Official Patch 7.18 Notes Released!

Introduction

The latest round of balance changes are available and some old favorites are getting a bit of lovin', most notable Fiora and Lee Sin. Meanwhile, some of the more popular early game lane bullies are getting the nerf-bat, so expect a slight meta shift towards the late game with the reduction in early game cheese potential. Check out the full scope of changes below!

Summary

Buffs: Azir, Fiora, Ivern, Lee Sin, Nautilus, Nidalee, Ornn, Rengar, Ryze

Nerfs: Cassiopeia, Elise, Gnar, Gragas, Jarvan IV, Kalista, Lucian, Rakan, Tristana

Patch 7.18 notes

BY AETHER, COSTY, GENTLEMAN GUSTAF, LUQIZILLA

Welcome to a new patch, team!

Worlds is coming up, so none of these changes are particularly aggressive, but we do want to make sure that some of the dominant outliers get tapped down a bit, and some popular picks who have fallen out of favor see some love. Because the stability of this patch is so important, we’re holding back on deeper changes that we’re still investigating, but we’ll be revisiting those champions and items in future patches.

We’re also looking at Ornn. We micropatched Ornn twice last patch, and he’s still struggling. We don’t want to overbuff him, so are primarily focusing on his usability, but we’re still monitoring player performance as prospective Ornn mains progress up the mastery curve.

See you on the Rift,

 Paul "Aether" Perscheid Phillip "Costy" Costigan Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman Lucas "Luqizilla" Moutinho

Champions

Azir

R base damage increased

As a fragile damage dealer, Azir subjects himself to a ton of risk in the late game when attempting flashy ult plays against the enemy backline. His reward for landing those late-game shuffles should be worthy of that risk.

On a forward-facing note, expect to hear a lot more about Azir in the near future. We’ll keep you posted!

R - Emperor's Divide

BASE DAMAGE150/225/300 ⇒ 150/250/450

Cassiopeia

E bonus against poisoned targets shifted from base damage into ratio.

Twin Fang’s high base damage is allowing Cassiopeia to dip into defensive itemization while still pumping out glass-cannon-level damage in the early-to-mid game. If Cass wants to melt face, she should have to (literally) pay for it.

E - Twin Fang

BONUS DAMAGE VS POISONED TARGETS15/40/65/90/115 ⇒10/30/50/70/90

BONUS RATIO VS POISONED TARGETS0.4 ability power ⇒ 0.5 ability power

Elise

W base damage decreased but scaling increased. E cooldown increased at later ranks.

Elise is the premiere magic damage jungler at the moment, especially in pro play. She’s perfect for snowballing the early game, but teams that fail to do so aren’t paying a cost later on. Reducing Elise’s access to Rappel in the late game reduces the baseline contributions she makes to her team (baiting enemy cooldowns) and leaves her vulnerable for longer stretches of time. As a result, she’ll have to capitalize more heavily on her early advantages to impact (and survive) teamfights. On the same note, taking some of the bite away from Volatile Spiderling’s base damage forces Elise to reach higher AP thresholds to deal the same damage late game, which is only feasible in matches where she’s built up a gold advantage.

W - Volatile Spiderling

BASE DAMAGE60/110/160/210/260 ⇒ 55/95/135/175/215

RATIO0.8 ability power ⇒ 0.95 ability power

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E - Rappel

COOLDOWN26/23/20/17/14 seconds ⇒ 26/24/22/20/18 seconds

Fiora

Passive’s movement speed increased. Ultimate now grants passive’s movement speed within its area.

Back in patch 7.14 we made some changes to curb some of Fiora’s mobility, but those nerfs coincided with shifts in the meta to leave the Grand Duelist in a rough spot. In a world where Bramble Vest didn’t exist, forcing Fiora to work reach her enemies—and stick to them—made sense. In a world with Bramble Vest, however, Fiora’s dealing less damage (opponents have more armor) and sustaining less off Vital procs (Bramble Vest’s Grievous Wounds), so that handicap no longer makes sense. We’re reverting 7.14’s mobility nerfs and will keep an eye on Fiora.

Passive - Duelist's Dance

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED15/25/35/45% ⇒ 20/30/40/50%

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R - Grand Challenge

NEW?RE-ADDEDFiora once again gains Duelist's Dance movement speed bonus while in Grand Challenge’s circle

Gnar

Mini Gnar’s base health decreased.

Gnar's back at the top of top lane again. While we're glad he’s pushing tanks when they can’t get to him, we want to give opponents a better chance to go for the kill when they do capitalize on his positioning mistakes.

Base stats

BASE HEALTH540 ⇒ 510

Gragas

Base armor decreased. E collision detection decreased.

Gragas is a very consistent, safe jungler who just does everything well. We want to remove some consistency, so we’re making his clear a bit less healthy and making Body Slam more fair for opponents to dodge.

