Greetings, Summoners.
Welcome to patch 5.11 – the one where we buff Caitlyn and roll out some pretty significant changes to Twisted Treeline. That Caitlyn is being buffed isn’t a milestone in itself, but when you consider how long it’s been since we’ve given the Sheriff of Piltover any attention (hint: a long time), it’s at least worth a novelty mention in the foreword. So here you go, Caitlyn. A foreword mention and a patch note.
Moving on.
As League continues to evolve through the regular season, we remain committed to our pursuit of champion diversity in as many different ways as possible. Today we looked at some of the highs and lows of the champion viability ladder and chose a few we could prod closer to the center. In some cases (like Katarina, LeBlanc, and Hecarim), we had champions putting out high amounts of oppressive (one might say frustrating) power, which ultimately translated to investigation tasks for us to deflate some strengths (or highlight weaknesses) without just kicking them to the curb. On the other end of the spectrum, we wanted to highlight certain unique strengths on undervalued champs with things like Caitlyn’s Headshot upgrade, Aatrox’s bloodier passive, or Kha’Zix’s buffed isolation range (technically it’s reduced, but in a good way).
We also have some pretty big updates heading to everyone’s favorite (one might say only) Twisted Treeline. We were in the process of doing a large cross-map consistency pass for all alternative map modes in League of Legends (you might remember our work on the Howling Abyss), and felt we could also do some broad balance adjustments while we were here. Check out the Twisted Treeline section of the patch notes for more information, because there’s a lot of it.
And that about encapsulates the contents of this patch. For those of you struggling to keep up in your games of League, we’re always striving to ensure you won’t be stuck up the river without a paddle. That said, if conventional means don’t work, be careful who you call when seeking help; there’s all sorts of things out there, preying on the wishes of desperate people. Mope, and you mope alone – laugh, and the world laughs with you. Or so they say.
Boy that was cryptic.
Chris “Pwyff” Tom & Patrick “Scarizard” Scarborough
COMBAT TEXT TUNING
Look at this continued support. We’re just throwing in some tweaks to address popular floating combat text concerns; specifically, recognizing critical strikes faster and better communicating individual sources of damage when damage-over-time abilities are running rampant.
Critical Strikes have had their motion, color, and icon adjusted to contrast more with regular damage text
We’ve done some polish and bugfixes for floating combat text
BALANCE CHANGES
For the average player, putting points in R feels like a trap and was rarely satisfying, so we’re adding 6 ranks to his spells and giving Jayce his bonuses from Transform when he would have gotten them for free. Below this context are a lot of numbers, but the key things to take away are that Jayce now has very different power spikes relative to other champions, and his signature Shock Blast / Acceleration Gate combo is much stronger, pushing the incentive to take him over similar choices in a dedicated poke/siege strategy
Hammer – To The Skies (Q): BASE DAMAGE 20/65/110/155/200 ⇒ 30/70/110/150/190/230
COOLDOWN 16/14/12/10/8 seconds ⇒ 16/14/12/10/8/6 seconds
SLOW 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50/55%
Mercury Cannon – Shock Blast (Q): DAMAGE 60/115/170/225/280 ⇒ 70/120/170/230/270/320
Hammer – Lightning Field (W): DAMAGE 100/170/240/310/380 ⇒ 100/160/220/280/340/400
Mercury Cannon – Hyper Charge (W): DAMAGE MULTIPLIER 70/80/90/100/110% ⇒ 70/78/86/94/102/110%
COOLDOWN 13/11/9/7/5 seconds ⇒ 13/11.4/9.8/8.2/6.6/5 seconds
Hammer – Thundering Blow (E): DAMAGE 8/11/14/17/20% of target’s maximum health ⇒ 8/10.4/12.8/15.2/17.6/20% of target’s maximum health
COOLDOWN 14/13/12/11/10 seconds ⇒ 15/14/13/12/11/10 seconds
Mercury Cannon – Acceleration Gate (E): MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS 30/35/40/45/50% movement speed ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50/55% movement speed.
Transform: Mercury Cannon/Hammer (R): Old level-up benefits now given at levels 6/11/16.
Aatrox is a champion that seeks to constantly all-in and punish poor positioning by diving head-first into battle, but this has always been at odds with Blood Well’s monstrous cooldown. No longer! You should expect Aatrox’s early dives to stay as tame as they’ve ever been, but now his team doesn’t have to wait an eternity for him to be ready to throw-down in a late-stage moshpit (what else are you picking an ancient blood-god for, anyway?).
Blood Well (Passive): COOLDOWN 225 seconds at all levels ⇒ 225/200/175/150 (at levels 1/6/11/16)
League’s most senior Marksman recently got some pretty big changes, and while she’s certainly more satisfying to play, her damage is a little out of hand for such a utility-based champion. We’re hitting some of her lane-bullying and tower-shoving potential to preserve her unique role as a more ‘support-carry’ as we take a deeper look at how she’s settling into the competitive landscape for future follow-up.
Recommended items updated.
Ranger’s Focus (Q): The 5-stack flurry attack no longer triggers on attacks against turrets.
Volley (W): DAMAGE 40/50/60/70/80 ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80
Hawkshot (E): VISION RADIUS WHILE TRAVELING 1500 ⇒ 1000
Hawks update their vision more frequently as they travel.
When we were looking into Brand’s unique niche as a chaos-sowing inferno-mage (that can be his official title if you’d like), we realized Pyroclasm was a pretty neat place to start. In reality, this change is half of what we wanted (and we’ll be looking to get the second half out as soon as possible), but our end game is this: rather than thinking of Pyroclasm as a targeted nuke that chains off into everyone else, it’s more of an area-effect inferno that starts at a “suggested” point (your targeted cast). After that, however, little Pyro (that’s what we’re calling him) just goes where he pleases, mindlessly seeking out nearby targets to set on fire.
You’ll see this further iterated on soon, when we make it so that if Pyroclasm ever tries to hit an untargetable body (either it gets dead mid-flight or uses Zhonyas or gets Bard ulted) during his bounce time, he’ll just fly right on by to another victim, rather than fizzling out on the spot.
Pyroclasm (R): NEW! If Pyroclasm’s original target becomes untargetable during its travel time, it will seek out a different target rather than just fizzling out on the spot.
As mentioned in the foreword, it’s been a while since Caitlyn was present in the patch notes. This doesn’t inherently mean that every champion that hasn’t been touched in forever is due, but when the meta has shifted to favoring Marksman that excel in dealing damage while kiting and the Sheriff was AWOL, we figured something was up. Not much behind some general improvements to what feel like bugs (especially in regards to R and Vision), but now Headshot’s fancy bonus armor penetration (as in, only penetrates bonus armor like Yasuo’s R) will help keep Caitlyn’s shots relevant in a late-game of tanks and fighters as she loads them up with greater frequency.
Headshot (Passive): NEW! Now ignores 50% of the target’s bonus armor (champion only).
Yordle Snap Trap (W): 1.0 seconds – 1.25 seconds ⇒ standardized to 1.1 seconds
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where certain dashes could pass over the traps without triggering the root.
Ace in the Hole (R): Now gives vision at start of cast instead of at start of channel.
It doesn’t take a time-traveler to see Ekko was a little Chrono-broken in 5.10. It’s still early, so we’re still gathering data and taking a good look at how players are adapting to his in-and-out skirmish style of play, but it’s easy to see he needs a little off the top (have you seen his hair?). With that in mind, we’re making some numbers adjustments and upping the clarity (without stomping on his damage output) for his opponents to smooth things out as we continue to evaluate Ekko’s performance across each timeline.
Base Movement Speed reduced to 340 from 345.
Parallel Convergence (W): COST 30/40/50/60/70 mana ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70 mana
VISION Granted on cast ⇒ Granted 2 seconds after cast
CLARITY CONVERGENCE Detonation zone is now more readable for opponents.
Chronobreak (R): Increased visibility of Ekko’s time-clone following Ekko for the enemy team.
Both of these changes are targeted specifically at Hecarim’s particularly insane synergy with Homeguard and Teleport. For someone that already provides great initiation and damage, Warpath and Devastating Charge were adding so much damage to his combo that this edge-case gets to be unbearable for anyone not sporting a Malphite’s worth of armor to withstand. We’re pretty good with how Hecarim’s doing outside of this specific interaction, which is why we’re being so surgical towards it here.
Warpath (Passive): 1 second ⇒ 0.25 seconds
Devastating Charge (E): MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS Stacks multiplicatively with other movement speed bonuses ⇒ Stacks additively with other movement speed bonuses.
We’ll keep this one short: Katarina’s Shunpo is essential to help her get around and chain multi-kills once she’s Death Lotus’d up a storm, but the base and ratio were contributing far more to her midgame burst than what’s intended from a flexible mobility spell. Lowering it makes her work harder and be more cautious with when to enter a fight if she wants to make it out alive.
Shunpo (E): BASE DAMAGE 60/85/110/135/160 ⇒ 40/70/100/130/160
RATIO 0.4 ability power ⇒ 0.25 ability power
Just tossin’ a little love over to Kha’Zix’s isolation radius. Kay-Z doesn’t have ways of naturally isolating his opponents, so we’re looking for a middle-ground between ‘killing you right next to your support’ and ‘opportunistically catching people out of position’.
Taste Their Fear (Q): ISOLATION RADIUS 500 ⇒ 425
One of the most notorious champions in League of Legends, Leblanc’s reason for being in the patch notes this time around aren’t unlike her colleagues in Riven and Zed; She’s flashy and hard to master, but can be pretty frustrating to fight once the snowball gets rolling. Leblanc’s changes this patch are all in the name of increasing her opponent’s ability to react. Her nigh-unparalleled ability to delete a high priority target (or double-distort into the backlines for massive damage) are left intact, but making her combo easier to dodge can be the difference between a big play or a blunder that encapsulates LB’s tricky brand of Risk vs. Reward.
Distortion (W): MISSILE SPEED 1600 ⇒ 1300
Ethereal Chains (E): MISSILE WIDTH 70 ⇒ 55
Checks to see if the target has broken the tether four times as fast.
Fixed a bug where Ethereal Chains would fizzle on Morgana’s Black Shield, even if it broke through it.
Mimic – Distortion (R): MISSILE SPEED 1600 ⇒ 1300
Mimic – Ethereal Chains (R): MISSILE WIDTH 70 ⇒ 55
Checks to see if the target has broken the tether four times as fast.
Fixed a bug where Ethereal Chains would fizzle on Morgana’s Black Shield, even if it broke through it.
These changes for Malphite are all about ‘Play Pattern’, which is to say the style in which a champion executes their abilities in the game. Malphite’s kind of a one-trick-pony – after using Unstoppable Force and getting in your grill, he quickly runs out of things to do and finds himself waiting for cooldowns (and hoping you can’t escape or kill him as he does it). We’re changing Brutal Strikes to be a more satisfying button press and help him have something to do to kill the time. We’re aware that AP Malphite’s been popping up somewhat recently, and while build diversity is sometimes neat, we’re more interested in what this does for Malphite’s flexibility in playstyle. We’ll iron out the scaling as necessary, but the idea is giving the ol’ rolling stone a rock solid game-plan when his basic spells don’t get the job done.
Brutal Strikes (W): PASSIVE: NEW! Malphite gains 10/15/20/25/30% additional armor.
REMOVED! Basic Attacks gain 30/38/46/54/62% splash damage.
ACTIVE: NEW! Basic attacks deal an additional 25/40/55/70/85 (+0.15 ability power) physical damage to the target and nearby units.
REMOVED! Malphite gains additional armor and attack damage.
CLARITY: Brutal strikes now displays a visual effect that indicates the effective area. Basic attacks made while under the effects of Brutal Strikes will now use Malphite’s critical strike animation.
Before y’all get into a fit about Orianna being nerfed, this one’s actually pretty simple: this increased cooldown only affects Shockwave when the ball returns to Ori as a result of out-ranging it, meaning you’re less likely to accidentally ult on top of yourself when you don’t mean to. When casting Command: Protect on yourself (or simply walking over the ball to pick it up), there’s no change. Huzzah! Context!
Command: Shockwave (R): COOLDOWN UPON OUT-RANGING THE BALL 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.75 seconds
Arcane Mastery (Passive): Fixed a bug where Ryze could use W – Rune Prison and E – Spell Flux on a dying target to build passive stacks without completing the spellcast (or using mana).
We’re repeating ourselves, but this change is finally implemented from 5.10. Might as well copy paste that context again: for a tanky, crowd-control focused armor lady, Sejuani’s dealing a whole boar-load of damage (sorry) in addition to her super disruptive glacial powers. Reducing some of that damage lets us focus Sej on what she does best – being a tanky, crowd-control focused armor lady (we just said that).
Flail of the Northern Winds (W): BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE 4/5.5/7/8.5/10% of target’s maximum health ⇒ 4/4.5/5/5.5/6% of target’s maximum health.
Ah, Shen. Once the poster-child of split-pushing, Shen finds himself in a rough spot – a world where his strategic niche (global pressure) is now shared by a vast majority of top laners due to Teleport’s presence in the modern metagame. Teleport allowing such a wide group of champions to participate from such an isolated position is a pretty neat thing, so while we aren’t necessarily solving that today, we’re hooking Shen up with some late-game goodies to keep up the pressure where he falters most. While there’s other changes that are self explanatory, Ki Strike’s the biggest of the few here. Tanks in LoL require some amount of sustained threat (or they aren’t worth being so hard to take down), and by significantly upping the output of Ki Strikes, Shen can return to being a map-wide nuisance and a tower-taking threat that demands an answer.
Base Magic Resist increased to 32.1 from 30.
Magic Resist per Level increased to 1.25 from 0.
Ki Strike (Passive): Cooldown reduced to 9/8/7 from 9 at all ranks.
Shadow Dash (E): Energy Cost reduced to 100/95/90/85/80 from 100 at all ranks.
Despite a brief spark in competitive play via Cinderhulk/Skirmisher’s Sabre, Shyvana remains a champion that feels left behind. We’re loading her up with more basic-attack beatdowns when Burnout is active to reinforce her melee moshing and make you feel better when diving in for the kill.
Burnout (W): NEW! Now does 25% of Burnout’s AoE damage per basic attack for the duration (still does AoE magic damage per second).
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Burnout had twice its bonus attack damage ratio only while in Dragon Form.
Before we get to Sivir, let’s talk for just a sec about diversity. Just as Feral Flare, Cinderhulk, and nowadays Luden’s Echo, it’s not an uncommon thing in League for one option (though unique on its own) to become the ‘best’ and crowd out others from viability. Part of our hyper-meta-goal of Champion Diversity is not only making sure that each champion has a niche, but that there are multiple niches that co-exist to make a pretty cool strategic landscape.
So how does Sivir fit into this?
Sivir’s niche has always been well-defined: make your team go faster than the other team (usually involving lots of murder upon arrival) at the expense of hyper-carry damage output. The larger issue is that in a game where tanks have found their footing once again and items like Righteous Glory help the initiator-on-the-go, Sivir’s become much less of a champion you pick when you want to synergize with hard-engaging and instead turns every team she’s on into a ‘hard-engage’ team, no matter what the composition looks like (If you’re old enough to remember Nidalee before her rework, this was a similar issue – you didn’t pick Nidalee into a ‘poke comp’, your team became a poke comp by virtue of having Nidalee on it).
That brings us to where we are today, where people are picking Sivir with long-ranged poke champions and managing to get the best-of-every-world and shutting out diversity in the types of compositions that see play. This change is a revert to the one we gave her in patch 4.13 (a time long before tanks and Righteous Glory existed) but we’ll be keeping an eye on when and how teams pick Sivir now that she doesn’t carry the burden of enabling heavy engage teams all by herself.
On the Hunt (R): INITIAL MOVEMENT SPEED DURATION 2/4/6 seconds ⇒ 2/3/4 seconds
ITEMS
Luden’s Echo
This will be long because we feel like talking about item philosophies. Up front: Luden’s Echo is pretty strong. That said, the direction of our changes are a lot more nuanced then “make it less strong!” so we’ll explain. First, what makes an item like Luden’s Echo ‘strong,’ and why is that problematic? Balance issues aside, we’d be much happier if Luden’s Echo was situationally strong – where picking it up at the right time conferred a great deal of power, but not so much at other points in time. Unfortunately, Luden’s Echo is just straight up powerful, so it becomes the default choice for all AP champions that can use it. If you want to take that situation one step further, a very strong item in the ecosystem starts to warp champion viability around “who can use that item the best,” rather than the other way around (see also: old Challenging Smite top lane, or old Feral Flare).
So that’s the problem space we’re dealing with.
So our second point: when we want to tackle a powerful item like Luden’s Echo, we want to make sure we’re pushing it in a unique direction so that when a mage does pick it up, they’re doing so for very specific reasons. Rabadon’s Deathcap, for example, is an item you rush when you want to hit that late game AP spike that no other item can offer. Luden’s Echo, then, gives a strong early-game benefit with its high base-damage proc. As such, we decided to reduce its ability power ratio so there was less overlap with Deathcap’s end game fantasy (look, even items can have them). The charge stack decrease on spell cast also feeds into our philosophy of focusing Luden’s identity – specifically as one that benefits kite-focused mages heavily, meaning it should always be rewarding continuous movement and spellcasting (but not purely one or the other). If we were to make future changes to Luden’s Echo, you’d probably see us further tunneling in on those values, but this was a very long context post to explain some of our nuanced philosophy when it comes to items. Sorry.
Luden’s Echo charges stacks at a rate of 20 stacks per spell cast ⇒ 10 stacks per spell cast
ABILITY POWER RATIO 0.15 ⇒ 0.1
This change includes Twisted Treeline and Dominion versions of Luden’s Echo as well.
Hextech Sweeper
Trinket on Twisted Treeline only.
Cooldown reduced to 60 seconds from 120 seconds.
SKINS
The following skins will be released during patch 5.11:
GAME MODES/MAPS
Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline were lagging a bit behind in terms of map-agnostic visual improvements like animated victory/defeat screens, loading screen art, and new minion models. We’ve brought these improvements to Dominion / TT matches everywhere, in addition to a comprehensive texture pass to bring these maps more in line with their big brother (sister?).
The loading screen for Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline matches now have background art.
End of game victory/defeat banners are now animated!
BRUSH PHYSICS Brush now sways ambiently and rustles when champions move through it.
(CRYSTAL SCAR) MINION MIGRATION Minion models have been replaced with reskinned assets from the updated Summoner’s Rift.
(CRYSTAL SCAR) SMOOTH AS CRYSTAL Textures across the map have been updated to remove visual noise and feel more like other maps.
(CRYSTAL SCAR) COLOR CONSISTENCY All textures, particles and UI elements now use the Blue/Red color scheme.
(TWISTED TREELINE) Minion, inhibitor and nexus models have been replaced with reskinned assets from the updated Summoner’s Rift. We’ve kept the blue-purple color scheme since red doesn’t fit Twisted Treeline’s thematics.
(TWISTED TREELINE) Brush has been adjusted to ensure each brush gives the same vision into lane as its mirror on the other side of the map.
(TWISTED TREELINE) Golems have received a texture update.
(TWISTED TREELINE) REINFORCED HEALTH BARS Structures now have custom health bars.
New structures on TT:
New Minions on Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar:
Golem Retexture:
Crystal Scar Texture and Color Update:
Loading Screens
VISION-GRANTING ITEMS
Not having wards on Twisted Treeline adds a level of fear you’d expect from the Shadow Isles, but also means squishy champions don’t have great ways of moving safely around the map. It also leads to (get ready for it) snowballing: when you’re ahead, you have more control over the map, more strength in a jungle fight, and less to lose from hanging out in a brush. We saw an opportunity to address some of these concerns with the trinket slot to give players more compelling choices than “facecheck the jungle or AFK at turret”.
The immediate change below might not make sense here (we talk about how snowbally vision is, and then we remove vision granting items), but if you go one changelist below that, you’ll see we’re introducing a trinket! So… please read below.
The following items have been removed from Twisted Treeline:
The Lightbringer
REMOVED.
Grez’s Spectral Lantern
REMOVED.
Hextech Sweeper
REMOVED.
Hextech Sweeper
Rather than forcing teams to invest heavily in vision granting items (and further reinforce the snowbally nature of TT), we’re switching the vision game over to a trinket system so that all can participate. That said, our intent isn’t to completely trivialize vision, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how the new trinket plays out and make followup changes as appropriate.
UNIQUE Active: Hunter’s Sight: A stealth-detecting mist grants vision in the target area for 5 seconds, revealing traps and enemy champions that enter for 3 seconds.
COOLDOWN 60 seconds
Madred’s Razors
With the removal of Grez’s Spectral Lantern, Madred’s doesn’t build into anything. That’s depressing, so we’re deleting it.
REMOVED.
Overlord’s Bloodmail (TT & Crystal Scar)
Overlord’s has traditionally been a bit of a boring item – a health boost with a conditional passive. The addition of Crystalline Bracer makes it a little more enticing while smoothing out its build path.
NEW! Grants +100% base health regen.
Health reduced to 800 from 850.
Total Cost increased to 2500g from 2455g.
NEW! Recipe: Giant’s Belt + Crystalline Bracer + 900g.
Lord Van Damm’s Pillager (TT & Crystal Scar)
REMOVED! No longer causes critical strikes to deal 250% damage instead of 200%.
NEW! UNIQUE Passive: Critical Strikes cause enemies to bleed for an additional 150% of bonus Attack Damage as magic damage over 3 seconds and reveal them for the duration.
Wicked Hatchet (TT & Crystal Scar)
UNIQUE Passive: Critical strikes cause enemies to bleed for an additional 60% of bonus Attack Damage as physical ⇒ magic damage over 3 seconds.
JUNGLE CHANGES
One of Twisted Treeline’s major draws is its flexible meta: when duo lane and jungler comps are both competitive, we see a wider variety of champions and strategies in play. At the moment, though, Treeline camps are so damn tough that dedicated junglers have fallen out of favor. We’re tweaking things across the board to help bring the role back up to par.
Note: since camps now start at level 2, we’re showing spawn values (old level 1 vs. new level 2) rather than base values.
CAMP SPAWN TIME 1:40 ⇒ 1:35
CAMP STARTING LEVEL Level 1 ⇒ Level 2
EXPERIENCE REWARD Junglers now reach level 2 after clearing 1 camp and level 3 after a full clear.
Big Golem
HEALTH ON SPAWN 1440 ⇒ 1240
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 73 ⇒ 70
Golem
HEALTH ON SPAWN 540 ⇒ 480
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 35 ⇒ 33
Wraith
HEALTH ON SPAWN 1200 ⇒ 1050
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 55 ⇒ 52
Lesser Wraith
HEALTH ON SPAWN 250 ⇒ 230
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 20 ⇒ 18
Giant Wolf
HEALTH ON SPAWN 1320 ⇒ 1120
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 42 ⇒ 40
Wolf
HEALTH ON SPAWN 420 ⇒ 390
DAMAGE ON SPAWN 16 ⇒ 15
VILEMAW
For an undead spider god, Vilemaw has never really been a meaningful objective; instead, it tends to be taken as the last item on the checklist to snowball a game into victory. Contrast that to SR, where teams often act based on Baron/Dragon pressure, and it’s clear we have room for improvement.
We’ve decided to widen the window for interference during Vilemaw attempts and to give Crest of Crushing Wrath (kudos if you recognized the name) a solid identity as a sieging tool. Clear incentives should allow teams to make smart plays around Vilemaw not only through optimal buff use but also in prepping the map, trading other objectives, and even team comp selection.
REINFORCED HEALTH BARS Vilemaw now has a custom health bar. It’s pretty.
RESPAWN TIME 5 minutes ⇒ 6 minutes
JUNGLE TIMER Has one.
Combat updates
HEALTH 3500 ⇒ 5500
ATTACK DAMAGE 113 ⇒ 100
AOE SLAM ATTACK Range slightly increased, area of effect slightly decreased.
MELEE ATTACKS Delay on attack shortened.
NEW! SPIDERWEBS Vilemaw’s attacks now reduce attack speed in addition to reducing armor and magic resistance.
Removed a few ‘blind spots’ where champions could stand to avoid being attacked by Vilemaw during the encounter.
Crest of Crushing Wrath
NEW! Upon killing Vilemaw, champions become ghosted, ignoring all unit collision for the duration of the buff. Additionally, nearby minions gain aura bonuses (noted below), and briefly terrorize nearby enemy minions on first contact (much spooky).
MELEE MINIONS +20 armor & magic resistance, +20% attack speed, +15 attack damage, +75 attack range
CASTER MINIONS +10 armor & magic resistance, +10% attack speed, +20 attack damage, +100 attack range
CANNON MINIONS +30 armor & magic resistance, +10% attack speed, +50 attack damage, +750 attack range
SUPER MINIONS +10 armor & magic resistance, +10% attack speed, +10 attack damage
REMOVED!No longer grants bonus health regen, mana regen, cooldown reduction or attack speed.
DURATION 2 minutes ⇒ 3 minutes
ALTARS
1-Altar buff
The problem with explicitly attaching income to a buff is that teams only tend to lose control of the buff when they’re behind. Once income discrepancy is established, the enemy team no longer has to work to extend a lead – the game passively does that for them. We’re subbing in a large movement speed boost which is still impactful if stolen, but won’t snowball the game unless the enemy team takes advantage of its absence.
NEW! Now grants +10% movement speed
REMOVED! No longer grants +3 gold on unit kill.
NEW! Default gold value of all minions/monsters increased by 3 to compensate.
2-Altar buff
The flipside of one team losing their altar is the other team controlling both. Again, this situation tends to imply that one team has taken control of the game. Rewarding that control with a stat bomb makes it extremely hard to swing the game back toward equilibrium because the 2-altar-buffed team became stronger in every situation. We’ve shifted the 2-altar buff to instead enable objective sieging (like the new Vilemaw buff), adding a specific type of power that can be played toward and against.
NEW! Now restores 1% maximum health on minion or monster kill.
REMOVED! No longer grants +10% bonus attack damage and ability power.
TURRETS
Turrets are pretty flimsy on Treeline, as best exemplified by the Nexus turret’s susceptibility to a single unaccompanied super minion wave. We’re bolstering defenses across the board and upping the threat of Inhibitor and Nexus turrets to make sure teams have to actively strive for objective control.
Global backdooring changes
REINFORCED ARMOR All turrets gain 75 ⇒ 200 armor and magic resistance if no enemy minions are nearby
NEW! OUTER TURRETS
With the recessed positioning of inner turrets, getting any structures on the scoreboard required teams to extend really, really far into enemy territory. Given the lack of visibility tools on the map, most are unwilling to make this risk in the early game, meaning when the first turret falls, that’s usually a sign of Bad Things to come. It’s worth noting that this is a big reason why squishy/immobile champions have had a historically poor showing on Twisted Treeline.
We’re adding a new set of outer turrets as an early-game objective to address these concerns. They’re intentionally weaker than the remaining turrets since our goal isn’t to extend match times.
Outer turrets
NEW! Both teams now have a third turret in top and bottom lane.
HEALTH 1850
ARMOR & MAGIC RESISTANCE 50
DAMAGE 152
GLOBAL GOLD 100
Inner turrets
HEALTH 2050 (unchanged)
DAMAGE 190 ⇒ 160
ARMOR 67 ⇒ 100
MAGIC RESISTANCE 100 (unchanged)
GLOBAL GOLD 150 ⇒ 125
Inhibitor turrets
HEALTH 2350 (unchanged)
DAMAGE 170 (unchanged)
ATTACK SPEED 0.83 ⇒ 1.25
ARMOR 60 ⇒ 100
MAGIC RESISTANCE 100 (unchanged)
GLOBAL GOLD 150 ⇒ 100
Nexus turret
HEALTH 2650 (unchanged)
DAMAGE 180 ⇒ 150
ATTACK SPEED 0.83 ⇒ 2.50
ARMOR 67 ⇒ 100
MAGIC RESISTANCE 100 (unchanged)
GLOBAL GOLD 150 ⇒ 100
BATTLE TRAINING
The loading screen for Battle Training has been updated.
RANKED UPDATES
We rolled out this change partway through 5.10 but wanted to shed more light on it here. Many players have been hitting an LP wall as soon as they’re promoted from Platinum into Diamond, with victories rewarding less and defeats removing more. We want to stress that this wasn’t a bug, but a consequence of Diamond representing a much wider skill range than we had designed for.
Technical explanations aside, Diamond players should still be ready to put in a lot of hard work to progress into higher divisions, but climbing shouldn’t feel as impossible as before.
DIAMOND 5 LP GAINS Smoothed out for most players. D5 players close to demotion will continue to see low gains until their MMR climbs back to Diamond levels.
CHAMPION MASTERY
The rank 5 Champion Mastery emote is now visible to the enemy team.
BUGFIXES
- Azir soldiers no longer spam their attack animation while idle.
- Heimerdinger’s turret charge bars have been moved back down to their correct position.
- Fixed edge cases where Gromp buff, Cinderhulk aura and the jungle item damage-over-time proc were killing large monsters instead of leaving them at 1 health.
- Muramana no longer consumes mana when attacking wards.
- Ardent Censer’s passive now grants assists even when applied by healing a full-health ally.
