kalista no longer gains 5/10/15/20/25 attack damage while her Oathsworn is nearby

E - Rend

WEAK GRIP Rend now deals 50% damage to epic monsters

Ornn
Base durability increased. Ornn's items upgrade at level 13 (2 max); he can upgrade one ally's item per level at level 14+. More upgrades added. Q cost, damage, slow decreased. W doesn't shield but makes Ornn unstoppable. R slow, knockup decreased.

While Ornn doesn't have as lengthy a track record of competitive problems as Kalista, he's similarly shown much stronger results in pro play. He has no losing matchups when strong, making him a safe choice in any comp, and his ult locks enemies down from a distance so allies can clean up the kill without Ornn actually having to do his job as a tank. We're reducing these strengths and investing that power into Ornn's passive. Switching to a free upgrade system gives Ornn a unique ability to jump-start the item scaling for both himself and his team: Rather than delaying progress toward full builds, upgrading an item is now pure upside.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH : [90] ⇒ 95

BASE HEALTH REGEN : [1.4] ⇒ 1.8

HEALTH REGEN GROWTH : [0.142] ⇒ 0.18

ARMOR GROWTH : [3] ⇒ 4

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE : [67] ⇒ 69

Passive - Living Forge

CALLOUSED HANDS Ornn now gains 10% additional armor and magic resist from items

TRADE KNOWLEDGE At level 13, any upgradable item Ornn owns or purchases for the rest of the game is upgraded for free (Ornn can have up to two upgraded items)

BENEFACTOR At each level from 14 onward, Ornn can upgrade one of his ally's upgradable items by getting within 600 range of them and clicking on them (allies can only have one upgraded item)

PURCHASE ORDER Ornn and his allies can no longer pay to upgrade their items

ITEMS Ornn can upgrade new items! Bonuses listed below:

Frozen Fist

ARMOR : [65] ⇒ 95

MANA : [500] ⇒ 700

Youmuu's Wraithblade

ATTACK DAMAGE : [55] ⇒ 75

LETHALITY : [18] ⇒ 25

Might of the Ruined King

ATTACK DAMAGE : [40] ⇒ 55

ATTACK SPEED : [25%] ⇒ 40%

Luden's Pulse

ABILITY POWER : [90] ⇒ 120

MANA : [600] ⇒ 850

Q - Volcanic Rupture

COST : [55] ⇒ 45 mana

BASE DAMAGE :	[20/50/80/110/140]
⇒	20/45/70/95/120

SLOW :	[40/45/50/55/60%]
⇒	40% at all ranks

W - Bellows Breath

SHIELD No longer shields Ornn for 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.4 bonus armor)(+0.4 bonus magic resist)

UNSTOPPABLE Ornn is now unstoppable during W

COOLDOWN :	[17/15/13/11/9 seconds]
⇒	12 seconds

DURATION :	[[1] second (ticks every [0.2] seconds )]
⇒	[0.75] seconds (ticks every [0.15] seconds)

SELF-SLOW : [50%] ⇒ 35%

BRITTLE PROC DAMAGE :	[7%-12%]
⇒	12%-20.5%	target's maximum health (levels 1-18)

E - Searing Charge

COST : [50 at all ranks] ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55

JUST A LITTLE LONGER If a Q pillar is about to expire when Ornn casts E, it now lasts until Ornn's dash completes

R - Call of the Forge God

FIRST CAST SLOW :	[40/60/80%]
⇒	10% scaling up to 40/60/80% based on distance traveled

SECOND CAST KNOCKUP :	[1.5 seconds on all enemies hit]
⇒	1 second on the first enemy hit, 0.5 seconds on enemies hit past the first

Sejuani
Base durability increased. Passive grants fewer stats but lasts longer. Q damage increased. W2 damage increased but slow falls off immediately. E deals more damage but range and stun decreased.

Third in our "powerful in pro, weak in regular" lineup is Sejuani. The broad angle of approach for these changes is "reduce crowd control and increase damage" to make Sejuani's success less dependent on ally follow-up (or set-up in the case of melee allies priming E). We're also reducing Frost Armor's massive spike of defenses to extend its duration and give Sejuani more baseline durability. This ties Sejuani's responsibility of soaking damage less to perfectly coordinated teamfight initiation, enabling her to better tank for her team throughout extended combat.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH : [88] ⇒ 105

BASE ARMOR : [31] ⇒ 34

ARMOR GROWTH : [3] ⇒ 4.25

BASE MAGIC RESIST : [27.1] ⇒ 32.1

MAGIC RESIST GROWTH : [0.75] ⇒ 1.25

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH : [3] ⇒ 4

Passive - Fury of the North

FROST ARMOR RESISTANCES :	[20/70/120 armor and magic resist (+100% total armor and magic resist)]
⇒	20 armor and magic resist (+25% bonus armor and magic resist)

FROST ARMOR LINGER : [2] ⇒ 3 seconds

Q - Arctic Assault

BASE DAMAGE :	[60/90/120/150/180]
⇒	80/120/160/200/240

W - Winter's Wrath

SECOND HIT BASE DAMAGE :	[30/65/100/135/170]
⇒	30/70/110/150/190

SECOND HIT SLOW DURATION : Normalized to 0.25 seconds (previously, could last slightly longer depending on server timing)

E - Permafrost

STUN DURATION :	[1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4]
⇒	1 second at all ranks

RANGE : [850] ⇒ 600

DAMAGE :	[20/35/50/65/80]
⇒	40/80/120/160/200 (Icebreaker damage upon shattering a stunned target unchanged)

Champions[]

		Ashe E grants assists if enemies were previously unseen.
	We're adding some personal reward for Hawkshots that enable Ashe's team to lock down a kill. (The Q change is a quality of life improvement.)
		Ranger's Focus does not exist HEY! : Ability icon border now flashes when Q is castable at max stacks E - Hawkshot I HELPED : Ashe now gains assist credit if a previously-unseen enemy is killed within 10 seconds of being revealed by Hawkshot

		Jinx W cast time now scales with attack speed.
	Helping Zap!'s cast time keep up with Jinx so casting it mid- or late-game doesn't feel like as much of a standstill.
		W - Zap! CAST TIME : [0.6] ⇒ 0.6 - 0.4 seconds, based on attack speed (caps at 250% bonus attack speed, including bonus from Switcheroo!)

		Jayce Q+E combo can now be buffered.
		E - Acceleration Gate BUFFERING : If Jayce casts Acceleration Gate during Shock Blast's cast time, he'll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast

Katarina
E teleports immediately; cast time now entirely post-teleport. Hextech Gunblade's active can be buffered.

These changes make Katarina feel more responsive to play without stripping away her opponents' ability to react to her decisions.

E - Shunpo

CAST TIME :	[0.075 seconds before teleporting and 0.075 seconds after teleporting]
⇒	0.15 seconds after teleporting (Katarina now teleports immediately upon pressing E)

BUFFERING : Katarina can now buffer Hextech Gunblade's active to fire after Shunpo's cast time completes

		Nasus Q stacks from large kills increased.
	We're increasing the reward good Nasus players earn for prioritizing last-hits on big stuff. This doesn't affect stacks from smaller units, so the big dog's gotta land those cannons to make use of this buff. Plus 12!
		Q - Siphoning Strike LARGE KILL STACKS : [6] ⇒ 12 per champion, large minion, or large monster kill

		Sivir Champion hits don't reduce Q's damage.
	Buffing the dream Q that hits all five enemy champions in a teamfight.
		Q - Boomerang Blade DAMAGE FALLOFF : Hitting an enemy champion no longer decreases Boomerang Blade's damage against subsequent targets (tooltip will be updated in 9.2)

		Vayne Q cooldown reduced while R is active.
	This is a spicy buff to Vayne's mid- and late-game teamfighting for players who can train enemies down during Final Hour without getting bopped in the process. To the Vaynes of the world: Vaynespotting is still a thing, so be careful not to roll yourself into an early grave. At the same time, don't be skittish—if you Tumble without attacking, you're barely going to get anything from this buff.
		R - Final Hour KEEP ROLLIN Tumble's cooldown is reduced by 50% while Final Hour is active (reminder: Tumble's cooldown doesn't start until Vayne fires the empowered attack)

		Xayah E root duration increased.
	We're upping Xayah's unique ability among marksmen to keep enemies where she wants them as she tosses and recalls her feathers.
		R - Bladecaller ROOT DURATION : [1] ⇒ 1.25 seconds

		Zyra Q+W and E+W combos can now be buffered.

		W - Rampant Growth BUFFERING : If Zyra casts Rampant Growth during Deadly Spines' or Grasping Roots' cast times, she'll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast

Jungle Items[]

Unenchanted jungle items reduce gold received from minions if their owner has too much minion gold.

When preseason shipped, we pulled out the Monster Hunter gold penalty to see if other changes would naturally discourage gold funneling (higher tradeoff via turret plating, higher risk via minion and monster bounties). Funneling's made a small comeback, so we're adding a new version of Monster Hunter that's more graceful than last season's check on who had the highest CS.

MONSTER HUNTER : Hunter's Machete, Hunter's Talisman, unenchanted Stalker's Blade, and unenchanted Skirmisher's Sabre now reduce minion gold earned by 10 per minion if their owner's gold from minions is greater than half their gold from monsters

Runes[]

		Hail of Blades Attack speed bonus higher early; lower late. Attack resets no longer consume a stack.
	Part of the reason Hail of Blades historically struggled to find a niche is that if you were a champion who cares about attack speed, you usually wanted to go Precision instead. Rune stats solved this tension but left a second unaddressed: Champions who want to open fights with quick bursts of attacks have reset abilities that overlap with one of Hail's empowered attacks. We're changing Hail of Blades to synergize—rather than compete—with attack resets.
		ATTACK SPEED BONUS : [75-125% (levels 1-18)] ⇒ 110% at all levels HAILSTORM Attacks that benefit from an attack reset (ex. Jax's Empower) no longer consume a Hail of Blades stack

	Rune Stats Attack speed rune stat increased.
	Even attack speed-focused champs have been taking adaptive force in their the offensive slot, so we're buffing the attack speed rune stat to be more appealing.
		ATTACK SPEED RUNE STAT : [9%] ⇒ 10%

		Celerity Movement speed bonus multiplier increased.
	Celerity's established a stable of frequent users post-update: Hecarim, obviously, but Sivir, Aurelion Sol, and about a dozen more too. A slight buff will help it see situational use in the hands of others.
		MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS MULTIPLIER : [8%] ⇒ 10%

		Shield Bash Damage increased.
	Shield Bash is performing well for tanks thanks to its max health ratio, but we want it to be a good option for other shield users/recipients as well.
		DAMAGE : [4-21 (levels 1-18)] ⇒ 5-30 (levels 1-18)

Turret Assists[]

Local gold proximity radius on turret takedown increased. Additional radius for assists added.

The gist of these changes is that if you helped secure a turret takedown, you should get gold for doing so, even if you're not right next to it. This'll cover cases like a jungler going back to clearing or a low-health ally recalling in brush while their teammates finish the turret off. It also steepens the tradeoffs of funneling local gold into one player—allies will have to back off earlier to create sufficient distance, meaning the beneficiary will be left more vulnerable for a longer window as they try to solo the turret's remaining health down. While we were adjusting the local gold ranges, we also slightly expanded the existing radius to handle instances where a teammate is posturing to keep enemies from jumping on the player burning the turret down, rather than damaging the turret themselves.

ASSIST RADIUS Champions within 2500 range who assisted in a turret takedown now also count toward local turret gold distribution (including first turret bonus)

PROXIMITY RADIUS : Champions within [1000] ⇒ 1200 range of a turret are counted toward local turret gold distribution whether they assisted in the takedown or not

FUN FACT : Turret plating already worked like this!

REMINDER : Unlike champion takedowns, there's no "assist gold" pool created when a turret falls. Local gold is split evenly among eligible allies regardless of who got the takedown.

