As we launch into the patch right before the one the world championship will be played on (Patch 8.19), we're looking at a set of nerfs and buffs mostly focused on the stage. Champions like Ryze and Trundle are competitive favorites, so they're being tweaked slightly as we get hyped to watch the best of the best duke it out in the spotlight.

Pre-World's Patch

Check out a quick summary and the full changes below!

Patch Summary

Buffs: Aatrox, Lucian, Renekton, Vayne
Nerfs: Akali, Braum, Kai'Sa, Ryze, Sejuani, Trundle
Tweaks: Viktor

Patch 8.18 Notes

BY AETHER, GENTLEMAN GUSTAF

8.18 brings us the first wave of changes focused on the World Championship later this year. In some cases, this means reining in outliers who are dominating pick-ban (as well as champs likely to take over once those outliers are addressed). Other times, it means buffing champs who are on the cusp of consideration—picks we nerfed earlier in the season, in a few cases. 8.19 will contain another round of these changes.

Back to the here and now, the Nexus Blitz alpha ends with 8.18, but we aren't leaving you high and dry. Odyssey, our newest event, is here, so join the crew and smash some space nerds!

Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Nexus Blitz Alpha

The Nexus Blitz Alpha ends with patch 8.18. Thanks to everyone who tried out the mode and gave us feedback! We'll be back soon with a rundown of how things went and where we're going next.

Champions

Aatrox

E passive healing increased at later ranks. R bonus attack damage increased at later ranks.

Our last set of Aatrox changes brought his lane bullying under control, giving us room to improve his scaling into later phases of the game.

E - Umbral Dash

PASSIVE HEALING VS CHAMPIONS20/21.25/22.5/23.75/25% ⇒20/22.5/25/27.5/30%

R - World Ender

BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE20/22.5/25% ⇒ 20/25/30%

Akali

R base damage decreased.

Akali is too reliably snagging kills when she comes into a fight with all her tools available. We're trimming damage off the lower-counterplay part of her all-in to keep her as untouched as possible in other situations.

R - Perfect Execution

BASE DAMAGE (BOTH CASTS)120/180/240 ⇒ 100/150/200

Braum

Base health decreased.

We're draining some of Braum's baseline sturdiness to make him more reliant on his defensive cooldowns while preserving the high moments he's picked for among the tanky support lineup.

Base stats

BASE HEALTH576.6 ⇒ 540

Kai'Sa

Passive damage decreased at later levels.

Reducing Kai'Sa's tank-busting prowess at later phases of the game.

Passive - Caustic Wounds

PROC DAMAGE15-20% target's missing health (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 15% target's missing health (at all levels)

Lucian

Q damage ratio increased at later ranks.

We nerfed Lucian's baseline damage a few patches back when he emerged as a premier midseason bot laner. Given the rebalancing that's happened around him, he could stand to recoup some of that damage, but we don't want to put him right back on top again. Piercing Light is a good candidate for the power we're looking to add back in, given opponents have some ability to dodge—or worst case, Flash—it.

Q - Piercing Light

DAMAGE RATIO0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0 bonus attack damage ⇒0.6/0.75/0.9/1.05/1.2 bonus attack damage

Renekton

Empowered E damage increased. Empowered E armor reduction increased at early ranks.

We're raising Renekton’s empowered E's potential as a means for him to throw his early-game strength around in lane, widening the range of lane matchups he can confidently play into. These changes also amplify the fallback value empowered E provides in games where Renekton falls behind.

E - Slice and Dice

EMPOWERED DICE DAMAGE60/105/150/195/240 ⇒ 70/115/160/205/250

EMPOWERED DICE ARMOR REDUCTION15/20/25/30/35% ⇒25/27.5/30/32.5/35%

Ryze

Empowered W root duration decreased.

Ryze's pro-vs-normal discrepancy has again led to ubiquitous presence in competitive play despite rough performances everywhere else. We're targeting Ryze's E-W root for a power-down as pros are most reliably able to coordinate successful ganks and catches around it.

W - Rune Prison

EMPOWERED ROOT DURATION2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds

Sejuani

E base damage decreased. R storm slow duration decreased.

We're reducing some of Sejuani's early clear speed and a touch of her dueling potency so she has more pronounced weaknesses against early-game junglers. We're also hitting Glacial Prison's zoning utility, a strength best leveraged by pro players, to keep her competitive presence in check while impacting her strength in normal play as little as possible.

E - Permafrost

BASE DAMAGE30/45/60/75/90 ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80

R - Glacial Prison

STORM EXPLOSION SLOW DURATION3 seconds ⇒ 1 second

Trundle

E cooldown increased. E slow decreased at early ranks, increased at later ranks.

Tuning down the frequency and potency of Trundle's crowd control to reduce the troll king's effectiveness at setting up ganks and favorable fights, particularly in competitive play.

E - Pillar of Ice

COOLDOWN22/20/18/16/14 seconds ⇒ 24/22/20/18/16 seconds

SLOW PERCENT30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 15/25/35/45/55%

Vayne

Q cooldown decreased at early ranks.

More early Tumbles give Vayne more opportunities to land damage on opponents in matchups where she can be aggressive with her positioning and Q cooldowns.

Q - Tumble

COOLDOWN6/5/4/3/2 seconds ⇒ 4/3.5/3/2.5/2 seconds

Viktor

First Hex Core upgrade cost decreased.

Lowering the Hex Core's first upgrade cost not only gives Viktor his first item spike earlier, it also means he doesn't have to stay in lane as long before recalling for the first time. This cost reduction carries forward to the Hex Core's second upgrade, only evening back out when Viktor completes the Perfect Hex Core.

Passive - Glorious Evolution

HEX CORE MK-1 COST1250 gold ⇒ 1150 gold

PERFECT HEX CORE COST750 gold ⇒ 850 gold

Smite Auto-Select

Smite

Hot off the Nexus Blitz presses!

LET ME GET THAT FOR YOUIf you're assigned Jungle in draft queues, you'll load into Champion Select with Smite already selected! You're still free to swap Smite out (or swap to Smite if you aren't assigned Jungle) in cases where you're running an offbeat comp or want to switch roles with a teammate.

Minimap Icons

OK 4KMinimap icons now scale with minimap size on Summoner's Rift, Howling Abyss, and Twisted Treeline. Players with 4K monitors, rejoice!

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug where Nunu was sometimes invisible to enemies while rolling his W - Biggest Snowball Ever! out of fog of war
Fixed an FPS hitching issue that occurred when Voidbringer Illaoi sucessfully Teleported while her W - Harsh Lesson attack buff was active
Ravenous Hunter's tooltip no longer counts healing done while you're already at full health
Alt-tabbing out of the loading screen while on Fullscreen settings no longer causes loading screen images to disappear when you tab back in
Omega Squad Veigar's W - Dark Matter warning indicator is now much clearer for colorblind players

New Game Mode

Odyssey: Extraction

Available until October 10, 2018, at 07:59 BST

Join the crew and Ziggs as they fight their way through hordes of aliens in the co-op game mode Odyssey: Extraction. Head to the game mode primer to learn more.