Welcome to the 2023 season of League of Legends!
We hope you’ve been keeping up with the Preseason changes because the new season of League kicks off on January 11, and with it begins the Ranked climb! In this patch we have a few big changes to Ranked (like promos changing from 5 to 3 games), so make sure to check out the full Competitive section down below. In other news, we have some Preseason balance followup, a Jax midscope update, a Mythic shop rotation, and an adjustment to the refund token system included in this week's notes.
Thanks for playing with us in 2023 and happy climbing!
13.1 brings the first balance patch for TFT's new set, Monsters Attack!, but it also brings their first-ever temporary game mode, a Lunar Gala event, and much more that you can read about with the TFT patch notes here!
Midscope update. All abilities adjusted.
Jax’s midscope update is on the smaller side compared to our previous onces. Overall, we like his simpler gameplay and kit, but we felt there was room to make his ultimate ability more interesting. Additionally, we’ve shifted his AP ratios around to buff up his burstier AP playstyle that’s seen play in the past. All of that said, unfortunately Jax still doesn’t have a real weapon…
Passive damage decreased. E increased healing from R decreased. R bonus movement speed decreased.
Aatrox has been bringing death to the top lane for a while now, and with Preseason shipped and the new season kicking off, now is a great time to address his strong presence in top. We’re tapping down his damage, healing, and move speed which should help bring the Darkin more in line with other top laners.
Base health decreased. Armor growth decreased. E bonus attack damage decreased.
Since his changes in the last patch, Dr. Mundo has been going where he pleases (top and jungle) and performing quite well there. Now that our changes have succeeded in pumping up Mundo’s tank scaling fantasy, we’re looking to reel in his power and avoid any potential malpractice issues…
Passive AD scaling decreased. Q bonus AD scaling decreased.
Since the durability and tank item updates, our premiere anti-tank skirmisher has been eating well. Her bonus-AD-hungry kit has better options against all foes with the new Ravenous Hydra. As the stars have aligned for Fiora’s success, we need to tap down the AD scaling on both her anti-tank and generic damage. Champions who can do too much of both can veer into the territory of becoming too strong, but we do want her to maintain her unique kit. Our eyes will be on the Grand Duelist to monitor these changes.
Base AD increased. Q (Hammer Form) base damage increased. W (Hammer Form) damage increased.
Jayce has been keeping his distance recently. Mostly because he’s always in his cannon form due to its many advantages over the weaker hammer form. In order to help balance out his stances we’re buffing up the hammer form to give Jayce the opportunity to have more of those cool Arcane fight scenes.
Base movement speed decreased. Passive base damage decreased. W physical damage decreased.
As players have become more comfortable and skilled on K’Sante he’s started becoming strong, which is par for the course. However, combined with his last buffs this pushed him a little too far in high skill brackets of play. We’re bringing his power down a notch before he starts to become particularly problematic.
Health growth increased. Q slow increased. W cooldown decreased.
Lissandra has been underperforming across different skill brackets and lacking excitement for a while now. We’re making a few changes that should help her get more involved in fights, increase overall utility, and also synergize with her close combat style of play.
Base AD decreased, base health decreased. W calculations adjusted, flat armor decreased, armor scaling decreased.
Like Amumu and the jungle companions, Rammus found a new friend in Preseason by the name of Jak’Sho the Protean. The current synergy between Rammus’ W and Jak’Sho is being adjusted so that the two interact more cleanly with one another, but this should be roughly neutral. That said, Rammus is a bit too strong right now, so we are baking in a small nerf to his overall durability.
Q mana cost decreased, backstab damage increased. E AD ratio increased.
Famously (or infamously), Shaco has quite a few builds he can kill you with, his AD build has fallen pretty low in terms of effectiveness. In this patch, we’re increasing its burst a little to keep it a viable build option. On top of that, we’re also bringing Q’s mana cost down which should help since AD Shaco doesn’t build any mana items. Really, we just want to see more of the clown in the game. All right, now you can go check out the changes.
Base Health increased. Q full charge damage increased.
Our 12.23 buffs to Sion undershot our goals, partially due to the Q buff only affecting snapcasts of the ability. This round we’ll be buffing up fully charged Qs as well as increasing base durability to help give Sion the boost he needs to be more competitive.
Q cooldown now decreases with rank. W Blue Card and Red Card AP ratios increased.
It’s been a long time since we last buffed TF and even then he hasn’t been lucky enough to be drawn in Solo Queue or Pro Play. We’re giving him a bit more freedom to let his cards fly wildly while putting a bit more oomph behind his Red and Blue cards so he can leave his opponents looking more black and blue.
Base attack speed and attack speed ratio increased.
Xayah isn't quite up to snuff compared to other marksmen and her attack-focused builds are weaker than more casting-centric ones. A moderate increase to her overall attack speed should help with both of those issues and help Xayah find her wings in the bot lane.
Q base damage decreased.
Yuumi is still terrorizing higher skill brackets of play leading to her current ban rate being higher than we’d like. In order to help get Yuumi out of the picture while we rework her, we’re tagging her Q with some pretty significant nerfs to reduce her powerful poke and make her less frustrating to play against.
Attack Damage growth decreased. Q base damage decreased.
Zeri's rework has succeeded in shifting her to a new and healthier play pattern, but she’s been a bit strong in higher brackets of play since her changes in 12.23. Her shorter range brought in many new avenues of counterplay early in the game which was one of our major goals, but she's still a bit too consistent of a DPS threat at her three item power spike. As follow up to her changes in the last patch, we’re toning down her scaling damage a bit and hitting her favorite cat so Zeri is a bit less scary of a carry.
Axiom Arc is a cool item but really only has one core user in Nocturne (and we love him for it). With a buff aimed at assassins, we hope that more players will be casting more ultimates so they can ultimately complete their anime protagonist arc.
Horizon Focus doesn't receive too much attention outside of a few artillery mages… and it's not even that great on them. With enough Ability Power to now match Shadowflame, maybe you'll tell the shopkeeper, "Bring me the Horizon Focus!" To which they'll reply, "That's the spirit!"
Jak'Sho has landed as a solid core item for tanks, however it’s also been quite potent on fighters. We’re ok with fighters sometimes purchasing the item when they want to lean more into durability over damage. But we don’t think it should dominate all the other Mythic choices they have, and right now it's close to doing just that. We're shifting the ratios on Jak'Sho to better incentivize additional defensive purchases and make it a worse one-stop shop for durability in fighter builds.
Rod of Ages is still a bit weak after having its cost buffed and is missing the mark a bit when it comes to that classic RoA experience we all love and remember. We’re shipping some small buffs this patch aimed at the item's immediate power spike as a stat stick while also making the Move Speed more noticeable and effective. We’re also making adjustments to the Eternity passive as it's currently skewing too far towards taking damage (and restoring mana) versus casting spells (and healing).
While functional, the current version of Seraph's Embrace hasn't been hitting the mark in terms of excitement and impact. With RoA and Catalyst returning, the healing effect has now become redundant. We tested a few iterations of this item in Preseason that didn’t feel quite right leading to the changes being delayed, so we’re excited to have reached a version we’re more confident in for live. We're shifting Archangel’s back towards a high AP scaling item with a defensive option to help mages have a little more room for error in the late game.
With the avalanche of new and updated Preseason tank items, Winter's Approach has lost its place among the Legendary items (which is a shame because winter finally came). We're reverting some of our nerfs from last year so that Winter's Approach stands out more as the mana/health stacking second item.
In its current state, Legend: Tenacity is a legendary source of Tenacity in the game. Especially when it comes to fighters where it’s the optimal rune in its row when running standard keystones. Currently champions are taking this rune into CC-reliant matchups as a way to avoid Merc Treads and invest into other stats. That, combined with the fact that Legend:Tenacity far surpasses Unflinching in terms of power meant that this rune needed a sizable amount of power removed from it.
The 12.23 ARAM changes shook up the Howling Abyss and we hope you enjoyed testing them out in our first ever ARAM Clash! We're currently evaluating the tower rubble and other new changes, but for now will be focusing on addressing more immediate balance concerns this patch.
The ARAM nerfs in this patch will primarily be to juggernauts and assassins, who are dominating the Howling Abyss at the moment. Many were given extra power to help them in the previous iteration of ARAM, so now that the map has changed we're reducing some of that extra power.
Season 2023 - Split 1 begins with the release of Patch 13.1 in your region! Ranks have been reset, hit the Rift in Ranked Solo/Duo or Ranked Flex to begin your climb!
We’re making some changes to how refunds work in League of Legends. For starters, every player should have their refund tokens refreshed up to the maximum amount of 3 to start off 2023. In the past, the complexity associated with maintaining this system has led to delays in the annual refresh, so we’ve opted to bring the entire League community up to 3 tokens.
However, due to the aforementioned complexity, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove refund tokens entirely later this year in patch 13.11. This will bring the refund policy in line with our other games, removing the need to maintain an older system just for League. As a result, the base refund policy will shift in patch 13.11 as well. Unused, eligible content will be refundable for up to 14 days from purchase. More detailed information around content eligibility, what constitutes “used content,” and special edge cases can be found on our support site. To recap, the tokens will disappear in patch 13.11 if not used by that date and the refund policy will adjust at the same time. Until then, you can continue to use the tokens as they have operated in the past. We will provide more information and reminders as patch 13.11 draws closer.
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: