Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to Patch 8.3! This time around Riot's trying to bulk up some old favorites and solo queue powerhouses while simultaneously cutting down on some of the top professional level picks. While they haven't nerfed Zoe's damage this patch, they did nerf how often she can use it. Check out the full scope of changes below!

Summary

Buffs: Jhin, Lucian, Master Yi, Tryndamere, Viktor

Nerfs: Azir, Jarvan IV, Katarina, Kog'Maw, Ryze, Sejuani, Zoe

Tweaks: Swain

Patch 8.3 notes

BY AETHER, GENTLEMAN GUSTAF, LUQIZILLA

Greetings, Summoners,

Welcome to patch 8.3, the one where Swain gets a shiny, updated kit. A few champions have been standing out not necessarily because they're the strongest champions, but because they're the most generalist, so we're sharpening their intended weaknesses to give opponents more deliberate counterplay.

Then there's our iconic basic attackers. Master Yi and Tryndamere have been having a rough year, so we're giving them a bit more damage to help them be more relevant. We don’t intend to fix all of their problems this time around, just make them feel less weak.

Finally, we're gnawing at the outliers of mid and marksman rosters. There are a few top picks that outclass the others, and some old favorites who have fallen heavily out of favor.

So grab your Noxian demon arm, remember that the bird is the word, and get out on the Rift and crush your enemies.

GLHF,

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman

Lucas "Luqizilla" Moutinho

Patch Highlights

Champions

Swain

Swain's champion update launches with patch 8.3! For more intel on the Noxian Grand General, check these links:

Champion Teaser
Champion Reveal
Champion Insights
Champion Spotlight
Champion Bio
Swain Story - The Black Powder Plot
Beyond the Rift S02E17: Swain Update (thanks to QT and scarra for hosting!)

Head to the "Extras" section of the Champion Reveal above for Swain's new splash art!

Azir

Q cooldown increased at early ranks.

Azir's early laning strength is keeping other mid laners from having enough early game agency, especially at higher levels of play.

Q - Conquering Sands

COOLDOWN11/9.5/8/6.5/5 ⇒ 15/12.5/10/7.5/5

W - Arise!

UPDATEDCUT OFF THE HEADAzir's soldier attacks now draw minion aggro to Azir.

Jarvan IV

Base armor decreased.

We'd like Jarvan to have clearer weaknesses for his opponents to take advantage of. Dropping his base durability (especially against jungle monsters) should give early duelists a better shot at fighting him.

Base stats

BASE ARMOR38 ⇒ 34

Jhin

R base damage increased at later ranks.

The nerfs to Sorcery and Lethality put Jhin in a weaker spot than we'd like, so we're buffing some of his base damage back up.

R - Curtain Call

BASE DAMAGE50/115/180 ⇒ 50/125/200

Katarina

Passive damage decreased.

Even when she is shut down in lane, Katarina's high base damage helps her leave the laning phase relevant, even in losing matchups.

Passive - Voracity

DAMAGE75/80/87/94/102/111/120/131/143/ 155/168/183/198/214/231/248/267/287 ⇒68/72/77/82/89/96/103/112/121/131/142/ 154/166/180/194/208/224/240

Kog'Maw

W maximum health damage decreased at later ranks.

Kog's damage is spiking too hard, even with one item. Less damage from his main basic attack murder tool should force him to rely more on items.

W - Bio-Arcane Barrage

MAXIMUM HEALTH DAMAGE3/4/5/6/7% target's maximum health ⇒3/3.5/4/4.5/5% target's maximum health

Lucian

Passive damage increased at early ranks. Passive crit damage increased.

Lucian could use some love, but we want to make sure the majority of it is felt in more traditional bot lane carry oriented builds.

Passive - Lightslinger

SECOND SHOT DAMAGE40/50/60% of attack damage ⇒ 50/55/60% of attack damage

SECOND SHOT CRIT DAMAGE50% ⇒ 75%

Master Yi

Q mana cost decreased. E active base damage increased at early ranks and bonus attack damage ratio increased.

Though we think Master Yi needs a lot of gameplay improvement, he doesn't need to be so weak in the meantime. We're giving him a bit more damage so he can stop feeling like Mister Yi.

Q - Alpha Strike

COST70/80/90/100/110 mana ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90 mana

E - Wuju Style

BASE DAMAGE14/23/32/41/50 ⇒ 18/26/34/42/50

RATIO25% bonus attack damage ⇒ 35% bonus attack damage

Ryze

Activating Stopwatch or Zhonya’s now cancels Ryze’s ultimate as though he had been interrupted by crowd control.

When the original decision was made to allow Ryze to use Zhonya's Hourglass to guarantee his ultimate, we were on the fence about this interaction, but it was deemed acceptable because he paid a significant cost to access it. Zhonya's Hourglass either came later in the game, or delayed core items in Ryze's already expensive build. Now that the Inspiration tree has made Zhonya's effect much easier to access, we’re not comfortable with keeping this low gameplay interaction intact.

UPDATEDTHE ULTIMATE CCActivating Stopwatch or Zhonya's now cancel's Ryze's ultimate as though he had been interrupted by crowd control.

Sejuani

Q cooldown increased at early ranks.

Like Jarvan, Sejuani is pretty good at everything: She’s a late-scaling tank with good damage and crowd control. She doesn't need such high early game mobility too, so we're dialing back on that.

Q - Arctic Assault

COOLDOWN13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds ⇒ 17/15.5/14/12.5/11 seconds

Tryndamere

Base attack damage at later ranks increased. E bonus attack damage ratio increased.

Like Master Yi, Tryndamere could just use some more damage right now.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH STAT3.2 ⇒ 3.7

E - Spinning Slash

RATIO120% bonus attack damage ⇒ 130% bonus attack damage

Viktor

Q shield now increased by Augment: Turbocharge. R cooldown decreased at later ranks.

In the past, Viktor's strength has been partially defined by his ability to one-shot opponents with Q - Siphon Power plus Lich Bane. We've changed his kit over time to reward him for staying near his enemies for longer, but now he's missing the tools to do so safely. We want to give Viktor players who regularly opt in to a riskier playstyle the tools to survive the punishment they take being up close and personal.

Q - Siphon Power

NEWTURBOCHARGED SHIELDAugment: Turbocharge now also increases Siphon Power's shield value by 60%

R - Chaos Storm

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

Zoe

Q Cooldown increased.

Paddle Star’s current cooldown doesn't give opponents long enough windows to take advantage of.

Q - Paddle Star

COOLDOWN7.5/7/6.75/6.5/6.25 ⇒ 8.5/8/7.5/7/6.5

Health Regeneration

Cleaned up champions' base health regeneration stat to only include half or full numbers.

Cho'Gath Ability VFX Updates

Seriously, it's going to be sweet.

Cho'Gath harkens back to the old days of LoL, and those ability particles show it. We've renovated each ability so that the Rift's biggest void murder monster can be as majestic as they deserve.

Runes

Inspiration

The Inspiration tree—especially the combination of Magical Footwear and Perfect Timing—was giving too much of a gold advantage, when rune choices should be about what playstyle you want to opt into.

Keystone

Contraptions

Tomorrow

Summoner spell cooldown reduction decreased.

Unsealed Spellbook is supposed to be the keystone for players who want to swap summoner spells and alter their capabilities mid-game. Turns out that much Summoner Spell cooldown reduction is good even if you never swap all game, so we're reducing the amount Unsealed Spellbook gives.

Unsealed Spellbook

SUMMONER SPELL COOLDOWN REDUCTION25% ⇒ 15%

Scoreboard

Vision score now displays for your team. Find it on the trinket slot.
Minor changes to give stats more breathing room for comparison.
The scoreboard mirrored mode has had its layout changed for clearer direct comparison of CS and KDA.

Rune Features

Hide Preset Pages works in Champ Select.
The keystones chosen now show up in the end of game screen.
If you switch out your primary style while editing runes, your selections for the secondary style will persist.
There will be new animations in the page editing screen if you don’t have low-spec mode on.

Rotating Game Mode

The Hunt of the Blood Moon looms into rotation from 02/08/2018 8:00 PST - 2/19/2018 23:59 PST. Sacrifice Spirits, Demon Heralds, and enemy champions to gain points and the Demon Brand buff, which turns you invisible to hunt down your enemies

Only 20 of the most vicious champions are available for the Hunt (10 of which will be free to play for the game mode only).

Free to play:

Ahri
Akali
Elise
Evelynn
Katarina
Kennen
LeBlanc
Rengar
Shaco
Talon

Available if you own the champion:

Camille
Diana
Ekko
Fizz
Kassadin
Kha'Zix
Lee Sin
Pantheon
Yasuo
Zed

Happy hunting.

Bugfixes

A character with the Zombie Ward rune no longer incorrectly creates Zombie Wards when killing a player-summoned trap
Gold-generating items now correctly continue to show how much gold has been accumulated with the item after its quest completes
Fixed a bug where Kalista's Passive - Martial Poise could fail to trigger at high attack speeds
Fixed a bug where Syndra's W - Force of Will failed to make grabbed targets invulnerable to minion attacks
Fixed a bug where Tahm Kench'sW - Devour failed to make devoured targets invulnerable to minion attacks
Fixed a bug where the minion targeted by Sion's E - Roar of the Slayer was incorrectly not made invulnerable to minion attacks
Turret icons on the minimap are now correctly destroyed when the tower is destroyed, not after the healthbar animation completes
Sion's Q - Decimating Smash now correctly refunds its cooldown to 2 seconds when Sion is crowd-controlled during its cast
Fixed a bug where Ivern recasting Q - Rootcaller counted as casting his ultimate for the purposes of stacking The Ultimate Hat rune
Fixed a bug where Sion levelling W - Soul Furnace while in his Passive - Glory in Deathcaused issues with the amount of maximum health Sion gains from killing enemy units
Cosmic Dawn Rakan no longer has a receding hairline. VFX no longer reveal the bottom of his head.
Lunar Guardian Warwick's gem glow on his gauntlet is no longer misplaced
Sweetheart Xayah's model no longer disappears when landing after using R - Featherstorm
Sweetheart Xayah's R - Featherstorm daggers are no longer misplaced underneath her model when returning to her.
Map specific and Star Guardian music no longer plays simultaneously on The Twisted Treeline, Howling Abyss and The Crystal Scar maps
Revive voiceovers are now correctly heard even if the camera does not have vision of the fountain before certain champions revive