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: Darius, Elise, Fiora, Janna, Jarvan IV, Kha'Zix, Kog'Maw, Nunu & Willump, Pyke, Thresh
Nerfs: Tahm Kench

Patch 8.19 notes

BY MAPLENECTAR, RIOTAETHER

Welcome to the second round of changes focused on the World Championship, which starts next week! You might be wondering where the massive pro patch is this year—last year’s World’s patch had 23 changes, after all. This patch, rather than trimming power from the top picks in pro play we’ve been seeing, we’re going to be giving a few nudges to other champions that should help keep them in check. We don’t want to invalidate practice the pros have been putting in for the largest tournament of the year, so we’re just going to see if we can give them a few more options to consider. For buffs, we’re focusing on champions who could use a little extra power for competitive viability who also have some breathing room for the rest of us who haven't reached pro status (yet). We’ll follow up if anything gets out of hand.

We're also including a care package of visual and audio updates for a few older champions and effects. This should spruce things up both in your games and on your screens as you watch the tournament unfold.

Let’s get into it.

Richard "MapleNectar" Henkel

Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Champions

Darius

W base damage increased. E armor penetration increased.

As a valuable counter pick to tanks in top lane, we’re looking to help Darius cleave through some of that armor to encourage teams to think strategically when drafting top lane champions. Although it’s somewhat generic power, percentage armor penetration is considerably more effective against champions like Cho’gath and Ornn than against other fighters like Camille or Aatrox.

W - Crippling Strike

RATIO40/45/50/55/60% total attack damage ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70% total attack damage

E - Apprehend

PASSIVE ARMOR PENETRATION10/15/20/25/30% ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35%

Fiora

Healing from passive procs increased.

Fiora is a really sharp champion, with matchups where she dominates and matchups where she struggles to gain an edge. We’re being careful with her, but our changes in 8.17 still haven’t gone far enough to reward aggressive play in lane. Increasing the sustain she gets when going for vital procs on her opponents should help resolve this.

Passive - Duelist's Dance

VITAL HEALING25-110 ⇒ 35-110

Q - Lunge

BUGFIXLunge will once again correctly prioritize champions and vital procs over killable minions.

Kha'Zix

Passive damage buffed. W slow increased.

Kha’Zix has been struggling since our changes to his evolved R in patch 8.11. We’d like to give it a bit more oomph in a way that relies on the clever use of ultimate casts to eke out the full value. We’re also amping up the utility of Void Spikes to help Kha’Zix set up plays in ways that aren’t just… murdering you faster.

Passive - Unseen Threat

BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE RATIO0.2 ⇒ 0.4

W - Void Spike

EVOLVED NON-ISOLATED SLOW40% ⇒ 60%

EVOLVED ISOLATED SLOW80% ⇒ 90%

Elise

W and E cooldown decreased in Spider Form.

Elise used to dominate the early game and facilitate aggressive plays across the map. We want to bring that back, so we’re decreasing the cooldown on some of her playmaking tools so she can more frequently seek out risky opportunities to dominate her opponents.

W - Skittering Frenzy

COOLDOWN12 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds

E - Rappel

COOLDOWN26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 22/21/20/19/18 seconds

Jarvan IV

Passive cooldown decreased.

Jarvan IV has been pretty absent from the meta for the past year and needs a bit more power for players who want to flex him into top lane or jungle. Passive procs enable a faster clear and also encourage an aggressive trading pattern if played in the top lane.

Passive - Martial Cadence

NEWMartial Cadence now has a visual effect indicating its per target cooldown

PER TARGET COOLDOWN10/8/6 at levels 1/7/13 ⇒ 6 at all levels

BUGFIXTiamat passive will now consistently work when hitting a target with Martial Cadence

Nunu & Willump

AP scaling on Q’s heal increased. E AP ratio increased.

Since Nunu & Willump’s release, we’ve seen a large number of players trying for the super-hype Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark AP snowball builds. While his tank build is seeing far more success, we want to try to support the fun playstyle that meshes well with their whimsical thematic.

Q - Consume

HEALING RATIO0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.70 ability power

BUGFIXTooltip now accurately reflects how much healing Nunu and Willump get from champions

E - Snowball Barrage

MAX 9 SNOWBALL HIT ABILITY POWER RATIO0.45 ability power ⇒ 0.54 ability power

WILLUMP’S TURN (ROOT DAMAGE)0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power

W - Biggest Snowball Ever!

NEWWillumps transition to walking after he finishes rolling his snowball will now feel smoother.

Janna

Passive movement speed to damage conversion increased.

Janna is currently struggling to find a home in the bot lane in a meta dominated by some of her beefier counterparts. Her defensive attributes are already as powerful as we’re comfortable pushing them right now. We’re increasing her early game poke damage for players that are able to play her aggressively and want to harass their opponents every chance they get.

Passive - Tailwind

BONUS MOVESPEED CONVERSION TO DAMAGE15/25/35% at levels 1/7/13⇒ 25/35% at levels 1/10

Thresh

Q mana cost and early cooldown decreased.

Against a cast of champions that can reliably shut Thresh out of making aggressive plays in lane, he needs more opportunities to throw hooks in the early stages of the game. We don’t want to make his hooks hit harder, or cc for longer, so we’re just bumping up how frequently he can cast them.

Q - Death Sentence

MANA COST80 ⇒ 60

COOLDOWN20/18/16/14/12 ⇒ 16/15/14/13/12

Pyke

Early ult damage increased.

Pyke’s performance scales down pretty steeply when played against higher-tier opponents who more frequently dodge his fairly projected abilities. We think his reliability is in a pretty solid spot, but want to increase the damage payout Pyke gets for hitting good ults that help close out fights. This power only impacts his early and mid game, and his damage from levels 11-18 is unchanged.

R - Death From Below

BASE DAMAGE (BREAKS EVEN AT LEVEL 11)200/250/300/350/400/450/475/500/525/550/575/590/605 ⇒250/290/330/370/410/450/475/500/525/550/575/590/605

Tahm Kench

Base HP down; HP per level up.

Similar to Braum last patch, we’re looking to drain some of Tahm Kench’s baseline sturdiness. Reducing Tahm’s base HP should make him rely more on his defensive tools to find success in lane, while increasing his HP gained per level will make it slightly easier for him to wade into the enemy team late game.

Base Stats

HEALTH610 ⇒ 540

HEALTH GROWTH95 ⇒ 102

W - Devour

BUGFIXAllies Tahm Kench has devoured will no longer sometimes be targetable when first swallowed.

Kog'Maw

Base movement speed increased. R range increased.

In a meta that often sees two or more tanks on a team and short-range ADCs in bot lane, Kog’Maw has been surprisingly absent. We’re giving him some base movement speed to help him kite aggressively and go for trades against some of those short-range champions like Kai’sa and Xayah. Early game buffs to his ult’s range will also help him chase down opponents after ganks or trades.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED325 ⇒ 330

R - Living Artillery

RANGE1200 / 1500 / 1800 ⇒ 1300 / 1550 / 1800

Items

Liandry's Torment

Passive max HP burn increased. AP decreased.

Liandry’s has a pretty clear purpose—build it when you have damage over time and CC in your kit, or when the enemy has a really tanky team. While it has a solid set of core users who meet the first condition, it could do a better job of dealing with multiple tanks. We’re adding more max HP burn to address this while reducing its AP to limit burst power slightly.

ABILITY POWER80 ⇒ 75

Torment:

DOT AGAINST NON IMPAIRED TARGETS1% Max HP per second ⇒ 1.5% Max HP per second

DOT AGAINST IMPAIRED TARGETS2% Max HP per second ⇒ 2.5% Max HP per second

Champion VFX & SFX Updates

We've updated audio and visuals for a bunch of champions!

Jarvan IV

VISUALSBasic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base VFX

AUDIONon-VO audio has been updated for base Jarvan IV and all skins using base SFX

BUGFIXJarvan IV now properly plays his dunk animation when casting R - Cataclysm

Lee Sin

VISUALSBasic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base VFX

AUDIONon-VO audio has been updated for base Lee Sin and all skins using base SFX

KNOCKOUTKnockout Lee Sin's W - Safeguard shield VFX have been updated

POOL PARTYPool Party Lee Sin's Q2 - Resonating Strike marker has been updated

GOD FISTGod Fist Lee Sin's E - Tempest VFX more clearly indicate the hitbox

Veigar

VISUALSBasic attack and ability visual effects have been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base VFX

AUDIONon-VO audio has been updated for base Veigar and all skins using base SFX

BAD SANTABad Santa Veigar has also received VFX updates

LEPRECHAUNLeprechaun Veigar has also received VFX updates

Vi

VISUALSBasic attack and ability visual effects have been cleaned up for base Vi and all skins using base VFX. This update also optimizes Vi to run more smoothly on slower computers.

SSG Ezreal

VISUALSThough technically unrelated to the above, SSG Ezreal's ability VFX have received a clarity pass

Movement Speed Slow VFX

The default visual effect for movement speed slow effects has been updated!

Objective Steal Announcements

Baron Nashor, Rift Herald, and Dragon steals are now celebrated (or "celebrated", depending on which side of the steal you were on) via chat call-outs and announcement banners!

Profile Page

In preparation for the 2019 ranked changes and the return of Clash, the profile page design has been revamped. A couple of the profile icons will remain empty for a while, but that should change soon.

Normal Draft matchmaking

Also in preparation for Ranked 2019, we’re now previewing positional matchmaking in Normal Draft only. This means you’ll be matched based on the position you were assigned instead of just having one rating in the background. This should make matchmaking better across the board, and tangibly better when playing secondary and autofilled games. We’re also testing position detection, which determines what position you actually played on the end of game screen. Let us know if it does you wrong.