Sup homies,
Welcome to patch 7.15, the one where we dial back on the Cho’Gath update and tone down some of the dominant competitive picks in the game.
For the competitive side of the game, Regional Finals are approaching. As a result, we’re trying to increase some variance at the highest levels of play, but also to create some stability, and that means many minor changes. To start, we’re giving some dominant champions love taps downwards, as well as showing some love to underplayed champions on the cusp of seeing professional play. So while it may look like a larger patch than usual, many of the changes are pretty small.
Oh, and remember Urgot? Well, we’ve pimped his ride and now he’s headed to the battlefield as a brand new juggernaut, complete with knee-shotguns. We’ll say that one more time for you. Knee-shotguns. Check ‘em out.
So get out there on the Rift and read up on Urgot’s abilities, or you’ll Dread Nought knowing what he does when he grinds you to pieces.
Our changes to Elise and Shyvana didn't properly stick to their alternate forms. While we considered waiting until 7.16 to fix the inconsistencies, we're ultimately making these two work the way the original patch notes said they would - not making further changes on top of that.
We wanted to help out Sivir's early game, but adding 30 damage to Boomerang Blade was way more than "helping". Shipping a buff that strong was a mistake on our part, and we're making an immediate correction before Sivir gets out of control.
Urgot, The Dreadnought, will be updated with the launch of patch 7.15! For more details, check the following links: Head to the “Extras” section of Urgot’s Champion Reveal article above for high-res images of his updated base and skin splash art!
Passive AP Ratio up, W cooldown reduced.
Akali already bops the people she’s supposed to be bopping. The problem is that even when she gets going, she doesn’t bring games to an end with enough reliability.
Late-game soldier damage up.
Making Azir a more attractive option as a late game hypercarry against many of the current midlane picks (specifically those that don’t wreck him in lane).
E base damage and % health damage decreased.
After our changes to E - Vorpal Spikes last patch, Cho’s damage has ended up a bit overtuned. The slow makes it easier for Cho’Gath to land the rest of his damage, so his spikes don’t need to bring quite so much pain on their own.
E now increases magic resistance as Dr. Mundo takes magic damage.
Historically, Dr. Mundo has succeeded as a late-game frontliner against multiple sources of magic damage. Like other tanks, burst mages can’t one-shot Mundo, but while other tanks are left battered after the initial barrage, Mundo’s healing brings him right back up to full. We’re doubling down on his anti-mage identity by giving him the tools to fight off sustained magic damage as well.
E cooldown reduced at early levels.
Ekko fares pretty well against mages when his cooldowns are up, so we’re giving him the tools to engage more often.
Base attack damage decreased.
For how much mobility and lane pressure she has, Elise just clears too quickly. As well, it turns out that ranged basic attacks are pretty strong on junglers, giving them an easy way to apply red buff. We’re killing two birds with one stone by making Elise’s attacks a bit weaker.
Q cooldown reduced at early ranks.
We’re giving Ezreal a small boost to help him find more trading opportunities in his first few levels, which should especially help Tear-rushing Ez’s in the scaling department.
Passive damage up.
Gangplank’s early-game weakness is a little too pronounced right now, as the Saltwater Scourge struggles to fight back when he should at least go even. We’re oiling up his blade for early tussles, where he’s more likely to trade with his sword than his barrels. This’ll help him hold his own while he banks that skrilla and transitions into the late game.
Base attack speed decreased. R cooldown increased at earlier ranks.
Like Elise, Gragas just clears too quickly for all of the other tools he brings to the table. In addition, Gragas now that the timing on his ultimate has gotten more intuitive, we feel safe bringing up the cooldown.
Ult cooldown reduced at early ranks.
As the top lane meta continues its transition back towards all-out fighters, this should be the perfect opportunity for Irelia to thrive again. To help her contend with today’s top-lane titans we’re giving Irelia more frequent access to Transcendent Blades in the early game, allowing her to trade more aggressively.
W cooldown reduced.
While Jinx’s primary damage pattern (basic attacking people for days) passes muster, we want to spice up some of the other tools in her kit. We’re giving Jinx a bit more leeway to try for more bold Zaps, whether for long-range poke or mid-combat slows.
Ultimate bonus AD ratio increased. Duskblade now appropriately interacts with Kayn’s abilities.
Kayn’s been on the Rift for a patch and we mostly like what his Darkin form is doing. However, Shadow Assassin has been struggling to keep up. Specifically, his burst when he goes all-in hasn’t been enough to consistently net kills - even when ahead - so we’re buffing his scaling.
Mana per level and base attack damage increased.
Lissandra runs out of mana in extended late game brawls faster than we’d like, thanks to the high mana costs of her spells and low cooldown on Ice Shard. These changes should grant her a couple of extra spells before running empty in the late game, as well as open the door to more effective last hitting and harassing with basic attacks alone.
Q cooldown reduced at early levels, if W hits an ally when going out, the incoming shield is doubled for all allies and Lux herself.
We’re giving Lux better opportunity to use Light Binding aggressively in lane without leaving herself exposed to ganks and engages for too long thereafter. We also think the Lady of Luminosity’s supportive capabilities are a bit underwhelming, so we're giving her a bit more power to protect her pals with well-aimed Prismatic Barriers.
Q cooldown reduced.
We’re improving Aqua Prison’s uptime to bring Nami’s double bubble fantasy closer to an achievable reality.
E now shreds percent armour instead of a flat value. Q cooldown is halved during R.
Nasus is supposed to be the late-game scaling juggernaut if he plays the laning phase right and gets stacked up. In practice, he ends up mostly hitting high-armour frontliners, and losing a lot of his expected efficiency as a result. Struggling to reach priority targets who kite well is an expected weakness of Nasus, but he should still feel impactful when he’s stuck hitting beefier targets.
Q early damage up, ult cooldown reduced at ranks 1 and 2.
These changes enhance Nautilus’s ability to lock down a priority target in fights and send an out-of-position carry into the deep.
E now scales with total AD. Base armour increased.
For a farm-heavy jungler, Shyvana gets pushed around by monsters too easily in the early game, and doesn’t scale well enough with damage when she does get a leg up on the competition.
Q particles more clear, especially for colourblind players. R now grants stats faster.
Singed has shiny new abilities with his update, which means shiny new quality of life issues and bugs! We’ve fixed the ones who have come to light. We also hotfixed in a few balance-impacting changes partway through last patch, so if you haven’t seen those yet, feel free to make a quick detour.
Q damage increased.
We’re giving Boomerang Blade more oomph to help Sivir out in the early game.
Movement speed increased.
Twisted Fate really shines when he’s able to make an unexpected entrance in a side lane, gold card in hand. The problem is, he’s not moving fast enough to reliably seize those opportunities.
W slow increased, R base damage at later levels increased.
Xerath could be setting up plays a little bit better, be it for his own damage combo or for setting up ganks for his allies. His damage also tends to fall off as the match progresses, so we’re giving more power to help him out in the late game.
Q cost and cooldown increased. W base damage decreased.
Since his update, we’ve changed Zac more times than there have been patches (hotfixes). At this point, it’s time for us to talk seriously about the Blob-guard of the month and the direction we want to move him in. When we originally updated the tanks, we wanted to bring their damage down while giving them access to uniquely disruptive tools. In Zac’s case, that took the form of two new mechanics: a charged ult and a matchmaking service for two enemy units. Despite the constraints put on these abilities, Zac has been seeing pretty high success in executing them.
We actually like the new disruption Zac brings to the playing field, but as a result, his damage has needed to go down. And down. And down again. We’ve figured out what we think is so out-of-line about Zac, and it’s his sustained presence, both consistent damage and healing. Like Gragas and Elise, Zac has too high a clearspeed to go along with his sweet ganks and massive disruption. As well, his sustain is inflated by Q creating two blobs, so we’re doubling its cost to account for that. This leaves Zac in a spot where he’ll take meaningful time and damage to clear his jungle, making ganks riskier and more of a sacrifice when they fail.
W cooldown reduced.
Due to its long cooldown, Satchel Charge tends to see more use as an escape tool than a catch tool. We think both cases are valid and interesting, so we're giving Ziggs more chances to fish for offensive cases.
These changes were made partway through last patch. Just postin’ em here for visibility.
Adaptive damage reduction increased.
Amplifying Adaptive Helm’s unique strength to make it a more powerful answer to the threats it’s meant to combat.
Nightstalker proc damage down; ranged proc no longer slows.
While we wanted to make Duskblade a better purchase last patch, we definitely went overboard. We reined in Nighstalker’s damage partway through 7.14 and are following up with a more robust set of changes. Most importantly, Nightstalker is now less effective for ranged champions.
Health decreased.
The baseline stats on Knight’s Vow make it a tad too effective when champions aren’t taking advantage of its partner bonuses. We’re taking its health down a notch.
This little easter egg has been in the client for a while, and now we're sharing the secret with everyone! /me is excited.
Players can now ping any item, not just active items!
Some players were already hacking the ability to rebind a-move to left-click, so we figure we’d give you the option to do so manually. Note: you use Left-Click for a surprising amount of things, and you’ll need to use Shift+Left-Click to do those things.
Claim the incredible power of Ascension to conquer the Crystal Scar of Shurima. Ascension will be live between 11am – 3am AEST from 28/07/17 – 31/07/17 and 04/08/17 – 07/08/17 .
TL;DR:
Go forth. Conquer. Ascend.
- Go 5v5 to claim the incredible power of Ascension by taking down Ancient Ascendant Xerath. Use Ascension to conquer the Crystal Scar of Shurima.
- First team to reach 200 points wins. Score:
- 1 point for champion kills.
- 3 points for capturing a Shuriman relic.
- 5 points for landing the killing blow on an Ascended champion.
- 2 points for each kill you acquire while Ascended.
The following skins will be released during patch 7.15: