Latest Patch Notes:

This week's patch features a loose set of nerfs to some of the most overpowered champions on the Rift. With champions like Graves and Evelynn nerfed, expect to see some old favorites rush up to fill their void...my bet's on Taliyah!

Summary

Buffs:
Nerfs: Ahri, Evelynn, Graves, Nami, Sion, Dark Harvest
Tweaks: Ezreal

Patch 8.20 notes

BY AETHER

Welcome to 8.20. This patch brings an update to League's most daring, well-dressed, genius, athletic, glory-bound, handsome explorer, Ezreal! (His words.) His gameplay is undergoing a less drastic transformation than past updates, but you'll look a heck of a lot better while slinging skillshots and nabbing bounties—and you still won't need a map.*

*Please always pay attention to your minimap.

Other than that, this one's a pretty quiet patch as we switch gears behind the scenes from Worlds balancing toward preseason preparations. We're mainly tuning a few things to be a little less lethal in the early/mid-game, other than Nami or Sion who should ideally die at least sometimes (up from never).

That's it! Get back to climbing ranked and watching Worlds!

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Champions

Ezreal

W has been redesigned.

Ezreal's champion update brings some significant visual, audio, and lore level-ups to the Prodigal Explorer. Ezreal's update differs from other VGUs in the gameplay department: His kit's held up well over the years, and the only ability that needed a makeover was his W, Essence Flux. Within a suite of spells that make Ezreal feel like an ace spellslinger, Essence Flux felt unremarkable… when it was even noticed. We've given the Prodigal Explorer a new W that has a more appreciable place in his kit and even adds a few new decisions for Ezreal players to consider.

We'd be remiss not to mention AP Ezreal, a playstyle we want to preserve with this update. Though the new Essence Flux plays quite differently than a pass-through skillshot, it still packs a punch with some AP itemization. It also gives AP Ezreal much stronger structure damage as well as more reliability from Arcane Shift.

General

UPDATEDEzreal and his skins have all received full visual and audio updates!

SPLASHBase, Frosted, TPA, Debonair, Ace of Spades, and Arcade Ezreal's splashes have been altered to match Ezreal's new design. Nottingham, Striker, Explorer, and Pulsefire Ezreal have received brand new splashes. You can find them all on League Displays!

LOREEzreal's lore has been updated. Head to Universe to check it out!

NEWW - Essence Flux

Ezreal fires an orb that sticks to the first champion or objective hit. Hitting the orb with an ability or attack detonates it. Detonating with an ability refunds mana.

DAMAGE75/120/165/210/255 magic damage

RATIO0.6 bonus attack damage + 0.7 ability power

RANGE1150 (same as Q - Mystic Shot)

COOLDOWN12 seconds

ORB DURATION4 seconds

COST50 mana

MANA REFUND ON ABILITY DETONATION60 plus the cost of the ability that detonated Essence Flux

OBJECTIVEEssence Flux can stick to champions, epic monsters, turrets, inhibitors, and the Nexus

Q - Mystic Shot

RATIO0.4 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power

E - Arcane Shift

NEWESSENCE ATTRACTIONArcane Shift now prioritizes enemies affected by Essence Flux

R - Trueshot Barrage

ICONICNo balance or mechanics changes. Just adding this to show off the new icon!

Passive - Rising Spell Force

ICONICNo balance or mechanics changes. Just adding this to show off the new icon!

Ahri

R cooldown increased early.

Given how aggressively Ahri can snowball early leads into quick wins, we're reducing how often Spirit Rush lets her threaten her opponent in lane. This should give the enemy midlaner a bit more breathing room to recover and the enemy team more opportunity to shut Ahri down while her dashes are unavailable.

R - Spirit Rush

COOLDOWN110/95/80 seconds ⇒ 130/105/80 seconds

Evelynn

Empowered E damage decreased early. R damage decreased.

Evelynn's too easily able to kill enemies without Allure, particularly in the early-mid game.

E - Whiplash

EMPOWERED DAMAGE95/115/135/155/175 ⇒ 75/100/125/150/175

R - Last Caress

DAMAGE150/275/400 ⇒ 125/250/375

EXECUTE DAMAGE300/550/800 ⇒ 250/500/750

Graves

Base AD decreased.

For how well he scales, Graves takes over early games too reliably—even for an early-game-oriented champion.

Base Stats

BASE AD66 ⇒ 63

Jhin

Passive no longer scales off Hail of Blades while Jhin is out of combat.

Don't let the "Bugfix" tag below fool you, this is a pretty substantial power-down to Hail of Blades Jhin. Bonus attack speed increases both Jhin's attack damage and the movement speed he gets from critical strikes, so while most champions would be relatively unimpacted by Hail of Blades' 75-125% bonus attack speed buffing their first basic attack, Jhin's been reaping real benefits from the bug.

Passive - Whisper

BUGFIXFixed a bug where Hail of Blades' bonus attack speed counted toward Whisper's attack speed conversions while Jhin was out of combat. (Behavior is now consistent with everyone else.)

Nami

W heal decreased.

We're making Nami and her carry less resilient to threats from aggressive enemy lanes.

W - Ebb and Flow

HEAL65/95/125/155/185 (+0.3 ability power) ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160 (+0.3 ability power) (damage vs enemy champions unchanged)

Sion

Base health regen decreased.

Less health regen means Sion will have to rely more on his shield and health bonuses from last-hitting to stay healthy in lane.

Base Stats

BASE HEALTH REGEN9 per 5 seconds ⇒ 7.5 per 5 seconds

Runes

Dark Harvest

Base damage decreased.

We want to preserve Dark Harvest's late-game scaling, but it shouldn't be a go-to pick for early/mid-game damage on top of that.

BASE DAMAGE40-80 (lv 1-18) ⇒ 20-60 (lv 1-18)

End of Season Eligibility

Added an icon to your profile to check if you're eligible for this year's Victorious skin. Hover over it to find out what you'll earn!

Positional Matchmaking

We'll be enabling positional matchmaking in unranked Draft Pick queues. We had to disable this last patch due to some issues, but now it’s back!

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug where Jarvan's Passive - Martial Cadence was dealing less damage than intended when combined with Tiamat's passive
Restored a bunch of Vi's VFX across a few skins
Tristana's E - Explosive Charge passive no longer deals reduced damage when proc'd by Stormrazor's guaranteed critical strike
Jumping out of Tahm Kench's belly directly into Taliyah's R - Weaver's Wall no longer causes you to lose control of your champ for an extended amount of time
The channeling bar no longer displays weird text when Nautilus casts Q - Dredge Line