Base stats

BASE ARMOR29.05 ⇒ 26.05

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E - Body Slam

COLLISION DETECTION RADIUS210 ⇒ 180

HITBOX OFFSET RADIUS60 ⇒ 40

NEWLESS BODY SLAMIndicator changed to more accurately reflect hitbox

Ivern

E explosion base damage and ratio increased.

Triggerseed has seen several nerfs this season, but the last set of changes came alongside a weakening of the support items which also contributed to Ivern’s dominance. The double nerf left Ivern a bit undertuned, so we’re giving back the damage we took from Triggerseed in the last go-around (though part of it’s in the ratio now).

E - Triggerseed

BASE EXPLOSION DAMAGE50/70/90/110/130 ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140

EXPLOSION RATIO0.7 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power

Jarvan IV

W base shield and shield per enemy champion decreased.

At present, the Prince of Demacia is dunking enemy backlines andtanking everything the enemy team throws at him in the process. We're toning down his durability so diving the squishies is more of a daunting task.

W - Golden Aegis

BASE SHIELD65/90/115/140/165 ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160

BONUS SHIELD PER CHAMPION2/2.5/3/3.5/4% Jarvan’s maximum health ⇒2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3% Jarvan’s maximum health

Kalista

R cooldown increased.

Kalista’s kit lends itself well to coordinated teams, so it’s not surprising to see her at the top of the competitive scene’s pick/ban charts without similarly dominating regular matches. We’re tapping down the frequency of her Fate’s Call plays to reduce her presence in the pro scene, leaving her less team-dependent strengths intact for everyone else.

R - Fate's Call

COOLDOWN120/90/60 seconds ⇒ 150/120/90 seconds

Lee Sin

W shield increased at early ranks, decreased at rank 5.

With no hard crowd control in the early game, we want to make sure Lee Sin brings best-in-class 2v2 dueling power. We’re buffing up Safeguard’s early shield to make The Blind Monk’s perfectly-played ganks even more impactful.

W - Safeguard

BASE SHIELD40/100/160/220/280 ⇒ 55/110/165/220/275

Lucian

E cooldown increased at early ranks.

Lucian’s risen to prominence as the go-to midlane bully. We’re increasing the windows of vulnerability he incurs by burning Relentless Pursuit offensively: if Lucian wants to dash into danger, he’ll have to shoot his way back out of it.

E - Relentless Pursuit

COOLDOWN18/17/16/15/14 seconds ⇒ 22/20/18/16/14 seconds

Nautilus

Q mana cost no longer increases with rank-up. Q now refunds half of its mana cost when it hits terrain.

Dredge Line eats a lot of mana, meaning Nautilus either drains the tank pretty quickly when trying to make plays or gives up pressure to conserve his resources. We’re letting Naut cram more Q casts into his mana bar to encourage anchor tossing, potentially even opening the door to earlier Dredge Line maxes for Nautilii who want to prioritize engaging for their team.

Q - Dredge Line

COST60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 60 mana at all ranks

NEWHOOK CITYHitting terrain also refunds half of Dredge Line’s mana cost

Nidalee

E heal ratio increased.

Nidalee’s been out of the spotlight for a while, and even when teams would benefit from a magic damage jungler they’re often overlooking her entirely. Her clears are still some of the quickest in the game and she deals plenty of damage, but she lacks some of the utility other junglers bring. We’re strengthening her healing as she scales into the late game to even the playing field.

E - Primal Surge

MINIMUM RATIO0.275 ability power ⇒ 0.325 ability power

MAXIMUM RATIO0.55 ability power ⇒ 0.65 ability power

Ornn

New Forge Item: Zhonya’s Paradox. First Ram’s maximum speed increased.

Ornn’s been suffering pretty harshly since his release, moreso than other new champions. Among other changes, several of our mid-patch updates focused on getting his abilities to flow more easily. We’re continuing that work with 7.18. First, we’re preventing Ornn’s teammates from hamstringing themselves by rushing his Masterwork upgrades. Ornn’s Forge items are meant to be something special for the late game, not early-game power spikes. Second, we’re making Call of the Forge God easier to use by giving opponents less time to react to it.

Passive - Living Forge

NEWSLOW DOWNOrnn’s Masterwork upgrades are now locked until he reaches level 13

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NEWZhonya's Paradox

ZHONYA’S PARADOXZhonya’s Hourglass can now be Forged into Zhonya’s Paradox.

TOTAL COST3900 gold (1000 gold upgrade cost)

ABILITY POWER100 (+30 increase)

ARMOR60 (+15 increase)

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R - Call of the Forge God

NEWMAXIMUM RAM TRAVEL SPEED TOWARD ORNN1050 ⇒ 1200

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Mid-Patch 7.17 Balance Updates

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH STAT85 ⇒ 90

BASE HEALTH REGEN7.18 ⇒ 9

HEALTH REGEN GROWTH0.6 ⇒ 0.8

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH1.3% ⇒ 2%

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Q - Volcanic Rupture

PILLAR SPAWN TIME1.25 ⇒ 1.125 seconds

WALLED-INVolcanic Rupture’s pillar now displaces champions who are standing on top of it when it spawns

WALL-TO-WALLVolcanic Rupture’s pillar now attempts to spawn outside of a wall if it is slightly in a wall, otherwise it destroys itself

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W - Bellows' Breath

LENGTH500 ⇒ 550

FLARE-ONBellows’ Breath now flares out slightly at the end

W SELF-SLOW65% ⇒ 50%

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E - Searing Charge

REMOVEDEXCUSE MENo longer knocks back opponents he charges through

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R - Call of the Forge God

COOLDOWN150/115/80 seconds ⇒ 130/100/70 seconds

Rakan

W dash speed decreased late game. R radius decreased, and cooldown decreased late game.

Rakan has too much reliability in his engage pattern, especially once he gets boots and pops The Quickness or other movement speed buffs. We’re toning down how quickly Grand Entrance gets him into the thick of things to give opponents more time to react. Also, we’re dialing back how easily Rakan can hit multiple targets with The Quickness, to make him earn those fat engages.

W - Grand Entrance

DASH SPEED1800 + 100% movement speed ⇒ 2050 + 30% movement speed

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R - The Quickness

COLLISION DETECTION RADIUS200 ⇒ 150

COOLDOWN120/110/100 seconds ⇒ 120/100/80 seconds

Rengar

Base armor increased.

When Rengar was at his peak, he was able to consistently one-shot squishies. Now that there are more viable tank-support items that allow supports to mitigate burst (Knight’s Vow, for example) there’s less risk of Rengar running away with a game without being fed. As a result, it’s safer to let him get to the mid-game more consistently, so we’re making his early clear less rough.

Base stats

BASE ARMOR22 ⇒ 25

Ryze

W ratio increased.

Ryze has been in a pretty weak place for a while. We don’t want to make it any easier for him to reach his strong late game, but we think he could use a bit more damage in his combo once he’s started to really build ability power.

W - Rune Prison

RATIO0.2 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power

Tristana

E bomb ratio reduced.

Tristana’s power is coming online a tad too early. Specifically, her high potential for successful trades during laning phase has allowed her to dominate from early on, push towers faster, and get the ball rolling more often that she ought to.

E - Explosive Charge

BOMB RATIO0.5/0.65/0.8/0.95/1.1 bonus attack damage ⇒0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9 bonus attack damage

4-STACK BOMB RATIO1.1/1.43/1.76/2.09/2.42 bonus attack damage ⇒1.1/1.32/1.54/1.76/1.98 bonus attack damage

Rumble

A bit of subtle reinforcement for when Rumble’s about to enter the Danger Zone.

Passive - Junkyard Titan

CLARITYRumble’s Heat bar now turns orange when at or above 80 Heat

Items

Enchantment: Cinderhulk

Health reduced.

Similar to the cost change in 7.16, this is a small nudge to continue bringing Cinderhulk’s power spike in line with options available to non-tank junglers.

HEALTH325 ⇒ 300

Spellthief's Edge Line

Frostfang now has cooldown reduction, Frost Queen’s Claim build path adjusted to compensate. Tribute lockout for last-hitting a minion increased.

We haven’t seen much of the Spellthief’s line since we made Ancient Coin an actually-appealing item earlier in the season. This is less about Coin and more about Spellthief’s: the line just isn’t doing its job of enabling early aggression. We’re moving the cooldown reduction of Frostfang’s upgrades onto Frostfang itself, making it a more potent laning threat. This has the side effect of unlocking more build flexibility: sitting on Frostfang in the midgame will be less punishing for supports who’d rather start building into their late-game oriented items.

That said, the Spellthief’s line has historically been vulnerable to midlane poaching when strong. We’re upping the Tribute penalty for last-hitting to nip that problem in the bud.

Tribute passive

LAST-HIT PENALTYAfter last-hitting a minion, Tribute charge generation is paused for 6 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds

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Frostfang

NEWCOOLDOWN REDUCTION10%

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Frost Queen's Claim

BUILD PATHFrostfang + Fiendish Codex + 450 gold ⇒ Frostfang + Blasting Wand + 500 gold (total cost unchanged)

Gargoyle Stoneplate

Health granted by Stoneplate's active's is now partially base health, rather than entirely bonus health.

Making good on last patch’s promise, we’ve got a set of changes to mitigate Stoneplate’s oversynergies with a few specific effects. Most importantly, Stoneplate now knows the difference between base health and bonus health. The total health granted is the same as before (with two exceptions—see below), but Stoneplate will contribute far less to effects that scale with bonus health as a result of this change—Cho’Gath’s ult and Locket’s shield being the two most notorious offenders here.

Also, last patch’s Cinderhulk bugfix is back now that Kled isn’t freaking out about it.

RESPECT THE RATIOGrants bonus health equal to 40% (or 100%) of base and bonus health ⇒ Grants base health equal to 40% (or 100%) base health and bonus health equal to 40% (or 100%) bonus health

ADDITION, NOT MULTIPLICATIONGargoyle Stoneplate's active no longer scales with Stoneborn Pact or Nunu's Q - Consume Well Fed buff

BUGFIX(Re-)fixed a bugged interaction between Cinderhulk and Gargoyle Stoneplate's active which caused the combination to grant more bonus health than intended

Knight's Vow

Cost decreased. Health decreased.

Support items are at a lower price point than other tank items, so we can make them very gold efficient without making them appealing to other classes. In Knight’s Vow’s case, the overall stats on the item were high enough to still entice more farmed tanks, so we’re toning that efficiency down. By bringing the price point and the stats down, we can make Knight’s Vow more clearly a low-budget item that’s focused on it’s unique effects.

TOTAL COST2300 gold ⇒ 2200 gold

COMBINE COST700 gold ⇒ 600 gold

HEALTH350 ⇒ 250

Champ Select

We're making a few visual changes to champ select in an effort to reduce dodge rates. The pick timer is much larger and more pronounced and there's now a clear countdown next to your name when it's your time to lock in.

COUNT ME INMade several elements of champ select clearer

Rotating Game Mode

Invasion continues through this patch as part of the Star Guardian: New Horizon event. Band together as the Star Guardians to protect the city from waves of monster attacks until 26/9/17 at 08:59 CEST. Complete missions on a dynamic map to earn Starlight Tokens that you can transform into a New Horizon Ward and Hextech Mystery Champion (random Champion Permanent). Some missions also grant you icons with temporary Star Guardian-skinned mastery emotes that you can flash across games.

All Star Guardian skins are free to play within this five-player PvE game mode.

Bugfixes

• Aatrox now correctly keeps his W - Blood Thirst/Blood Price Empowered attack through his Passive - Blood Well revive
• Fixed a bug where Sivir’s E - Spell Shield could block Summoner Spells if they were cast at the same time as any ability
• Fizz’s R - Chum the Waters no longer attaches to spell-shielded champions at max range
• Xerath’s W - Eye of Destruction slow now correctly decays from 25% to 13% once, not twice
• Ornn’s Twisted Treeline starting recommended items are no longer more than starting gold
• Fixed a big where Ornn’s E - Searing Charge didn’t destroy Anivia’s W - Crystallize, merely made it invisible
• Fixed a bug where Fiora’s R - Grand Challenge particles were showing up when the spell had been blocked by Nocturne’s W - Shroud of Darkness
• Karma, Lulu, and Brand now correctly have recommended item pages for both mid and support
• Vi’s recommended items on Howling Abyss no longer include Dead Man’s Plate twice
• Preferred item slot functionality now correctly works in the first game that the custom item set page is used
• Fixed a Mac client bug where resizing the game window caused healthbars to become incorrectly offset
• The 2016 All-Star Ward's health bar no longer overlaps the ward itself
• Parts of Star Guardian Ahri's model no longer disappear when affected by Kalista's The Black Spear
• Star Guardian Soraka no longer has lingering VFX when she cancels her recall animation
• Star Guardian Soraka's recall SFX are once again synced with the animation
• Shields now follow Star Guardian Syndra during her recall animation
• VFX have been restored during Atlantean Syndra's enhanced recall animation
• Heartseeker Quinn is once again swinging on her swing during her recall animation
• Dark Star Kha'Zix's evolved E - Leap VFX are now more visible on low and very low graphics settings
• The gems on Dark Star Orianna's ball no longer disappear when moving the camera away and back on lower graphics settings
• Blood Moon Talon's Passive - Blade End VFX are now more visible on elevated terrain.
• Game invites are now correctly prevented by blocking
• Champion voice lines now correctly play upon entering champion select or rerolling
• Fixed a bug where changing leaders in a custom game prevented the new leader from adding bots
• Mission progress now correctly appears upon log-in
• Fixed a tooltip in Loot that referenced key fragments old drop location
• Fixed the unlock message when moving from a locked rewards state for Dishonorable to an unlocked state
• In 7.17, we fixed an audio issue in Highlight Viewer on PCs with more than two audio channels

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following skins will be released during patch 7.18:

Championship Ashe

Eternum Cassiopeia

The following chromas will be released during patch 7.18:

Championship Ashe

Primetime Draven