Ability Ping Improvements[]

	Long-Range Abilities
	Pinging these abilities will now let your team know which targets are in range!
		*Galio's Hero's Entrance Nocturne's Paranoia Pantheon's Grand Skyfall Yasuo's Last Breath Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole Lux's Final Spark Twisted Fate's R2 - Gate Jhin's Deadly Flourish and Curtain Call Ziggs' Mega Inferno Bomb Xerath's Rite of the Arcane

	Abilities with Detailed Information
	These frequently requested ping improvements give teammates more relevant information.
		*Draven's Adoration: Current stacks Heimerdinger's H-28G Evolution Turret: Number of turrets available or time until next turret if none are available Kassadin's Riftwalk: Time until stacks expire if Kassadin is unable to cast Riftwalk due to having too many stacks Kayn's The Darkin Scythe: Time until other form is available if Kayn's already unlocked a form Kog'Maw's Living Artillery: Time until stacks expire if Kog'Maw is unable to cast Living Artillery due to having too many stacks Mordekaiser's Children of the Grave: Remaining ghost duration Nasus's Siphoning Strike: Current stacks Soraka's Astral Infusion: Now indicates when Soraka is unable to cast Astral Infusion due to having too little health Veigar's Phenomenal Evil Power: Current stacks Smite, Challenging Smite & Chilling Smite: Amount of damage dealt to monsters

Ability Icon HUD[]

We're improving the way the HUD communicates remaining duration for a bunch of abilities, which were previously tracked only via the little icons in your buff bar. The breakdown below was based more on what felt right than on immutable rules, but let us know if there are other abilities you think should get this treatment!

Remaining duration bar

Alistar's Trample and Unbreakable Will
Braum's Unbreakable
Corki's Gatling Gun
Dr. Mundo's Sadism
Illaoi's Leap of Faith
Jax's Grandmaster's Might
Karthus's Death Defied
Kayle's Righteous Fury
Master Yi's Highlander
Miss Fortune's Strut
Mordekaiser's Children of the Grave ghost duration
Nasus' Fury of the Sands
Olaf's Vicious Strikes and Ragnarok
Rammus' Powerball, Defensive Ball Curl, and Tremors
Renekton's Dominus
Rengar's Thrill of the Hunt
Shyvana's Burnout
Singed's Insanity Potion
Sivir's On the Hunt
Tristana's Rapid Fire
Tryndamere's Undying Rage
Twitch's Ambush and Spray and Pray
Vayne's Tumble empowered attack window and Final Hour duration
Viktor's Chaos Storm
Volibear's Thunder Claws

Time to recast border

Garen's Decisive Strike empowered attack window and movement speed
Gragas's Barrel Roll
Kassadin's Nether Blade empowered attack window
Kha'Zix's Void Assault
LeBlanc's Distortion and Mimic'd Distortion return window
Lux's Lucent Singularity
Nasus' Siphoning Strike empowered attack window
Renekton's E2 - Dice
Riven's R2 - Wind Slash
Twisted Fate's Pick a Card and R2 - Destiny
Volibear's Rolling Thunder empowered attack window and movement speed
Yasuo's Q2 - Steel Tempest
Zed's Living Shadow and Death Mark return window

Bugfixes[]

Xin Zhao's Crescent Guard no longer deals more damage than intended when Xin Zhao hits multiple enemies
Neeko's minimap and announcement banner icons no longer gets stuck for enemies as the ally she transformed into if her Inherent Glamour breaks in fog of war
Varus' Hail of Arrows slow zone VFX no longer fail to appear if Varus cast Hail of Arrows from fog of war
Sterak's Gage's tooltip now shows the exact amount of damage required to trigger its shield as well as the exact shield granted
Jarvan IV's Martial Cadence no longer deals damage through Pantheon's Aegis Protection
Death's Dance no longer grants Urgot an excessive amount of healing against Tryndamere's Undying Rage or Anivia's Rebirth
Rengar's hands once again glow when he reaches maximum Ferocity
Fixed Savagery activation and trail VFX for base, SSW, Headhunter, and Night Hunter Rengar
Fixed Empowered Savagery stab splash VFX for base, SSW, Headhunter, and Night Hunter Rengar
Fixed Thrill of the Hunt activation VFX for Headhunter and Night Hunter Rengar
Rengar's target once again glows during Thrill of the Hunt for base, SSW, Headhunter, and Night Hunter Rengar
Zombie Brand's VO lines no longer overlap
Battle Boss Ziggs' Mega Inferno Bomb no longer uses classic VFX for long-range casts
Fixed an issue where Ranked Armor would occasionally appear blurry at some resolutions
Fixed summoner icons not being properly centered in Ranked Armor
Fixed the "Add Friend" button overlapping with the game header in lobby when looking for a match
Fixed Ranked Armor hiding the speech indication from League Voice when looking for a match: The armor's faceplate will now be backlit when players are speaking