Illaoi Buffs

This patch we're treated to buffs on Illaoi coupled by some nerfs on the meta-defining reworked Dark Harvest. As of Patch 8.24, we can finally go back to enjoying some more diverse runes without seeing Dark Harvest Sona players running around everywhere.

Check out the full scope of changes below!

Summary

Buffs: Galio, Heimerdinger, Illaoi

Nerfs: Akali, Camille, Irelia, Jax, Leblanc, Viktor

Patch 8.24 Notes

BY AETHER

Howdy, everyone. It's been two weeks since preseason launched and our immediate focus is to knock down the highest risers. This gives us a better sense of how our changes are settling across the field, which in turn lets us know whether we should help underperformers on a champ-by-champ basis, or whether opting for systemic buffs will bring several up at once. Depending on how 8.24 goes, you may see some of those buffs in an end-of-year "8.24b" balance patch (a patch with no skins or features). There'll be a separate set of patch notes for that, so keep an eye out!

Returning to the present, the last real patch of the year means it's time for Snowdown. Grab your cocoa and your keyboard, and get ready for League's holiday festivities!

Paul "Aether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Champions

Neeko

Neeko, the Curious Chameleon, will appear sometime in patch 8.24! Get a peek with these links:

Neeko

Winter Wonder Neeko

Winter Wonder Neeko Chromas

Aatrox

Q no longer deals bonus damage to monsters.

This mechanic was originally added to let players explore the possibility of jungle Aatrox, which never really took off. Mid Aatrox is now using it in tandem with Smite to create a lead his opponents have no real way to punish, so we're removing it as an unintended lane strength.

Q - The Darkin Blade

REMOVEDMONSTER HATENo longer deals an additional 0.1 attack damage against monsters

Akali

W duration decreased.

We're exploring deeper changes to Akali to address the frustration she causes for opponents independent of whether she's strong or weak. In the meantime, we're reducing Twilight Shroud's duration to be more appropriate for the zoning power it offers when used aggressively.

W - Twilight Shroud

DURATION5/5.5/6/6.5/7 seconds ⇒ 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 seconds

MAX DURATION EXTENSION3 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Camille

Attack speed decreased.

Camille's ability to dodge vision and gank from unusual angles has led to dominance in the jungle. Rather than cut down on her unique strength as a jungler, we're hitting her camp clearing to slow her down a bit in the early game.

Base Stats

BASE ATTACK SPEED0.644 ⇒ 0.625

Galio

Q cost decreased, windblast damage increased, tornado flat damage removed but max health damage increased. E is faster but deals less damage to non-champions. R no longer grants damage reduction or longer knock-up vs enemies in the center.

Galio has consistently seen greater results in coordinated play than anywhere else, due in large part to his ult. We're taking out the team-reliant strengths of Hero's Entrance (plus some waveclear off Justice Punch) and adding strength back into brawlier parts of Galio's kit that solo players can more confidently rely on.

Q - Winds of War

COST70/85/100/115/130 mana ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90 mana

WINDBLAST DAMAGE50/80/110/140/170 (+0.8 ability power) ⇒70/110/150/190/230 (+0.9 ability power)

REMOVEDFLAT TORNADO DAMAGETornado no longer deals 30/40/50/60/70 (+0.6 ability power) flat damage

MAX HEALTH TORNADO DAMAGE0 (+3% per 100 ability power) target's max health ⇒ 6 (+4% per 100 ability power) target's max health

E - Justice Punch

WINDUP BEFORE FORWARD DASH0.45 seconds ⇒ 0.4 seconds

DASH SPEED1900 ⇒ 2300

NEWAIMED TOO HIGHNow deals 50% reduced damage to non-champions

R - Hero's Entrance

REMOVEDDAMAGE REDUCTIONThe targeted ally no longer gains 20/25/30% (+8% per 100 Galio's bonus magic resist) damage reduction

REMOVEDGROUND ZEROEnemies in the center are no longer knocked up longer (now 0.75 second knockup for all enemies hit)

Heimerdinger

Slight buff bugfixes and tooltip fixes.

Turns out Heimerdinger keeps a messy lab. We did some rescripting to the Revered Inventor this patch and found some... imprecisions... in his code. These issues have been resolved—in cases where we had to choose between power-up or power-down, we leaned toward buffs.

Q - H-28G Evolution Turret

COOLDOWN REDUCTIONTurret beam attack cooldown now actually scales with cooldown reduction

TOOLTIPTurret stats have been moved into the expanded tooltip (hold SHIFT). Expanded tooltip now indicates that turret health scales off Heimerdinger's ability power.

W - Hextech Micro-Rockets

TOOLTIPNow states the actual damage rockets deal to minions instead of "60%" (which was lower than actual damage dealt due to additional AP scaling)

UPGRADE!!!'d W - Hextech Rocket Swarm

MAX DAMAGE499/687/862 (+1.83 ability power) ⇒ 503/697.5/892 (+1.83 ability power)

MISSILE 1 DAMAGE135/180/225 (+0.45 ability power) (unchanged)

MISSILE 2,3,4,5 DAMAGE28/39/49 (+0.12 ability power) ⇒ 32/45/58 (+0.12 ability power)

MISSILE 6-20 DAMAGE16.8/23.4/29.4 (+0.06 ability power) ⇒ 16/22.5/29 (+0.06 ability power)

Illaoi

E cooldown decreased early. R cooldown decreased late.

The addition of rune stats gave Illaoi the freedom to spec into Conqueror without eating the inefficiency of attack speed as her path bonus. We're accompanying that stat optimization with some cooldown buffs, bringing Illaoi's ability uptime in line with other top lane fighters. These changes combined will help Illaoi stay in motion and on the offensive.

E - Test of Spirit

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

R - Leap of Faith

COOLDOWN120/105/90 seconds ⇒ 120/95/70 seconds

Irelia

W cooldown increased early, damage reduction reduced, no longer grants passive stack on cast.

We're reducing Irelia's ability to withstand enemy damage so opponents have wider windows to best her in lane, particularly mid mages whose spell rotations tend to fit cleanly inside Defiant Dance's channel time. The last line slows the rate at which Ionian Fervor comes online during skirmishes, reducing the number of trades Irelia wins when responding to enemy aggression rather than prepping her passive and initiating the fight herself.

W - Defiant Dance

COOLDOWN16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

DAMAGE REDUCTION50% ⇒ 40%

REMOVEDON-CAST FERVORCasting Defiant Dance no longer grants a stack of Ionian Fervor (stacks still granted based on enemies hit)

Jax

R on-hit base damage reduced late.

When jungling, Jax falls into the power farming camp with champs like Graves and Shyvana, but boasts much better rank-up scaling than his peers. We're toning down his ult's base damage at ranks 2 and 3 so Jax doesn't diverge as hard from the rest of his pack. He'll still have best-in-class throughput come late game, but not by such a significant margin. This also helps even out Jax's performance across skill levels, as higher-tier matches (where Jax isn't as out of line) end faster than lower-tier matches.

R - Grandmaster's Might

3RD ATTACK ON-HIT DAMAGE100/160/220 ⇒ 100/140/180

LeBlanc

W cooldown increased early.

Preseason's introduction of Dark Harvest was a significant buff to LeBlanc, meaning her preseason strength didn't fall in line the way we had hoped. While this patch's Dark Harvest nerf affects LeBlanc, we're also issuing a direct nerf to push toward a net power-down for the new season. A higher cooldown on Distortion in lane means LeBlanc will have longer windows of vulnerability and ganks will have to be better coordinated with her jungler.

W - Distortion

COOLDOWN14/13/12/11/10 ⇒ 18/16/14/12/10

Viktor

Q base damage decreased, cooldown increased. E ratio increased, cooldown decreased.

We're nerfing top Viktor's harass (which relies on base damage due to lack of AP) and giving power back to his mage build in mid.

Q - Siphon Power

COOLDOWN8/7/6/5/4 seconds ⇒ 9/8/7/6/5 seconds

MISSILE BASE DAMAGE60/80/100/120/140 ⇒ 50/65/80/95/110

E - Death Ray

COOLDOWN13/12/11/10/9 seconds ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

RATIO0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power (Aftershock ratio unchanged)

Skillshot Targeting with Flash

Updated several skillshot targeting interactions when Flash is used mid-cast.

Recent under-the-hood code work has led to a few skillshots not interacting with Flash the way they were intended to.

Skillshot fires toward target position (direction changes)

Ezreal's Q - Mystic Shot (same as pre-update behavior)
Ezreal's W - Essence Flux
Kai'Sa's W - Void Seeker

Skillshot fires in target direction (position changes)

Irelia's R - Vanguard's Edge
Aatrox's W - Infernal Chains

Clone Debuff Visuals

We finally got to doing this while working on Neeko.

WHICH ONE DID I IGNITEIf a champion is affected with a debuff when they create a clone, the clone will now also have that debuff

Animation Updates

More of these updates in patches to come!

ALISTARNew run animation added during E - Trample

FIORANew walk animation added without boots

KARMANew fast run animation added

SHACONew run animation added

VIKTORNew walk animation added without boots (currently base skin only)

VFX and SFX Updates

Anivia

Anivia's attacks and abilities need some audio and visual love to get to current League quality and readability standards.

LOTS OF SFXAnivia's SFX have been cleaned up for her joke, taunt, dance, laugh, death, and idle actions (voiceover unchanged)

BASIC ATTACKNew missile and hit VFX

PASSIVE - REBIRTHGlow VFX increase the closer she is to revival and the hatching moment is more impactful

Q - FLASH FROSTVFX more clearly indicate the hitbox and center zone

W - CRYSTALLIZEUpdated wall model and frosty ground VFX. SFX updated for clarity and icy thematics.

E - FROSTBITEMissile is more distinct from Anivia's basic attack. "Crit" hit is brighter and better defined.

R - GLACIAL STORMFreljord range indicator added. Blizzard VFX improved. New SFX added for when the storm is fully formed and when Glacial Storm deactivates.

BLACKFROST ANIVIAQ and R visuals updated to retain impact of a legendary skin

FESTIVAL QUEEN ANIVIAGold range indicator adjusted to better match hitbox

Dr. Mundo

Dr. Mundo's attacks and abilities need some audio and visual love to get to current League quality and readability standards.

BASIC ATTACKNew trail and hit VFX. New hit SFX.

Q - INFECTED CLEAVERNew trail VFX added. Hit VFX improved. Clearer throw and hit SFX.

W - BURNING AGONYVFX now shows actual area of effect. Enemies are visually set on fire when damaged. Activation SFX is clearer.

E - MASOCHISMNew buff VFX on wrists. Zaun SFX elements added.

R - SADISMInitial burst VFX are bigger. Effect VFX are easier to see and read more as a heal. Zaun SFX elements added.

CORPORATE MUNDOW and R now have "buy/sell" arrow and paper VFX. Basic attacks and Q now have paper/briefcase SFX. W and R have digital SFX. New idle sounds added.

Gragas

Gragas' attacks and abilities need some visual love to get to current League quality and readability standards. (He got some SFX updates a few patches ago!)

BASIC ATTACKNew hit VFX

Q - BARREL ROLLRange indicator and grog VFX more clearly indicate area of effect

W - DRUNKEN RAGEGragas now glows to indicate the damage reduction effect. Bubble VFX reduced.

E - BODY SLAMAdded new dash VFX to indicate area of effect. Hit VFX are more impactful.

R - CASK TOSSGrog and barrel trail VFX improved to indicate area of effect and feel more impactful. VFX and SFX changed to be more distinct from Q.

OKTOBERFESTE pretzel dash VFX (finally!) restored

Renekton

Renekton's attacks and abilities need some audio and visual love to get to current League quality and readability standards. The visual changes are here with 8.24; audio changes are still in the works.

BASIC ATTACKNew hit VFX

PASSIVE - REIGN OF ANGERGlowing hand VFX are more clear when empowered. Eyes now glow red as well.

Q - CULL THE MEEKVFX more clearly indicate area of effect (scaling with R). Pool Party and SKT T1 unempowered casts are recolored.

W - RUTHLESS PREDATORMostly unchanged

E - SLICE AND DICEVFX cleaned up; ground sand added. Empowered cast VFX are much clearer.

R - DOMINUSNew sandstorm and range indicator VFX. Dragonflies changed to scarabs. Outback and Prehistoric use base VFX. Galactic and Bloodfury use recolored base VFX. Rune Wars, Scorched Earth, Pool Party, SKT T1, and Renektoy have unique ult effects.

Teemo

Teemo's attacks and abilities need some visual love to get to current League quality and readability standards.

BASIC ATTACKNew missile and hit VFX

Q - BLINDING DARTMissile is more distinct from Teemo's basic attack; hit VFX improved

W - MOVE QUICKRun trail VFX added with skin-specific effects

E - TOXIC SHOTMissile is more distinct from basic attack and Q

R - NOXIOUS TRAPExplosion now shows actual area of effect. Skin-specific explosion effects added for Astronaut, Cottontail, Super, and Panda skins.

Items

Death's Dance

Healing now works on all damage.

Many AD fighters have sources of magic damage on their kit, such as Jax. This change makes Death's Dance a more attractive option for them to consider without letting it run wild for pure physical damage champs like Riven who already pick it up.

HEALING15% of physical damage dealt (5% per target for area-effect abilities) ⇒ 15% of all damage dealt (5% per target for area-effect abilities)

Eye of the Herald

Can no longer be activated during combat with non-minions.

This is a quality-of-life improvement to stem cases where players reflexively try to use their trinkets (ward-hopping, maintaining vision on an enemy that ran into brush) while they've got Eye of the Herald.

I BLINKEDEye of the Herald now goes on a 3-second cooldown during combat with non-minions

REMOVED

Poacher's Dirk

Effects like the ones on Poacher's Dirk, Mejai's Soulstealer, and Cull are interesting because there's a clear mini-objective you're trying to achieve and opponents can change up their decision-making to deny you the payoff. In this case, unfortunately, both the mini-objective and the payoff are too specific for Poacher's Dirk to be considered in a reasonable number of games. Leaving it in the shop might not harm junglers who know it's not a great option, but it's a trap for newer players who haven't yet learned to skip over it. So, we're saying goodbye to Poacher's Dirk.

REMOVEDRemoved

Runes

Dark Harvest

Base damage decreased. Can't proc off other procs.

We followed up 8.23 with a few quick nerfs to Dark Harvest's damage, and 8.24 brings another. We're shaving off baseline strength, particularly in the early game, to ensure Dark Harvest's performance relies on how effectively its users can stack it up. On that note, we're also making it harder to stack by removing its proc-off-proc cases, which actually makes the premise a bit more clear: If your target's below the threshold beforeyou hit them, you'll get a stack.

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

PROC MODELCan no longer proc off other procs (ex. Scorch, Liandry's Torment) aside from Luden's Echo, whose effect is built to behave like a separate ability

Mid-Patch 8.23 Balance Updates

These changes shipped partway through last patch and are already live!

BASE DAMAGE50-80 (lv 1-18) ⇒ 40-80 (lv 1-18) (overwritten by the new change above)

DAMAGE PER SOUL8 ⇒ 5

ARAM DAMAGE PER SOUL4 ⇒ 2

Jungle

Murkwolf & Raptor Spawn Time

Murkwolves and raptors initially spawn later.

The header says "jungle" but this is really a mid-lane change. Bumping Murkwolf and Raptor spawn up by a few seconds means midlaners who poach a camp will be a little more vulnerable to interference before they get to lane.

FIRST MURKWOLF SPAWN1:29 ⇒ 1:30

FIRST RAPTOR SPAWN1:28 ⇒ 1:30

Nexus Blitz

Nexus Blitz is back for another test run this Snowdown! Stay tuned for more information on when this experimental mode will be available to play.

Non-Summoner's Rift Modes

The new bounty system broke the old bounty system on maps that didn't switch over (i.e. maps that weren't Summoner's Rift). It's fixed now!

Hotkeys

NEW

Extra Champion Interactions

New hotkeys added for champs with additional buttons.

Sometimes you wanna interact with these mini-menus without losing a beat.

CHAMPION-SPECIFIC INTERACTIONSNew hotkeys have been added for champions with extra buttons, like Kindred's hunt bar and Neeko's shapeshift bar. These hotkeys won't do anything for champions without extra actions.

DEFAULT KEYBINDINGSHIFT-F1 through SHIFT-F5

OPTIONS MENUThese new bindings can be changed via Options -> Hotkeys -> Additional Hotkeys -> Abilities and Summoner Spells

Ranked

A swath of Ranked 2019 changes land for preseason testing. Splits, position ranks, and positional matchmaking will come at season start.

Placements

See your rank after just one game.

Placements suck: Deposit ten games into the anxiety box and hope for the best. We fixed that.

JUST ONESee a provisional rank after just one Ranked game. It’s only visible to you until your placements are complete.

ALL THE WAY UPIn your remaining placement games, you earn bonus LP in wins and can’t lose LP

UNLOCKEDAfter your placement games, your rank will be available for all to see

NO RESETThere’s no reset during preseason, so you’ll need to be unranked in a queue to try new placements before season start

Tiers & Divisions

Iron slots in below Bronze, and Grandmaster snuggles in between Master and Challenger. Division V is removed from all tiers.

New tiers make for a smoother climb over the course of the season, and fewer divisions mean fewer promo series.

BOTTOM’S UPIron tier added below Bronze

GRANDILOQUENTGrandmaster tier added between Master and Challenger

RIP MEMESDivision V removed from all tiers

CONGRATSAll players in Division V moved up to Division IV

HELD HORSESAs part of preseason testing for Grandmaster promotions, all players in Master and above will be set to Master tier, 0LP; details here

Ranked Armor

Ranked armor, a new reward, now reflects your current rank across your profile, hovercard, game lobby, and loading screen.

Ranked armor will upgrade as you rack up wins and promote across next year. Your past rank will be reflected in a banner draped off the back of your armor. Details here.

OOH SHINYA new way to show off your current rank now appears on your profile, Ranked dashboard, hovercard, and in-game lobbies

ON MY LEVELSwitch between Ranked and level armor by clicking on your summoner icon

Ranked UI

A clarity pass across the end-of-game screen and the Ranked dashboard includes a variety of changes.

WHAT DID I WINThe end-of-game screen is rejiggered to make your LP gains more clear

PROMO WHENThe Ranked dashboard for Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger now more clearly shows promotion and demotion cutoffs

LOADING SCREENLoading screen borders now reflect your current rank in the selected queue; you can click player cards to see their past rank banner

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug causing Alistar's W - Headbutt to stun his target without displacing them if he cast recall in the middle of his W+Q combo to cancel the combo
Master Yi's basic attack no longer cancels if Passive - Double Strike's stack counter expires mid-attack
Fixed a bug that allowed Varus' allies to detonate W - Blighted Quiver
Fixed a bug causing the audio on Jayce's basic attacks to sometimes be missing
Dark Star Thresh's Q - Death Sentence no longer has classic particles when breaking the chain
Guardian of the Sands Rammus recall SFX are no longer heard globally if Rammus is in vision
Nightbringer and PROJECT: Yasuo's Q - Steel Tempest audio cues have been restored
PROJECT: Vi's recall particles are now timed properly with the animation
K/DA Akali's transition into her slowed animation has been restored
K/DA Akali's R - Perfect Execution SFX volume no longer stacks when hitting multiple targets
Minimized clipping during Praetorian Graves' run animation
Urfwick's empowered recall no longer ignores forced facing/orientation
Pool Party Rek'Sai's recall ground water VFX no longer clip through elevated terrain
Infernal Amumu Ruby Chroma's head flame VFX are now much more visible on all graphics settings
Sad Robot Amumu's W - Despair particles no longer separate and clip through elevated terrain
Restored Pug'Maw E - Void Ooze's self and ally view bubble VFX and enemy view bubbles are now more red
Dragon Trainer Tristana's champion-specific taunt and joke VO lines are now properly synchronized with her animations
Blood Moon Evelynn's left lasher no longer shrinks at the end of her death animation
Shadowfire and Super Galaxy Kindred's models no longer use classic skin textures upon death
Mecha Kha'Zix's W - Void Spike's on-hit VFX are no longer significantly louder than base
Beemo now properly plays his channel animation (ex. when activating Eye of the Herald)
Dragon Master Swain's skin-specific VO has been restored
Pulsefire Ezreal's recall VO has been restored
Tahm Kench's W - Devour SFX have fully been restored