Greetings, Summoners,
Welcome to patch 8.9. This patch, we're looking at mages, mana, and spellcasts. Over time, waveclear champions have slowly edged out all other champions in mid lane, to the detriment of overall playstyle diversity. Basically, it's become too easy to spam your spells on waves, and the items which give you the mana to do so are also just the best choices. We're updating the core mana items mages buy, the base mana/mana regen of mages, and more.
On top of that, we're looking at game pacing over the next few patches. We want to make sure that there are fewer games that feel like they're lost but just won't end for awhile. The first step is looking at objectives. First, we're making Baron more accessible when you're ahead, but also more contestable in closer games. We're also upping the strength of Rift Herald when teams are able to safely shepherd it, but also increasing the ability of opposing teams to kill it when they see an opening.
Finally, we're reworking Unsealed Spellbook. The old model mostly meant "you get to flash more," and we're trying to create a keystone that really sells the fantasy of getting to play around with the whole spellbook, not just two summoner spells.
So get out there and clear some waves (but not too many), bash Rift Herald into some towers, and swap some summoner spells!
GLHF,
Mages pretty much have two mana states: pre-mana purchase and post-mana purchase. During their first trip to lane, mages have to be very careful about when they cast spells or they risk going oom and being stuck in lane for a while with little or no mana. Once they've backed and acquired their laning item, many mages feel like they can spam spells almost mindlessly—especially with blue buff.
We're making a lot of changes to base mana, mana regeneration, and mana sustain mage items with the overall goal of letting mages be more spell happy at the start of the game, but more conscientious about when they use their spells in the early-mid game. With a bit more attention needing to be paid to mana, we're pumping a little more power (mostly ability power) into their core items so that when they do land a spell, it'll pack more punch.
Let's dive into the item changes first!
No longer gives base mana regen or mana regen on minion kill. Now gives flat mana regen and bonus damage vs minions.
We're pushing Doran's Ring away from "csing gives you mana". Basically, incentivizing "use spells on waves because you'll get the mana back" puts mages in a weird cycle where trading is generally a worse choice than simply waveclearing. The new Doran's Ring will help mages feel better about csing without using spells, allowing them more opportunities to trade directly with their laning opponents.
Cost and ability power increased.
Pushing Lost Chapter somewhat later in the laning phase means that its users will get fewer procs of its level-up effect, decreasing overall access to mana.
Total cost increased. Mana refund decreased. Max mana increase now increases current mana by current percentage of mana.
Tear of the Goddess too comprehensively solves mana problems for the champions who build it. It'll still be the late-scaling item that delivers mad ability power once you've stacked it and upgraded it to Archangel's Staff, but it won't replenish your mana quite as well.
Combine cost decreased. Mana increased. Slow duration increased. Missile speed increased. Missile spread time decreased.
The old GLP-800 is still a bit on the weak side, and also feels less responsive than we'd like. Some feel-good buffs—as well as a bit more gold efficiency—should be just what the doctor ordered.
Ability power increased.
Fiendish Codex is being tuned up in overall ability power to match Lost Chapter.
Ability power increased.
We're always a little bit concerned about combat items which give slows. If an item lets you start a fight, it's a bit concerning when they can also make sure you win that fight. That being said, it looks like we released Twin Shadows weak even by that standard, so we're giving it a bit more ability power.
Total cost decreased.
Seeker's Armguard is a reactive purchase for mages who need extra armor in rough matchups. With the cost of Lost Chapter going up, we don't want Seeker's Armguard to take that much longer to purchase in those rough matchups.
Base ability power increased. Ability power from activation decreased. Combine cost and total cost increased.
This item is doing alright on champions who can spam spells and get its active charged, but that number of champions is pretty small. Shifting some of its active's ability power into its base statline should make the item slightly more accessible.
Glory stacks required for bonus movement speed decreased.
Upgrading Dark Seal to Mejai's Soulstealer feels pretty awkward. First, you have to invest gold, but then, even if you're already at 10 stacks, you have to get a few more to get the bonus effect. This feels even worse when you would have had more than 10 stacks, but had been capped by Dark Seal.
Total cost decreased. Mana increased.
Luden's was already on the weak side, and with a number of ability power items getting buffs this patch, it would no longer have been cost-competitive.
Damage to turrets on basic attacks from ability power increased and converted to magic damage.
Taking turrets is an important mechanic in the game, and mages often get left out of that game. Currently, champions who build more ability power than attack damage get some percentage of their ability power as additional magic damage whenever they attack a tower. We're upping that ratio, and also converting their whole attack to magic damage, not just the bonus damage.
25 mages have more mana regen and base mana, but less mana growth. 5 other mages have more mana regen.
We’re increasing mana regen on the champions most affected by the changes to Doran's Ring and Last Chapter. Mages are also getting some changes to their mana pools and their mana growth. Overall, they’ll be up a bit of starting mana and mana regen, but be substantially down on mana per level.
These champions, while also affected by the Doran's Ring, don't tend to build any of the mana items we're touching this patch. So, we're only adjusting their mana regen, but leaving their base mana and mana growth untouched.
Q mana cost decreased.
Amumu already has a pretty weak early game, but he's extra-penalized for failed ganks because they leave his mana pool too low to effectively return to clearing. This is especially bad for Amumu players who max Q, and prevents Amumu players from feeling comfortable opting into a utility-based build.
Passive can no longer crit and now simply has a percentage increase over damage dealt to champions.
Caitlyn's headshot against non-champions is a bit much, giving her neutral monster damage (and sustain from lifesteal) that is well above what feels appropriate. We're aligning the formula closer to Headshot's damage to champions to decrease her ability to quickly heal up off of monsters and minions.
R healing increased.
Dr Mundo needs a bit more overall durability if he is to successfully go where he pleases.
Q base damage increased at later ranks. W resistances increased.
Compared to similar juggernauts (looking at you, Darius), Garen is underwhelming. We're adding a bit more damage and durability so he can better scale as the game goes on.
Passive now refreshes its duration when attacking large monsters.
Now that Irelia is no longer a new—and thus potentially volatile—champion, we feel comfortable taking risks we didn't on her release. One of those risks was her potential to end up a stronger jungler than toplaner, and so we'd put an intentional limit on her clear speed. Now that she's in a more stable spot, we feel comfortable turning the parking brake off and letting her push down on that gas pedal.
Passive health cost decreased. Passive maturation time decreased at later ranks. Q missile width increased.
Ivern's passive makes him a unique jungler, and we're looking to keep that. However, his early game is a bit too punishing. We're also making his mid-game farming less costly and his Q a bit easier to land to smooth out the learning curve just a bit.
Evolved Q missile count decreased. Missile damage is now flagged as area of effect. E duration decreased.
Dialing back Kai'Sa's late game scaling a bit so she doesn't carry quite so hard. Specifically, the interaction of her abilities with certain items—primarily healing from spell damage—ramps her into territory which can get excessive.
Q magic damage shield strength increased.
Kassadin currently needs a bit more help to get through his laning phase.
W 5th hit base damage and bonus attack damage ratio increased at later ranks; ability power ratio decreased. W active base damage decreased; ability power ratio increased. Kennen now loses E defenses but gains attack speed upon exiting lightning form.
Kennen is one of those champions who has seen success with both attack damage and ability power builds. At the moment, both of them are struggling. We're looking to add strength to both playstyles, and also move some of Kennen's power around to ensure that those two playstyles are somewhat different from one another.
W base damage increased.
Now that Aftershock is in a less dominant state, we feel comfortable returning some of Leona's damage to make sure she's not Eclipsed by the competition.
Q base damage increased and cooldown decreased. W shield now doubles on return even if it hadn't hit an ally on the way out. E missile speed, radius, and mana cost decreased. E cooldown at later ranks decreased.
Lux's high ranged poke—thanks to Lucent Singularity's consistency—limits how much power she can have elsewhere. By making E harder to land, we can put more power into her abilities and let her cast them more often, whether it's to waveclear, initiate trades, or go for picks.
W armor bonus increased.
Rammus could use a bit more durability to help him feel ok again.
Base movement speed decreased. W movement speed and resistances decreased. Passive and E range increased. Snapcast R now knocks up for a lower duration and no longer makes enemies untargetable. Charged R missile speed increased.
Steadfast Presence's passive gives Poppy a ton of resistances and its active gives her a ton of movement speed, and she relies on those to get in—and stay alive in—a teamfight. We're dialing back on some of those stats to make Poppy less overall consistent at closing the gap and staying alive, and in return strengthening the things she gets to do once while in the thick of things.
CHARGED
E and R ability power damage ratio increased. W ability power damage ratio removed.
A relatively unexplored part of Shyvana's fantasy is the whole flying-around-breathing-fire thing. We're moving around some of her ability power ratios to enable more people to try out this play pattern. That way, when players opt into that playstyle, she feels like a different dragon entirely: bombarding enemies with fireballs before descending on the enemy team, not just the same old dragon wearing a magical hat.
Base attack damage increased. Power Chord damage increased.
Inb4 "5 damage lul," let's talk about what changes like this mean. Sona gets a lot of Power Chords over the course of the laning phase and—combined with the base attack damage changes—she'll be lay down more chip damage and go for the kill.
Q's Transcendent bonus is now bonus damage to champions, not longer Sphere duration.
Getting a maximum sphere ultimate off on should feel like the Syndra player has managed her Spheres well and was rewarded with a big play. Her passive's current Dark Sphere upgrade makes getting those big ultimates far too easy to pull off. We're shifting that bonus to increase the value of landing those Dark Spheres instead, so that Syndra players will feel more rewarded by landing a few Spheres before they go for the kill.
Bugfixin'
Base attack damage decreased. Q damage decreased at later ranks.
Warwick's early dueling and clearspeed allows opponents few opportunities to fight him in the early-mid game, and also secures him a gold/experience advantage against most junglers. Dialing that back should help him feel more fair to play against, but he'll still be strong early.
E base damage increased at later ranks.
Ziggs could use a bit more oomph as the game goes on. We're not looking to up his poke damage, but when he does commit to a fight, we think he needs a bit more boom. Ziggs also got mana changes as part of our mage mana refactor, so check out that section above.
Base damage decreased. Base health increased. Corruption damage increased.
Some team compositions—those without tanks—find Baron way too threatening. We're shifting Baron's damage to distribute more over the whole party (and not just one target). To make sure Baron is still contestable, we're upping its health, so it takes longer to bring down. With Baron requiring more time to kill and spreading its damage around the whole team, opposing teams should have more time to contest, and a bigger teamfight advantage if they do.
Takes less damage from charging. Does more damage to towers with charge. Takes more damage from eye pokes.
Rift Herald is the Baron of pre-20 minutes: a strong option for teams who are ahead and want to widen their lead. We want players who use Rift Herald well to be more rewarded, potentially with multiple towers, while players who drop Rift Herald at the wrong time will be more easily punished. For teams that are even, getting an eye proc should successfully shut her down, but without it, expect her to continue her rampage.
Unsealed Spellbook is now a completely different keystone.
Unsealed Spellbook was intended to offer a keystone option for players who wanted to be able to reactively opt into a different summoner spell to match the current game state. Problem is, the old Unsealed Spellbook required far too much advance planning, and then locked the player into that choice for far too long. In reality, many players took Unsealed Spellbook just for a lower Flash cooldown, not caring a ton about the swapping gameplay except to get Teleport every once in awhile.
The new Unsealed Spellbook can be swapped anywhere—as long as you're out of combat. Once you use the new summoner spell, it's back to your old one. This solves both of the previous problems: requiring too much preparation, and locking you in for too long.
Bugfixin'
The following skins will be released this patch: