Welcome back, folks! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and are ready for more balance and League shenanigans in the big 2-0.
We say hello to the big boss Sett this patch, as well as a huge update to Sylas, League's other resident bad boy. His changes mainly focus on encouraging his role as a midlaner, while making sure players don't lose out on that signature bruisery playstyle he's known for.
Other than that, we have some QoL changes for Vi, Kog'Maw, Kassadin, and Jax, as well as some cautious buffs to champions that have proven to be menaces in pro play in the past. And finally, we're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game.
Happy new year!
Take this portal if you're looking for TFT's patch notes!
The nerfs to Sylas are on-target directionally, but we overshot bit in terms of magnitude and are pulling back as a result.
These changes are aimed at improving gameplay readability, bringing up Thresh's VFXs to modern day standards, and improving his overall thematic feel.
Ranked 2020 begins on January 10, 4:00 AM! Prepare yourself for another year of competition, salt, joyous victories, and soul-crushing losses.
The Boss
Sett comes to reign supreme in 10.1.
High-res versions of Sett's splash arts are available on League Displays!
Base movement speed and health decreased. Infernum R AoE damage decreased on secondary targets.
Infernum should be Aphelios’ best ultimate option when 3-5 enemies are standing on top of each other, but 'best' doesn't have to mean 1-shotting a whole team. We believe we can trim some damage and still retain its position as the best against stacked enemies, so we're doing just that.
Passive stars base damage decreased.
Aurelion Sol's wave control and enemy burst potential in the early lane is a bit too high right now. While we're quelling some of that damage in the early game, we still want to let him reach those high peaks later.
R base damage and wall duration increased.
With Conqueror nerfed and the fact that he's had low presence in pro play last year, we are being cautiously optimistic and giving Azir some buffs.
R base damage increased later.
Giving Corki some power in a place that won't greatly increase his early game waveclear, but will overall strengthen his niche as an ability-based marksman. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on his low presence in pro play.
R now works with Guinsoo's Rageblade
Cannon Q base damage increased later.
Jayce is not in a good spot all across the board. With Kleptomancy gone, he's definitely seen better days and could use some help elsewhere. Fortunately, the Lethality buffs from the end of last year is helping a bit already, but we're also giving him back some of his more electrifying power and accentuating the burst he's known for.
Base health and armor growth increased.
Kalista is still pretty weak after the buffs in 9.22, so this time we're buffing her survivability in the mid-late game in order to help her get damage out in skirmishes and teamfights. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on her low presence in pro play.
Movement speed decreased. R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.
Kassadin is doing a little too well in mid-tier levels of play. We're nerfing his roaming and escape potential to target the players that go unpunished in lane and have the ability to be all over the place.
R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.
Passive duration decreased; movement speed now flat.
For a juggernaut, Mordekaiser is too hard to get away from and kite. That coupled with his synergy with Rylai's makes it difficult to escape from him.
E now also empowers the target's abilities.
Most enchanters are almost entirely designed to support their marksman and Nami's no exception. But we see the opportunity to broaden her utility a bit so that she can benefit both basic attacking marksmen and ability-based champions.
Base health growth increased. Frost Armor resistances ratio increased. E base damage increased later.
We're happy with Sejuani's identity as a scaling tank, so we're doubling down on it and buffing her scaling capabilities, while leaving her early game vulnerabilities intact.
Gains resistances when slaying Elder Dragon. Fury gains increased in lieu of ultimate CDR when slaying Cloud Drakes. E marked target damage ratio and monster damage cap increased.
For a dragon-killing dragon girl, Shyvana's been losing out on some of the new Rise of the Elements dragon interactions. We're fixing that and also giving her some small buffs to her sustained damage.
Less base stats early, more later. Passive now gives attack speed. W cooldown decreased. E AP ratio increased. W, E1, and R basic attack reset removed.
Sylas has been difficult to stabilize for all brackets of players and has an extremely long record of changes since his release. Due to that, we promised that we'd do some bigger work on him outside of number tweaks that would help bring the gap between all levels of Sylas players closer.
First, we're changing his early lane to be more in line with someone like Ekko and Fizz, champions that have less control in the early laning phase, but get stronger with levels. Secondly, we're balancing him as a midlaner and prioritizing changes that encourage him to be used there instead of other lanes. And finally, by removing his E>Q combo and slowing down his basic attack pattern, we're making a good faith effort to retain his auto-weaving bruiser playstyle while also making measures against the speed in which he bursts down his enemies.
We'll be looking closely at him in the coming months to see how these changes have landed!
Q cooldown and Blight cooldown refund decreased.
Varus' role as a poke marksman has been quite weak since his last set of major changes in 2018. For an ability-based marksman, that playstyle should be one of, if not, his strongest, so we're specifically focusing on strengthening it.
R now Unstoppable for its whole duration.
Giving Vi a QoL change to her ultimate, making it work more consistently against knock-ups and knockbacks and letting her stick to her target throughout the ability's duration.
Empowered E slow decreased.
Zyra never had a reason to spawn multiple Vine Lashers since having one was the same as having two. But now that we made the Lashers' slow stackable, Zyra can plan her actions around the plants and actually think about which one she wants.
We're following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game in exchange for some combat stats. Tanky champions will be slightly more resilient and ability-casting champions will have more mana for abilities.
Cooldown decreased.
Omnistone continues to significantly underperform, so we're giving it a buff so it has enough power to compete with the other choices.
The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!
The following chromas will be released this patch: