Summary

Check out this week's patch! It's fairly light...except the HUD is now on ranked and there's a Teemo Buff...oh boy.

Buffs: Teemo;

Nerfs: Nidalee, Sivir;

Tweaks: Ekko, Fiora, Gangplank, Zeke's Herald;

Patch 5.15 notes

BY SCARIZARD

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Greetings, summoners.

Welcome to Patch 5.15, the small one where we sit back and let the game catch its breath for a sec. What with all the updates recently to jungle items, game balance and burning tides (thanks, Miss Fortune), we figured it best to enjoy a lighter patch where we focus on some pro-play outliers and watch the ever-evolving metagame take shape. So kick your feet up, this one's on the house.

Diving a level deeper, we do have some sizable changes for Teemo to give him more control of his destiny in fights rather than setting up minefields and hoping folks'd walk into it. If you're someone that wishes we'd delete him instead, we suggest you try out Fiora, who’s got a set of updated Demacian duds and slick new moves to help you take out the furry little monster in style. Random aside: did you know Teemo's last buff was 3 years ago? We thought you'd like some trivia dressing with your foreword-salad. We've never really thought of the foreword as food before, but salads are healthy (and so is context).

That's about everything for 5.15. Check out our HUD update post to read up on the juicy feedback-driven changes being made (or head to the patch notes below), as well as our new ward-skin selection tech, and we'll see you next time!

Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough

Champions

Gangplank

Gangplank is back. Q auto-acquires at a much smaller radius. Gangplank gets steady Silver Serpents on alternate maps.

General

During the fiery conclusion of Bilgewater: Burning Tides, Gangplank sustained horrific injuries. Now he returns to the League battlefields with renewed purpose. Learn more about Gangplank here.

Q - Parrrley

LIKE FISH IN A BARRELGreatly reduced the radius where Parrrley automatically acquires a Keg at 1 HP

GLOBAL INVESTMENTNow automatically acquires 1 Silver Serpent every second on the Howling Abyss, Butcher's Bridge, Twisted Treeline, and the Crystal Scar

Fiora

Fiora, the Grand Duelist, will be updated with the launch of 5.15. Head to her update article for details on her new look and kit!

Ekko

Lowering bases and increasing AP Ratios across the board. Passive now slows less, but gives Ekko more speed.

Reaching into the past for our 5.14 notes, we called out Tank Ekko as a thing we'd be evaluating for a future patch and see if it warranted addressing. Well, here we are.

First, let's lay some groundwork. Why's Tank Ekko such a big deal? Isn't it cool to have a diversity of builds? Good questions, but understanding why hinges on a different concept entirely: what trade-offs are being made in a champion's alternative build or playstyle? Let's use Ezreal as an example. Whether you go full AP, standard marksman items or the “Blue build,” you're emphasising Ezreal’s burst, sustained, or poke damage at the expense of others. This lets an otherwise straightforward champion have a diverse set of contextual options for your damage-dealing needs.

Ekko deciding to be a little more risky or durable appears to have these trade-offs, but his play-making CC and escape potential is founded upon the idea that if he messes up, no amount of rewinding will save him from getting killed. Toss in a bunch of tank stats, however, and his 'high risk, high reward' paradigm shifts into 'no risk, some reward'. We're not against Tanky Ekko finding success as a situational or reactive build, but having his primary power come from ability power helps emphasise the skirmish 'hit-and-run' style Ekko's all about.

Passive - Z-Drive Resonance

RATIO0.7 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power

SLOW40/50/60/70/80% (at levels 1/6/11/16/18) ⇒ 30/40/50/60% (at levels 1/6/11/16)

MOVEMENT SPEED40/50/60/70/80% (at levels 1/6/11/16/18) ⇒40/50/60/80% (at levels 1/6/11/16)

W - Parallel Convergence

SHIELD BASE150/195/240/285/330 ⇒ 80/100/120/140/160

SHIELD RATIO0.8 ability power ⇒ 1.5 ability power

R - Chronobreak

HEALTH RESTORED20/25/30% of damage taken over the last 4 seconds ⇒20% of damage taken over the last 4 seconds

HEAL RATIO1% per 30 ability power ⇒ 1% per 15 ability power

Nidalee

Q cast time up and damage down. W's vision greatly reduced.

As one of our more unique and polarising champions (due to her ability to run away with a lead) Nidalee's been out of the patch notes for some time. For 5.15, it's the same old song-and-dance - increase the risk she has to take on to succeed with her aggressive assassination patterns. Tossing massive Javelins and stalking the weak is most certainly a hallmark of Nidalee's playstyle, but the number of tools she has to choose her engagements leaves her opponents without much of a say. These changes continue to pressure Nidalee to really commit with cougar-form takedowns, instead of constantly fishing with poke from afar. They also open up more ability to evade Nidalee’s attempts to continue the hunt once she’s got her eyes on you.

Q - Javelin Toss

CAST TIME0.125 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds

SPEAR DAMAGE50/75/100/125/150 ⇒ 50/70/90/110/130

MAXIMUM SPEAR DAMAGE150/225/300/375/450 ⇒150/210/270/330/390

W - Bushwhack

VISION RADIUS ON CAST1200 for 0.5 seconds ⇒ 400 for 0.5 seconds

Sivir

R's movement speed starts lower, but scales back up. Allies entering R's radius share Sivir's current speed bonus.

On the last episode of "Sivir Patch Notes" back in 5.11, we talked a lot about Champion diversity as it relates to Sivir and her enabling of hard-engage (and disabling of other strategies). We'll chill for a sec if you want to read that one over again.

So what's changed since then? Though there's slightly less Righteous Glory and a little more poking and split-pushing, the landscape remains mostly the same - that is to say, teams with Sivir become 'hard-engage' simply by picking her and often snowball out of control beyond the first few engagements. Instead of nerfing Sivir just enough to get off the top (which usually only results in the next marksman taking her place), we're trimming some of the more invisible fat around her ultimate and giving opponents a better read on when her team's getting ready to pull the trigger by grouping up.

To clarify on the change below: previously, even walking through On The Hunt as it ended, you'd get 2/3/4 seconds of 60% movement speed. With this change, the buff is shared - If you're with Sivir when she starts things off, you'll get the full 8 seconds. If you join later, you'll get whatever's left of the buff. No excuses for showing up late to a hunt!

R - On The Hunt

INITIAL MOVEMENT SPEED60% at all ranks ⇒ 40/50/60%

HUNTING PARTYAllies that enter On The Hunt's radius after the cast are given the same bonus movement speed value and duration Sivir currently has. (Previously, Allies were given 2/3/4 seconds of the Initial movement speed no matter when they joined On The Hunt)

Teemo

Teemo’s trickier in brush, and his passive's attack speed now scales with level. R's traps last a shorter amount of time and take longer to arm, but can now be cast from further away and bounce on pre-existing traps.

We've finally done it. After years of slumber, the dark lord of League of Legends has returned. Despite his notoriety, Teemo's actually been on the less attractive side of viability for quite some time. Often seen as a niche 'anti-melee' top-laner or as an AP-focused map-control mage in the mid-lane, Teemo's always been around but never as powerful as the cries of his victims would have you believe.

No matter how you like to play your Swift Scout, we're focusing on delivering more to Teemo players looking to express their skill in more ways his teammates can appreciate. Teeto's applications in a 5v5 setting have always been questionable; the nature of his power is largely loaded into whether or not his opponents manage to step on a mushroom - something that became even more binary if your team wasn’t willing to utilise your minefields. Adding a couple of neat tricks to Camouflage and accessibility for tossing Noxious Traps while draining some of their more ambient sources of power - like duration - should empower Bandle City's Boogeyman to take a more proactive role in crushing the hopes and dreams of his enemies with a smile (bouncing Cottontail Teemo's eggs is seriously really cute).

Passive - Camouflage

ATTACK SPEED BONUS40% at all levels ⇒ 20/40/60/80% at levels 1/5/10/15

STEALTH TIMER2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds

NEWSWIFT SETUPTeemo stealths twice as fast while in brush

NEWCROUCHING YORDLE HIDDEN TEETOMoving inside brush while Camouflaged no longer breaks stealth

R - Noxious Trap

DURATION10 minutes ⇒ 5 minutes

NEWSHRIVELING SHROOMSSlow now decays over 4 seconds

CAST RANGE200 ⇒ 300/600/900

ARM TIME1 second ⇒ 1.5 seconds

NEWTHANKS ZIGGSCasting traps on existing Noxious Traps causes them to bounce 3/4/5 Teemos further in the direction they were originally tossed

NEWFUNGUS FARMINGMushrooms now die to 3 basic attacks from ranged champions (2 basic attacks from melee)

Items

Zeke's Harbinger

Zeke's buff lasts longer, but takes longer to build.

We’re really happy with how this item’s played out since its addition, so we’re only lightly tuning Zeke's this patch - Harbinger's tide-turning buff is definitely the highlight of a fight (assuming you can get it off), but often times it doesn't last long enough to herald any sort of meaningful effect. To make good on our promise of an 'offensive support item' and let you bring pain from the duo lane, Zeke's will last longer at the expense of some stacking speed. This is to really reward those that coordinate their build-up before letting loose a long-lasting friendship-fueled rampage.

That said, AP Jungle Xin Zhao with Zeke’s is a thing you should try at least once in your life. You’re welcome.

CHARGES PER ABILITY USE12 ⇒ 8

CHARGES PER BASIC ATTACKS6 ⇒ 4

CHARGES PER ALLY ABILITY USE6 ⇒ 4

CHARGES PER ALLY BASIC ATTACK3 ⇒ 2

BUFF DURATION6 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds

STACKTIVATIONFixed a bug where Zeke's stacks weren't transferring to a new target after re-casting the active

BUT I BOUGHT THE ITEMFixed a bug where Zeke’s wasn’t giving assists

HUD Update

We're making our first update pass on the new HUD based off of player feedback and it’ll be heading to ranked queues with this patch. Our major themes are across-the-board readability improvements and quality-of-life tweaks!

Global font changes

Switched to a thicker font
Font size has been increased in many locations across the HUD
Added a drop shadow to the chatbox

Champion stat panel

Buffed stats once again use coloured text
Stat icons are larger
Critical Strike Chance and Attack Range have swapped positions. Crit chance is now in the default view, while Attack Range is in the expanded view.
Upped the brightness of the XP bar

Ability bar

Cooldown sweep indicators now cover the entire ability icon
'On cooldown' and ‘Out of mana' colours are now easier to tell apart
Re-added cast bars for all non-instant abilities
HUD ability animations (ability level-up, toggling, off-cooldown) are now gold instead of blue
Reduced ‘noisiness' of HUD animations

Game stats & info

CS, KDA and team KDA have been relocated to the upper righthand corner, next to the game timer
Size of the team frames above the minimap have been increased
Ping and FPS indicators are larger

Scoreboard

Spaced out various scoreboard elements
Champion portraits are larger
Summoner spell timers are larger
A mute button has been added next to each player's champion portrait

Instant Feedback System

As mentioned at launch, the Instant Feedback System was originally tuned conservatively to avoid false positives. Now that it's been in place for a few months we're ready to start taking the training wheels off. In particular, the system is now more likely to punish hate speech after just one incidence.

Champion Mastery Emote

For real this time.

When Champion Mastery launched a while back, we decided we'd wait and see how the rank 4 and 5 emotes were being used before making them visible to the enemy team. Fast forward a few months and, after adding in a light safeguard to ensure players can opt out of emote spam, we're ready to let you show your achievements off to everyone in your matches!

YOU CAN'T IGNORE MY BADGEThe rank 4 and 5 Champion Mastery emotes are now visible to the enemy team

WAIT YES YOU CANMuting a player now hides their Champion Mastery emote (both ally and enemy)

Ward Skin Selection

You can choose your ward skin in champ select.

Maybe your friends will finally start warding now.

Maybe.

WARDSKINTIMIDATIONYou can now choose a ward skin in Champion Select!

WARD YOUR WAYThis feature hasn't been added to Team Builder yet, so make sure to hit up the store and select your ward skin before readying up!

Bugfixes

(Black Market Brawlers) Enchantment: Teleport's active effect can no longer be bugged to cast without a cooldown
Rift Scuttler now drops a soul
Upgrading a trinket no longer resets its cooldown (This was fixed in 5.14 but we forgot to document it. Sorry!)
Using a consumable item no longer temporarily disables Devourer's effects
Galio now properly gets assists when shielding allies with W - Bulwark
Spirit Guard Udyr now plays VO when he kills a Rift Scuttler
Restored custom E - Shunpo VFX for Sandstorm and Slay Belle Katarina