Shield Champions Buffed

In the newest Patch 8.21, check out buffs on Karma and Ivern, two of the most shield-heavy champions on the rift! Meanwhile, Essence Reaver still struggles to find an identity, so it looks like Riot's just going to give it a slight buff and hope that it fills a void.

Be sure to check out the newly updated League of Legends tier list to see where these champions fall!

Summary

Buffs: Ashe, Ezreal, Ivern, Karthus, Karma, Zac, Zoe, Edge of Night, Essence Reaver
Nerfs: Alistar, Aurelion Sol, Irelia, Kai'Sa

Patch 8.21 Notes

BY AETHER

Welcome to 8.21! This patch continues the recent trend of lighter tuning: With preseason coming in about a month, we're avoiding bigger changes that may go completely sideways once the meta shifts. So for now, the name of the game is keeping things stable through the end of the season. We'll get out of your way up here—go read all the stuff below and keep pushing toward your ranked goals!

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Champions

Alistar

Health decreased.

Alistar's all-in threat is one of the main reasons to pick him, but enemies should be able to punish him for overly greedy dives. Increasing the cow's vulnerability to poke reduces the number of fights he should take, and he'll be generally more susceptible to enemy ganks and dying on the way out from a bad skirmish.

Base stats

HEALTH613 ⇒ 573

Ashe

Passive slow increased. E pings enemy champions it spots.

We're giving Ashe more power in ways that emphasize her unique strengths as a utility marksperson rather than escalating the DPS race.

Passive - Frost Shot

SLOW10% - 20% (lvl 1-18) ⇒ 15% - 30% (lvl 1-18)

SLOW CRIT MULTIPLIERTriple ⇒ Double (slow amount unchanged due to base slow buff)

E - Hawkshot

HEYHawkshot now pings enemies it spots if your team didn't already have vision of them

FEATHERYHawkshot vision trail duration very slightly increased to address a bug where the trail sometimes wouldn't show up on the minimap (vision duration at the destination unchanged)

Bugfixes

FROSTYFixed a bug that made Runaan's Hurricane bolts fired by Q - Ranger's Focus invisible

Aurelion Sol

Health decreased. Health regen increased.

We're making the space noodle more fragile when he's caught mid-roam or all-inned, but giving him a little more regen to mitigate the health loss if he's stuck farming in lane for extended periods of time.

Base stats

HEALTH562 ⇒ 510

HEALTH REGEN6.5 ⇒ 7

Draven

Q bugfixin'.

While not technically balance changes, these bugfixes address some busted interactions that made it harder for Draven to gloriously execute his enemies.

Q - Spinning Axe

BUGFIXFixed a bug where Draven's basic attack couldn't crit if it switched from a normal basic attack to a Q-empowered attack during wind-up due to Draven catching an axe

BUGFIXFixed a bug where Draven would lose his Spinning Axe if his basic attack switched to a Q-empowered attack during wind-up and was then cancelled due to Draven's target dying the instant the attack would have fired. (This fix went out in 8.19. Did you notice?)

Ezreal

W damage increased late.

Ez's new W isn't packing as much of a punch as we'd like.

W - Essence Flux

BASE DAMAGE75/120/165/210/255 ⇒ 75/125/175/225/275

Bugfixes

KEEP MOVINGDouble-pressing Ezreal's abilities no longer cancels movement commands

Irelia

Movement speed reduced.

This should push Irelia to rely more on Bladesurge's mobility to maneuver through a fight.

Base stats

MOVEMENT SPEED340 ⇒ 335

Ivern

Movement speed increased. E shield increased. W on-hit damage increased early.

Ivern's weak state isn't the result of any one particularly glaring shortcoming, so we're buffing him up along a few vectors to make him better across a variety of situations.

Base stats

MOVEMENT SPEED325 ⇒ 330

W - Brushmaker

ON-HIT DAMAGE20/30/40/50/60 (+0.3 ability power) ⇒30/37.5/45/52.5/60 (+0.3 ability power)

E - Triggerseed

SHIELD75/110/145/180/215 ⇒ 80/115/150/185/220

Kai'Sa

Passive proc scaling decreased. Ultimate shield duration decreased.

Shrinking AP Kai'Sa's tank shredding sharpens the tradeoffs she makes for investing in more AP than she needs to evolve W, while shortening Killer Instinct's shield duration means enemies can unload their burst damage a little sooner after the Daughter of the Void dives into range.

Passive - Second Skin

PROC DAMAGE15% (+3.75% per 100 ability power) target's missing health⇒ 15% (+2.5% per 100 ability power) target's missing health

R - Killer Instinct

SHIELD DURATION3 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Karma

W root duration increased early.

For how much risk Karma puts herself in to make aggressive early-game plays with Focused Resolve's root, the payoff could be higher.

W - Focused Resolve

ROOT DURATION1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds ⇒ 1.4/1.55/1.7/1.85/2 seconds

EMPOWERED DURATION BONUS+0.5/0.75/1/1.25 seconds at Mantra ranks 1-4 (unchanged)

Karthus

W cooldown and cost decreased. R cost decreased.

Wall of Pain is Karthus's best tool for setting up trades in lane, and a lower cooldown will help him keep enemies dancing. From there, lower mana costs give Karthus a bit more freedom with his item choices without being as punished for going light on mana. (Yes, we're aware Requiem doesn't cost mana while Karthus is in passive.)

W - Wall of Pain

COOLDOWN18 seconds ⇒ 15 seconds

COST100 mana ⇒ 70 mana

R - Requiem

COST150/175/200 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks

Nunu & Willump

Bugfixin' and rescriptin'.

We've recoded Nunu & Willumps's abilities to address a number of bugs, particularly with Biggest Snowball Ever!. While your overall experience shouldn't be drastically different, there are a few improvements worth noting.

Passive - Call of the Freljord

FOLLOW THROUGHNunu & Willump's basic attack no longer cancels if Call of the Freljord expires during the attack's wind-up

Q - Consume

BROKEN TOOTHNunu no longer heals if Consume is blocked by a spell shield

W - Biggest Snowball Ever!

(SNOW)DRIFTSnowball hitbox and steering controls updated to make using W smoother and fix various bugs around the snowball colliding (or not) with stuff

SQUISHRolling into small pets (ex. Shaco boxes, Yorick Mistwalkers) no longer causes the snowball to explode

R - Absolute Zero

CONSISTENCYFixed a bug causing Absolute Zero's damage and slow to sometimes be slightly off at full channel

Zac

Q damage increased.

Extra oomph on Stretching Strikes helps Zac's early clear (looking at you, Scuttles) as well as making it more effective for builds that max Q second. (Reminder: This buff is twice as big as it looks since Zac either slaps the same enemy twice or smashes them into a second enemy.)

Q - Stretching Strikes

BASE DAMAGE30/40/50/60/70 ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100

Zoe

Q damage increased late. E cooldown decreased late.

Zoe's been in a rough spot for a while—particularly at average skill levels—due to the nerfs we made a while back when addressing the frustration of playing against her. At that time, we said Zoe should deal less damage when she doesn't land her skillshots. So we're buffing her skillshots this patch.

Q - Paddle Star

BASE DAMAGE50/75/100/125/150 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170

E - Sleepy Trouble Bubble

COOLDOWN16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds ⇒ 16/15/14/13/12 seconds

Gragas Audio Clarity Updates

Audio for Gragas's base skin and skins that use base SFX has been updated, with an ~~eye~~ ear toward improved clarity!

BASIC ATTACKSAudio now changes based on whether Gragas hits stone, wood, metal, or people

Q - BARREL ROLLNew audio on barrel roll and when max charge state is reached

W - DRUNKEN RAGEActivation audio is clearer

E - BODY SLAMCollision audio updated

R - EXPLOSIVE CASKOn-cast audio clarity improved

Camouflage

We're shipping a few improvements to how camouflage (the stealth where nearby enemy champs can see you) works behind the scenes. You shouldn't notice any difference for the most part, but there's one big exception. As part of our cleanup work, turrets no longer block line of sight, since they don't block line of sight for anything else.

CAN'T HIDETurrets no longer block line of sight for camouflage abilities, meaning if a camo'd enemy champ is on the other side of a turret from you, you'll now be able to see them if they're in range.

AFFECTED ABILITIESEvelynn's Passive - Demon Shade, Rengar's R - Thrill of the Hunt, Pyke's W - Ghostwater Dive, and Twitch's Q - Ambush

Items

Edge of Night

Costs less. Veil channel time decreased.

Shortening Edge of Night's channel time creates more opportunities for users to capitalize on an opportunity or react to a well-spotted gank, and we're tossing in a cost reduction to sweeten the deal.

COST3100 gold (725 gold combine cost) ⇒ 3000 gold (625 gold combine cost)

VEIL CHANNEL TIME1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second

Essence Reaver

Costs less.

A lower price point won't massively widen the number of champs who want to pick up an Essence Reaver, but it'll help ER builds compete with other options.

COST3200 gold (450 gold combine cost) ⇒ 3000 gold (250 gold combine cost)

On My Way Ping Audio

We've updated the audio for OMW pings to include two new pieces of information!

WHERE ARE YOUOMW ping audio processing now indicates the distance between the ping and the player who pinged. The further away the player is from their ping, the more muffled and slightly delayed the audio will be.

WHERE AM IOMW ping volume indicates now the distance between the ping and you, the listener

HUD Font Size

Last patch, we put in a change to address two HUD font issues: The way fonts scaled made them slightly blurry (and a little bigger-feeling), and fonts just weren't correctly scaling with HUD size. Though our changes made the HUD “correct,” many of you let us know that the text felt too small in the aftermath. So we're increasing font sizes to bring things to a happy medium between the corrected 8.20 sizes and the ones everyone's been used to.

HUD FONT SIZEIncreased!

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug where, while changing your secondary runes one after another, you could end up changing the same selection twice rather than changing both rune selections
Ziggs' R - Mega Inferno Bomb tooltip now indicates the amount of damage done in the outer ring
Boots of Swiftness now properly reduce the self-slow on Pyke's Q - Bone Skewer
Zyra's plants no longer attempt to target stuff without health bars (ex. Jarvan's flag, Thresh's lantern)
The Surrender countdown bar has been visually restored. Not that you noticed this bug anyway because you'd never surrender, right?
A bunch of other bugfixes sprinkled throughout the rest of the patch notes above!

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following Tales from the Rift skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash!

Bewitching Janna

Count Kledula

Trick or Treat Ekko

The K/DA skins will be released later this patch at the Worlds Season 2018 Event afterparty. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash!

K/DA Ahri

K/DA Akali

K/DA Kai'Sa

K/DA Evelynn

Unlock K/DA Kai'Sa Prestige Edition for 2500 Worlds Tokens later this patch at the Worlds Season 2018 Event afterparty (tokens expire on December 4rd at 07:59 GMT). This is a completely separate skin from K/DA Kai'Sa—you can unlock Prestige Edition without owning the regular skin. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash!