Patch 5.16 Notes

Darius

Kicking off our dive into the juggernaut update is the dunkmaster himself, Dario Chopman. Notorious for his blood-fueled multi-kill potential, Darius’ fantasy was just that - a fantasy. In reality, he’d build damage and die before posing a huge threat (often trading his life for a low-priority target), or stack defenses and become the Wet Noodle of Noxus. Tack on the juggernaut’s plight of ‘why pick me over other fighters?’ and Darius is in a pretty rough spot.

Enter Bloodrage.

While not the cure for everything that ails him (It won’t magically give him dashes or a cool haircut), Bloodrage is all about letting Darius realize his ‘pentakill-in-a-china-shop’ fantasy, letting loose on enemies after maxing out his passive. In other words, he’s going to try his hardest to mosh with his opponents (alongside new tools like Decimate’s heal and Apprehend’s slow for staying power), and it’s on them to keep his rampage to a dull roar. We’ve taken down some of his damage before he hits Bloodrage, but once he gets going things start to get pretty crazy.

That’s the gist of Darius’ update. Check below for the nitty-gritty details, and we’ll see you at after you’re done. Technically you could just skip to the next section, but we’d be disappointed. Not mad, just disappointed.

General

Passive - Hemorrhage

Q - Decimate

W - Crippling Strike

E - Apprehend

R - Noxian Guillotine

Garen

Perhaps the least changed of the juggernauts overall, Garen’s always been the iconic ‘white knight’ for League of Legends and not much else. An effective damage dealer and off-tank in his own right, the G-man’s struggled to find a home as anything more than a makeshift assassin, diving backlines in hope of delivering swift justice to anyone holding an Infinity Edge. We really dug that ‘justice’ part, which led us to discovering Garen’s identity - he leads the charge against the most vile scoundrels and makes them pay (and boy, does he never stop talking about it).

Garen’s purpose in-game now matches his job description; protecting the weak both in game and out. His effectiveness as an ‘anti-carry’ extends the whole game long, adapting to your opponent's individual wrongdoings and throwing the rule-book at anyone branded a Villain. Though solo queue may be dark and full of terrors, Garen’s ability to flip the script on hypercarries-gone-godlike means that victory is only ever one ‘DEMACIA!!’ away, no matter how dire the situation.

General

Skarner

Skarner Impaling enemies and dragging them away from their comfort zone is a unique and powerful moment that definitely sets him apart from the cast; the issue is figuring out what he does when kidnapping carries isn’t an option. Seeing how Skarner’s always missing his kind, we went for the 2-for-1 of curing his homesickness and giving him a unique identity by dragging some big ol’ spires from the Crystal Scar and droppin’ em on Summoner’s Rift.

They’re not just for show, however - true to his nature as a diamond-encrusted energy scorpion (what a sentence), Skarner becomes infused with a boatload of combat stats when he’s near them, making him thescorpion to go when it comes to map control. Capturing and controlling these spires becomes a game within itself, denying Skarner’s rampage or letting him gleefully wreck through the jungle like a kid in a crystal store. No matter what position he’s played, Skarner’s dominance over these choke points make him an experience that’s clearly differentiated from other fighters, especially if your team’s goal is snatching all of the neutral objectives you can carry.

General

NEWPassive - Crystal Spires

Q - Crystal Slash

W - Crystalline Exoskeleton

E - Fracture

R - Impale

Mordekaiser

Afraid of divers and assassins? Is your team stacked to the brim with physical damage? Have a penchant for going all-in with your support? Look no further - Mordekaiser’s one of our oldest champions, yet in that time he’s never firmly latched onto a particular role or position that fits him best. He’s just sort of always there, whacking dudes with his mace and stealing their souls. We think that part’s pretty cool, so we’re cranking his damage potential to the skies while optimizing him as the farming half in a duo-lane. We’ll give you a sec to re-read that last bit.

While still serviceable in a solo lane, Mordekaiser’s potential is truly unlocked when he has a buddy to smack folks around with. This doesn’t mean you’ll be building like a traditional marksman would (though feel free to follow your dreams, we’re not here to judge) - thanks to his experience bonus killing minions and Mace of Spades’ earth-shattering damage output, Mord has to worry far less about itemizing traditionally; opting to think less of the item system as ‘which of these give me the most damage’ and instead ‘If i’m guaranteed to wreck anyone i get close to, what items help me get the speed and stickiness to reach them?’

Mordekaiser’s update may not be for everyone, but his ability to shake up a game is undeniable. Toss in the fact that he can now steal the Dragon’s soul as a sieging tool, and bottom-lane Mord sounds more like A Real Thing and less like a Siv HD video. We’ll let y’all feel out how he plays in a duo lane, but don’t be afraid if you never want to go back to traditional lanes again.

P.S. Try double Relic Shield with your support grabbing one too. It’s pretty spicy.

General

Passive - Iron Man

Q - Mace of Spades

NEWW - Harvesters of Sorrow

E - Siphon of Destruction

R - Children of the Grave

Ahri

Since her return to the kitier, mage-ier (still a word) side of things, Ahri's benefitted from a pretty safe laning phase… which then translates to a 'pretty safe' mid and late-game, putting her dangerously close to 'good-in-all-situations.' We don't want to remove Ahri’s flighty spell-casting and all the skill that goes along with her bait-and-assassinate back-and-forth (teasing is kind of her thing), but limiting the amount of free sustain she's able to get - just for shoving minions waves - feels appropriate when maintaining her balance of risk vs. reward.

Passive - Essence Theft

Alistar

Alistar’s been a must-pick in the professional scene for good while thanks to his ability to shine as a primary initiator with his signature Headbutt - > Pulverize combo, which is as time-sensitive to execute as it is to evade. To help even out the playing field for Alistar’s opponents, we’re giving more time to react with any flashes, dashes or other methods of disrupting his Ali-Oop slam-dunk into your entire team.

W - Headbutt

Azir

For a while now, we've been working behind the scenes on a lot of our code-base to find cleaner ways to implement our champion code and improve behaviour for some of our more… complicated (read: buggy) champions. Our first pass at this was our script review for Syndra's E->Q combo back in 5.13. This patch contains the first batches of fixes to Azir, improving the AI for his soldiers. As we move forward, you can expect more updates like these - script refactoring that result in fewer bugs, but not a ton of power shift one way or the other.

Back to Azir. Being one of our more complex champions, the emperor demands a lot of attention - however, balancing him can be costly due to the scripting issues we just talked about. Our intention with the fixes below is to make Azir flow more naturally, thereby removing some unintentional barriers to learning the Emperor.

General

Q - Conquering Sands

W - Arise!

E - Shifting Sands

R - Emperor's Divide

Elise

Well, we did it. Elise is back, and she’s making her presence known through the muffled screams of monsters and junglers alike caught in her web (for about 1.6 seconds, usually). We’re happy with what she’s bringing to teams as a dominant early champion focused on catching out mispositioned prey, only now she’s killing them too quickly; especially the ones that are actually building defensively to try and stop her. We’re specifically targeting Elise’s more target-agnostic damage meaning she’ll need to rely more on her early strengths to transition into closing out games effectively.

Q - Neurotoxin

Kassadin

Kassadin hasn’t been terrorizing games much since he took up Rift-stepping, so we figured it was time to show him some love in the form of supporting his new hobby. While still potent as blinking damage-dealer, Kassadin often falls short due to the somewhat lacking rewards for closing into melee range. We’re liking how a shorter-Ritfwalk’s plays out while skirmishing, so we’re boosting his effectiveness for getting up close and personal.

R - Riftwalk

Kayle

While Kayle's changes in 5.13 were to help her laning and ability to jungle, the introduction of Sated Devourer in the same patch had the effect of cranking Kayle's already-great clear speed all the way up to 11, thanks to the extra chunk of damage she gets between casts of Righteous Fury. We don't want to disproportionately hit solo lane Kayle, so we're taking off… 5 AD.

General

Lee Sin

Lee Sin buffs. This is not a drill.

For professionals, Lee Sin is a perfect champion; a strong contributor at each stage of the game, flexible in item builds and adaptable to almost any scenario. For the average player however, he’s that champion you wish you didn’t see on your team due to the sheer number of games required to reach a certain level of competency.

Because of this, these changes are aimed at raising Lee’s floor (that is to say his ‘basic effectiveness’) rather than his maximum potential and give an edge to those players taking their first steps on the road of Blind-Monasticism. While those same top players will find these useful in certain scenarios, Average Joe Lee Sin should enjoy more fluidity as they climb the ranks.

Passive - Flurry

R - Dragon's Rage

LeBlanc

We still believe that a slower Distortion makes for better counterplay (and a better League overall), but it’s clear we took it too far. So now we’re taking it back. By half. Context.

W - Distortion

R - Mimic: Distortion

Lissandra

Self-casting Lissandra's ultimate is a great option for surviving until another round of cooldowns, but can feel underwhelming in a desperate situation. While some players prefer to delete their enemies inside Frozen Tomb's stun duration, we're adding more nuance to the decision so Liss can feel better about pulling off her 'cooler' ice-block baits.

R - Frozen Tomb

Lucian

Sleek and stylish, Lucian’s another ex-pro pick fallen on hard times. Lightslinger’s ‘spell-weaving’ paradigm gives him a unique flair among marksmen, but hinges upon each spell being innately worth casting. Ever since lopping off Ardent Blaze’s AD ratio, the ability’s felt lackluster, so we’re pumping up its utility alongside some tuning to Lucian’s passive to make his ‘attack-cast-attack’ loop feel even more satisfying.

Passive - Lightslinger

W - Ardent Blaze

Nasus

Despite his infinitely-scaling lategame, the laning phase has never been Nasus' best friend. While we don't want to remove his vulnerability to lane counters, tossing him a bone should help his stacking in certain situations, especially when navigating particularly dense minion waves.

Q - Siphoning Strike

Nami

Between slinging bubbles, chain-heals and squirt-guns, Nami's identity has always been tide to empowering allies with cool water-magic. Surging Tides stood out as her least-appreciable form of enchanting, so we're boosting its super-effectiveness (particularly with AP) when surfing into a teamfight.

Passive - Surging Tides

R - Tidal Wave

Rammus

Primarily a gank-focused jungler, Rammus powerballs into big trouble if he can't convert an advantage off of his first gank or so. We speak a lot about 'fall-back patterns' - a champion's back-up plan if their primary form of expression isn't panning out - and that's what we're buffing here. Translation: while Strong Rammus will most certainly make good use of this buff, it's really Sad Rammus that needs every bit of clear speed to waddle back into a game if things don't work out OK. And that's just OK.

W - Defensive Ball Curl

Rumble

When it comes to game-changers, there are few out there as impactful as The Equalizer - assuming you’re not just using it on a minion wave, knowing it’ll be off cooldown for a big fight anyways. We’re really focusing on separating the good from the great (hey morello) Equalizers with this change, making every ‘zoning’ ult a call-to-action for the enemy team. Good placement will still win fights singlehandedly, but elongating Rumble’s reload-time should keep players asking ‘Is this ult worth it?’ before really committing to the cast.

Important note about the cursor change - while this is a very slight nerf to the ultra-max-range use-case, the adjustment makes it almost impossible to over-shoot someone your cursor was on, as the Equalizer used to always start further ahead of where you intended it to go. This should help players that historically have trouble landing Rumble’s ult (read: everyone) lining it up correctly for the big play.

R - The Equalizer

Tahm Kench

Ol' Tahmmy Two-Coats is still hungry for attention as players continue to adapt to his charms (and appetite), so we're tossing him a few quality-of-life scraps from the kitchen table. These changes are focused on making some of his abilities more forgiving to use - especially when trying to swallow the correct living thing whole.

W - Devour

R - Abyssal Voyage

Teemo

We're still evaluating exactly how 5.15's update to our lord and savior is panning out, but we were already able to identify some places for improvement. It's been cool to see players utilize Noxious Trap's range flexibly for both teamfighting and minefields, but it's clear that Teemo’s traps have lost a lot of peeling power. Given that traps are now half their original duration, we think that there is room to return this safety so that even though Teemo's nest of ‘shrooms is smaller, each one is still an effective tool to be used for planning escape routes.

Passive - Camouflage

R - Noxious Trap

Twitch

We're not aiming to raise the rat's power level massively this patch (as we tend to believe he's not incredibly far-off), but with marksmen as a class feeling unloved as of late, we're continuing to look at playing up the unique aspects of each. Loosening the restriction on Twitch's ability to ambush should force respect from opponents while letting him embrace his stealthy side more often.

We're also cleaning up the numbers on his ultimate, because 36 attack damage is weird to look at. #cleannumbers

Q - Ambush

R - Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat

Viktor

Viktor’s rise to prominence this season has ushered in a new era as the voice of evolution, terrorizing late-games and assisting many a wombo-combo. However, Viktor’s games have turned into an arms-race with few opposing mid-laners able to compete with the raw efficiency and wave-clear that his signature Hex Core brings to the Rift. Without downgrading Viktor too much, we’re refactoring his Hex-assisted power curve to better fit his ideals of evolution and provide opportunities for enemies to halt his rise to glory.

Prototype Hex Core

The Hex Core mk-1

The Hex Core mk-2

Perfect Hex Core

Vel'Koz

Despite his incredible intellect and penchant for disintegration, Vel'Koz is a champion that's never really quite caught on. We're not overhauling anything major in this update; instead, we’re amping up a more of VK’s ‘mathematical’ specialties, no matter what lane he takes.

Q - Plasma Fission

Volibear

Invoking the legendary Ursine 'Thunder-Claws' technique should be a powerful moment for Volibear, but leaves much to be desired as enemies can just bearly escape when channeling. Rather than ditching the cast-time and removing the tradeoff for Voli entirely, we're making it better for him to use in combat (as well as feeling pretty epic) in all situations.

R - Thunder Claws

Zac

It’s not an exaggeration when we say that Zac has the longest non-ultimate initiation range in the game - something we’re stretching to the limit this patch. Boosting Zac’s unique aspects opens up new gank-paths to ambush from while also playing to his nature as the ever-present ‘teamfight-in-a-blob’ he was made to be.

E - Elastic Slingshot

Zed

Rounding out our trio of assassin changes, we have Zed. Similar to Leblanc and Kassadin, we’re happy with the direction, but not the destination. We’re still leaving the swap-timer back in (because counterplay is neato), but tipping the scales back in Zed’s favor.

R - Death Mark

Dead Man's Plate

By the time you’re reading this, Dead Man’s Plate has already been available in-game for a bit (not to mention its tenure as a Black Market pickup), so we’ll make this short. Originally concepted as a juggernaut item before being shipped off to Bilgewater, DMP is a sort of ‘get-out-of-immobility-jail-free’ card for the more sluggish champions out there. It’ll only work once (as you lose all of your momentum upon attacking the target), but for those that care about getting into the fray and don’t worry about getting out, this item is for you.

Singed. That’s basically what we’re saying. Buy this on Singed.

Sterak's Gage

Tired of being told that you’re a ‘melee damage-dealer’ while being blown up at the beginning of a teamfight? Look no further - Sterak’s is here for all your berserking needs. In testing the juggernaut update and identifying problems with the class, we found that there’s a lot of ambient damage in big brawls, and no one catches more of it that they do. While a 5-man Command: Shockwave into committed AoE stacking will still probably wreck your body (and your entire team), buying Sterak’s poses an interesting dilemma for opponents; focus you down or contain you just long enough to deal with your team. You’ll still need to gage how much damage you can take (the thing’s not gonna make you invincible), but Sterak’s is a strong anti-aoe purchase to turn you into the raid boss you always knew you could be.

Before we’re done, important distinction - Sterak’s gives base attack damage, so the attack damage before items. This means it’ll work wonders for total attack damage ratios and things like Sheen and Trinity Force, but won’t snowball your bonus AD ratios (looking at you, Jarvan).

Titanic Hydra

While the Black Cleaver fits its own archetype of spell-casting melee champions rather well, fighters seeking to just bludgeon the hell out of their opponents the old-fashioned way sometimes had issues getting the job done. Replacing lifesteal for health, Titanic Hydra provides a synergistic area-of-effect option for more basic-attack centric brawlers like Trundle and Shyvana to get to clobberin’ when the situation calls for a more defensive build.

Warmog's Armor

At present, Warmog’s is a serviceable option for anti-sieging in the mid-late game, but if there’s a theme with our item changes this patch, it’s sharpening their identities even further. While it’s losing its current passive in exchange, we’ve tripled-down on it’s application as an anti-siege tool by effectively replacing the need to recall and heal for those who invest heavily enough to trigger the health requirement. Warmog’s won’t make you immune to focus fire (Vayne exists), but itdoes allow you to tank javelins, artillery fire, and all manner of poke thrown your way without a scratch on it provided you take a break between beatings. Just don’t forget to flex.

Null-Magic Mantle

Discounts on fighting mages, one step at a time.

Negatron Cloak

We’re practically giving this stuff away.

Abyssal Scepter

Spectre's Cowl

Spirit Visage

Banshee's Veil

Crystalline Bracer’s a neat but underused component, so we’re stickin’ it into more items.

Aegis of the Legion

As it is now, Aegis of the Legion (and Locket, which we’ll get to in a moment) are mandatory against teams with even the slightest penchant for magic damage, due to the ambiguous but powerful nature of it’s health regen aura. Changin’ up the build path and stat-lines to be more attractive to low-income supports, but less generically powerful.

Locket of the Iron Solari

Like we said directly above, we’re sharpening the auras so you’ll still want them when they seem good (vs magic damage teams) but not so powerful as to be ‘good-all-the-time.’ In Locket’s case, we’re taking that sharpening a step further by amping the Solari Shield significantly, but making it much more timing-intensive; perfect at taking the edge off of a Flash + Tibbers, but much less useful against devourers gnawing your face off. Locket’s still an amazing pickup vs double AP and the like, but requires a bit more thought in the moment.

Banner of Command

someone’s gotta keep those baron minions in business

Raptor Cloak

An underrated item, we’re cleaning up the passive to make the play around turrets smoother.

Zz'rot Portal

While an incredibly stat-efficient item already, Zz’rot is often seen more as a ‘gimmick’ and less of the neat strategic pushing tool it should be. A boatload of extra range (is distance measured in boats?) and increased survivability will grant teams seeking alternate forms of pressure a ticking-void-bomb’s worth of siege potential (given that you can protect that gate in the first place).

Failing that, you can always leave it in a lane while fighting your opponents in the jungle - often netting you two objectives at once. Now you’re thinking with portals.

Ohmwrecker

See: Raptor's Cloak.

Glacial Shroud

Shaving off some of the cost to make it an easier lane pick-up. Lookin' great, shroud.

Warden's Mail

By contrast, Warden's has been bulking up. We'll still buy you, even if you cost more.

Frozen Heart

Frozen Heart’s been a statistical outlier for a pretty long time, so we’re lowering its raw cost / power efficiency. You might call us heartless, but we’re pretty sure the item’s still great.

Thornmail

Another major outlier in terms of effectiveness, Thornmail is at its strongest when you can comfortably stack health. While we aren’t rocking that particular boat today (armor + health is kind of always good), we’re tossing in a hook to make the item also scale with armor-stacking, but in a different way. This also creates neat synergies for champions with on-demand armor buffs (like Leona or Rammus) which is pretty OK by us.

Important to note - if for any reason you experience a decrease in armor % (say, a stray black cleaver to the face), Thornmail will ignore that when calculating its damage. Way to be, Thornmail.

Randuin's Omen

Rounding out the ‘ubiquitous armor item’ trio, Randuin’s (much like Frozen Heart and Thornmail) lacks any sort of real focus when deciding why you’d want it over other items. While the stat adjustments should represent a moderate nerf to the item overall, we’re expanding its anti-basic attack theme from just slowing attack speed to ‘Oh God I’m Dying From Crits Please Help.’

Enchantment - Cinderhulk

While no longer the dominant pickup it once was, Cinderhulk is a late-game focused item for a class of champions that already flourish at the end of the game. While this nerfs the 6-item health pools of Cinderhulk users, the boost upon completion represents a stronger mid-game to keep from being totally eclipsed by their Devourer and Runeglaive brethren on the way to full-build.

Righteous Glory

Further differentiating between Catalyst’s different build paths while introducing a trade-off for upgrading Righteous Glory as a first item. The lowered cost should make it easier to upgrade when you want it (and supports don’t mind it getting cheaper), but as a first item Righteous Glory be a tough choice between wanting the initiation power or continued laning safety.