Introduction

Riot giveth and Riot taketh away as Garen and Shaco are both hit with massive nerfbats this patch after last patch's generous buffs. Meanwhile, bot lane and jungle are getting the buff love this time around, both Lulu and Kog'Maw were buffed this patch so expect to see this old synergy come back to life. Check out this quick summary below!

Summary

Buffs: Kog'Maw, Lulu, Maokai, Master Yi, Sona, Viktor, Warwick

Nerfs: Garen, Kayn, Pyke, Shaco

Patch 9.21 notes

BY SHIO SHOUJO

Hi. Happy post-10-year! Did you get to catch the team's stream? We loved getting to answer your questions, play with some of you, and work on fixing some bugs that you outlined on the Boards. Thank you for interacting with us on that very special day.

We hope you enjoyed all the amazing things coming to League of Legends soon, including the preseason changes we've been alluding to for the past couple of patches. The bulk of our time is going into preparing for the Rise of the Elements gameplay update, but some notable work going live this patch includes follow-ups to the champions that received bigger changes in 9.20.

From all the past, present, and future writers of Patch Notes, thank you for making the last 10 years awesome. Here's to another 10 years of dumb jokes, obscure references, and "CTRL+F __, no results?" comments!

Hanna "shio shoujo" Woo

Patch Highlights

Bewitching Miss Fortune, Count Kassadin, and Witch's Brew Blitzcrank will be available on October 24, 2019.

Champions

Garen

E base damage per spin decreased.

Nerfing Garen after his changes in 9.20. While this change might look large, we've kept the ratios the same, so it shouldn’t feel like a huge nerf.

E - Judgment

BASE DAMAGE PER SPIN8/12/16/20/24 ⇒ 4/8/12/16/20

DAMAGE RATIO PER SPIN0-8.2 (levels 1-18) (+32/34/36/38/40% attack damage) (unchanged)

Kayn

Q damage increased; Rhaast's modified damage ratio increased; bonus damage to monsters decreased.

Both of Kayn's forms are underperforming right now, so we're adjusting his damage to give him a bit more oomph against champions, regardless of which form you choose.

Q - Reaping Slash

DAMAGE60/80/100/120/140 ⇒ 75/95/115/135/155

RHAAST MODIFIED DAMAGE0.5 total attack damage ⇒ 0.55 total attack damage

BONUS DAMAGE TO MONSTERS55 ⇒ 40

Kog'Maw

Base stats rounded up. Q and E base damage increased.

Right now, Kog'Maw's E does not feel rewarding to cast, even when it lands successfully. Rather than decreasing the costs on his E's or other abilities' early ranks, we're upping their value so that Kog'Maw’s kit still has a risk vs reward element.

Base Stats

Roundin'

MANA322.22 ⇒ 325

MANA REGEN8.676 ⇒ 8.75

Q - Caustic Spittle

BASE DAMAGE80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 90/140/190/240/290

E - Void Ooze

BASE DAMAGE60/105/150/195/240 ⇒ 75/120/165/210/255

Lulu

E shield and damage increased later.

Lulu's transition into the mid-game could be better. We want Pix to offer more to fights and for players to make choices that are more worthwhile as Lulu scales.

E - Help, Pix!

SHIELD80/115/150/185/220 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240

DAMAGE80/110/140/170/200 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240

Maokai

W cost flattened; damage increased. R root duration increased.

Maokai is underperforming across all levels of play and needs some help to keep up with his would-be lumberjacks.

Q - Bramble Smash

BUGFIXMaokai will no longer damage nearby targets if he's begun casting Q - Bramble Smash right before dying

W - Twisted Advance

COST60/65/70/75/80 ⇒ 60 at all levels

DAMAGE50/75/100/125/150 ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170

R - Nature's Grasp

ROOT DURATION0.6-2.4 seconds (based on distance traveled) ⇒ 0.8-2.6 seconds (based on distance traveled)

Master Yi

Phantom Hits now proc Double Strike and apply Double Strike stacks.

Passive - Double Strike

PHANTOM HIT BUGFIXMaster Yi's Phantom Hits (from Guinsoo's Rageblade) will now properly proc Double Strike and apply Double Strike stacks

Pyke

Base health growth decreased. Passive Grey Health from damage decreased.

When Pyke gets ahead, he takes advantage of the situation without any real risk, killing off folks left and right and becoming near-impossible to take down. He should still have trouble escaping after an assassination, even if he's doing very well. And if he makes a second pass at a kill, he shouldn't be at near full life.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH100 ⇒ 90

Passive - Gift of the Drowned Ones

GREY HEALTH30-81% (levels 1-18) of the damage he takes from enemy champions ⇒ 25-50% (levels 1-18) of the damage he takes from enemy champions

Shaco

W box duration decreased.

Shaco landed in a strong spot after 9.20, so we're doing some light touch-ups to address specific concerns about his lane presence and early jungle power.

W - Jack In The Box

BOX DURATION60 seconds ⇒ 40 seconds

Sona

Follow-up QoL change and passive bugfix for the adult woman.

General

RESOURCE BARWhen her Passive - Power Chord is ready, Sona's resource bar will now change color based on her current active aura

PASSIVE BUGFIXSona's abilities no longer fail to generate Passive - Power Chord stacks immediately after an empowered attack

Viktor

Base stats rounded up. Q damage increased.

Viktor is a little weaker than we expected after the changes last patch. We're going light on the follow-up, since we know people are still getting accustomed to him. We're also including a bugfix that already happened in a mid-patch update in 9.20, since we weren't able to widely message it out at the time!

Base Stats

Roundin'

HEALTH528.04 ⇒ 530

ATTACK DAMAGE52.04 ⇒ 53

ARMOR22.72 ⇒ 23

Q - Siphon Power

DAMAGE50/65/80/95/110 ⇒ 60/75/90/105/120

BUGFIXNow properly buffs Viktor's shield when augmented

W - Gravity Field

SFX BUGFIXGravity Field's SFX is no longer noticeably louder when using it against more than one enemy

Warwick

Q damage ratio increased later. W bonus attack speed increased.

Warwick is falling behind the pack, especially when he maxes his Q before his W. We want him to still have the option of maxing out one over the other based on the situation, but they should both be on a more equal footing.

Q - Jaws of the Beast

DAMAGE RATIO6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of the target's maximum health ⇒ 6/7/8/9/10% of the target's maximum health

W - Blood Hunt

BONUS ATTACK SPEED 50/65/80/95/110% upon attacking a Blood Hunted target or an enemy unit below 50% of their maximum health ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110% upon attacking a Blood Hunted target or an enemy unit below 50% of their maximum health

Bugfixes

When Kindred casts W - Wolf's Frenzy, Wolf now properly attacks enemies in range when she is not attacking anything
When walking over a Rift Scuttler Speed Shrine, champions will now have a Revealed Eyes marker over them
Enemies spotted by Ashe's E - Hawkshot will no longer have the vision Eyes above their heads until the end of the game
Qiyana's R - Supreme Display of Talent VFX no longer desynchronize with its effects and they properly follow the outline around terrain all the way through from the enemies' perspective if it is cast in Fog of War
Heimerdinger's R - UPGRADE!!!'s tooltip no longer mentions that his E - CH-3X Lightning Grenade's slow is improved to 80%
Only champions can pick up Eye of the Herald. Dashing as Yasuo through it with R - Last Breath or having the living shadow from Shadow Assassin Kayn's W - Blade's Reach stand on it will no longer have those non-champion entities pick it up
When Sylas Hijacks Nidalee's ultimate and uses her Q - Takedown, he'll now properly do damage with it
Aurelion Sol's R - Voice of Light's VFX are no longer globally visible in Fog of War
Neeko can once again select herself to deactivate her disguise, putting it on a 2-second cooldown
Kled will no longer lose his untargetable status when dismounting near turrets/walls