Greetings, Summoners.
Welcome to patch 5.6.
Toot toot.
What’s that? That’s the sound of the second 2015 buff barge, departing from… buff island? Look, we don’t know where the buff barge actually stays in its off season. All we do know is that Sometimes this thing docks somewhere, takes on a bunch of friends, and then sails off for the high seas.
Anyway. What this actually means is that we’ve got a lot of changes aimed at champions who have received less attention in the past few months (or dozen months). Mind you, we’re not going to be making a habit of this (power creep is a deep rabbit hole, but the summary is that constantly buffing weak champions means we’re just throwing out a lot of power without a functional direction) and we’re not in the business of just buffing for the sake of buffing, but felt we could at least give these girls (and guys and Bards) something directionally correct.
Speaking of power creep, there are a few champs we know overstayed their welcome on the buff barge, and we’re taking steps to bring them back in line. Nothing should really come as a surprise (hello Sejuani) and we’ll go into more detail on each individual context.
Speaking of using the same transition to advance the conversation, we’re currently happy with the new addition of jungler diversity in a post-patch 5.5 world. While very strong tank junglers are obviously top of mind, we’re excited to see a shift in a positive direction. Remember that we’re committed to constantly evolving the League experience, so expect us to continue iterating whenever possible.
That’s it.
Go read the notes.
Toot.
Chris “Pwyff” Tom & Patrick “Scarizard” Scarborough
BALANCE CHANGES
Often times Aatrox would find himself wanting to use Dark Flight for a massive knockup into the enemy team, only realizing he didn’t have much to be doing once he was in. Whether you’re diving the backlines or just brawling the old-fashioned way, Massacre makes sure you’ve got enough fire in your veins when you decide to dive-kick your way into combat.
Massacre (R): NEW Now grants 20% of Maximum Blood Well for each enemy hit.
Amumu,
This wasn’t the most abusive thing around because it requires you to be out of mana, so you couldn’t very well gank or defend yourself, but nonetheless unintended. Don’t cry, Amumu (at least wait until you have enough mana).
Despair (W): Fixed a bug where Despair would not toggle off when Amumu ran out of mana.
For a long time we’ve been pushing Annie into being League’s Premier “bear-mage” (that’s a thing), be it by lowering Tibbers’ cooldown, giving him better defenses, or sharing Molten Shield. With plays beginning to fully respect Tibbers as an entity (he has feelings too, you know), we’re pulling back on some of the free damage you get just for being within hugging distance.
Summon: Tibbers (R): TIBBERS AURA BASE DAMAGE 35 magic damage ⇒ 20/30/40 magic damage.
Bard’s been out for less than a patch, and while we’re already seeing the growing pains of players and teammates alike coordinating around his unique abilities, it’s clear he released on the wrong note. We’re taking it slow for now, but some more power on Q and some improvements to his signature E means that you’ll have a better time on your Magical Journeys this patch…assuming bard isn’t too busy collecting chimes to open one for you.
Bard’s recommended items have been updates to reflect a more supportive playstyle
Cosmic Binding (Q): DAMAGE 75/100/145/180/215 magic damage ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 magic damage
REMOVED Cosmic Binding can no longer tether to unusual units such as Jarvan’s Demacian Standard, Syndra’s Dark Orbs, Jayce’s Acceleration Gate, and Wards.
Magical Journey (E): COOLDOWN 26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 20/19/18/17/16 seconds
Clicking on a Magical Journey portal is now more forgiving.
TRAVEL GUIDE Allies that go on a Magical Journey will grant Bard an assist on their kills for a short time afterwards.
MAGICAL EQUALITY Clones (such as those created by Shaco, Leblanc, Mordekaiser and Yorick) can now be commanded to take a Magical Journey.
Tempered Fate (R): TEMPERED MONSTERS Neutral Monsters will no longer have their health reset while under stasis.
Last patch we modified how the first Dragon buff interacts with Rabadon’s Deathcap (from multiplicative to additive, with an expected ~1-2% ability power change), but failed to document the larger hit to Cassiopeia, who was tripling (quadrupling?) down on it with her passive, Dragon buff, masteries, and Rabadon’s Deathcap. We’re documenting it now and realize this is late game Cassi nerf, but we’re watching how this shakes out first.
LATE GAME CASSI NERF Dragon buff and Rabadon’s Deathcap now interact additively rather than multiplicatively. When these two ability power % modifications (and masteries) interact with Cassiopeia passive, they now give roughly ~12% less bonus ability power at late, late game.
A champion that toes the line of viability, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Elise terrorizing the top tables. While the usability fix to Rappel shouldn’t be understated (that move is really difficult to use), our changes are to increase power in ways that you can feel. A slight nerf to Elise’s speed allows us to make her transformation even more deadly, and her cocoon follow-up a little easier to land.
Movement Speed (Human): increased to 330 from 335.
Movement Speed (Spider): increased to 355 from 345.
Rappel – Spider (E): Elise can now right click while in the air to descend on a target in addition to pressing E again.
Cocoon – Human (E): Missile Speed increased to 1600 from 1450.
For one of League’s most tactical champions, Eve’s been struggling since her days on top. While we’ve seen improvements with recent jungle changes, we wanted to play up some of Evelynn’s unique positioning play. Skirting in and out of Shadow Walk becomes much faster later, keeping opponents guessing after clearing wards or attempting an ambush – combined with Dark Frenzy’s spell-based cooldown paradigm, we’re aiming for a more ‘hit-and-run’ pattern, giving her more control in bursts but less strength when just training someone down.
Shadow Walk (Passive): 6 seconds ⇒ 6/5/4/3 seconds (at levels 1/6/11/16).
Dark Frenzy (W): REMOVED Spell hits no longer passively grant stacking movement speed.
NEW Spell hits now lower Dark Frenzy’s cooldown by 1 second.
As of this writing, none of Galio’s basic abilities had scaling cooldowns…UNTIL NOW. Righteous Gust is one of the gargoyle’s cooler moves, so we’re letting him toss some more tornadoes around as the game goes on.
Righteous Gust (E): Cooldown changed to 13s/12s/11s/10s/9s from 12 seconds at all ranks.
Balance Trivia! Despite the ‘Better Nerf Irelia’ jokes, did you know her last nerf was 3 years ago (March 2012), and that she’s only been nerfed 4 times ever? We thought that was neat.
As for these changes, they’re pretty light – Equilibrium Strike gives access to a heap of CC, easily turning a losing fight into a winning one. For being such a game-changer, we’re lowering the amount of raw damage it does so she doesn’t always come out of trades ahead.
Equilibrium Strike (E): DAMAGE 80/130/180/230/280 magic damage ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 magic damage.
For one of the heaviest snowball champions in league, Katarina’s lane-bully potential is enabled by having the base-stats to win wars of attrition with enemy mids, whittling them down for the kill. We’re pulling back on that to give her opponents a better window of vulnerability to exploit.
Base HP reduced to 510 from 560.
Base Health Regen reduced to 4.5 from 7.7.
Health per Level increased to 83 from 80.
BASIC ATTACK FRAME Really Bad ⇒ Improved
Let’s level here: We actually think LeBlanc is pretty okay. Though she’s polarizing in the same way Nidalee can be when successful, she serves as a counterbalance to a lot of other strong picks and keeps things interesting. We’re tuning her damage back slightly to relieve some of the pressure other midlaners have to deal with against her, but Leblanc as a champion is performing pretty close to our expectations overall.
Mimic (R): MIMIC: SIGIL OF MALICE RATIO 0.65 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power
MIMIC: DISTORTION RATIO 0.975 ability power ⇒ 0.9 ability power
MIMIC: ETHEREAL CHAINS RATIO 0.65 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power
When we gave Illumination an AP ratio way back in 4.13, it worked when your basic attacks triggered it but never for Final Spark. For all you light mages out there: this adds a 20% AP ratio when banishing the shadows.
Final Spark (R): Fixed a bug where triggering Illumination with Final Spark didn’t add Illumination’s AP ratio to the detonation.
Let’s talk Nidalee.
Nid’s a polarizing champion where, when she succeeds, generates more hate posts on forums around the world than most other champions combined. That said, with tank junglers picking up steam, Nidalee’s got some very real challenges coming her way. Hard engage has traditionally been one of Nidalee’s big weaknesses – when she can’t dictate the pace of a fight by wearing down her opponents – so if big, beefy champs are constantly running at her face (and this becomes a trend), we want to see what that world looks like before taking action.
For a champion that’s not too far off the mark, the biggest pain point for Nocturne players is lacking enough opportunities to impact a game before it’s too late, so we’ve cut the cooldown to give him just that. Don’t worry Noc – we got your darkness right here.
Paranoia (R): Cooldown reduced to 150s/125s/100s from 180s/140s/100s.
Quinn’s problems don’t begin and end with Vault, but as one of the most flexible tools in her arsenal she’ll often live or die by it. Smoothing out some interactions and fixing some bugs should see her and Valor’s synergy in top form for the fighting, and now even resets her basic attack for some high-level Harrier optimization. Look Val, buffs!
Vault (E): NEW Now resets Quinn’s basic attack timer upon landing.
VALOR, TO ME! Fixed a bug where Harrier was occasionally not applied by Vault.
TOO FAR Fixed an issue where Vault could sometimes move Quinn out of her basic attack range when casted on close-range targets.
EVASIVE MANUEVERS Vaulting off of an enemy to pass through terrain is now easier.
Ok.
Powerball (Q): Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 70/80/90/100/110.
We’ve all seen this one before. A true terror in toplane, Ryze has become a shadow of his former self – so we’re slapping some charge back into Overload to see if we can’t inch him back to reasonable levels. Carefully.
Overload (Q): BASE DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 magic damage ⇒ 55/75/95/115/135 magic damage.
One of the scarier opponents in the jungle pre-Cinderhulk, the changes to the jungle in 5.5 benefited no one champion greater than Sejuani. While we’re not strictly nerfing her ability to jungle, we’re aiming to reduce her damage spike midgame which often comes before opponents can itemize properly, let alone contain her spree of sustained lockdown. Finally, we’re putting a real penalty for missing your bolas, as in a lot of cases the Sejuani that managed to miss was rewarded with such a heavy slow that many teams would just get run over anyways.
Flail of the Northern Winds (W): INITIAL DAMAGE 4/6/8/10/12% ⇒ 4/5.5/7/8.5/10% of target’s maximum health.
Glacial Prison (R): Slow value reduced to 30% at all ranks from 90% at all ranks.
Whether he’s shaking up the toplane or stirring up a skirmish, every player knows what happens when you mix it up with an unstoppable Singed. That said, when he finds himself unable to dive into the enemy team’s deep end, even the Mad Chemist needs a pick-me-up. This should let him flexibly fling fighters out of the fray when the fight’s not in his favor.
Fling (E): DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.75 ability power) magic damage ⇒ 50/65/80/95/110 (+0.75 ability power) + (6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of target’s maximum health) magic damage.
Primarily thought of as top tier laner, Cinderhulk saw Sion shamble on into the jungle and dominate without breaking a sweat. The changes themselves are simple enough, but underscore an important point – Sion should be a powerful pick for the crowd control and durability he brings to a composition, not necessarily his damage output (especially when building tank).
Decimating Smash (Q): DAMAGE TO MONSTERS 90% ⇒ 80%
Roar of the Slayer (E): Passthrough bonus damage decreased to 30% from 50%.
A pungent late-game threat, Twitch combines damage, subterfuge and foul stenches to put teams on his back…given that you don’t exterminate him before he scales up. Even with a weaker early-game than most other marksmen, we’re adding some punch back to his poison to encourage and reward the smart trades so necessary to his success.
Deadly Venom (Passive): DAMAGE PER STACK 1/2/3/4/5/6 true damage (at levels 1/4/7/10/13/16) ⇒ 2/3/4/5/6 true damage (at levels 1/5/9/13/17)
After 5.2’s updates, opponents are able to play around Event Horizon well enough that we decided to add something special to make it stand out as an ability. Coupled with some tuning to help his early laning, a master Veigar player can lock mobile enemies in his cage for him to torment without fear of them escaping his tiny clutches.
Equilibrium (Passive): MANA REGEN +1% per 1% missing mana ⇒ +1.5% per 1% missing mana.
Baleful Strike (Q): RANGE 850 ⇒ 950
Event Horizon (E): NEW Enemy dashes through Event Horizon’s walls will stop at them instead.
In this specific interaction, a Vel’Koz ulting in a bad spot wouldn’t be able to click Thresh’s Lantern to save himself – instead, needing to cancel using R and then click and usually dying anyways because that takes too long. Clicking now lets you passage to Thresh safely, undoing what may have been a poor decision. (Imagine if taking lantern didn’t stop your ult though??)
Life Form Disintegration Ray (R): NEW Vel’Koz can now cancel his ultimate by taking Thresh’s Lantern.
Most of our basic attack resets (that don’t come paired with dashes or some other mobility) have a little bit of extra reach to make them easier to connect. Omen of War didn’t, so we’re hooking him up with some range and a sweet animation to ensure whoever’s on the other end will remember Yorick Mori.
Omen of War (Q): NEW Yorick now uses his Critical Strike animation when hitting people with Omen of War.
RANGE 125 ⇒ 175
Hoo boy. Ziggs buffs. Long since the poster-child for stalling games and siege stand-stills, this lovable lunatic hasn’t been able to keep up his special brand of madness against the top players in midlane for a while. Thanks to the season’s changes making mana regeneration weaker, we feel comfortable adding some fuel to the fire and letting him get back to bombarding as usual.
Bouncing Bomb (Q): Mana cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70 from 50/60/70/80/90.
While we’ve been digging the future Zilean’s update set out for him, we realize that we missed the mark numbers-wise (especially for midlane). These changes are all about enabling him to take risks on making intricate plays and ensuring he’s rewarded should he succeed.
Health per Level increased to 77 from 71.
Time Bomb (Q): AP ratio increased to .9 from .8.
Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 60/70/80/90/100.
Rewind (W): Cooldown 18/15/12/9/6 seconds ⇒ 14/12/10/8/6 seconds.
Mana cost reduced to 35 at all ranks from 40.
Time Warp (E): COST 50/55/60/65/70 mana ⇒ 50 mana
TEXTURE REBALANCES
We’re continuing our comprehensive pass at the game’s older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the Rift.
ITEMS
Chalice of Harmony
COST 1000g ⇒ 900g (total cost of Athene’s and Mikael’s unchanged)
Athene’s Unholy Grail
The challenge with Athene’s Unholy Grail is that it’s an item basically designed for passive play. Defensive stats, tons of mana regeneration (and, in previous iterations, mana regen that ramped up the more mana you used), cooldown reduction – you get the deal. Because of this, we’re a little reticent to just outright bring this bad boy back onto the scene. That said, there’s also (currently) a world where Morellonomicon is the default mana regeneration item, which skews certain stats (healing, health regeneration) in different ways as well. We’re trying hard not to make this a patch note about Morellonomicon (too late), but can at least afford to bring some parity between mana regeneration items.
MANA REGEN 50% ⇒ 100%
MANA RESTORE ON KILL/ASSIST 15% ⇒ 30%
Righteous Glory
Fixed a bug where you wouldn’t get the active movement speed running towards turrets and capture points.
RIFT SCUTTLER
This is a pretty significant range reduction on vision, but when gameplay doesn’t match up with actual visuals, something’s gotta give. There’s an argument to be made that the shrine buff should be increased to 1350 to match the bugged vision, but then you’d be crazy.
VISION RADIUS 1350 ⇒ 525
BASE GATES
You can now summon pets, structures, and minions in your team’s base gates (i.e. Void Portal’s, Heimerdinger Turrets, Shaco’s Jack-in-the-box).
JUNGLE XP
In terms of early level progression, we intend for junglers to be somewhere between solo lanes and duo lanes – with successful junglers edging more toward solo lane level progression. Right now, however, jungle experience falls off a little too hard, which means junglers have a tougher time keeping up. These seem like small bumps, but we know these kind of changes can have dramatic impacts, so we’re proceeding carefully.
LEVELS 1-4 Unchanged
LEVELS 5-7 3% more experience
LEVELS 8-10 6% more experience
LEVELS 11-18 10% more experience
POST-BETA UPDATES
We’ve got a few more updates for Summoner’s Rift in the wake of the beta’s conclusion! In one case the update is actually an un-update – we’ve noticed the new animated victory/defeat screens have been causing performance issues for some of you, so we’re taking them back offline while we fix the problem.
NEW New champion select music has been added for Summoner’s Rift queues!
MORE TEXTURE WORK Adjusted terrain detail in a number of locations.
CONSISTENT MESSAGING “Beta” has been removed from the Summoner’s Rift map name in various queue/lobby locations.
REMOVED The animated victory/defeat screens have been deactivated while we resolve a performance issue.
TWISTED TREELINE & CRYSTAL SCAR
REMOVED Luden’s Echo
You don’t have to think of this as a “farewell,” but more of a “I’ll see you soon!” … “With a functional build path!”
HOWLING ABYSS
Orb of Winter
RECIPE Null-Magic Mantle + Null-Magic Mantle + Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead ⇒ Negatron Cloak + Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead
COMBINE COST 850g ⇒ 990g
TOTAL COST 2210g ⇒ 2200g
PLAYER TOOLTIPS
As we’ve mentioned before, our goal for Player Tooltips is to make them a convenient, accessible point of reference for basic player information. Adding them to Suggested Players just makes sense.
Lobby members will now see Player Tooltips when hovering over Suggested Players.
BUGFIXES
Resolved a crash issue with the Windows 10 technical preview.
Veigar Bot has learned how to use his new Q – Baleful Strike.
As mentioned last patch, outer and inner turret damage vs. minions now properly begins scaling at 9 minutes.
WINDOWS 10 TECHNICAL PREVIEW FIXES
We’re currently testing a fix for this crash issue on the PBE. Assuming things continue tracking well, the fix will be going out in the next patch.
Hey everyone,
We have been reading everyone’s posts and comments, and it’s pretty clear that the Windows 10 Tech Preview doesn’t currently work with the latest patch of League of Legends. We are currently investigating, and you can get more information from RiotAether here:
Hey everyone, thanks for the Windows 10 crash reports. As a lot of you have pointed out, we don’t support Windows 10 yet so your mileage may vary as we work toward full compatibility. That said, MMACheerpuppy hit the nail on the head – we still want to do what we can to help those of you who’ve opted into the preview.
Speaking concretely, we’re currently looking into a few leads from the log information that’s been provided (animation and/or sound files appear to be the culprit at this point). No promises on timeline but we’re hoping to get something out before the next patch.
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2yshlb/windows_10_preview_users_patch_55/cpcueg3
Once we get some additional updates, we will make sure to update this thread! In the meantime, if you have the capability to run your computers off of Windows 7/8, make sure to do so in order to update League and play normally.
