Welcome to Portals - Remastered!
13.20 is packed full of balance changes, reworks, and an early appearance of our latest For Fun Patch invention that’ll remaster your favorite Portals (and The Sump and Stillwater Hold) by combining all their effects AT THE SAME TIME! If you wanna read up on why the team makes these For Fun Patches, check out this conversation with the creator of Runeterra Reforged’s For Fun Patch (Philip), the dynamic duo (Alex and Mort), and the most handsome man in gaming. And if that wasn’t enough, we also have the fluffiest, most cuddly Tactician of all time, Fluft of Poros, making an avalanche on the Convergence with their finisher animation.
OCTOBER 12TH
13.20 brought ambitious reworks and a large amount of buffs to ensure a multitude of new comps could have their chance in the meta. But we missed the mark, overshooting the power of the reworked Multicaster comp and failing to nerf Nilah’s power ceiling which became higher with the Nilah / Sejuani comp’s discovery, and nerfs to other meta comps. And here we are a bit over 24 hours later with a few solves to apply.
TRAITS
Multicaster was the big winner of 13.20. The trait is providing too much power at 4, with the effectiveness of the repeat cast, but we’re also looking at their core carry that has benefited from the increased power of the trait the most (Twisted Fate).
UNITS
Nilah’s rise through the ranks after the popular Nilah / Sejuani comp’s discovery over the weekend. Our nerfs are focusing on lowering the power of Nilah with extra range (read Rapid Firecannon), who benefits the most from the cleave damage as it hits even more enemies. Ranged Nilah can also take advantage of the ramping attack speed from safety, so reducing that will also disproportionately impact the ranged playstyle. In addition to the change we have below, we’re also nerfing her through an Augment that takes her from being strong, to being straight up wrong (for balance).
We’re also taking this time to sneak in a small buff to Azir, that’ll feel larger as you give him more Attack Speed items.
Our multicaster rework had the intentions of making Sona and Taliyah more viable, but in doing so it also buffed the already-successful Twisted Fate.
AUGMENTS
Scoped Weapons has gone from being one of the least picked Augments in the first half of Runeterra Reforged, to being one of the biggest top four enablers of Horizonbound. The way it breaks weaknesses in champions like Mordekaiser and Nilah, creates a situation where we either have to balance them around access to the Augment, or disable the Augment entirely. We’re not a fan of completely disabling an Augment, but when the alternative is gating the success of Mordekaiser and Nilah behind access to this Augment, the decision is obvious.
Through continued optimization, Demonflare has become more powerful than the parameters of a Gold Augment. We’re taking the ramping damage amp down a notch, but it should continue to be strong when combined with a sustain item.
ITEMS
NORMALS (PORTALS - REMASTERED)
New combination portals can now appear in the voting selection during Normal games only. Enjoy some games with multiple of your favorite portals active at the same time! List below:
FLUFT OF POROS
Legends say this fluft heralds the pororagnarok. Fluft of Poros has their own finisher animation starring an avalanche of cuddly Poros, which is perhaps the best way to receive the news of getting 8th place.
TEAM PLANNER: REMINDERS
We’re introducing a new feature to enhance Team Planner and your roll downs! As a reminder, you can adjust your Team Planner loadout on the fly!
Large, like my love for Fluft of Poros.
TRAITS
We’re flattening out the power curve for Bilgewater to make it appropriately strong as you continue to reach high breakpoints. The Bilgewater 9 buff is focused on the flat cannonball damage, as you’re typically fielding a crew that’s not all capable of utilizing the stored damage dealt percentage.
Multicaster comps have been dependent on hitting 3-star of everything due to the way their trait amplifies the base damage of their spell. Once they’re 3-star, and you have all 4 of them, they’ll be able to one-shot boards, but they often struggle to make it there. To solve these problems we’re doing a few individual champion changes, alongside reworking the trait to have smoother power breakpoints (2/3/4), and a separate lever to give power to non-itemized Multicasters at Multicaster (4) rather than giving them more damage burst.
We expect Mutlicaster (4) reroll to be the best version of the comp and alongside buffs to Twisted Fate and Sona, 2/3 Multicaster can be viable splashes in other comps like Demacia, Bilgewater, and Sorcs. Be sure to try out the reroll verticals and splashes alike and let us know what you think!
Ionia’s Emblem is providing far too much power for it also to contribute to a trait with powerful breakpoints so we’re taking some of its Attack Speed away.
Shurima is struggling at the moment, and their main carry, Azir, is really weak, both in Shurima verticals and Strategist-heavy boards. We’ve got buffs for both of these traits, with our Strategist buffs in the small section focused on empowering the deeper 4 and 5 Strategist.
With Zaun, we’re buffing the Overcharged versions of each chem-mod to ensure all variations of Zaun 4 and 6 are worth chasing!
UNITS: TIER 1
We’re flattening Cho’Gath’s bonus HP on kill across star levels. This will allow him to fit better under the power ceiling of a 1-cost that he’s so often seen bursting through at 3-stars, but this will also help out the lowly 1-star Cho that you play just to hit the Void or Bruiser trait breakpoint.This will also make the difference between hitting that 2-star Cho early versus later a bit smaller.
Orianna is our weakest 1-cost whose single target damage and shielding fail to make her a unit worth fielding outside of being a trait-bot. But unlike Orianna, who gave her heart to her father, we have the heart to give her some buffs that will allow her to cast more frequently via a lower max Mana, and a higher Attack Speed. Maybe one day, she too will get to be an item holder.
UNITS: TIER 2
Taliyah is currently underperforming even in her Double Trouble dream comp. With this buff, we’re not only giving her some compensation damage after our Multicaster rework, but also attempting to make her more playable in both Shurima and Mutlicaster comps.
Sett’s our best 2-cost right now, finding success at the core of our two most dominant comps (Ionia Vanquisher and Ashe Reroll). His utility and tankiness make him a snowball unit to slam items on early, and a consistent frontliner late.
UNITS: TIER 3
Dare-bear (that’s my pet name for Darius btw) has failed to execute as a reroll carry in Horizonbound. With a better AD ratio, he’s not only going to be much stronger with AD items, but also with the Noxus traits.
Nautilus just really wants that Chain Vest and Negatron Cloak that you’ve been giving Cho’Gath this whole time. He’ll do wonders with them, he promises!
Rek’Sai’s weakness is punching through beefy frontliners. While our rework that added the marked system helped her here, it required hitting 3-stars for the Void Burrower to do just that—burrow into the enemy backline. We’re now allowing her marks to persist until the end of combat instead of being consumed on the next bite to help her repeat casts cut through those high Armor Bastions and Thornmail enthusiasts. To account for this added power, and because her 3-star version was already performing well post-rework, we’re lowering her damage ratio on the initial bite especially at 3-stars.
Big things are happening with Multicaster this patch. One of them is the Sona rework, which will sharpen her role as a utility carry who can continually amp your team's Attack Speed! Try positioning her to hit your other Multicasters at Multicaster 4, Etwahl surely be successful.
Editor’s note: Etwahl is the name of Sona’s instrument, but even knowing that will not save the pun above.
UNITS: TIER 4
Aphelios is getting a base AD buff that may not seem worth dancing in the moonlight over, but will certainly put pep in your step for those running Gunner verticals (which greatly amplifies base AD).
Even when in a balanced state, Fiora’s untargetability created frustrating scenarios where you’re forced to helplessly watch your units save their spells for her untargetability window. So we’re cutting out the untargetable window, while giving her a large compensation buff to the rest of her kit since she’ll be significantly more vulnerable!
UNITS: TIER 5
Darkin has always been a great trait, but Aatrox has hardly been able to carry the reputation of his passive trait, let alone his team. We’re shifting some of the power from the Darkin buff into Aatrox to create a world where Aatrox can be your carry, and not just your world ender.
Gangplank's best cases are already powerful but he's too unreliable as a carry. We're reducing the situations where he crashes his ship ineffectively to make his performance and helmsmanship more consistent.
Last patch we introduced a new carry-focused Upgrade for Heimmerdinger called the Refractor Beam. It opened up with more of a fizzle than a beam, with its power only really coming online after three dedicated Upgrades. We’re giving the Upgrade a smoother power curve with an even more powerful triple Upgrade fantasy, so be sure to try it out!
AUGMENTS
As trait linked Augments we’re shipping some significant buffs to Adrenaline Rush (Juggernaut), Defensive Dash (Challenger), and Total Domination (Noxus) which have failed to succeed even when running their verticals.
The Multicaster rework means Multicasters cast fewer times. Increasing the AP per cast on their trait linked Augment, Perfect Repetition, will allow them to reach the same power ceiling as before.
Shurima’s Legacy had an issue where the turret would not stop shooting random people after the player died. Now that’s what I call leaving your legacy on the Convergence, but while staying true to its name, we can’t have Turrets going rogue from beyond the grave.
ITEMS
We’re giving Adaptive Helm a small amount of power, mostly to add to its flavor and further differentiate it from other frontliner items.
Guardbreaker is currently our best item due to the sheer amount of stats it grants and the frequency of shields in Runeterra Reforged, which continually trigger the powerful bonus damage of the item. Instead of taking power from its core counter-shield identity, we’re reducing the Attack Speed it offers, which has been letting users cast far sooner than even Tear-based items like Hand of Justice.
Small, like my Cho’Gath when I’m contested.
REGION PORTALS
Over in Ixaocan, the capital city of Ixtal, Radiant Items come relatively late in the game, often after you’ve committed to a direction. By pairing them with a Reforger, you’ll get one more chance to re-roll them into something more fitting, OR you can use the reforger to pop the items off of your current carry if they have high synergy with the Radiant Item you just got.
TRAITS
Losing Lissandra in the mid-set really hurt Invoker as a vertical, so we’re adding a bit more late game power to keep Invokers and their friends blasting and casting.
UNITS: TIER 1
It's pretty common for fights to wind down and enemies to walk forward, causing Malzahar to miss his cast. This change makes sure that when he casts, he'll basically always hit those targets. This will also make him a bit better at slaying Scuttle Crabs, but don’t worry members of TETSC (Tacticians for the Ethical Treatment of Scuttle Crabs), he’ll still miss occasionally because Scuttle Crabs can dash across the map really quickly.
UNITS: TIER 2
Twisted Fate has recently risen within the meta as a reroll carry. We’re shipping a number of smaller changes here that should make him feel better to play, better accommodate our Multicaster rework, and keep him from stacking the deck too much in his favor.
UNITS: TIER 3
Alongside a smaller AP ratio buff, we’ve fixed a fizzle with Karma’s spell that previously had her seeking the occasionally karmic retribution from those who’ve already kicked the bucket.
UNITS: TIER 4
Xayah was the undoubted winner of patch 13.19, but this statement is especially true for her 3-star version, which was the most powerful 3-star four cost by a long-shot.
UNITS: TIER 5
AUGMENTS
Removing the unluckiest Augment synergy from ever getting a chance to happen.
ITEMS
Variety is the spice of life.
SUPPORT ITEMS
Our Support Items as a whole could use… well, a whole lot of support. We’re taking a pass on the bulk of them to keep their power level equal or similar to that of the Gold Augment they can be found in.
Banshee’s Veil is going to be very strong in melee heavy Challenger comps that greatly benefit from the CC immunity and the new Attack Speed.
We found a bug with Radiant Virtue that, in fixing it, will greatly strengthen the item, so we’re shipping a small compensation nerf. With the bug fix and compensation nerf, Radiant Virtue should be slightly better than it was in the last patch.