Hey, do you remember? Dancin' in September? Come on, let’s chase the clouds away with 10.18!
Classic tunes aside, we’ve got a whole slew of changes for you in this patch. Big ticket items include flexing fancy feet to a foxy favorite and bringing some action to the Bringer of Justice. The rest are mostly changes in light of how champions are faring, especially in Skilled and Pro MMR: shimmying down some faces who have overstayed their welcome (Galio, Ashe, Sett), and bopping up some friends who need some spring in their step (Miss Fortune, Rumble, Twitch).
Past champions, we’ve been seeing Guardian dominate on pretty much every support, so we’ve taken some steps to reel it back a bit and open up options for other Keystones.
And another one for you, or really, one for everyone—One For All returns this patch! Along with a whole array of Client, FX, and general fixes. You know the drill.
So tango your way down and jig your way over to the Rift. We’ll be dancing with ya.
Take this portal if you're looking for TFT's patch notes!
The change to Kayle's E is not something we're making mid-patch. It's already live and in the game, but it was unintentionally left out of the original patch notes! Documenting at the top in this section so players are aware.
One For All returns with PsyOps on September 3rd, 2020 at 1:00PM PT. Join a team of doppelgangers as you and your teammates show off your different playstyles as the same champ (or the same playstyle, whatever!).
Passive replaced with Q passive, where now any spell can heal. W now grants movement speed, deals 200% damage to low-health minions, and better targets low-health minions.
Ahri's identity and gameplay have become a little muddled over time, and she isn’t as charming as we’d like her to be. We’re making some kit changes, especially to her W, to reinforce an identity of a flighty mage who can weave in and out of fights as she looks for the perfect moment to strike. In addition, we’re also shifting her Essence thievery from her Q to her passive to open up more opportunities for her to reap its healing rewards when trading with enemy champions.
Altogether, she should feel equipped to (spirit) rush into more combos and outplays.
Base attack damage decreased.
Ashe has remained one of the primary marksmen in Pro play, so we’re icing some of her power.
Q base damage decreased.
Galio’s Q lets him clear waves early without much risk, so we’re bringing down his damage so that he has to invest a bit more before flying across the map.
Q base damage increased.
A little nudge to J4's early strength to help compete with the current jungle meta.
Q mana restore removed. W cost increased. E cost removed; missile speed increased.
Improving some clarity around Kayle’s mana management: by removing the mana cost on her E, we’re giving her an overall net drop on mana dependence. In combination with a boosted missile speed on her blade, we’re hoping to see her ascend to more exciting laning, where she can more readily spar with her enemy laner.
Base health and armor growth decreased.
This caustic caterpillar-creature is almost always toeing (and oozing around) the line, and he’s finally crossed it. In response, we’re lowering his defenses to highlight his identity as a glass cannon marksman: severely spitty, but slightly squishy.
Base attack speed growth increased.
Making another opportunistic buff on an early game focused markspirate, so we’re reverting some nerfs from earlier this season (10.10 and 10.3, if you’re curious)!
Q total damage increased.
We’re heating things up by giving Rumble a jump start that’ll hopefully park him as another good early game Pro pick option.
Passive right punch changed to scale with bonus attack damage. Q bonus damage ratio of target’s maximum health now fixed; bonus damage ratio per 100 total attack damage now scales.
Sett’s continued to muscle his way through Pro levels of play, especially with low-economy tank and utility builds. Since our previous nerf to his base values wasn't sufficient, we're taking a larger swing at him. To do this, we’re adjusting how he scales with damage and gold to incentivize players to swap to damage-oriented builds instead. Expect another check in after Worlds to make sure he’s… well, all set.
Passive shield decreased.
The buff to Shen in 10.15 made him a bit stronger than expected, so we’re pulling back slightly.
E dragon form explosion radius increased; dragon form visuals and cast indicator now accurately represents the ability’s hit radius; dragon form ground zone damage tick rate decreased.
In fixing a minor Shyvana clarity bug, we uncovered other levers to polish up. The result is a major clarity fix and thus a minor balance change.
Previously, dragon Shyvana's radius on her E scaled with her Flame Breath rank-ups, but this effect was not accurately represented in her visuals or the tooltip. We’ve decided to remove it, as the reliability of an important spell should not change dramatically throughout the game. Overall, we expect these changes to be a small nerf to AP Shyvana, a small buff to AD Shyvana, and a large increase to Flame Breath's clarity.
E damage per stack ratio increased. R bolt damage reduction per enemy hit decreased.
It seems we’ve left this rat in the sewers, and we know his paws are itching to get back into the meta. We’re bringing up the power in his ult and tossing in some spice into his E. Now, here’s a spell you can feel!
W thrust damage increased.
Xin Zhao is no longer the early game threat he used to be, so we’re giving him a bump up in his damage and clear.
Guardian is overperforming on mage, enchanters, and tank supports relative to other Keystones. We’re toning down its power to open up other options.
We got a longer list of League Client bugfixes and QoL changes this patch, so we're putting them in a specific section! Be sure to check out the latest in our Client Cleanup series and stay tuned for a new post later this week.
We got some more VFX updates for you in this patch! Bring in the lucky contestants: Malzahar, Nocturne, Viktor, and Ignite (yeah, we know this is not technically a champion).
Once again, our goals for these sorts of smaller scope updates is to improve the overall gameplay clarity of VFX whilst bringing them up to modern League of Legends standards. This means that our efforts are primarily aimed at abilities which do not clearly communicate their hitbox.
The following skins will be released in this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!
The following chromas will be released this patch: