One of the highlights for this patch will be the releasing of Pulsefire Thresh and Pulsefire Thresh Prestige Edition that will be available on November 21st!
For Teamfight Tactics, once this patch 9.23 will be released, ranked gaming for teamfight tactics will be back! They have mentioned that they will be focusing on tiers of the champions, especially they are buffing three-star abilities for some Tier 2 and 3 champions, since Rise of the Elements is on!
So, being this 2019 season has drawn to a close, and some of you reached their desired ranks and some of us did not, if you have reached Gold or higher, you will be getting Victorious Aatrox, and if you have achieved Gold or higher in two of those queues, you will also get Victorious Aatrox chroma! (Check my recent post regarding the End of Season Rewards for 2019).
So, regarding this Rise of Elements, below are some details about this wonderful patch for this new season in the Rift!
"This preseason, we're adding more game-to-game variety and opportunities for mastery to Summoner's Rift. After the second Elemental Drake of the game dies, the map will permanently transform to one of four Elemental Rifts, each with unique terrain changes that'll alter the way you take on teamfights, rotations, vision, and objective control.
Elemental Rifts don't favor a specific team, so games are still in players' hands regardless of which one takes shape. We also wanted to ensure the Rifts feel intuitive even in your first game, so they don't introduce any new mechanics and terrain changes always occur in the same areas no matter which element spawns"
TRANSFORMATION MECHANICS
TRANSFORMATION TRIGGER: After the second Elemental Drake dies and the third is announced.
RIFT ELEMENT: Same as the element of the third drake.
TERRITORIAL: Once the map transforms, all future Elemental Drake spawns will be of that element only.
TERRAIN CHANGES: Always occur in the four jungle quadrants, centered around the buff camps, as well as in dragon pit.
Infernal Rift
"New paths make opportunities for a quick flank or sidestep that your opponent isn't expecting."
JUNGLE: The brush nearest to Blue and Red buffs burn away, and new pathways open up through the Blue and Red buff pits.
DRAGON PIT: The entrance to Dragon pit widens.
Mountain Rift
"Extra tight spaces give opportunities for big AOE wombos and create some interesting new hiding spots with fog of war."
JUNGLE: Two new bluffs of rock emerge in each jungle quadrant
DRAGON PIT: A rock formation rises in front of the Dragon pit
Ocean Rift
"Sneak around the jungle or look for a new ambush opportunity."
JUNGLE: Most of the brush in the jungle grows larger and new Honeyfruit spawns near the buff camps. Water pools into puddles throughout the jungle, which is mostly aesthetic unless you're the Empress of the Elements or running the Waterwalking rune.
DRAGON PIT: New brush patches sprout up around the Dragon pit.
Cloud Rift
"Dodge skillshots or make a swift collapse on your enemies trying to sneak a faraway objective."
JUNGLE: Air currents flow throughout the area around Blue and Red buffs, granting speed boosts to everyone inside.
DRAGON PIT: Dragon Pit also becomes a speed boosting wind tunnel.
SIDE LANE ALCOVES
"We're adding two new lane alcoves to the Rift, one in each side lane. We don't expect laning to fundamentally change as a result, but the extra terrain and its impact on line of sight should occasionally offer new playmaking opportunities through positioning, jukes, flanks, and ganks."
BREATHTAKING VISTA OF DEATH: New alcoves have been carved into the outer corners of top and bot lanes
BOT LANE BRUSH: Three patches, mirroring top lane
RIVER ENTRANCE BRUSH
"New brush patches near the blue buff ramps into river add new strategic and tactical options as teams approach and contest objectives."
WHERE'S GAREN?: New brush has been added by the river entrances in both Blue buff quadrants
ELEMENTAL DRAKES
Dragon Souls
Dragon Souls are a new end-game payoff for the team who wins the Elemental Drake game, a powerful reward that's similar to an Epic objective. Dragon Souls don't offer the same moment-to-moment strength as Baron or Elder buff, but they're permanent and an additional bonus on top of the drake stacks their bearers already earned.
I GOT SOUL: The first team to slay four Elemental Drakes gains a Dragon Soul matching the Elemental Rift.
EXCLUSIVITY: Elder Dragon begins spawning after one team gains a Dragon Soul, meaning only one team can have it.
DURATION: Like Elemental Drake buffs, Dragon Souls are permanent and persist through death.
Infernal Soul
Every 3 seconds, your next damaging attack or ability on an enemy unit triggers a small explosion, dealing 90 (+0.25 bonus attack damage) (+0.15 ability power) (+0.03 bonus health) damage to the target and nearby enemies.
Mountain Soul
After not taking damage for 5 seconds, gain a shield for 225 (+0.2 bonus attack damage) (+0.15 ability power) (+0.15 bonus health)
Ocean Soul
Dealing damage to enemies heals you for 180 (+0.4 bonus attack damage) (+0.25 ability power) (+0.1 bonus health) and restores 90 (+0.04 maximum mana) mana over 3 seconds.
Damage to minions or monsters regenerates with 30% effectiveness.
Cloud Soul
Passively gain 10% increased movement speed.
After casting your ultimate, gain an additional 30% movement speed for 3 seconds (30 second cooldown).
Elemental Drake Buffs
We're updating the buffs to be more equal in power and excitement. Stack for stack, elemental buffs are weaker than before to avoid excessively power creeping SR's buff ecosystem. With Dragon Souls adding new late-game payout to Elemental Drakes, we're switching from the current frontloaded buff stacks back to a linear model.
Last note: You can now get four stacks of an element if the enemy team gets the first two or three drakes (always different elements), then you get the next four (always the same element).
Infernal
Just a balance pass.
INFERNAL MIGHT: +5/10/15/20% attack damage and ability power
Mountain
Extra damage to objectives was a subtle-yet-powerful snowballing effect that was often hard to appreciate outside of coordinated play. We're switching Mountain to a more straightforward effect all players can play around.
MOUNTAINOUS VIGOR: +8/16/24/32% armor and magic resist
Ocean
We're removing Ocean's mana regen to even its power out among users regardless of resource type. That gives us room to allow Ocean's healing to continue in combat, which is a buff for any user.
OCEANIC WILL: 5/10/15/20% missing health regen per 5 seconds (mana regen removed)
Cloud
Cloud's movement speed was powerful, but not all that exciting. We're moving the speed boost to Cloud's Elemental Rift (where we can support it with visuals) and adding a different kind of haste to Cloud's buff.
CLOUDBRINGER'S GRACE: 10/20/30/40% ultimate CDR, ignoring the CDR cap
ELEMENTAL DRAKE MECHANIC
With drake types going down to just one element after the Rift transforms, we're ensuring the first few you see don't double up on elements so you still experience a variety of drakes in each game.
DRAKE SPAWN ORDER: The first three drakes are now always three unique elements. All subsequent drakes will be the same element as the third drake.
DRAKE SPAWN WINDOW: 5:00 initial, 5:00 respawn until one team has slain four drakes.
Since the Elemental Drake buffs are a bit weaker, we're dropping the health of the first two drakes. The battle over the Dragon Soul begins heating up after that, so drakes after the first two have more health to widen the opportunity for teams to contest.
HEALTH: 2650 (+240 per level, minimum level 6) before the Rift transforms; 4350 (+240 per level, minimum level 6) for the third drake onward
ELDER DRAGON
Elder's new mechanic is an execute, sharpening its identity as the end-game teamfighting buff and making its impact much more obvious than the DoT and drake scaling it used to grant. Note that the 20% threshold looks higher than it is in practice: You'll rarely bring an enemy to exactly 19.9% before they go boom.
EXECUTE: Damaging an enemy at less than 20% health causes them to die in an Elder Immolation after 0.5 seconds (no cooldown).
DENIED: Elder Immolation can't execute enemies through invulnerability effects like Zhonya's Hourglass or undying effects like Kindred's R - Lamb's Respite
We're standardizing the duration of Elder and Baron to three minutes. These buffs should last long enough for attacking teams to gain real advantages off coordinated power plays, but not so long that attackers come out ahead if they passively leave opponents stuck on defense for extended periods. If these duration changes make Elder too strong or Baron too weak, we'll adjust their effects accordingly.
BUFF DURATION: 180 seconds; still lost on death.
Final note about how often Elder will actually show up in games. In a complete stomp, the earliest Elder can spawn is 26:00 plus time spent in combat with the drakes. But in a game that's going even or isn't seeing many objectives taken, it's also possible for Elder to never spawn.
SPAWN RULES: 6:00 after one team kills their fourth Elemental Drake; 6:00 respawn
BARON BUFF
We're standardizing the duration of Elder and Baron to three minutes. Though they have different strategic strengths, both buffs should last long enough for attacking teams to gain real advantages off coordinated power plays but not so long that defenders are paralyzed for excessive lengths of time. If these duration changes make Elder too strong or Baron too weak, we'll adjust their effects accordingly.
DURATION: 180 seconds
BUFF VISUALS
Visuals for Blue Buff, Red Buff, Red Buff's burn effect, Hand of Baron, and Aspect of the Dragon (Elder Dragon buff) have all been updated. All monster buffs are now visually cohesive, including the new Dragon Souls.
Row 1: Blue buff, Red buff, Red buff burn
Row 2: Elder Dragon, Hand of Baron, All buffs + Dragon Soul
TOP LANE INFLUENCE
Rift Herald
With the increased importance on drakes on bot side, we're spawning Rift Herald a bit earlier and letting her respawn once so teams don't completely abandon their top laners in favor of bot lane presence. (Y'know...more than they already do.)
Rift Herald Fight
INITIAL SPAWN: 8:00
NEWRESPAWN: 6:00
DESPAWN: 19:30, delayed to 19:50 if in combat (unchanged)
HEALTH: 8,250-16,500 (levels 6-12)
ATTACK SPEED: 0.4 (it's easier to poke Rift Herald's eye before she spins around)
Summoned Rift Herald
EYE OF THE HERALD PICK-UP WINDOW: 20 seconds
EYE OF THE HERALD CHANNEL: 1 second
HERALD LEVEL: Average level of all ten champions, determined on using Eye of the Herald ⇒ picking up Eye of the Herald
HEALTH: 3180-6360 (levels 6-12)
HEADBUTT TURRET DAMAGE: 1500-2550 (levels 6-12)
HEADBUTT SELF-DAMAGE: 66% current health
Minion XP
We're very lightly adjusting minion XP to slightly equalize the influence top and bot laners have on the game. Solo laners will level about 2% faster from minions, while duo laners (or solo laners getting non-stop jungler attention) will level about 2% slower. Put another way, every five waves adds up to an extra caster minion for solo laners and one fewer for bot.
Solo XP
MELEE: 60.45
CASTER: 29.76
CANNON: 93
Shared XP
Divide evenly among the champions sharing XP.
MELEE: 75.4
CASTER: 37.12
CANNON: 116
TURRET PLATING
Slightly buffing Turret Plating durability to prevent group-and-push blowouts in the early game, especially with the Rift Herald changes in mind.
BULWARK RESISTANCES25 ⇒ 35 armor and magic resist per third, fourth, and fifth attacker when a plate is destroyed.
Doran's Shield
Melee regen increased, ranged regen decreased.
Buffing DShield's regen to make it a stronger option in melee vs ranged matchups.
PASSIVE: Up to 40 health over 8 seconds when damaged by an enemy champion, based on missing health. 66% effective for ranged users or when triggered by AoE, DoT, or proc effects
JUNGLE PACING
We're incentivizing junglers to prioritize farming rather than just fitting camps in between ganks. Higher camp uptime ensures junglers have consistent access to gold and XP on their side of the map, and the removal of catchup XP steepens the cost of failed ganks. Since junglers will be able to clear their camps more frequently, we're reducing the gold and experience a full clear grants so they don't take over games. We're also ensuring both sides of the jungle get junglers to level 3 in their first clear.
Jungle Item XP
Jungle items no longer grant additional XP on monster kill if you're behind in levels (epic monsters still innately have catch-up XP though)
FIRST CAMP BONUS XP: 165
Camp Timers
SMALL CAMP RESPAWN: 120 seconds
SMALL CAMP RESPAWN ICONS
If your team had vision of a small camp when it was killed, you'll see a respawn icon on the minimap 15 seconds before respawn.
BUFF CAMP RESPAWN ICONS: 15 seconds before respawn
Krugs
BASE XP: 160 (Ancient Krug's first clear penalty removed)
BASE GOLD: 120
Murkwolves
BASE XP115 ⇒ 95
BASE GOLD84 ⇒ 70
Gromp
BASE HEALTH: 2100
BASE XP: 135
BASE GOLD: 105
Raptors
BASE XP: 95
BASE GOLD: 85
LETHALITY ITEMS
Though the item system currently has three Lethality options, AD assassins overwhelmingly favor Duskblade and Youmuu's and typically skip Edge of Night. This leads to a lot of same-ness in terms of how one game feels relative to the next for them. We're adding two new options and reworking Edge to give assassin players more ways to adapt their build to each game.
SUPPORT ITEMS
We're refreshing support items to be less poachable by solo laners and have an expanded quest system that provides free, automatic upgrades, letting supports start the rest of their build earlier. (This should also lead to more build diversity between champs that use the same starter.) As a trade-off, Tribute no longer damages and Spoils of War no longer heals, so supports will have less impact in the early lane phase.
At max tier, we've removed the Tribute/Spoils of War passives. Most of the gold these effects granted is still earned in the lower tiers and passive gold per 10 is up, so mid/late game economy is still buffed overall considering the gold made available by the free upgrades.
We're also introducing AD equivalents of the items to broaden the cast of champs who can be played as support. At launch they'll basically be the same as the AP versions, but that symmetry may break down the road as we balance each item line individually.
ENERGIZED AND CRIT ITEMS
We've struggled in the past to differentiate Energized builds from traditional crit, given that Statikk Shiv and Rapid Firecannon occupy both spaces and the only other Energized item is Stormrazor. This time, we're embracing the overlap and the goal of our changes is to make Energized a slightly more mid-game-oriented flavor of crit, rather than its own thing entirely. Energized is about the occasional massive hit rather than a non-stop barrage of consistently strong attacks. To that end, we're lowering the gap between how many procs users get from moving versus attacking—attack speed was giving drastically more procs, making hit-and-run playstyles too ineffective by comparison.
One trend you'll notice in the items below is a simplification of individual item passives, particularly the ones that change how Energize behaves. Each item now adds just one additional effect—Stormrazor's slow, RFC's range, and Shiv's lightning—and proc damage has been standardized to a flat 120 on each item. All other mechanics changes have been removed or rolled into Energized's baseline functionality so each item can stand on its own, rather than require other Energized items to become fully effective.
REMOVED ITEMS
Spear of Shojin
When wielded by its most synergistic users, Shojin's unique passive reduced the downtime of their CC, mobility, and immunity spells beyond what we think leaves healthy room for counterplay.
Spear of Shojin is still available in ARAM.
Zz'rot Portal
Zz'Rot enables split push strategies that don't involve enough champion interaction. We may revisit this type of strategic item in the future, but if we do it'll require more risk for wielders to use.
Malzahar's W stacks have been renamed from Gathering Swarm to Zz'Rot Swarm. Next patch, his W will also be renamed to Zz'Rot Swarm.
Ohmwrecker
Ohmwrecker's been underused and underpowered for a long time. Turret disabling is an interesting mechanic we think could have a place in League, but not one that potentially shows up in every team's toolkit, which is the risk a good version of Ohmwrecker presents.
The Penetrating Bullets passive on turrets has been renamed to Ohmwrecker.
Raptor Cloak
With the removal of Zz'Rot and Ohmwrecker, Raptor Cloak doesn't build into anything. Sorry, Darius.
ITEM SET EDITOR CLEANUP
While these items were technically "removed" when we turned their respective modes off, we're removing them from the item set creator to make the tool easier to use.
Items from Nexus Siege, Odyssey: Extraction, Nexus Blitz, Poro King, and Dominion have been removed from the item set editor.
RUNES
Kleptomancy (removed)
Kleptomancy was designed as a rune that (a) allowed users to build a gold advantage over opponents at the cost of the immediate power other keystones provide, and (b) created moment-to-moment changes in laning dynamics depending on what you got from procs. The experience Klepto created for opponents, however—be farmed for gold by constant harass damage—has been rough, especially for ranged vs melee matchups. Removing gold as an incentive only left the moment-to-moment dynamic changes as Klepto's design core, and League's consumable item system isn't deep enough to carry an entire keystone on its back. Sorry, Klepto—even for an Inspiration rune, you were too weird.
Prototype: Omnistone (new)
Periodically gain a single use of another random keystone.
Enter Omnistone, a keystone meant to be Kleptomancy's spiritual successor. Like the elixir portion of Klepto's design, Omnistone is about making use of what you've got in the moment. Relative to the individual keystones it offers, Omnistone's advantage is that users can rapidly cycle through keystones that otherwise have much longer cooldowns.
ROULETTE: Periodically gain a single use of another random keystone. Once a keystone is rolled, it can't be rolled again until only three options are left, at which point the table resets (you won't get the keystone you just used, though).
COOLDOWN: Gain a new keystone 8-4 seconds (melee, lv 1-18) or 12-8 seconds (ranged, lv 1-18) after using the last. Scaling is weighted toward later levels.
AUTO-REROLL: Gain a new keystone while out of combat after 40 seconds of not using a keystone
VISIBILITY: Your current keystone shows up to the right of your health bar. All ten players can see it.
ADDITIONALS: Dark Harvest souls persist after you get a different keystone and affect all your other keystones. Grasp of the Undying's health persists after you get a different keystone, too.
Available Keystones
Twisted Treeline is officially retiring with 9.23.
Thank you to every player who's made the Treeline their home over the years! Your rewards will be distributed during the patch. As a refresher:
• Players who played more than 10 games will get an exclusive icon
• Players who played more than 50 games will also get an exclusive emote
• Players who played more than 100 games will also get a second exclusive icon
ESSENCE EMPORIUM
The Essence Emporium returns for preseason from November 25 to December 10! Spend your blue essence on icons, chromas, and more, including Emporium exclusives like the URFwick skin!
BUGFIXES
•The camera no longer becomes locked if, while dead, you use the minimap to move the camera around, then after respawning press the spacebar to center it on yourself
• The mute icon has been fixed
• If Poppy stuns an enemy with E - Heroic Charge and that enemy is then stunned by another effect during Heroic Charge's stun, the second stun is no longer removed when Heroic Charge's stun expires
• Darius' W - Crippling Strike attack no longer hits through Teemo's Q - Blinding Dart when it critically strikes
• If Garen's Q - Decisive Strike attack is canceled due to losing vision of his target, he's no longer locked out of casting E - Judgment until Q's empowered attack window ends
• Spoils of War can now properly be proc'd even if the only nearby ally is untargetable or in stasis
• Malphite's W - Thunderclap empowered attack window no longer lasts indefinitely if the first basic attack that would proc it is canceled
• Diana now properly gains a stack of Conqueror from the basic attack issued automatically after dashing to a target with R - Lunar Rush
• Shyvana's Dragon Form Q - Twin Bite now properly grants multiple stacks of Conqueror
• Evelynn's Passive - Demon Shade tooltip no longer displays zeros for every number
SKINS & CHROMAS
True Damage Skin Updates
We've made some updates to the True Damage skins based on feedback. Check them out in-game!
• Loading screen borders are now uniquely colored per skin
• The shaved part of True Damage Ekko's hair has been extended to cover more of his forehead
The following skins will be released this patch:
For Teamfight Tactics, once this patch 9.23 will be released, ranked gaming for teamfight tactics will be back! They have mentioned that they will be focusing on tiers of the champions, especially they are buffing three-star abilities for some Tier 2 and 3 champions, since Rise of the Elements is on!
So, being this 2019 season has drawn to a close, and some of you reached their desired ranks and some of us did not, if you have reached Gold or higher, you will be getting Victorious Aatrox, and if you have achieved Gold or higher in two of those queues, you will also get Victorious Aatrox chroma! (Check my recent post regarding the End of Season Rewards for 2019).
So, regarding this Rise of Elements, below are some details about this wonderful patch for this new season in the Rift!
"This preseason, we're adding more game-to-game variety and opportunities for mastery to Summoner's Rift. After the second Elemental Drake of the game dies, the map will permanently transform to one of four Elemental Rifts, each with unique terrain changes that'll alter the way you take on teamfights, rotations, vision, and objective control.
Elemental Rifts don't favor a specific team, so games are still in players' hands regardless of which one takes shape. We also wanted to ensure the Rifts feel intuitive even in your first game, so they don't introduce any new mechanics and terrain changes always occur in the same areas no matter which element spawns"
TRANSFORMATION MECHANICS
TRANSFORMATION TRIGGER: After the second Elemental Drake dies and the third is announced.
RIFT ELEMENT: Same as the element of the third drake.
TERRITORIAL: Once the map transforms, all future Elemental Drake spawns will be of that element only.
TERRAIN CHANGES: Always occur in the four jungle quadrants, centered around the buff camps, as well as in dragon pit.
Infernal Rift
"New paths make opportunities for a quick flank or sidestep that your opponent isn't expecting."
JUNGLE: The brush nearest to Blue and Red buffs burn away, and new pathways open up through the Blue and Red buff pits.
DRAGON PIT: The entrance to Dragon pit widens.
Mountain Rift
"Extra tight spaces give opportunities for big AOE wombos and create some interesting new hiding spots with fog of war."
JUNGLE: Two new bluffs of rock emerge in each jungle quadrant
DRAGON PIT: A rock formation rises in front of the Dragon pit
Ocean Rift
"Sneak around the jungle or look for a new ambush opportunity."
JUNGLE: Most of the brush in the jungle grows larger and new Honeyfruit spawns near the buff camps. Water pools into puddles throughout the jungle, which is mostly aesthetic unless you're the Empress of the Elements or running the Waterwalking rune.
DRAGON PIT: New brush patches sprout up around the Dragon pit.
Cloud Rift
"Dodge skillshots or make a swift collapse on your enemies trying to sneak a faraway objective."
JUNGLE: Air currents flow throughout the area around Blue and Red buffs, granting speed boosts to everyone inside.
DRAGON PIT: Dragon Pit also becomes a speed boosting wind tunnel.
SIDE LANE ALCOVES
"We're adding two new lane alcoves to the Rift, one in each side lane. We don't expect laning to fundamentally change as a result, but the extra terrain and its impact on line of sight should occasionally offer new playmaking opportunities through positioning, jukes, flanks, and ganks."
BREATHTAKING VISTA OF DEATH: New alcoves have been carved into the outer corners of top and bot lanes
BOT LANE BRUSH: Three patches, mirroring top lane
RIVER ENTRANCE BRUSH
"New brush patches near the blue buff ramps into river add new strategic and tactical options as teams approach and contest objectives."
WHERE'S GAREN?: New brush has been added by the river entrances in both Blue buff quadrants
ELEMENTAL DRAKES
Dragon Souls
Dragon Souls are a new end-game payoff for the team who wins the Elemental Drake game, a powerful reward that's similar to an Epic objective. Dragon Souls don't offer the same moment-to-moment strength as Baron or Elder buff, but they're permanent and an additional bonus on top of the drake stacks their bearers already earned.
I GOT SOUL: The first team to slay four Elemental Drakes gains a Dragon Soul matching the Elemental Rift.
EXCLUSIVITY: Elder Dragon begins spawning after one team gains a Dragon Soul, meaning only one team can have it.
DURATION: Like Elemental Drake buffs, Dragon Souls are permanent and persist through death.
Infernal Soul
Every 3 seconds, your next damaging attack or ability on an enemy unit triggers a small explosion, dealing 90 (+0.25 bonus attack damage) (+0.15 ability power) (+0.03 bonus health) damage to the target and nearby enemies.
Mountain Soul
After not taking damage for 5 seconds, gain a shield for 225 (+0.2 bonus attack damage) (+0.15 ability power) (+0.15 bonus health)
Ocean Soul
Dealing damage to enemies heals you for 180 (+0.4 bonus attack damage) (+0.25 ability power) (+0.1 bonus health) and restores 90 (+0.04 maximum mana) mana over 3 seconds.
Damage to minions or monsters regenerates with 30% effectiveness.
Cloud Soul
Passively gain 10% increased movement speed.
After casting your ultimate, gain an additional 30% movement speed for 3 seconds (30 second cooldown).
Elemental Drake Buffs
We're updating the buffs to be more equal in power and excitement. Stack for stack, elemental buffs are weaker than before to avoid excessively power creeping SR's buff ecosystem. With Dragon Souls adding new late-game payout to Elemental Drakes, we're switching from the current frontloaded buff stacks back to a linear model.
Last note: You can now get four stacks of an element if the enemy team gets the first two or three drakes (always different elements), then you get the next four (always the same element).
Infernal
Just a balance pass.
INFERNAL MIGHT: +5/10/15/20% attack damage and ability power
Mountain
Extra damage to objectives was a subtle-yet-powerful snowballing effect that was often hard to appreciate outside of coordinated play. We're switching Mountain to a more straightforward effect all players can play around.
MOUNTAINOUS VIGOR: +8/16/24/32% armor and magic resist
Ocean
We're removing Ocean's mana regen to even its power out among users regardless of resource type. That gives us room to allow Ocean's healing to continue in combat, which is a buff for any user.
OCEANIC WILL: 5/10/15/20% missing health regen per 5 seconds (mana regen removed)
Cloud
Cloud's movement speed was powerful, but not all that exciting. We're moving the speed boost to Cloud's Elemental Rift (where we can support it with visuals) and adding a different kind of haste to Cloud's buff.
CLOUDBRINGER'S GRACE: 10/20/30/40% ultimate CDR, ignoring the CDR cap
ELEMENTAL DRAKE MECHANIC
With drake types going down to just one element after the Rift transforms, we're ensuring the first few you see don't double up on elements so you still experience a variety of drakes in each game.
DRAKE SPAWN ORDER: The first three drakes are now always three unique elements. All subsequent drakes will be the same element as the third drake.
DRAKE SPAWN WINDOW: 5:00 initial, 5:00 respawn until one team has slain four drakes.
Since the Elemental Drake buffs are a bit weaker, we're dropping the health of the first two drakes. The battle over the Dragon Soul begins heating up after that, so drakes after the first two have more health to widen the opportunity for teams to contest.
HEALTH: 2650 (+240 per level, minimum level 6) before the Rift transforms; 4350 (+240 per level, minimum level 6) for the third drake onward
ELDER DRAGON
Elder's new mechanic is an execute, sharpening its identity as the end-game teamfighting buff and making its impact much more obvious than the DoT and drake scaling it used to grant. Note that the 20% threshold looks higher than it is in practice: You'll rarely bring an enemy to exactly 19.9% before they go boom.
EXECUTE: Damaging an enemy at less than 20% health causes them to die in an Elder Immolation after 0.5 seconds (no cooldown).
DENIED: Elder Immolation can't execute enemies through invulnerability effects like Zhonya's Hourglass or undying effects like Kindred's R - Lamb's Respite
We're standardizing the duration of Elder and Baron to three minutes. These buffs should last long enough for attacking teams to gain real advantages off coordinated power plays, but not so long that attackers come out ahead if they passively leave opponents stuck on defense for extended periods. If these duration changes make Elder too strong or Baron too weak, we'll adjust their effects accordingly.
BUFF DURATION: 180 seconds; still lost on death.
Final note about how often Elder will actually show up in games. In a complete stomp, the earliest Elder can spawn is 26:00 plus time spent in combat with the drakes. But in a game that's going even or isn't seeing many objectives taken, it's also possible for Elder to never spawn.
SPAWN RULES: 6:00 after one team kills their fourth Elemental Drake; 6:00 respawn
BARON BUFF
We're standardizing the duration of Elder and Baron to three minutes. Though they have different strategic strengths, both buffs should last long enough for attacking teams to gain real advantages off coordinated power plays but not so long that defenders are paralyzed for excessive lengths of time. If these duration changes make Elder too strong or Baron too weak, we'll adjust their effects accordingly.
DURATION: 180 seconds
BUFF VISUALS
Visuals for Blue Buff, Red Buff, Red Buff's burn effect, Hand of Baron, and Aspect of the Dragon (Elder Dragon buff) have all been updated. All monster buffs are now visually cohesive, including the new Dragon Souls.
Row 1: Blue buff, Red buff, Red buff burn
Row 2: Elder Dragon, Hand of Baron, All buffs + Dragon Soul
TOP LANE INFLUENCE
Rift Herald
With the increased importance on drakes on bot side, we're spawning Rift Herald a bit earlier and letting her respawn once so teams don't completely abandon their top laners in favor of bot lane presence. (Y'know...more than they already do.)
Rift Herald Fight
INITIAL SPAWN: 8:00
NEWRESPAWN: 6:00
DESPAWN: 19:30, delayed to 19:50 if in combat (unchanged)
HEALTH: 8,250-16,500 (levels 6-12)
ATTACK SPEED: 0.4 (it's easier to poke Rift Herald's eye before she spins around)
Summoned Rift Herald
EYE OF THE HERALD PICK-UP WINDOW: 20 seconds
EYE OF THE HERALD CHANNEL: 1 second
HERALD LEVEL: Average level of all ten champions, determined on using Eye of the Herald ⇒ picking up Eye of the Herald
HEALTH: 3180-6360 (levels 6-12)
HEADBUTT TURRET DAMAGE: 1500-2550 (levels 6-12)
HEADBUTT SELF-DAMAGE: 66% current health
Minion XP
We're very lightly adjusting minion XP to slightly equalize the influence top and bot laners have on the game. Solo laners will level about 2% faster from minions, while duo laners (or solo laners getting non-stop jungler attention) will level about 2% slower. Put another way, every five waves adds up to an extra caster minion for solo laners and one fewer for bot.
Solo XP
MELEE: 60.45
CASTER: 29.76
CANNON: 93
Shared XP
Divide evenly among the champions sharing XP.
MELEE: 75.4
CASTER: 37.12
CANNON: 116
TURRET PLATING
Slightly buffing Turret Plating durability to prevent group-and-push blowouts in the early game, especially with the Rift Herald changes in mind.
BULWARK RESISTANCES25 ⇒ 35 armor and magic resist per third, fourth, and fifth attacker when a plate is destroyed.
Doran's Shield
Melee regen increased, ranged regen decreased.
Buffing DShield's regen to make it a stronger option in melee vs ranged matchups.
PASSIVE: Up to 40 health over 8 seconds when damaged by an enemy champion, based on missing health. 66% effective for ranged users or when triggered by AoE, DoT, or proc effects
JUNGLE PACING
We're incentivizing junglers to prioritize farming rather than just fitting camps in between ganks. Higher camp uptime ensures junglers have consistent access to gold and XP on their side of the map, and the removal of catchup XP steepens the cost of failed ganks. Since junglers will be able to clear their camps more frequently, we're reducing the gold and experience a full clear grants so they don't take over games. We're also ensuring both sides of the jungle get junglers to level 3 in their first clear.
Jungle Item XP
Jungle items no longer grant additional XP on monster kill if you're behind in levels (epic monsters still innately have catch-up XP though)
FIRST CAMP BONUS XP: 165
Camp Timers
SMALL CAMP RESPAWN: 120 seconds
SMALL CAMP RESPAWN ICONS
If your team had vision of a small camp when it was killed, you'll see a respawn icon on the minimap 15 seconds before respawn.
BUFF CAMP RESPAWN ICONS: 15 seconds before respawn
Krugs
BASE XP: 160 (Ancient Krug's first clear penalty removed)
BASE GOLD: 120
Murkwolves
BASE XP115 ⇒ 95
BASE GOLD84 ⇒ 70
Gromp
BASE HEALTH: 2100
BASE XP: 135
BASE GOLD: 105
Raptors
BASE XP: 95
BASE GOLD: 85
LETHALITY ITEMS
Though the item system currently has three Lethality options, AD assassins overwhelmingly favor Duskblade and Youmuu's and typically skip Edge of Night. This leads to a lot of same-ness in terms of how one game feels relative to the next for them. We're adding two new options and reworking Edge to give assassin players more ways to adapt their build to each game.
SUPPORT ITEMS
We're refreshing support items to be less poachable by solo laners and have an expanded quest system that provides free, automatic upgrades, letting supports start the rest of their build earlier. (This should also lead to more build diversity between champs that use the same starter.) As a trade-off, Tribute no longer damages and Spoils of War no longer heals, so supports will have less impact in the early lane phase.
At max tier, we've removed the Tribute/Spoils of War passives. Most of the gold these effects granted is still earned in the lower tiers and passive gold per 10 is up, so mid/late game economy is still buffed overall considering the gold made available by the free upgrades.
We're also introducing AD equivalents of the items to broaden the cast of champs who can be played as support. At launch they'll basically be the same as the AP versions, but that symmetry may break down the road as we balance each item line individually.
ENERGIZED AND CRIT ITEMS
We've struggled in the past to differentiate Energized builds from traditional crit, given that Statikk Shiv and Rapid Firecannon occupy both spaces and the only other Energized item is Stormrazor. This time, we're embracing the overlap and the goal of our changes is to make Energized a slightly more mid-game-oriented flavor of crit, rather than its own thing entirely. Energized is about the occasional massive hit rather than a non-stop barrage of consistently strong attacks. To that end, we're lowering the gap between how many procs users get from moving versus attacking—attack speed was giving drastically more procs, making hit-and-run playstyles too ineffective by comparison.
One trend you'll notice in the items below is a simplification of individual item passives, particularly the ones that change how Energize behaves. Each item now adds just one additional effect—Stormrazor's slow, RFC's range, and Shiv's lightning—and proc damage has been standardized to a flat 120 on each item. All other mechanics changes have been removed or rolled into Energized's baseline functionality so each item can stand on its own, rather than require other Energized items to become fully effective.
REMOVED ITEMS
Spear of Shojin
When wielded by its most synergistic users, Shojin's unique passive reduced the downtime of their CC, mobility, and immunity spells beyond what we think leaves healthy room for counterplay.
Spear of Shojin is still available in ARAM.
Zz'rot Portal
Zz'Rot enables split push strategies that don't involve enough champion interaction. We may revisit this type of strategic item in the future, but if we do it'll require more risk for wielders to use.
Malzahar's W stacks have been renamed from Gathering Swarm to Zz'Rot Swarm. Next patch, his W will also be renamed to Zz'Rot Swarm.
Ohmwrecker
Ohmwrecker's been underused and underpowered for a long time. Turret disabling is an interesting mechanic we think could have a place in League, but not one that potentially shows up in every team's toolkit, which is the risk a good version of Ohmwrecker presents.
The Penetrating Bullets passive on turrets has been renamed to Ohmwrecker.
Raptor Cloak
With the removal of Zz'Rot and Ohmwrecker, Raptor Cloak doesn't build into anything. Sorry, Darius.
ITEM SET EDITOR CLEANUP
While these items were technically "removed" when we turned their respective modes off, we're removing them from the item set creator to make the tool easier to use.
Items from Nexus Siege, Odyssey: Extraction, Nexus Blitz, Poro King, and Dominion have been removed from the item set editor.
RUNES
Kleptomancy (removed)
Kleptomancy was designed as a rune that (a) allowed users to build a gold advantage over opponents at the cost of the immediate power other keystones provide, and (b) created moment-to-moment changes in laning dynamics depending on what you got from procs. The experience Klepto created for opponents, however—be farmed for gold by constant harass damage—has been rough, especially for ranged vs melee matchups. Removing gold as an incentive only left the moment-to-moment dynamic changes as Klepto's design core, and League's consumable item system isn't deep enough to carry an entire keystone on its back. Sorry, Klepto—even for an Inspiration rune, you were too weird.
Prototype: Omnistone (new)
Periodically gain a single use of another random keystone.
Enter Omnistone, a keystone meant to be Kleptomancy's spiritual successor. Like the elixir portion of Klepto's design, Omnistone is about making use of what you've got in the moment. Relative to the individual keystones it offers, Omnistone's advantage is that users can rapidly cycle through keystones that otherwise have much longer cooldowns.
ROULETTE: Periodically gain a single use of another random keystone. Once a keystone is rolled, it can't be rolled again until only three options are left, at which point the table resets (you won't get the keystone you just used, though).
COOLDOWN: Gain a new keystone 8-4 seconds (melee, lv 1-18) or 12-8 seconds (ranged, lv 1-18) after using the last. Scaling is weighted toward later levels.
AUTO-REROLL: Gain a new keystone while out of combat after 40 seconds of not using a keystone
VISIBILITY: Your current keystone shows up to the right of your health bar. All ten players can see it.
ADDITIONALS: Dark Harvest souls persist after you get a different keystone and affect all your other keystones. Grasp of the Undying's health persists after you get a different keystone, too.
Available Keystones
- Press the Attack
- Lethal Tempo
- Fleet Footwork
- Conqueror
- Summon Aery
- Arcane Comet
- Phase Rush
- Electrocute
- Predator (only if you have boots)
- Dark Harvest (souls amplify the effects of all keystones)
- Hail of Blades
- Grasp of the Undying
- Aftershock (only if you can trigger it on a basic ability)
- Glacial Augment
Twisted Treeline is officially retiring with 9.23.
Thank you to every player who's made the Treeline their home over the years! Your rewards will be distributed during the patch. As a refresher:
• Players who played more than 10 games will get an exclusive icon
• Players who played more than 50 games will also get an exclusive emote
• Players who played more than 100 games will also get a second exclusive icon
ESSENCE EMPORIUM
The Essence Emporium returns for preseason from November 25 to December 10! Spend your blue essence on icons, chromas, and more, including Emporium exclusives like the URFwick skin!
BUGFIXES
•The camera no longer becomes locked if, while dead, you use the minimap to move the camera around, then after respawning press the spacebar to center it on yourself
• The mute icon has been fixed
• If Poppy stuns an enemy with E - Heroic Charge and that enemy is then stunned by another effect during Heroic Charge's stun, the second stun is no longer removed when Heroic Charge's stun expires
• Darius' W - Crippling Strike attack no longer hits through Teemo's Q - Blinding Dart when it critically strikes
• If Garen's Q - Decisive Strike attack is canceled due to losing vision of his target, he's no longer locked out of casting E - Judgment until Q's empowered attack window ends
• Spoils of War can now properly be proc'd even if the only nearby ally is untargetable or in stasis
• Malphite's W - Thunderclap empowered attack window no longer lasts indefinitely if the first basic attack that would proc it is canceled
• Diana now properly gains a stack of Conqueror from the basic attack issued automatically after dashing to a target with R - Lunar Rush
• Shyvana's Dragon Form Q - Twin Bite now properly grants multiple stacks of Conqueror
• Evelynn's Passive - Demon Shade tooltip no longer displays zeros for every number
SKINS & CHROMAS
True Damage Skin Updates
We've made some updates to the True Damage skins based on feedback. Check them out in-game!
• Loading screen borders are now uniquely colored per skin
• The shaved part of True Damage Ekko's hair has been extended to cover more of his forehead
The following skins will be released this patch:
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