Patch 9.3

Overview

Patch 9.3

Welcome to 9.3, the patch that's like milk because we're alleviating a lot of spice. On the champion front, we're wrapping up mechanics cleanup on Aatrox, Akali, and Irelia to ensure they've got meaningful weaknesses opponents can capitalize on. Item-wise, we're taking a deep pass on marksman items to solve the build satisfaction issues marksmen have been frustrated by since midseason. We're also changing farm bounties so players who farm their way back from a deficit aren't treated the same as champs who ran away with huge CS leads to begin with.

Grab a glass (of milk, remember?) and read on.

Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights Champions Marksman Items Simple Buffs & Nerfs Minion and Monster Gold Bounties Loading Screen Update Bugfixes Upcoming Skins & Chromas

Patch Highlights[]

Youtube link

Champions[]

Aatrox
Health regen increased. Aatrox no longer heals off damage to non-champions. E no longer stores charges but cools down faster than it previously charged.

Where last patch focused on dropping Aatrox's raw power, this patch focuses on exposing more weaknesses for the Darkin Blade. We're trading his ability to sustain off minions for higher baseline regen so he can't fall back as effectively on passive farming to recover from enemy aggression. Removing Umbral Dash's second charge makes Aatrox's skill check for landing all three Q hits steeper and means if enemies can bait his dash, he won't have a second one to use as an escape.

Base Stats

HEALTH REGEN : [5] ⇒ 8

HEALTH REGEN GROWTH : [0.25] ⇒ 0.75

E - Umbral Dash

HEALING VS NON-CHAMPIONS Aatrox no longer heals for 3/3.34/3.75/4.13/4.5% of the damage he deals to non-champions

CHARGES Aatrox no longer stores a charge of Umbral Dash every 26/22/18/14/10 seconds

COOLDOWN :	[3/2.5/2/1.5/1]
⇒	9/8/7/6/5 seconds, now reduced by cooldown reduction (CDR previously affected charge rate rather than cooldown)

Akali
Health regen increased. Q no longer heals. Turrets reveal Akali through Shroud. W cooldown increased late.

First thing's first: We're removing Akali's ability to hide from turrets, which has been the most contentious part of her update. Many of you are asking why it took us half a year to get here, and the answer is that Akali depended on turret stealth to dive as effectively as other assassins. Ultimately, though, Akali has so many strengths (the ability to switch targets mid-fight without giving up kill pressure, and four forms of mobility, among others) that she doesn't need to also be a reliable turret diver. Given Akali finds better success in longer fights than other assassins, the short duration of turret dives make sense as a weakness, which they now are. The cooldown nerf is simpler: We're reducing Akali's late-game access to Shroud's defenses.

With that out of the way... Five Point Strike nerf. Akali's become blind-pickable in higher echelons of play and Q's heal is a huge part of that: PvE sustain lets Akali survive matchups where she should be getting shoved out of lane if not outright dying to aggression. We're giving her more health regen to soften the blow, but are well aware it's a power-down overall.

We'll be keeping a close eye on how Akali lands in both pro and regular play (did the W change reduce frustration? Did the Q change open up meaningful counters?) then decide on how to bring her back up. In the meantime, you can probably stop permabanning her.

Base Stats

HEALTH REGEN : [3.5] ⇒ 6

Q - Five Point Strike

HEAL Akali no longer heals for 5/10/15/20/25 (+0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.4 total AD) (+0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.4 AP) if Five Point Strike hits at least one enemy when cast at 180 or more energy

W - Twilight Shroud

STEALTH FROM TURRETS Twilight Shroud no longer prevents turrets from revealing Akali

COOLDOWN :	[21/18.5/16/13.5/11]
⇒	21/19/17/15/13	seconds

		Camille E no longer stuns minions or monsters.
	Camille's S-tier jungle status has gotten to the point where we can't easily balance her there without causing her top lane to suffer. We're making the call to prioritize Camille top going forward, though this likely makes Camille jungle a niche pick at best.
		E - Hookshot NON-CHAMPION STUN Hookshot no longer stuns minions and monsters

Cassiopeia
Q base damage decreased late; ratio increased. W damage reduced late, cost increased late.

Next verse, same as the first (well, we've actually been here twice in recent history) . Cassiopeia is still too strong when fighting from extremely safe distances.

Q - Noxious Blast

BASE DAMAGE :	[75/120/165/210/255]
⇒	75/110/145/180/215

RATIO : [0.8] ⇒ 0.9 ability power

W - Miasma

COST : [70] ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110 mana

DAMAGE PER SECOND :	[20/30/40/50/60]
⇒	20/25/30/35/40

MAX DAMAGE :	[100/150/200/250/300]
⇒	100/125/150/175/200

Irelia
Health growth and armor increased. Passive stack cap increased; stacks grant attack speed instead of damage; max stack bonus grants damage instead of attack speed. Q bonus minion damage increased. W reduces more physical damage but no longer reduces magic damage.

This is a companion patch to 9.2 which removed extraneous mechanics from Irelia's kit and reduced her late-game waveclear. Our goal was to give her more pronounced weaknesses and make her less broadly powerful, which we're carrying forward to 9.3. Between the two patches, enemies should feel like they have better ways to deal with Irelia, from champ select to lane to teamfights. So what are we doing this patch? We're swapping Ionian Fervor's bonuses—now attack speed per stack, on-hit damage when fully stacked—to reduce the burstiness of her initiation combos and give enemies a wider window before her damage is fully online. (Bladesurge's minion damage is going up to offset the impact on her already-nerfed waveclear.) We're also changing Defiant Dance to a stronger anti-physical defense with no protection against magic damage to open a weakness to mages and AP assassins while strengthening her ability to counter AD threats.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH : [85] ⇒ 95

ARMOR : [34] ⇒ 36

Passive - Ionian Fervor

PER-STACK :	[4-17 (levels 1-18) (+0.04 bonus AD) on-hit damage]
⇒	8/10/12% (levels 1/7/13) attack speed

STACK CAP : [4] ⇒ 5

MAX STACKS :	[16-68 (levels 1-18) (+0.16 bonus AD) on-hit damage]
⇒	40/50/60% (levels 1/7/13) attack speed

MAX STACK BONUS :	[30/40/50% (levels 1/7/13) attack speed]
⇒	15-66 (levels 1-18) (+0.25 bonus AD) on-hit damage

Q - Bladesurge

BONUS DAMAGE TO MINIONS :	[45/60/75/90/105]
⇒	55/75/95/115/135

W - Defiant Dance

DAMAGE REDUCTION :	[40% physical and magic]
⇒	50% physical, 0% magic

E - Flawless Duet

VISUALS : Hitbox visuals are easier to see

	Champion First Encounter VO

		CHECK THE NAMETAG : Champions with faction- or champion-specific taunt VO now play those lines the first time they encounter a corresponding champion

Marksman Items[]

	A Quick Preamble
	We've got per-item discussion in the sections below, but want to share some broader thoughts for those interested. Last midseason, we made a bunch of marksman item changes to broaden the range of champions and playstyles that could succeed in bot lane beyond late-game crit spam. While non-marksman carries do occasionally show up in bot lane now, crit marksmen were left frustrated by their builds due to things like crit overcapping, anti-synergy between Infinity Edge and Last Whisper, and higher damage tradeoffs than ever for defensive items due to a weaker two-item spike. This patch, we're revisiting marksman items with the following goals: Crit users are excited about their core build again Crit builds are generally more satisfying in normal play (fix the problems mentioned above) without becoming problematic in pro play Crit users can fit defense into their core builds if they need it Once the initial learning curve shakes out, crit users shouldn't be left remarkably stronger or weaker than before, though they'll once again spike at two items (Infinity Edge + Zeal item, with Phantom Dancer updated to be an appealing defensive Zeal upgrade) instead of three so their games will feel better. From here, we'll be following up on significant power shifts on a champ-by-champ basis rather than continuing to adjust the item system (barring any items that end up way out of line).

		Cloak of Agility NEW This is only first because it'd be weird to see it in Infinity Edge and Essence Reaver otherwise. Welcome back, crit cloak.

		COST : 800 gold CRITICAL STRIKE CHANCE : 20%

Infinity Edge UPDATED
Increases critical strike damage instead of partially converting crits to true damage. Grants Critical Strike chance

We're restoring Infinity Edge's synergy with itself to make it a more immediately gratifying pickup. Removing its true damage conversion means it no longer anti-synergizes with Last Whisper, while setting its crit damage bonus to 25% rather than the historic 50% lets us maintain our original goal of mitigating the late-game squishy melting marksmen used to achieve.

TOTAL COST : 3400 gold (unchanged)

BUILD PATH :	B.F. Sword + Pickaxe +	[1225 gold]
⇒		Cloak of Agility + 425 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE : [70] ⇒ 80

CRITICAL STRIKE CHANCE 25%

CRIT CHANCE DOUBLER No longer doubles critical strike chance

CRIT DAMAGE INCREASE Now increases critical strike damage by 25%

TRUE DAMAGE CONVERSION No longer converts 10% of critical strike damage to true damage

Molten Edge
(Ornn's Masterwork upgrade)

ATTACK DAMAGE : [100] ⇒ 110

EVERYTHING ELSE : Molten Edge inherits the rest of Infinity Edge's changes above with no differences

Essence Reaver UPDATED
Now grants critical strike chance. No longer grants mana or Essence Flare.

While the Essence Flare version of Essence Reaver unlocked a few new marksman playstyles (mainly looking at you Lucian), it disenfranchised a bunch of others like Ashe and Xayah and ultimately ended up being a better fit for fighters like Renekton and Riven. Essence Reaver is going back to being a crit+CDR item.

TOTAL COST : [3000] ⇒ 3200 gold

BUILD PATH :	[B.F. Sword + Caulfield's Warhammer + Sapphire Crystal + 250 gold]
⇒	Pickaxe + Caulfield's Warhammer + Cloak of Agility + 425 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE : [75] ⇒ 60

COOLDOWN REDUCTION : 20% (unchanged)

CRITICAL STRIKE CHANCE 25%

MANA No longer grants 300 mana

MANA REFUND : Basic attacks refund [1%] ⇒ 1.5% missing mana

ESSENCE FLARE Your next basic attack after casting your ultimate no longer grants Essence Flare for 6 seconds, granting 50% attack speed and 20% basic ability cooldown refund on basic attack

		Spear of Shojin NEW Grants attack damage, health, cooldown reduction, and Awakened Dragon (renamed Essence Flare).
	Per the Essence Reaver context, several champions make good use of Essence Flare. It's just that they're mostly not marksmen. We made a new item for them. (To those of you who saw the previous Spear of Shojin on Nexus Blitz, it ended up overlapping enough with Sterak's Gage that we decided not to move it forward.)
		TOTAL COST : 3400 gold BUILD PATH : B.F. Sword + Kindlegem + Long Sword + 950 gold ATTACK DAMAGE : 60 HEALTH : 250 COOLDOWN REDUCTION : 20% AWAKENED DRAGON : Your next basic attack after casting your ultimate grants Awakened Dragon for 6 seconds, granting 50% attack speed and 20% basic ability cooldown refund on basic attack

Stormrazor UPDATED
Now amplifies your Energized effects and causes them to slow the target. No longer grants a guaranteed critical strike after not basic attacking for a few seconds.

Stormrazor was created to support marksman playstyles that focus more on kiting around a fight than attacking at full uptime, but ended up becoming the predominant first item in crit builds due to its combination of early impact and crit scaling. We're keeping the idea of "occasionally super-powerful attacks" but moving it from the crit system into the Energized system so it's not just a bumper on the front of Infinity Edge builds.

TOTAL COST : [2800] ⇒ 3100 gold

BUILD PATH :	B.F. Sword + Long Sword +	[Long Sword + Dagger + 550 gold]
⇒		Kircheis Shard + 850 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE : [60] ⇒ 55

ATTACK SPEED : [35%] ⇒ 25%

ENERGIZED Movement and basic attacks generate Energized stacks. At 100 stacks, your next basic attack deals 65 bonus magic damage on-hit and slow the target by 40% decaying over 1 second

STORM Your other Energized effects are 30% more effective and also slow their targets by 40% decaying over 1 second

STORM'S EDGE No longer causes your next basic attack to critically strike for 140-200% (at 0-30% critical strike chance) and grant 20% bonus movement speed for 0.75 seconds after not basic attacking for a few seconds.

Phantom Dancer UPDATED
Now grants a shield at low health but no longer decreases damage from the last champion you hit. Spectral Waltz now triggers on attack rather than proximity to an enemy champion.

Existing defensive options for crit marksmen (Maw of Malmortius, Guardian Angel, Mercurial Scimitar) set users far enough behind on core damage builds that they can't contribute carry-level damage in fights even though they're living longer. We're making Phantom Dancer a defensive option that fits more smoothly into crit builds.

TOTAL COST : [2700] ⇒ 2600 gold

BUILD PATH :	Dagger + Zeal +	[Dagger + 800 gold]
⇒		Brawler's Gloves + 700 gold (Zeal's cost has decreased by 100 gold)

ATTACK SPEED : [45%] ⇒ 30%

CRITICAL STRIKE CHANCE : [30%] ⇒ 25%

LIFELINE If you would take damage that would reduce your health below 30%, gain a shield that absorbs up to 240-600 (scaling starts at level 9, ends at level 18) damage for 2 seconds (90 second cooldown)

LAMENT No longer decreases damage taken from the last champion you basic attacked by 12%

SPECTRAL WALTZ :	Grants unit passthrough and 7% movement speed	[while within 550 range of a visible enemy champion]
⇒		for 2 sec after basic attacking a champion

		Kircheis Shard

		TOTAL COST : [800] ⇒ 600 gold

		Zeal

		TOTAL COST : [1300] ⇒ 1200 gold

		Rapid Firecannon

		TOTAL COST : [2800] ⇒ 2600 gold Critical Strike chance : [30%] ⇒ 25%

		Runaan's Hurricane

		TOTAL COST : [2800] ⇒ 2600 gold Critical Strike chance : [30%] ⇒ 25%

		Statikk Shiv
	Shiv needed a little extra buff to bring it up to the level of the other Zeal upgrades.
		TOTAL COST : [2800] ⇒ 2600 gold ATTACK SPEED : [35%] ⇒ 40% CRITICAL STRIKE CHANCE : [30%] ⇒ 25%

		Last Whisper Cost increased. Attack damage and armor penetration increased.
	Making Last Whisper more effective as a component item while building into Lord Dominik's Regards or Mortal Reminder.
		COST : [1300] ⇒ 1450 gold ATTACK DAMAGE : [10] ⇒ 20 ARMOR PENETRATION : [10%] ⇒ 20% total armor penetration

		Lord Dominik's Regards

		ATTACK DAMAGE : [40] ⇒ 45

		Mortal Reminder

		ATTACK DAMAGE : [40] ⇒ 45

	Build Suggestions
	We're changing a lot of marksman items this patch, which means marksman builds may look a bit different. We're sharing a few build archetypes you can expect to see this patch, though actual builds will look different from one champion to the next (unique builds aren't covered here—how's it going, Ezreal?). The best thing to do is, as always, think critically about which items fit your champion's playstyle and strengths. That said, here are a couple common builds you'll see this patch:
		INFINITY EDGE : Infinity Edge ⇒ Berserker's Greaves ⇒ Zeal Upgrade ⇒ Zeal upgrade or Last Whisper upgrade ESSENCE REAVER : Essence Reaver ⇒ Berserker's Greaves ⇒ Zeal upgrade ⇒ Infinity Edge BLADE OF THE RUINED KING (CRIT) : Blade of the Ruined King ⇒ Berserker's Greaves ⇒ Runaan's Hurricane ⇒ Infinity Edge BLADE OF THE RUINED KING (ON-HIT) : Blade of the Ruined King ⇒ Berserker's Greaves ⇒ Guinsoo's Rageblade ⇒ Rapid Firecannon STORMRAZOR : Stormrazor's no longer the must-rush marksman item. You'll mostly see it as a third or fourth pickup in other builds. RECOMMENDED ITEMS : Marksman recommended items have been updated based on this patch's changes to provide in-game advice on a champ-by-champ basis

Simple Buffs & Nerfs[]

This is a new section of the patch notes where we're gonna stick simple, straightforward changes—generally small handfuls of number tunings rather than mechanical adjustments or comprehensive balance passes. They still impact matchups and place in the meta, so this isn't a free pass to skip reading 'em!

Lissandra
Q cost increased late. E damage decreased late.

Much of Lissandra's status as a dominant midlaner comes from her ability to push into the enemy turret quickly and at relatively low cost, letting her consistently roam with plenty of mana to fight with. A higher cost on Ice Shard and lower damage on Glacial Path mean she'll have to invest more time and resources in mid before she can pressure other lanes. Separate from the waveclear changes, Glacial Path's endpoint indicator is now always visible if you're close to it. This is mainly targeted at cases where Liss players could hide their endpoint inside terrain, but we're addressing the brush and line-of-sight cases as well.

Q - Ice Shard

COST :	[60/63/66/69/72]
⇒	60/65/70/75/80	mana

E - Glacial Path

DAMAGE :	[70/115/160/205/250]
⇒	70/105/140/175/210

CLARITY : Glacial Path's endpoint now shows through terrain, fog of war, and brush to enemies within 600 range of it

Sion
Q damage decreased. W cooldown increased early.

Weakening Sion's early lane to make bad matchups more punshing for him.

Q - Decimating Smash

MINIMUM DAMAGE :	[30/50/70/90/110]
⇒	20/40/60/80/100

FULL-CHARGE DAMAGE :	[90/150/210/270/330]
⇒	60/120/180/240/300

W - Soul Furnace

COOLDOWN : [11] ⇒ 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Zyra
Plant damage decreased.

We took a light touch with last patch's mana regen nerf which asked Zyra to be a little more careful with her cooldowns. This patch swings harder by targeting her harass from plants which lets her keep opponents at bay even when she misses her abilities.

General

PLANT DAMAGE :	[24-109]
⇒	20-100	(levels 1-18)

Minion and Monster Gold Bounties[]

Dying while behind in farm delays how quickly you accrue a minion and monster gold bounty after respawning.

One of the unintended side effects of preseason's minion and monster gold bounties is that farming back up from an early deficit puts a target on your back. We're making that not happen anymore.

FARMING SUBSIDIES : If you die with less minion and monster gold than the enemy team's average, you'll respawn with a buffer equal to the difference. You won't start accruing a minion and monster gold bounty until you've used up the buffer.

WHAT? : Say you die with 200 less minion and monster gold than the enemy team's average, then go back to lane and power farm 700 gold while the enemy team only averages 300 gold. Previously, you'd have a 100 gold bounty for having 400 more minion and monster gold than the enemy team's average. Now you won't have a bounty at all because your first 200 gold was erased by the buffer.

REMINDER : The enemy team's average is their total minion and monster gold divided by four, not five (top, mid, and bot lane, plus the jungle)

Loading Screen Update[]

The loading screen's getting a visual refresh this patch to bring its look and feel in line with current League aesthetics and to lay the groundwork for new features down the road. Here are a few functional changes coming with the update

Ranked borders now dynamically update to reflect your current rank
Load-in progress is now tracked via a single bar at the bottom of the screen
Clicking a player's card in the loading screen now flips it to show additional info:
- Teammates: Champion mastery, honor, and ranked armor or level border depending on which they've chosen to display
- Opponents: Champion mastery and honor

Bugfixes[]

LeBlanc's Sigil of Malice and Mimic'd Sigil of Malice mark is no longer consumed when Ethereal Chains, Mimic'd Ethereal Chains, or Mimic'd Sigil of Malice would proc the mark but are blocked by a spell shield
Relic Shield no longer reports twice the amount of gold generated from Spoils of War in the post-game screen
Base Aatrox can once again toggle his banner wings
Firecracker Vayne Prestige Edition's Condemn projectile color has been slightly changed to disambiguate it from her Final Hour basic attacks
Nightbringer Yasuo's Last Breath voiceover has been restored
Choosing a new background for your profile once again immediately updates it rather than requiring you to tab out and tab back into your profile