League of Legends Patch 5.5 Notes

Saludos, Invocadores (Greetings, Summoners)

Toot toot! That’s the sound of the patch 5.5 buff barge, sailing the ocean of champion diversity. There were a few we had to slap on the wrist for overstaying their welcome but, for the most part, we’ve got a lot of +1s on the way. As a caveat, while it might feel great for every patch to be held aboard the S.S. Buff Barge, we’re being very conscientious about making the directionally right change for each champion. It’s still very, very important for champs to remain strategically unique from one another, so we’re always hoping to accentuate strengths (or weaknesses) through each update.

So what’s our current narrative? For today it’s the jungle. We’re going to say this up front: we haven’t been as communicative on the topic of the jungle as we should have been. Additionally, when we have made changes, we haven’t been empathetic to player pain surrounding each patch.

With that said, our focus is to increase champion diversity in the jungle. Some of you might be worried about “double dipping” buffs with the new Cinderhulk enchantment combining with tanky jungler buffs, but these are aimed at two separate things. Bami’s Cinder (and Cinderhulk) creates a clear mid to end game item for tanky junglers to pursue, while a lot of our champion-specific buffs are aimed at improving the feel of early clears. We’re a little concerned some tank junglers (looking at you, Sejuani & Amumu) might just start rampaging from the forest, but are taking a more “wait and see” approach for now. You’ve been warned.

But wait there’s more! Beyond the jungle, we’ve also got a new +120 ability power item coming to the game to fill the void left by Deathfire Grasp’s departure. There isn’t much else we can contextualize in the foreword versus the actual item context, so go read down there.

P.S. We’re also at the end of the updated Summoner’s Rift Beta! While it’s hard to define an ‘end point’ for these things – since we’re always going to be iterating – it’s nice to put a “finished for now” sticker while we can. We’re shipping some final map-wide iterations for Summoner’s Rift (and animated end of game victory / defeat graphics!), so you should expect a hefty download compared to our normal patches. We appreciate all the feedback you’ve given over this course of time!

And that’s all for us! We’ve got a lot of changes packed into this patch, but we hope you’ll make it through it.

Toot toot!

Chris “Pwyff” Tom & Patrick “Scarizard” Scarborough

BALANCE CHANGES

Unlike Riftwalk, we went a little too far last patch. The focus of the changes were to lower the amount of instant mobility Kassadin had access to without changing his long-term movement too dramatically – this patch, we’re tuning up his ultimate to put a little spring back into his Riftstep.

VISUALS Updated model, textures, animations and slight VFX changes for base and all skins
ICONS New ability icons
 
Ability Icons

 
Riftwalk (R): COOLDOWN 7/5/3 seconds ⇒ 6/4/2 seconds
RANGE 450 ⇒ 500
COST 60 mana ⇒ 50 mana
 

Recent balance changes haven’t been kind to Azir, so we’re giving the Emperor some love targeted at his early-game feel when it comes to commanding soldiers. While these buffs don’t solve all of Azir’s problems, strengthening his sustained damage should ensure he isn’t totally mummified.

BASE ATTACK SPEED 0.600 ⇒ 0.625
SOLDIER ATTACK RANGE 325 ⇒ 375
SPEAR PASSTHROUGH RANGE 100 ⇒ 50 (total range unchanged)
 

Grog-Soaked Blade (Passive): Fixed a bug where slow immune targets were also unaffected by the DoT.
 

Base Mana increased to 400 from 300.
Drunken Rage (W): % of target’s Max Health damage cap against monsters increased to 300 from 250.
 

Defiance (E) – Mantra: Fixed a bug where allied champions were granted the inspire portion of the shield, instead of half of the defiance damage.
 

Wall of Pain (W): Fixed a bug where enemy champions could sometimes dash through Karthus’ Wall of Pain without being slowed.
 

In all levels of play, Lissandra can be summed up in one word: consistency. In each lane she sees play, her relative safety (thanks to her amazing waveclear) sets her up as a top-tier threat thanks to Frozen Tomb’s unforgiving CC. Not wanting to over-do it, we’re hitting Ice Shard as a way to tone down her damage, clear (and by extension, safety) all in one go.

Ice Shard (Q): 75/110/145/180/215 magic damage ⇒ 70/100/130/160/190 magic damage.
 

By being the cornerstone to both his offensive AND defensive ability, Titan’s Wrath forces Nautilus into a playstyle that is very binary – break the shield and he’s harmless, or suffer if you fail to do so. Shifting power into Riptide lets him clear faster and take more actions per teamfight, which are two key areas we thought were weighing him down.

Titan’s Wrath (W): DAMAGE 40/55/70/85/100 magic damage ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70 damage
RATIO 7/9.5/12/14.5/17% max health ⇒ 9/11/13/15/17% max health

Riptide (E): COOLDOWN 10 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds
COST 60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80 mana
RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power
SLOW DURATION 2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds
 

Bushwack – Human Form (W): damage increased to 40/80/120/160/200 (.2 AP) from 20/40/60/80/100 + 10/12/14/16/18 (.02 AP)% of target’s current health.
With the introduction of her rework, Bushwhack’s current-health paradigm existed to soften up targets for big takedowns and secure vision to play with her new Hunt passive. Now one of the hottest junglers in the scene, it’s enabled her to have the fastest clears in the game. For a skill with so many different uses as-is, we’re re-balancing the damage so that while still useful with ability power, doesn’t trivialize fighting the toughest monsters out there.

Bushwhack – Human Form (W): DAMAGE 10/40/60/80/100 (+10/12/14/16/18 (+0.02 ability power)% current health) magic damage ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.2 ability power) magic damage.
 

Tunnel (E): TUNNEL COUNT Now uses the ward spawning UI to show the number of existing tunnels vs the maximum as well as displaying which tunnel will be destroyed once you’ve reached the limit.
 

When looking to punch Shyvana’s ticket aboard the Buff Barge, we decided a more general boost to her effectiveness would suffice. Often used for her mixed-damage and innate defensive stats, we like Shy most when she actually has to punch the stuffing out of you to win fights – so that’s exactly what we’re reinforcing here!

Flame Breath (E): BONUS DAMAGE AGAINST MARKED TARGETS 2% maximum health per autoattack ⇒ 2.5% maximum health per autoattack.
 

It’s called “Mega Adhesive,” not “Adequate Adhesive.” Fling in peace, summoners.

Fling (E): Fixed several cases where Flinging an enemy into Mega-Adhesive would not immediately root them.
 

When it comes to Super-Tanks in top lane, we actually like what Sion brings to teams and how he interacts with opponents, with the exception of his laning phase – so we’re keeping things “power-neutral” for the big zombie. Shifting power from screaming at minions to dropping the chopper on frightened opponents means it requires a little more effort to win the wet-noodle-war than just never running out of mana.

Decimating Smash (Q): COST 45/50/55/60/65 mana ⇒ 45 mana at all ranks
RATIO 0.6-1.8 total attack damage ⇒ 0.65-1.95 total attack damage

Roar of the Slayer (E): COST 35 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55 mana
 

You’re not the only one that misses your kind, Skarner. Another beneficiary of our focus on jungles this patch, we’re aiming to give more damage back to the scorpion, especially in the later-game where his rank-ups can feel relatively poor.

Crystal Slash (Q): DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 physical damage ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 physical damage
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy

Fracture (E): MAGIC DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180.
 

For a while we’ve been normalizing mana costs on ultimates, and Sona’s the recipient of the next round. Sona buffs. What a time to be alive.

Power Chord (Passive): No longer consumed on hitting blue trinket ward or Kalista’s Sentinel.

Crescendo (R): COST 100/150/200 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks.
 

Starcall (Q): Fixed a bug where Starcall’s bonus damage sweetspot was not multiplying the bonus damage from Soraka’s AP.
 

When it comes right down to it, hyper-carries amongst marksmen usually care about one thing: basic attacking. As her primary source of damage, Tristana often felt awkward about giving up DPS to cast Explosive Shot, only to have them escape before she could make use of its damage potential. Adding the cooldown incentive should make it up to her, as well as giving her things to do when she’s forced to shoot the durdling brawlers and tanks that try to scrap deep behind enemy lines.

Rapid Fire (Q): NEW Each basic attack against a target marked with Explosive Charge reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 1 second.
 

What’s a Tank to a King? While most of these changes are focused on bugfixes and feel improvements, we felt it wouldn’t be fair to address such a large number of tanks and tank-enablers without mentioning their natural predator. Focusing on sustain and regen should let Trundle keep pace with his opponents, biding his time before he goes all-out clubbing and takes their hard-earned stats.

King’s Tribute (Passive): RANGE 1000 ⇒ 1400

Frozen Domain (W): HEALING AMPLIFICATION 8/11/14/17/20% ⇒ 20% at all ranks

Subjugate (R): Fixed a bug that caused Subjugate to only steal 36% of the target’s Armor and Magic Resistance instead of 40%.
 

Urgot’s going to need a lot more under-the-hood work before he can hit the big-time, but in the interim we thought he could use some help. A Mana ratio on W makes his beefy/CDR build more rewarding, keeping him active in sustained fights without adding to his snowball potential once the Acid Hunters set their sights on you. Although he has a dark, secret past, even the buff barge couldn’t resist giving some love to League’s original scuttle-crab.

Terror Capacitor (W): BASE SHIELD 80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
NEW MANA RATIO 8% total mana

Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser (R): COOLDOWN 120/110/100 ⇒ 120/100/80
 

More of a quality of life change, Varus players should feel encouraged to charge their arrows instead of feeling penalized.

Piercing Arrow (Q): Cooldown starts at the beginning of channeling.
 

One of the larger themes for his 5.4 update was lowering reliability in favor of creating consistent high moments for master Veigar players. It appears we overshot (not a short joke), so we’re dialing back to help Veigar feel less like a sitting duck when it comes to intense situations. Throw in some ‘Quality of Doom’ changes for Event Horizon, and the tiny master of evil should be turning tables and cackling like a super villain all the way to the nexus.

Baleful Strike (Q): MISSILE SPEED 1750 ⇒ 2000 (~14% faster)
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Baleful Strike would fail to cast if you got CCed during the cast.

Event Horizon (E): DELAY BEFORE WALLS APPEAR 0.75 ⇒ 0.5
WARNING PARTICLE DISPLAY After cast time ⇒ On cast
 

Known for punching first (and asking questions while punching), Vi’s never been good about giving her opponents much of a chance to fight back. Being one of the toughest champions to peel (combined with devastating ganks) make fighting her feel stacked – so we’re draining some power from these areas to even the odds.

Base Movement Speed reduced to 345 from 350.
Assault and Battery (R): PHYSICAL DAMAGE 200/325/450 ⇒ 150/300/450
 

Death Ray (E): Fixed a bug where the detonation on upgraded Death Ray was canceling Viktor’s autoattacks.
 

Frenzy (W): NEW Refunds half of the cooldown if used on a monster.
 

As a jungler on the borderline of viability, we’re giving X to the Z a bump towards his strengths (sustain and skirmishing) to help him get down to business.

Battle Cry (W): BASE HEAL 26/32/38/44/50 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50

Audacious Charge (E): DAMAGE 70/105/140/175/210 magic damage ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage
 

Smoothing out Unstable Matter’s CDR mechanic and doubling E’s knockup time so Zac players can feel better about doing what they’ve always done: throw yourself with reckless abandon into the enemy team.

Unstable Matter (W): Picking up a chunk now briefly gives Zac a “reservoir” of CDR, even if he casts W within the 1 second following pickup of a chunk.

Elastic Slingshot (E): KNOCKBACK DURATION 0.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second
 

As with all changes that both increase complexity and skill-ceiling, Zilean saw a pretty dramatic shift last patch. While we want to give more time for players to learn how to use him effectively, this change enables his Q+W+Q combo that folks are used to.

Time Bomb (Q): COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds

 
 
CHAMPIONS

BARD, THE WANDERING CARETAKER

 
 

Elderwood Bard – 975 RP

 
 
TEXTURE REBALANCES
 
Janna

 
Victorious Janna

 
Warwick

 
Taric

 
Cho’Gath

 
Nightmare Cho’Gath also received a texture rebalance. Check out the video below, courtesy of SkinSpotlights.

 
 
SKINS

Secret Agent Xin Zhao – 975 RP

 
 

Headhunter Akali – 1350 RP

 
 
VISUAL UPDATES
 
Kassadin

AA

 

Q Shield

 
 
 
Festival Kassadin

 
 
Deep One Kassadin

 
 
Pre-Void Kassadin

 
 
Harbinger Kassadin

 
 
ITEMS

NEW Luden’s Echo
Our new 120 ability power item is here to fill the void left by the passing of Deathfire Grasp (rest in pieces). Goals up front: we want to provide a unique item that helps out movement-focused, spell-slinging mages, like kitey Lux, bursty-train Akali, or even spell-slingy (that’s a word) Karthus. Try it out and let us know what combinations work with you – we’ll be keeping a close eye here as new experiments get brought out. It’s also important to note that this works on spell hits, not basic attacks!

+120 Ability Power
+7% Movement Speed
UNIQUE Passive: Gains charges upon moving or casting. At 100 charges, the next spell hit expends all charges to deal 60 (+5 per level) bonus magic damage to up to 4 targets on hit. Applies spell Effects (e.g., Spell Vamp, Rylai’s, etc).

RECIPE Needlessly Large Rod + Aether Wisp + 650 gold (total cost: 3100 gold)
 

Sweeping Lens
When the cooldown on the upgraded red trinket was increased, we missed the fact that the middle tier red trinket now had a lower cooldown than the item it upgraded into. We changed the tooltip last patch and we’re making the actual change now.

COOLDOWN AT LEVEL 9+ 60 seconds ⇒ 75 seconds
 

NEW Bami’s Cinder
We’ve mentioned this before, but one of our goals with this ‘new’ tanky jungle enchant was to provide an item that not only provides valuable tank stats but also helps junglers with their early to mid game clears. We’ve had to be very careful in balancing champions with this new item (ie: Amumu and Sejuani probably don’t need anything in addition to the new Cinder), but we’re excited to see what possibilities emerge. Want to play a tank jungler? GET FIRED.

Health: +300
UNIQUE Passive – Immolate: Immolate – Deals 5 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Deals 50% bonus damage to minions and monsters.
Recipe: Ruby Crystal + 600g
Total Cost: 1000g
 

NEW Enchantment: Cinderhulk
See above with our point regarding a tanky item that also boosts clear speeds. This is that item all grown up. It’s also important to note that +25% bonus health stat. Note it. Appreciate it.

Health: +350, +25% Bonus Health
UNIQUE Passive – Immolate: Immolate – Deals 16 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Increases with time in combat up to 24 (+ 1.5 per champion level).
Recipe: Tier 2 Jungle Item + Bami’s Cinder + 350 gold
Total Cost: 2200g
This item replaces Enchantment : Juggernaut.
 

Sunfire Cape
Just a very small directional change to make Sunfire Cape more focused on wave clearing for tanky dudes. There’s a little less health on that build path, but you can get to your area-effect burn a little faster.

Unique Passive: Is now UNIQUE so you know you can’t stack it.
NEW Recipe: Chain Vest + Bami’s Cinder + 850 gold
 

Raptor’s Cloak
Since those two item build paths are so situational, we want you to feel better about just sitting on a Raptor Cloak.

ARMOR 30 ⇒ 40
NEW UNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner – You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets.
 

Zz’Rot Portal
Now that we think players have good ways to deal with this (see: ability power damage to structures, etc), we’re giving it some extra love. Also, please don’t build this item against Nasus. Trust us.

ARMOR 50 ⇒ 60
MAGIC RESISTANCE 50 ⇒ 60
NEW UNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner – You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST STRUCTURES 50 ⇒ 100
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST NON-STRUCTURES 20 ⇒ 50
VOIDSPAWN TIME UNTIL THEY BEGIN TO DECAY 4 seconds ⇒ 5.5 seconds
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST INHIBITORS 300 ⇒ 350
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST NEXUS 300 ⇒ 450
 

Ohmwrecker
NEW UNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner – You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets.
 

Righteous Glory
This item is actually very close to a healthy spot. We’re just pushing it a little further so getting it earlier in the game improves its synergy with the new Cinderhulk enchantment.

HEALTH +500 ⇒ +650
 

Banner of Command
This item seems to actually be in a pretty healthy state. It’s good for breaking delayed out sieges against an Anivia or Ziggs, and it’s a strong augment to your own siege with a Baron buff. Only calling this out to note that we’re still looking if it needs anything for later patches. In other words, we’re just talking. Hello, how are you. We’re fine.

UNCHANGED UNCHANGED. We just wanted to talk about Banner of Command, man.
 
 
INHIBITOR TURRETS
This is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state – that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a “win more” mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We’re clarifying that! Designer talk over.

Global team gold on inhibitor turrets 175 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on inhibitor laser turrets 100 ⇒ 0
 
 
NEXUS TURRETS
See above! We can copy paste it here, that’s okay: this is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state – that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a “win more” mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We’re clarifying that! Designer talk over.

Global team gold on nexus laser turrets 150 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on nexus laser turrets 120 ⇒ 0
 
 
SHIELD TURRETS (INNER TURRETS)
The goal of turret shields has always been to mitigate the oppressiveness of poke-heavy teams when they hit their stride. That said, the shields are a little too weighted in favor of the defending team, and we’re seeing common stallouts on mid-lane inner turrets. With this change, we still want to reward split pushing and smart map rotations as counters to stall-focused teams, but we’re reducing a little strength here so they’re not just artificially drawing out games.

REMOVED Middle lane inner turrets no longer shield nearby champions.
Top and bottom lane turret shield health 200 ⇒ 30
Inner turret health 2000 ⇒ 2300
 
 
MINION HEALTH
The unsung hero of sieging in League of Legends: minions. That said, they’re currently not living up to their full potential and are getting washed out before any meaningful sieging can be done. Realizing this, we sent the minions to the gym so they’ll be a little more resilient when marching down the lane. Our goal wasn’t to affect last-hitting under turrets (hence the weird turret damage upgrade), but a bug made the timing slip by about 1.5 minutes. In other words, from 9:00 to 10:30, when you’re last hitting minions under the turret, melee minions will have 6 more health when in “last hit” range (ie: after two turret shots), caster minions will have 3 more health (after one turret shot), and siege minions will have 9 more health.

CASTER MINIONS Caster minion health increased by 3 at 9 minutes, and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter.
MELEE MINIONS Melee minion health increased by 6 at 9 minutes and an additional 6 every 90 seconds thereafter.
SIEGE MINIONS Siege minion health increased by 9 at 9 minutes and an additional 9 every 90 seconds thereafter.
OUTER AND INNER TURRETS Outer and inner turrets (non-laser) deal 3 damage per minion upgrade at 10.5 minutes and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter.
 
 
JUNGLE CAMPS
Some of the inequalities between camp camps were a bit too pronounced, with some jungle routes being much, much better than others. Since one of our goals with the 2015 season was to ensure there wasn’t a single best path for the jungle, but that junglers had to modify their clears (and jungle buffs) according to the pace of the game, we’re adjusting. TLDR: Making camps easier.

GROMP ATTACK DAMAGE 90 ⇒ 83
LARGE RAPTOR DAMAGE 55 ⇒ 45
SMALL RAPTOR DAMAGE 20 ⇒ 16
BIG WOLF REWARD 48 gold ⇒ 53 gold
SMALL WOLF REWARD 14 gold ⇒ 16 gold
 
 
GROMP

Say that three times fast. Gromp buff now scales with bonus health so jungle tanks can scale better in their jungle clears, even without Cinderhulk.

GROMP POISON 4 + (8 x level) ⇒ 10 + 10% of bonus health
 
 
RIFT SCUTTLER SPEED BOOST
This includes all other things considered ‘pets,’ so Tibbers, Voidlings, and even clones. It’s technically a Shaco buff too, which is concerning.

NEW The Rift Scuttler speed shrine now affects pets.

 
 
END OF SUMMONER’S RIFT BETA
Patch 5.5 marks the end of the Summoner’s Rift Beta we launched last November! We’re celebrating this milestone with a comprehensive colors pass and the animated Victory/Defeat screens we teased back in our beta announcement video.

Though the beta has come to an end, we’re continuing to look for opportunities to update the rift. We really appreciate all the feedback you’ve given us and hope that, together, we’ve made Summoner’s Rift a place you want to spend your game time in.
 
 
VISUAL REBALANCE
We’ve heard a lot of player feedback around the art style of the updated Rift: many of you feel the new map is less vivid and lively than the original. We’ve been working on a comprehensive pass to bring back some of the vibrance of the old Summoner’s Rift without sacrificing the clarity and readability the update offers.

HUE & SATURATION Amped up to make the environment feel warmer and help the more colorful map elements pop
VALUE RANGE Widened while maintaining champion and particle contrast against the environment
MAP DETAILS More have been added to help anchor your champion on the map, similar to how each quadrant of the jungle has a distinct feel. We also added a duck, but he’s pretty noncommittal so you might not see him too frequently.
LIGHTING & SHADOWS Redone to be more consistent across the map and give a greater sense of direction and three-dimensionality
 
 
IN-GAME
New animations to the Victory/Defeat banners! Disclaimer: gifs below. Let them load if you have AOL. :D
 

Victory

 
Defeat

 
 
LANDING PAGE ARTICLES
We’re making a change to the landing page which’ll allow you to read news articles in-client instead of being linked out to your web browser. We’ve got a bit more testing to do following the release of patch 5.5 so this won’t be active right off the bat, but look for this quality-of-life improvement in the weeks to come!
 
 
Source(s): Videos (SkinSpotlights)