Tristana Skin. Tristana's getting a new skin, and you can help decide what it'll be! Champion Update. Riot Games, League of Legends and PvP.net are trademarks, services marks, or registered trademarks of Riot Games, Inc. Patch 9.4 Notes. Conqueror's updated, Urgot's nerfed, and a bunch of champ abilities and animations look better. League of Legends adds two new ranked tiers for 2019 Ben Hill September 20, 2018 1:50 am 0 Riot Games has released a developer diary update detailing the two new ranked tiers for LoL in 2019.
League of Legends’ latest update demonstrates Heroes of the Storm’s influence
When World of Warcraft was at the height of its popularity, a familiar cycle fell into place. A game would rise up, selling itself as a potential replacement to the king of MMOs. There would be one or two features everyone adored, but when a new WoW expansion hit, everyone would immediately jump back on their old paladin or rogue and get back to the grind. The new, shiny MMO would stumble along for a while, eventually falter, and eventually its best ideas would be cannibalized into the next WoW expansion. It was the circle of life.
League of Legends has found itself in a similar cycle, with more MOBAs trying to replicate its success than I can count springing up over the last few years. Precious few of them have survived. Dota 2 has always been its own thing, separate from the League ecosystem. Smite has carved out its own fanbase. And then there’s Heroes of the Storm, the weird game. The for League brought some surprising changes that makes League look a little more like Blizzard’s MOBA.
Heralding the new changes
Heroes of the Storm, the Blizzard All Stars game that puts characters from Overwatch, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo into an arena to clobber it out, has always been an odd duck. It’s taken a decidedly different path than League. Even so, League has recently—similar to the WoW cycle—borrowed a few of Heroes’ successful elements.
For instance, one of the big pulls of Heroes is the way their jungle works. Instead of having one jungler running around and farming mobs for experience and gold like the League model, Heroes encourages the entire team to pitch in and contest jungle objectives. If you take down a camp of neutral baddies, they’ll join your team and happily push down a lane.
The Rift Herald, the mini-baron objective for top laners, is undergoing a change that feels very HotS-inspired. Now, the Herald will drop an Eye, which goes into your inventory. Activating it summons a big, angry Rift Herald to shove down the lane. It’s something that immediately brings Heroes of the Storm to mind, and is one of their most iconic mechanics.
Support items also borrow a little something from Heroes of the Storm: the quest mechanic. In HotS, upon successfully completing a small challenge, like hitting a skillshot or auto attacking while an ability is active, heroes gain quest credit. Once they’ve fulfilled the quest by hitting 10 skillshots or auto attacking 80 times, their ability gets a bonus.
Support items in League will be gaining a similar effect, rewarding successful supports with a little extra late game power and making those early game investments more useful. Quests aren’t as recognizable as a Heroes of the Storm mechanic as the Rift Herald, but it's likely that designers saw the merit in the idea.
A tale of two MOBAs
While League has taken inspiration from a couple of Heroes mechanics, the two games hold distinct identities. League has leaned into being a competitive game of skill, and stands as the MOBA. In a on his Tumblr, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street spoke about some of the things League chooses to focus on: “We hold the laning phase as a sacred part of the game where you get to demonstrate your individual skill with only limited influence from the players in other lanes. We value counterplay as an important design value, and we think it’s harder to provide meaningful counterplay if the enemy champion is doing really, really unusual things (like not leaving base).'
Heroes, on the other hand, has carved out an identity as the MOBA that breaks the rules. There are multiple maps, each with its own objective and layout. Champions have a much greater variation than League, and the extreme cases push the envelope. Ragnaros can become a raid boss in the ruins of a Fort, raining terror down upon the enemy team. Abathur stays in a safe place and controls the battlefield by putting biological hats on his teammates. Murky is a one man army who can quickly regenerate from key points on the map and offers minimal rewards to his killer.
These two paths offer two gameplay experiences, and they’re both valid. Ghostcrawler stresses that the design philosophies between Heroes and League are both important and deserving of respect. But what’s interesting is that Heroes has given up trying to contest League’s dominance; they’re leaning into their niche as the odd MMO with wild heroes and wild map objectives like tactical nukes or shrines that summon giant, fort-punching punishers.
What’s worth keeping?
Ghostcrawler has confirmed that champions like Ivern or Bard are as wild as League is as willing to get: there’ll be no Ragnaroses or Murkies in the future of League. While Heroes often makes headlines for these weird, rule breaking champions, there’s way more to the game than that. In fact, some of the features that HotS has are absolutely worth stealing. While League is adapting for the midseason (and eventually, the preseason), maybe they should consider taking inspiration from the following:
One: A painstaking, multi-step new player on boarding process. Heroes’ new player tutorials makes it nearly impossible to miss out on the game’s core concepts. Right now, entering League of Legends is more difficult.
Two: At the start of each game, champions exchange some banter on the platform. Right now in League, you have to taunt or joke while standing near an appropriate champion to hear those sweet lines of dialogue, and you usually get a skillshot to the face for your trouble.
Three: A little more variety. Sure, League is never going to leave the Summoner’s Rift... but why not take some notes from Heroes and throw in some different announcers? It’s always a refreshing change of pace to go from a pirate shouting at you, to an angel commanding you in the fight against Hell, to a terrified scientist hoping for his survival. While the Rift will always remain the same, why not get some new announcers in the booth?
Ultimately, I’m glad League has chosen to stay the course. We’ll see whether the new Rift Herald and quest mechanics stay in the game, or eventually filter out over the course of months and patches. Competition from other MOBAs makes League of Legends healthier. The developers have a clear vision of the game they want, and can adopt mechanics or ideas that aid them in that quest. We may never get an Abathur-style hero, but we will get tweaks to the old systems we love that hopefully make the game better.
League of Legends patch 9.1 launches on Wednesday, though Season 9 doesn't start until January 23. Players have been waiting since November for the new ranked season to start, desperately practicing their Yasuo and Riven skills so they can get out of Iron IV. This patch is pretty big, with major reworks, champion updates and turret updates that are sure to shake up the meta.
Here are just a few notable changes hidden in the patch notes for 9.1:
When Vayne uses her ultimate, Tumble has its cooldown halved. You still have to shoot before you can Tumble again, but now the nightmare hunter can act like a toddler at gymnastics class who just learned how to roll.
Ornn's teammates can now get multiple upgrades from his Living Forge passage. Combine that with his new MR and armor stats, and buffs across the board, and Ornn will make top lane worthwhile again.
Kalista is getting another rework, let's see if this one sticks.
Nasus gets 12 stacks whenever he kills a large minion, champion or monster. Woof.
You no longer need to be next to a turret when it falls to get extra turret gold.
Here are the full League of Legends 9.1 patch notes for you to look through:
Kalista
Base AD, AD growth, attack speed growth increased; W Oathsworn AD bonus removed. Q damage increased. E deals less damage to epic monsters. When we say 'Kalista,' League vets immediately think 'nerfed because of pro play.' It's been a minute since we've tried to shift her strength toward less team-coordination-dependent power, but we're taking a fresh stab at it here. Kalista's offensive strength is no longer tied to being near her Oathsworn and her ability to turn Rend into a better Smite is greatly diminished. In return, she's gaining a bunch of personal power she can use in any situation.
Base Stats
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE :: 62 >>> 67
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH :: 3.6 >>> 4
ATTACK SPEED GROWTH :: 3.5percent >>> 4 percent
Q - Pierce BASE DAMAGE :: 10/70/130/190/250 >>> 20/85/150/215/280
W - Sentinel
[REM] OATHSWORN EMPOWERMENT :: Kalista no longer gains 5/10/15/20/25 attack damage while her Oathsworn is nearby
E - Rend
[NEW] WEAK GRIP :: Rend now deals 50 percent damage to epic monsters
Ornn
Base durability increased. Ornn's items upgrade at level 13 (2 max); he can upgrade one ally's item per level at level 14+. More upgrades added. Q cost, damage, slow decreased. W doesn't shield but makes Ornn unstoppable. R slow, knockup decreased.
While Ornn doesn't have as lengthy a track record of competitive problems as Kalista, he's similarly shown much stronger results in pro play. He has no losing matchups when strong, making him a safe choice in any comp, and his ult locks enemies down from a distance so allies can clean up the kill without Ornn actually having to do his job as a tank. We're reducing these strengths and investing that power into Ornn's passive. Switching to a free upgrade system gives Ornn a unique ability to jump-start the item scaling for both himself and his team: Rather than delaying progress toward full builds, upgrading an item is now pure upside.
League Of Legends New Update Download
Base Stats
HEALTH GROWTH :: 90 >>> 95
BASE HEALTH REGEN :: 1.4 >>> 1.8
HEALTH REGEN GROWTH :: 0.14 >>> 0.18
ARMOR GROWTH :: 3 >>> 4
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE :: 67 >>> 69
Passive - Living Forge
[NEW] CALLOUSED HANDS :: Ornn now gains 10 percent additional armor and magic resist from items
[NEW] TRADE KNOWLEDGE :: At level 13, any upgradable item Ornn owns or purchases for the rest of the game is upgraded for free (Ornn can have up to two upgraded items)
[NEW] BENEFACTOR :: At each level from 14 onward, Ornn can upgrade one of his ally's upgradable items by getting within 600 range of them and clicking on them (allies can only have one upgraded item)
[REM] PURCHASE ORDER :: Ornn and his allies can no longer pay to upgrade their items
[NEW] ITEMS :: Ornn can upgrade new items! Bonuses listed below:
Frozen Fist
ARMOR :: 65 >>> 95
MANA :: 500 >>> 700
Youmuu's Wraithblade
ATTACK DAMAGE :: 55 >>> 75
LETHALITY :: 18 >>> 25
Might of the Ruined King
ATTACK DAMAGE :: 40 >>> 55
ATTACK SPEED :: 25 percent >>> 40 percent
Luden's Pulse
ABILITY POWER :: 90 >>> 120
MANA :: 600 >>> 850
Q - Volcanic Rupture
COST :: 55 mana >>> 45 mana
BASE DAMAGE :: 20/50/80/110/140 >>> 20/45/70/95/120
SLOW :: 40/45/50/55/60 percent >>> 40 percent at all ranks
W - Bellows Breath
[REM] SHIELD :: No longer shields Ornn for 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.4 bonus armor)(+0.4 bonus magic resist)
[NEW] UNSTOPPABLE :: Ornn is now unstoppable during W
COOLDOWN :: 14 seconds >>> 12 seconds
DURATION :: 1 second (ticks every 0.2 seconds ) >>> 0.75 seconds (ticks every 0.15 seconds)
SELF-SLOW :: 50 percent >>> 35 percent
BRITTLE PROC DAMAGE :: 7 percent-12 percent target's maximum health (levels 1-18) >>> 12 percent-20.5percent target's maximum health (levels 1-18)
E - Searing Charge
COST :: 50 mana at all ranks >>> 35/40/45/50/55 mana
[NEW] JUST A LITTLE LONGER :: If a Q pillar is about to expire when Ornn casts E, it now lasts until Ornn's dash completes
R - Call of the Forge God
FIRST CAST SLOW :: 40/60/80 percent >>> 10 percent scaling up to 40/60/80 percent based on distance traveled
SECOND CAST KNOCKUP :: 1.5 seconds on all enemies hit >>> 1 second on the first enemy hit, 0.5 seconds on enemies hit past the first
Sejuani
Base durability increased. Passive grants fewer stats but lasts longer. Q damage increased. W2
damage increased but slow falls off immediately. E deals more damage but range and stun decreased.
Third in our 'powerful in pro, weak in regular' lineup is Sejuani. The broad angle of approach for these changes is 'reduce crowd control and increase damage' to make Sejuani's success less dependent on ally follow-up (or set-up in the case of melee allies priming E). We're also reducing Frost Armor's massive spike of defenses to extend its duration and give Sejuani more baseline durability. This ties Sejuani's responsibility of soaking damage less to perfectly coordinated teamfight initiation, enabling her to better tank for her team throughout extended combat.
Base Stats HEALTH GROWTH :: 88 >>> 105 BASE ARMOR :: 31 >>> 34
ARMOR GROWTH :: 3 >>> 4.25
BASE MAGIC RESIST :: 27.1 >>> 32.1
MAGIC RESIST GROWTH :: 0.75 >>> 1.25
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH :: 3 >>> 4
Passive - Fury of the North
FROST ARMOR RESISTANCES :: 20/70/120 armor and magic resist (+100 percent total armor and magic resist) >>> 20 armor and magic resist (+25 percent bonus armor and magic resist)
FROST ARMOR LINGER :: 2 seconds >>> 3 seconds
Q - Arctic Assault
BASE DAMAGE :: 60/90/120/150/180 >>> 80/120/160/200/240
W - Winter's Wrath
SECOND HIT BASE DAMAGE :: 30/65/100/135/170 >>> 30/70/110/150/190
SECOND HIT SLOW DURATION :: Normalized to 0.25 seconds (previously, could last slightly longer depending on server timing)
E - Permafrost
STUN DURATION :: 1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 seconds >>> 1 second at all ranks
RANGE :: 850 >>> 600
DAMAGE :: 20/35/50/65/80 >>> 40/80/120/160/200 (Icebreaker damage upon shattering a stunned target unchanged)
Champions
Ashe
E grants assists if enemies were previously unseen.
We're adding some personal reward for Hawkshots that enable Ashe's team to lock down a kill. (The Q change is a quality of life improvement.)
Q - Ranger's Focus
HEY! :: Ability icon border now flashes when Q is castable at max stacks
E - Hawkshot
I HELPED :: Ashe now gains assist credit if a previously-unseen enemy is killed within 10 seconds of being revealed by Hawkshot
Jinx
W cast time now scales with attack speed.
Helping Zap!'s cast time keep up with Jinx so casting it mid- or late-game doesn't feel like as much of a standstill.
W - Zap!
CAST TIME :: 0.6 seconds >>> 0.6 - 0.4 seconds, based on attack speed (caps at 250 percent bonus attack speed, including bonus from Switcheroo!)
Jayce
Q+E combo can now be buffered.
E - Acceleration Gate
BUFFERING :: If Jayce casts Acceleration Gate during Shock Blast's cast time, he'll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast
Katarina
E teleports immediately; cast time now entirely post-teleport. Hextech Gunblade's active can be buffered.
These changes make Katarina feel more responsive to play without stripping away her opponents' ability to react to her decisions.
E - Shunpo
CAST TIME :: 0.075 seconds before teleporting and 0.075 seconds after teleporting >>> 0.15 seconds after teleporting (Katarina now teleports immediately upon pressing E)
BUFFERING :: Katarina can now buffer Hextech Gunblade's active to fire after Shunpo's cast time completes
League Of Legends New Update S8
Nasus
Q stacks from large kills increased.
We're increasing the reward good Nasus players earn for prioritizing last-hits on big stuff. This doesn't affect stacks from smaller units, so the big dog's gotta land those cannons to make use of this buff. Plus 12!
Q - Siphoning Strike
LARGE KILL STACKS :: 6 per champion, large minion, or large monster kill >>> 12 per champion, large minion, or large monster kill
Sivir
Champion hits don't reduce Q's damage.
Buffing the dream Q that hits all five enemy champions in a teamfight.
Q - Boomerang Blade
DAMAGE FALLOFF :: Hitting an enemy champion no longer decreases Boomerang Blade's damage against subsequent targets (tooltip will be updated in 9.2)
Vayne
Q cooldown reduced while R is active.
This is a spicy buff to Vayne's mid- and late-game team fighting for players who can train enemies down during Final Hour without getting bopped in the process. To the Vaynes of the world: Vaynespotting is still a thing, so be careful not to roll yourself into an early grave. At the same time, don't be skittish—if you Tumble without attacking, you're barely going to get anything from this buff.
R - Final Hour
[NEW] KEEP ROLLIN :: Tumble's cooldown is reduced by 50 percent while Final Hour is active (reminder: Tumble's cooldown doesn't start until Vayne fires the empowered attack)
Xayah
E root duration increased.
We're upping Xayah's unique ability among marksmen to keep enemies where she wants them as she tosses and recalls her feathers.
E - Bladecaller
ROOT DURATION :: 1 second >>> 1.25 seconds
Zyra
Q+W and E+W combos can now be buffered.
W - Rampant Growth
BUFFERING :: If Zyra casts Rampant Growth during Deadly Spines' or Grasping Roots' cast times, she'll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast
Jungle Items
Unenchanted jungle items reduce gold received from minions if their owner has too much minion gold.
When preseason shipped, we pulled out the Monster Hunter gold penalty to see if other changes would naturally discourage gold funneling (higher tradeoff via turret plating, higher risk via minion and monster bounties). Funneling's made a small comeback, so we're adding a new version of Monster Hunter that's more graceful than last season's check on who had the highest CS.
MONSTER HUNTER :: Hunter's Machete, Hunter's Talisman, unenchanted Stalker's Blade, and unenchanted Skirmisher's Sabre now reduce minion gold earned by 10 per minion if their owner's gold from minions is greater than half their gold from monsters
Runes
Hail of Blades
Attack speed bonus higher early; lower late. Attack resets no longer consume a stack.
Part of the reason Hail of Blades historically struggled to find a niche is that if you were a champion who cares about attack speed, you usually wanted to go Precision instead. Rune stats solved this tension but left a second unaddressed: Champions who want to open fights with quick bursts of attacks have reset abilities that overlap with one of Hail's empowered attacks. We're changing Hail of Blades to synergize—rather than compete—with attack resets.
ATTACK SPEED BONUS :: 75-125 percent (levels 1-18) >>> 110 percent at all levels
[NEW] HAILSTORM :: Attacks that benefit from an attack reset (ex. Jax's W - Empower) no longer consume a Hail of Blades stack
Rune Stats
Attack speed rune stat increased.
Even attack speed-focused champs have been taking adaptive force in their the offensive slot, so we're buffing the attack speed rune stat to be more appealing.
ATTACK SPEED RUNE STAT :: 9 percent >>> 10 percent
Celerity
Movement speed bonus multiplier increased.
Celerity's established a stable of frequent users post-update: Hecarim, obviously, but Sivir, Aurelion Sol, and about a dozen more too. A slight buff will help it see situational use in the hands of others.
MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS MULTIPLIER :: 8 percent >>> 10 percent
Shield Bash
Damage increased.
Shield Bash is performing well for tanks thanks to its max health ratio, but we want it to be a good option for other shield users/recipients as well.
DAMAGE :: 4-21 (levels 1-18) >>> 5-30 (levels 1-18)
Turret Assists
Local gold proximity radius on turret takedown increased. Additional radius for assists added.
The gist of these changes is that if you helped secure a turret takedown, you should get gold for doing so, even if you're not right next to it. This'll cover cases like a jungler going back to clearing or a low-health ally recalling in brush while their teammates finish the turret off. It also steepens the tradeoffs of funneling local gold into one player—allies will have to back off earlier to create sufficient distance, meaning the beneficiary will be left more vulnerable for a longer window as they try to solo the turret's remaining health down.
While we were adjusting the local gold ranges, we also slightly expanded the existing radius to handle instances where a teammate is posturing to keep enemies from jumping on the player burning the turret down, rather than damaging the turret themselves.
ASSIST RADIUS :: Champions within 2500 range who assisted in a turret takedown now also count toward local turret gold distribution (including first turret bonus)
PROXIMITY RADIUS :: Champions within ||| 1000 >>> 1200 range of a turret are counted toward local turret gold distribution whether they assisted in the takedown or not
FUN FACT :: Turret plating already worked like this!
REMINDER :: Unlike champion takedowns, there's no 'assist gold' pool created when a turret falls. Local gold is split evenly among eligible allies regardless of who got the takedown.
Ability Ping Improvements
Long-Range Abilities
Pinging these abilities will now let your team know which targets are in range!
Galio's R - Hero's Entrance
Nocturne's R - Paranoia
Pantheon's R - Grand Skyfall
Yasuo's R - Last Breath
Caitlyn's R - Ace in the Hole
Lux's R - Final Spark
Twisted Fate's R2 - Gate
Jhin's W - Deadly Flourish and R - Curtain Call
Ziggs' R - Mega Inferno Bomb
Xerath's R - Rite of the Arcane
Abilities with Detailed Information
These frequently requested ping improvements give teammates more relevant information.
Draven's Passive - Adoration: Current stacks
Heimerdinger's Q - H-28G Evolution Turret: Number of turrets available or time until next turret if none are available
Kassadin's R - Riftwalk: Time until stacks expire if Kassadin is unable to cast Riftwalk due to having too many stacks
Kayn's Passive - The Darkin Scythe: Time until other form is available if Kayn's already unlocked a form
Kog'Maw's R - Living Artillery: Time until stacks expire if Kog'Maw is unable to cast Living Artillery due to having too many stacks
Mordekaiser's R - Children of the Grave: Remaining ghost duration
Nasus's Q - Siphoning Strike: Current stacks
Soraka's W - Astral Infusion: Now indicates when Soraka is unable to cast Astral Infusion due to having too little health
Veigar's Passive - Phenomenal Evil Power: Current stacks
Smite, Challenging Smite & Chilling Smite: Amount of damage dealt to monsters
Ability Icon HUD
We're improving the way the HUD communicates remaining duration for a bunch of abilities, which were previously tracked only via the little icons in your buff bar. The breakdown below was based more on what felt right than on immutable rules, but let us know if there are other abilities you think should get this treatment!
Remaining duration bar Alistar's E - Trample and R - Unbreakable Will Braum's E - Unbreakable Corki's E - Gatling Gun Dr. Mundo's R - Sadism Illaoi's R - Leap of Faith Jax's R - Grandmaster's Might Karthus's Passive - Death Defied Kayle's E - Righteous Fury Master Yi's R - Highlander Miss Fortune's W - Strut Mordekaiser's R - Children of the Grave ghost duration Nasus' R - Fury of the Sands Olaf's W - Vicious Strikes and R - Ragnarok Rammus' Q - Powerball, W - Defensive Ball Curl, and R - Tremors Renekton's R - Dominus Rengar's R - Thrill of the Hunt Shyvana's W - Burnout Singed's R - Insanity Potion Sivir's R - On the Hunt Tristana's Q - Rapid Fire Tryndamere's R - Undying Rage
Twitch's Q - Ambush and R - Spray and Pray
Vayne's Q - Tumble empowered attack window and R - Final Hour duration
Viktor's R - Chaos Storm
Volibear's R - Thunder Claws
Time to recast border Garen's Q - Decisive Strike empowered attack window and movement speed Gragas's Q - Barrel Roll Kassadin's W - Nether Blade empowered attack window Kha'Zix's R - Void Assault LeBlanc's W - Distortion and R - Mimic'd Distortion return window Lux's E - Lucent Singularity Nasus' Q - Siphoning Strike empowered attack window
Renekton's E2 - Dice
Riven's R2 - Wind Slash
Twisted Fate's W - Pick a Card and R2 - Destiny
Volibear's Q - Rolling Thunder empowered attack window and movement speed
Yasuo's Q2 - Steel Tempest
Zed's W - Living Shadow and R - Death Mark return window