Official Patch 3.15 Notes Released!

Quick Nerfplz Summary:

Buffs: Ahri, Janna, Lulu, Soraka,

Nerfs: Lee Sin, Lucian, Rammus, Sivir, Taric

Tweaks: Fiddlesticks

Official Post: 

Patch 3.15 Notes

BY RIOT PWYFF

Introduction

"Hey Summoners,

Welcome to patch 3.15, the first patch of preseason (not counting that hotfix we deployed during 3.14)! We're generally happy with how things are going, so our goals today aren't to introduce a lot of new changes. Instead, we're hitting the scallywags that are skewing the game one way or the other so that we can really see what's going on.

We'll be keeping a close eye on the state of the game – supports in particular – and we hope you're enjoying the preseason. On to the patch notes!"

Matchmaking

"Back in Patch 3.13, we made some changes to let us more dynamically turn on "Loss Prevented" mode for servers with hardware/connection issues. Unfortunately, there was a bug where "prevented" games showed up as losses. Turning on Loss Prevented mode is a manual process that we're improving on (including the potential to automate) in the future. Sorry for the inconvenience!"

• Fixed a bug where Loss Prevented was showing up as Defeat in the post-game lobby and in Match History. Games in your Match History that were listed as Defeat but actually Loss Prevented, will be changed to Loss Prevented.

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"As a new player, it's no fun going through unbalanced games while the system tries to figure out your appropriate skill level. We've done some work here to speed up our ability to identify new players while quickly improving their matchmaking experience."

• New players will now have their appropriate skill level identified faster in the matchmaking system

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"Explanation here: if you've been waiting in the queue for a while, the matchmaker will become less picky about making a perfectly balanced match. That said, there was a rare bug where players who were in the queue for long periods of time would become matchmaking vacuums, where they would instantly suck in all of the more "picky" players who had just queued in the nearby matchmaking vicinity. To the vacuumed player, if a match gets found quickly, that means in our system that the match is guaranteed to be high quality. Occasionally, however, this wasn't the case (due to wider ranges in matchmaking confidence), and can lead to a bad experience – we've since fixed that bug."

• Fixed a rare bug where the matchmaker would create imbalanced matches when a player had been in the queue for very long periods of time

General

"Long story short, champions with attack speed buffs will now feel the effects quicker."

• Temporary attack speed buffs now update champion's attack speed immediately, rather than after the first attack

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• Damage amplification abilities no longer work on true damage
  • Abilities affected:
    • Poppy (Diplomatic Immunity)
    • Swain (Torment)
    • Talon (Cutthroat)

Champions

Yasuo

Yasuo the Unforgiven is in this patch, keep your eye out for upcoming details.

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Ahri

"Ahri's very early laning experience can be unforgiving if she falls behind. These changes are to give her more breathing room before her first shopping trip or blue buff."

General

• Base mana increased to 250 (from 230)
• Base mana regeneration increased to 7 per 5 seconds (from 6.25 per 5 seconds)

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Fiddlesticks

Summary: We've reduced the duration of Terrify at later ranks and lowered the mana cost of both Terrify and Crowstorm.

"Terrify is rather… terrifying at later levels, especially with the current pace of the game. That said, we didn't want to straight nerf Fiddle's power without any compensation. Cutting down his mana costs means that Fiddle can stay out in the field a little longer (especially after team fights), while the slight buff to Terrify's rank 1 duration helps his unstable early game."

Q - Terrify

• Duration reduced at later ranks to 1.25/1.50/1.75/2.00/2.25 seconds (from 1.00/1.50/2.00/2.50/3.00 seconds)
• Mana cost reduced to 65 at all ranks (from 65/75/85/95/105)

R - Crowstorm

• Mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks (from 150/200/250)

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Janna

"Given our recent support changes, Janna could use a mana cost decrease like the other ult cost reductions we've made. We're still keeping an eye on this weather lady, so stay tuned for more change."

R - Monsoon

• Mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks (from 100/150/200)

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Lee Sin

Summary: Safeguard no longer shields minions or makes wards invulnerable when Lee Sin dashes to them.

"We like that Lee Sin could make cool plays without relying on teammates to Safeguard to, but felt we could trim some of his extraneous power without removing the real ‘fun' of it."

W - Safeguard

• Now only shields the target if the ally is a champion

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Lucian

Summary: We've lowered the base damage of Piercing Light and shortened its cast range.

"We're culling some of Lucian's lane dominance – especially when he gets early AD purchases (given Piercing Light's high AD ratios). Rather than relentlessly pursuing a reduction on Lucian's damage, we also shaved some range off Piercing Light, as Lucian was able to poke from just outside of auto-attack range before going in for a strong trade with his passive. I'm sure there's another ability pun to be had in here, but I got nothing."

Q - Piercing Light

• Base damage reduced to 80/110/140/170/200 (from 80/120/160/200/240)
• Reduced cast range to match Lucian's basic attack range (now 550 from 570)

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Lulu

Summary: Pix, Faerie Companion had its base damage increased, Help, Pix!'s base shield strength was increased and Wild Growth's mana cost was lowered.

"Lulu's defensive capabilities were a little low for a traditional support, so we sent her to the gym to get buff. Like most supports, we're keeping an eye on Lulu as the preseason progresses."

Passive - Pix, Faerie Companion

• Base damage increased to 9/21/33/45/57/69/81/93/105 (from 9/18/27/36/45/54/63/72/81)

E - Help, Pix!

• Base shield strength increased to 80/120/160/200/240 (from 60/105/150/195/240)

R - Wild Growth

• Mana Cost reduced to 100 at all ranks (from 150 at all ranks)

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Rammus

Summary: We've reduced the duration of Puncturing Taunt at later levels and reduced the mana cost of both Puncturing Taunt and Tremors.

"Similar to Fiddlesticks' Terrify, Puncturing Taunt scales to a frustratingly long duration (according to some, it went on forever, so some subjectivity is expected), especially when Rammus has a strong early game. We didn't want to just lower Taunt's durations, so we've made some mana cost reductions to help Rammus recover in games when he has a rough start."

W – Defensive Ball Curl

• Can no longer be deactivated. Instead goes on cooldown when used (total cooldown of Defensive Ball Curl remains unchanged, as deactivating the ability previously did not reduce its cooldown)

E - Puncturing Taunt

• Duration reduced at later ranks to 1.25/1.50/1.75/2.00/2.25 seconds (from 1.00/1.50/2.00/2.50/3.00 seconds)
• Mana cost reduced to 50 at all ranks (from 50/60/70/80/90)

R - Tremors

• Mana Cost reduced to 100 at all ranks (from 120 at all ranks)

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Sivir

Summary: Fleet of Foot's movement speed bonus now scales up to 50 and Spell Shield has had its duration cut in half. On The Hunt also had its duration reduced and its cooldown increased while the enhanced movement speed boost scales up to 4 seconds with each rank.

"We like the general direction of Sivir and are now in the process of tuning her power. Currently Sivir has access to a lot of raw mobility (especially in the early game), so we're hitting that to reduce some of her early game snowball potential. We also wanted to give Sivir's opponents more windows of opportunity against her."

Passive - Fleet of Foot

• Movement speed bonus reduced, now scales to 30/35/40/45/50 (at levels 1/6/11/16/18) (from 50 at all ranks)

E - Spell Shield

• Duration reduced to 1.5 seconds (from 3 seconds)

R - On The Hunt

• Total duration reduced to 8 seconds (from 10 seconds)
• Enhanced movement speed duration now scales to 2/3/4 seconds (from 4 seconds at all ranks)
• Cooldown increased to 120/100/80 seconds (from 120/90/60 seconds)

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Soraka

"We've got larger plans for Soraka in the long-term but for now, we're giving her some extra survivability and mobility in the laning phase to keep her healthy for the preseason."

General

• Base armor increased to 13 (from 9.4)
• Base movement speed increased to 340 (from 335)

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Taric

Summary: The armor scaling of Gemcraft has been reduced and Shatter had several changes made to it. Shatter's aura now increases allied champion armor by the correct amount and the armor damage scaling has been reduced. The shred of Shatter has also had its base value and armor scaling reduced.

"We're happy with Taric's kit in the preseason, but his burst damage was just too fabulous, especially when he picks up additional armor items to scale off of. Like other supports, we'll be keeping an eye on Taric as the preseason progresses."

Passive - Gemcraft

• Armor scaling reduced to 20% (from 30%)

W - Shatter

• Aura amount bug fixed, will now give correct amount of 12% (from roughly 15%)
• Armor damage scaling reduced to 20% (from 30%)
• Shred base values lowered to 5/10/15/20/25 (from 10/15/20/25/30)
• Shred armor scaling lowered to 5% (from 10%)

Minor Changes & Bug Fixes

Anivia

• Anivia, Eggnivia, and her skins (aside from Blackfrost Anivia) have received a Texture Update!

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Brand

E - Conflagration

• Fixed a bug where the cast range was longer than intended (625 from 650)

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Caitlyn

• We've improved Caitlyn's running animation!

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Cho'Gath

Q – Rupture

"Rupture's slow after the knockup has always been 1.5 seconds – the tooltip was just incorrect."

• Fixed a line within the tooltip to correctly reflect the duration of the slow (the actual value is 1.5 seconds, where the tooltip previously stated 3 seconds)

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Fiora

"If Fiora uses Blade Waltz on a stealth target that's been revealed (through true sight or abilities), she'll now properly deal damage."

R – Blade Waltz

• Fixed a bug where Blade Waltz was not dealing damage to "revealed" stealth targets

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Garen

E - Judgment

• No longer deals reduced damage to monsters (still reduced vs. minions)
• Fixed a bug where Judgment was dealing less damage than intended

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Lissandra

R - Frozen Tomb

• Fixed a bug where the slow would sometimes not reapply properly

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Maokai

R - Vengeful Maelstrom

• Added a counter showing how much bonus damage Vengeful Maelstrom is storing

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Pantheon

W - Aegis of Zeonia

• Now can be cast on enemy minions and jungle monsters

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Riven

• We've improved Riven's running animation!

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Shyvana

E - Flame Breath

• Fixed a bug where Flame Breath was shredding armor in Dragon Form

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Vayne

E – Condemn

• Fixed a bug where, if the target was being moved by a spell when Condemn's projectile hit (dash, knockup, knockback, pull, etc.) Condemn would sometimes not stun on collision with terrain.

Items

Vision Items

• Vision items no longer display their current ward count to your enemies on their tooltip display

Jungle Items

"Bounty Hunter as a passive was a risky purchase for some junglers, as it either amped up the gold gains from successful team fights or punished junglers who couldn't get assists / kills. Rather than being seen as a niche purchase, we want the "Spirit" line of jungle items to be a core build on most junglers, so Conservation as a passive is a stronger fit."

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

• Now has Conservation passive (instead of Bounty Hunter passive)

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

• Now has Conservation passive (instead of Bounty Hunter passive)

Trinkets

"We're looking to enrich the interactions between the three trinkets by highlighting the core strengths of each (yellow's in a good place at the moment). The changes to the blue trinket solidify its role as a scouting tool and in-combat vision trinket. Even if you reveal a champion before they go into stealth, they won't be revealed once stealth takes effect."

Sweeping Lens

• Cooldown reduced to 120 seconds (from 180 seconds)

Greater Lens

• Cooldown reduced to 60 seconds (from 90 seconds)

Oracle's Lens

• Cooldown reduced to 60 seconds (from 90 seconds)
• True sight duration reduced to 8 seconds (from 10 seconds)

Scrying Orb

• NEW: Enemy champions hit will be revealed for 5 seconds. This does not affect stealth champions.
• Cast range increased to 1500 (from 1100)

Greater Orb

• NEW: Enemy champions hit will be revealed for 5 seconds. This does not affect stealth champions.
• Cast range increased to 2500 (from 1500)

Farsight Orb

• NEW: Enemy champions hit will be revealed for 5 seconds. This does not affect stealth champions.
• Cast range increased to 3000 (from 2500)

Summoner's Rift

The following changes are for Summoner's Rift only

Jungle Monsters

"We've been watching the jungle closely during preseason and while we're happy with the general speed with which champions are making their way through the jungle, we can afford to make it a little less taxing for the first clear."

• Ancient Golem
• • Damage reduced to 60 (from 65)
• Lizard Elder
• • Damage reduced to 60 (from 65)
• Wight
• • Gold increased to 65 (from 60)

Game Flow

"Gold income in the preseason is generally high, which can lead to snowballing situations. In addition to clarifying assist gold, we also wanted to remove some of the "untrackable" gold in the mid to late game."

• Assist gold rewards no longer scale up with game time (now 50% of kill reward from 50-80% of kill reward depending on game time)

"We want to better reward players for pushing down inhibitors, and felt that super minions should really live up to their name. Now players will need to be extra vigilant about lanes with a downed inhibitor."

• Super Minions
• • Damage boost to nearby minions increased to 70% (from 40%)
  • Armor/Magic resistance boost to nearby minions increased to 70 (from 40)

Howling Abyss

"WHO NEEDS A TRINKET WHEN YOU CAN FEED A PORO!?"

• Everyone will spawn with a Poro-Snax item in their trinket slot

Masteries

Offense

• Martial Mastery
  • Attack damage reduced to +4 (from +5 attack damage)

• Arcane Mastery
  • Ability power reduced to +6 (from +8 ability power)

Defense

• Perseverance
  • Reduced to restoring 0.7%/1.35%/2% missing health every 5 seconds (from restoring 1/2/3% missing health every 5 seconds)
• Legendary Guardian (formerly the Tenacious mastery)
  • Fixed a bug where the name had gotten swapped with the Tenacious Mastery
  • Required range to gain bonus armor and magic resistances from enemy champions reduced to 700 (from 900)