Wind’s changing, better adjust the sails.
Our first full patch after Horizonbound’s release follows up on our large 13.18 mid-patch update. Expect to see a lot of Augment changes, mostly lowering the power of our strongest, alongside buffs to our most struggling traits (I’m talking to you Ixtal) and champions!
Large, like the amount of warmth at the center of a Fluft of Poros.
Bilgewater had its moment during the first couple days of Horizonbound, but our mid-patch update had them hanging out to dry. We’re giving back some of their lost power, but don’t expect this to have them sail into S+ tier once again.
We’re lifting our most struggling elements so that they can rise to boards near you. Ixtal can create powerful combinations by utilizing different units (try Woodland Cho’Gath/Mordekaiser), so we’re not going overboard with element buffs here and instead buffing the two struggling Ixtal units as well.
When hit early, Piltover 3 can be too consistently rewarding, especially with the power of the Piltover units this mid-set. Even with Piltover 3’s success, Piltover 6 fails to hit the mark, especially given how difficult it is to achieve. We’re adjusting the cashout power for Piltover 3, while giving Piltover 6 much more drip econ—go hit those 3-star 5-costs!
Vanquisher as a vertical has been MIA so far. There are variations that work (I have seen success with Ashe reroll just so you know), but as a whole the trait is rarely worth committing fully to. Expect far more crits at Vanquisher 6!
You were doing it, I was doing it, we were all voting for playing reroll Cho’Gath. And that’s okay, but his power level isn’t quite okay, so we’re trimming down his Health scaling ratio to lessen our lovable Void monster’s impact in the late game.
With these Milio buffs, my opponents’ boards are about to get real Messi.
Gunner’s AD% scales off of the unit’s base AD, so by hitting the two strongest Gunners’ base ADs (Jinx here and Jayce later) we nerf the popular reroll Gunner comp that has been so powerful. Due to the way base AD scales with star levels, this nerf targets the most powerful 3-star Jayce/Jinx form of the Gunner comp. Vertical Gunner may still be strong after this nerf, but we don’t want to ruin the comp completely by also hitting the trait.
Even the hand of Noxus could use a hand sometimes. In his go-to vertical comp, Darius is rarely itemized, so we’re giving him a bit more AD, but the true buff will come with our Vanquisher change in the traits section.
As with Jinx, so with Jayce. Also did you know that we have the main characters from Arcane in this set? Talk about a side hustle.
With our Rek’Sai rework, we’re hoping 2-star Rek'Sai will be more useful since the gap between 2 and 3-star is huge right now. The added feature of marked bites allows 2-star Rek'Sai to have enough power to chew through tanks if she bites them multiple times.
I’m sure you’re reading these patch notes and seeing Neeko pop (blossom) up on the buff list alongside the Ixtal trait, and our favorite fireball kicking optimist, and you’re probably thinking, “wow, Ixtal is about to be broken.” Well, unfortunately for the Ixta, the trait needed the lift wildly so, and since the trait’s power isn’t totally bound to its units (you can place anyone on the Hexes), we’ve opted to buff the Elemental Hexes moderately, while also buffing the region’s struggling units.
We’ve fixed a bug with Fiora that prevented her from healing off of damage to shields. Given the amount of shields in Horizonbound, this is a buff, so we’re adding a compensatory nerf.
Princes have always been expected to be diplomatic, but Jarvan IV’s playability with almost any region sets the bar too high for diplomacy and comp flexibility. By lowering his stun duration, we’re hoping he’s less of an instant inclusion in comps that aren’t his go-tos.
Nilah with and without RFC is too large of a power discrepancy to be able to balance with simple number adjustments. So instead, we’re making some adjustments to Nilah’s target prioritization. Instead of always prioritizing a cone with the highest number of units, she will now stop her count at 3 units. This means that without Rapid Firecannon (RFC) she will be mostly unchanged, as there are rarely ever times where she can strike more than 3 units, but with RFC she will no longer pick cones with 5+ enemies to reenact windshield wipers from Hell. With RFC if she's in range of 3 enemies and 2 of them die, she'll need to wait until her next dash to be in position to cleave 3 again.
Aatrox is our most slotted 5-cost, whose flexibility is matched only by the length of his power. Nerfing one of the most useful pieces of his kit (Omnivamp) should make him less of a default include without cutting him down by too much.
Both of Gangplank’s forms are getting a buff. The melee form is able to reapply the burn damage over time more frequently which will make the scaling change from 100% AD per second to 125% AD per second.
Currently, Heimerdinger is a great support unit, without a carry fantasy. The Refractor Beam Upgrade will be a great take when you have AP/Mana items to put on Heimerdinger, and need to pump out the damage.
This is a PSA to play Ixtal Ryze as a frontline tank.
We’re taking a pass on 3-2 and 4-2 (2nd and 3rd) Legend offerings to ensure that they are preferable only as fallback options rather than defaults. When they're default (due to having competitive power with other Augments), games become too similar, so we're aiming to make them slightly weaker than normal Augments, while still useful in situations where you just don’t end up hitting another appealing option.
Teaming Up was breaking our framework for powerful items given at each Augment tier, and it also had too much randomness at the Prismatic level. We temporarily removed Teaming Up I in the last patch because we couldn’t give a Support item in a silver Augment, so we temporarily substituted it with Job’s Done in Legends that contained Teaming Up. After our rework to the Augment package, we’ve realigned them to fit more thematically with the Twisted Fate and Bard Legends you can find them in, while also fitting into our power framework. Try them out!
For such a fun Augment, Endless Hordes has struggled to evoke the power of it’s name. So instead of renaming it to Hordes with Ends, we’re giving each of the Hordes a bit more Health.
With our small rework to Warwick in the mid-set, we’ve seen Ravenous Hunter greatly succeed. We’re nerfing the Augment by lowering the amount of AD and AP Warwick gets from each stack, but by raising the max stacks, this will make it so Warwick will get to the same power level as before, it will just take 10 more attacks/damaging instances.
Despite Bilgewater’s struggle post mid-patch nerf, their trait-linked Augment has proven incredibly powerful. With Bilgewater buffs on the horizon, we’re preemptively Rising Infamy, with exception of its 4-2 (3rd Augment) version which has been struggling due to the nature of drip econ rewards.
Thief’s Gloves has always been more of an offensive item than a defensive one with its crit chance, and with our item rework, that’s even more true. We’re removing a bit of crit chance to open up some power bandwidth, and adding Health to make it a better option for your RNG-enius tank.
Artifact items in general have been a bit too powerful. We’re nerfing the majority of them, while buffing the only odd one out that seems to be struggling (sorry Goldmancer’s Staff).
Unexpectedly so, Obsidian Cleaver has been our best performing Support Item. We’re shipping a decent sized nerf to the teamwide stats it provides, which should keep it in line with other Support options. Chalice of Power, on the other hand, needs a little love to keep that ice cream being so good.
Small, like our time on this planet. Love each other. I love you Kent.
Vertical Juggernaut comps aren’t just for playing The Boss.
When balancing Jhin, there’s always a fine line between preferred power and the sheer number of 4’s we can fit into his kit. 10 less max Mana fits both requirements.
Grand Durand!
Giving Vel’Koz a small nerf to compensate for the Multicaster buffs. I guess you could call this Karmic retribution.
Starting with patch 13.19 our minimum Mac OS requirement will move to 10.13.6. This is a change that will impact a small number of players (roughly 300 total) across both LoL and TFT who will have to update their OS prior to patch 13.19.