League of Legends news » Patch 9.6 Notes

Patch Highlights

Champions

Kayle

Attack damage growth and attack speed growth decreased. W movement speed ratio decreased. Default adaptive swapped. E and W responsiveness increased.

Kayle is looking quite strong, especially as players learn how to play her, but her W and E can feel awkward since she typically builds a lot of attack speed. We're fixing that as well as buffing up her W to be a better reactive defense in lane (instant haste = easier dodging). To compensate, we're hitting her late game power in ways that make her a bit more item dependent.

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Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3 ⇒ 2.5 ATTACK SPEED GROWTH 2 ⇒ 1.5 DEFAULT ADAPTIVE Ability power ⇒ Attack damage RECOMMENDED ITEMS Updated to include Guinsoo's Rageblade and Blade of the Ruined King

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W - Celestial Blessing

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED RATIO +10% per 100 ability power ⇒ +8% per 100 ability power DELAY Celestial Blessing applies its effects after a 0.25 second delay ⇒ on cast removedPAUSE FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT Kayle no longer disarms herself for ~1 second upon casting Celestial Blessing (could previously be canceled by spamming right-click)

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E - Starfire Spellblade

CAST TIME 0.25 seconds ⇒ Identical to Kayle's basic attack windup BUGFIX The basic attack portion of Starfire Spellblade's attack can now properly crit

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Skin Updates

RIOT KAYLE Updated VFX to be more wee-woo SILVER KAYLE Updated VFX to be more blue da ba dee da ba dye BATTLEBORN KAYLE Updated VFX to be less yellow JUDGMENT KAYLE Updated VFX to be more spooOOO000OOOooky AETHER WING KAYLE Added new death animation and removed robotic VO processing

Neeko

Attack speed growth increased. W no longer procs twice in a row at very high attack speeds.

We’re pulling back a bit on Neeko's mid-patch nerfs, specifically making sure her basic attacks feel good later in the game, regardless of if she’s building attack speed.

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Base Stats

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH 1.5% ⇒ 2.5%

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W - Shapesplitter

BUGFIX No longer procs twice in a row at very high attack speeds

Ornn

W cooldown decreased. Recommended items updated. Ornn can no longer accidentally cancel E and R dashes by upgrading ally items. Q no longer expires if Ornn is mid-dash.

Before his update at the beginning of the year, Ornn was mostly just a lane bully. Now, he's somewhat the opposite: weaker early but powerful late. Given the current level of importance early game strength has relative to late, the surly sheep has room for a buff and some quality of life changes that'll make him feel more satisfying throughout his matches.

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Recommended Items

LOOK AT MY WARES Now lists all Living Forge upgrades BUILD THIS Recommended items updated to be better

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Passive - Living Forge

BUGFIX Ornn players can no longer upgrade ally items mid-dash during E - Searing Charge and R - Call of the Forge God, canceling the dash

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Q - Volcanic Rupture

JUST A LITTLE LONGER If a pillar is about to expire when Ornn casts E - Searing Charge, it now lasts until Ornn's dash completes. For real this time.

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W - Bellows Breath

COOLDOWN 12 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

Urgot

Mana, mana regen growth increased. Passive no longer deals reduced damage to the same target. W shield removed; cost, cooldown, damage reduction decreased; now a permanent toggle at max rank. E now shields; damage and cost increased; cooldown decreased. R range, damage, cast time increased.

We cut Urgie's legs out from under him a couple of patches ago. Thankfully he's got lots of them, so we're confident we can get him back on his feet. We're moving his shield from W to E so we can turn Purge into a permanent toggle late game, letting Urgot become a walking turret that also grinds people up and leaves them to disdainfully bleed to death.

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Base Stats

MANA 300 ⇒ 340 MANA REGEN GROWTH 0.6 ⇒ 0.8

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Passive - Echoing Flames

removedNOT EVEN MY FINAL FORM No longer deals 10% reduced damage to enemies hit in the last 5 seconds, stacking 3 times

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W - Purge

removedSHIELD No longer grants 30/60/90/120/150 (+15% bonus health) shield COST 65 mana ⇒ 40/30/20/10/0 mana COOLDOWN 17/15/13/11/9 ⇒ 12/9/6/3/0 (becomes a toggle at max rank) ON-HIT DAMAGE REDUCTION 66% ⇒ 50%

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E - Disdain

newSHIELD Grants a 60/80/100/120/140 (+1.5 bonus attack damage) (+15% bonus health) shield for 4 seconds DAMAGE 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.5 total attack damage) ⇒ 90/120/150/180/210 (+1.0 bonus attack damage) COOLDOWN 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 14 seconds COST 50 mana ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90 mana

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R - Fear Beyond Death

DEATH BEYOND SIGHT 1600 range ⇒ 2500 range CAST TIME 0.4 seconds ⇒ 0.5 seconds DAMAGE 50/175/300 (+0.5 total attack damage) ⇒ 125/250/375 (+0.5 bonus attack damage)

Simple Changes

Aatrox

Aatrox now pulls targets even when they're untargetable. Passive no longer cancels when reviving.

Bugfixin'.

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General

BUGFIX Buff icons on the buff/debuff bar no longer show up as blank boxes

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W - Infernal Chains

BUGFIX Aatrox now properly pulls targets even if they're untargetable

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R - World Ender

BUGFIX Aatrox's passive is no longer removed when he's reviving

Caitlyn

R damage increased.

We want to encourage more marksman picks at higher skill level so we're buffing a few options toward viability.

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R - Ace in the Hole

DAMAGE 250/475/700 ⇒ 300/525/750

Gnar

W cooldown decreased.

We're working on striking a balance between Gnar and Mega Gnar that doesn't overwhelmingly favor one form. Right now, players are sticking to poking and kiting in his smol form, so we're making his Mega evolution a little more attractive for players to use.

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W - Wallop

COOLDOWN 15/13/11/9/7 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds at all ranks

Hecarim

Q stacks correctly and increases damage.

We're givin' the pony an extended-combat buff to help out his more bruiser-y builds (not the ones where he rushes out of Fog of War to one-shot you).

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Q - Rampage

newANGRY Deals 10% additional damage per stack of Rampage

Ivern

W more quickly empowers Ivern's attacks when he enters brush.

This small change should greatly improve Ivern players' experience with entering a brush.

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W - Brushmaker

QUICKLY NOW More quickly empowers Ivern's attacks when he enters brush

Jayce

Health-related base stats decreased.

Jayce is a little too oppressive in lane, especially in pro play. Players, understandably, love a guy who rocks melee-like base stats along with ranged functionality. We're changing his base stats to be more similar to those of ranged champions, making him more vulnerable early.

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Base Stats

HEALTH 576 ⇒ 560 HEALTH GROWTH 95 ⇒ 90 HEALTH REGEN 7.5 ⇒ 6 HEALTH REGEN GROWTH 0.8 ⇒ 0.6

LeBlanc

Q ratio decreased.

We're removing some raw burst from LeBlanc’s Q so her successes come more from mobility and skillshots rather than a point-and-click button.

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Q - Sigil of Malice

RATIO 0.4 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power

Nautilus

Armor increased. Passive cooldown decreased.

We’re helping Naut out with some added bulk and early game CC. His jungle clear should also benefit from these changes.

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Base Stats

ARMOR 35.5 ⇒ 39

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Passive - Staggering Blow

PER-TARGET COOLDOWN 9/8/7/6 seconds (levels 1/6/11/16) ⇒ 6 seconds at all levels

Rek'Sai

R cooldown increased late; ratio decreased.

We added a lot of reliability to Rek’Sai’s ultimate in 9.4, which has been especially impactful in higher-tier games. We're following up by slightly nerfing its raw strength to make her less of a "must-pick" for junglers across the board.

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R - Void Rush

COOLDOWN 100/80/60 seconds ⇒ 100/90/80 seconds RATIO +2.0 bonus attack damage ⇒ +1.75 bonus attack damage

Shen

Q damage increased.

Giving Shen some power to better battle it out in top lane.

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Q - Twilight Assault

ON-HIT DAMAGE 5/10/15/20/25/30 (levels 1/4/7/10/13/16) ⇒ 10/16/22/28/34/40 (levels 1/4/7/10/13/16)

Sylas

W base heal and heal ratio decreased.

We're continuing tuning on Sylas since if we left him alone, he'd probably stay omni-present in pro play and high tiers. We're hoping to alleviate some of the frustration players are feeling when going up against him by specifically targeting his heal.

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W - Kingslayer

HEAL RATIO 0.45 ability power ⇒ 0.4 ability power EMPOWERED HEAL 200% when Sylas is below 40% health ⇒ 175% when Sylas is below 40% health

Trundle

W attack speed increased.

Helping out Trundle's early game laning and jungling.

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W - Frozen Domain

BONUS ATTACK SPEED 20/40/60/80/100% ⇒ 30/47.5/65/82.5/100%

Xayah

W attack speed increased.

We want to encourage more marksman picks at higher skill level so we're buffing a few options toward viability.

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W - Deadly Plumage

BONUS ATTACK SPEED 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80%

Zoe

E cooldown increased; slow decreased late.

Playing against Zoe can feel overwhelming because of the spamminess of her E and how hard it is to get to safety once you're affected by its slow. We're nerfing Sleepy Trouble Bubble so Zoe's opponents have more room to breathe...

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E - Sleepy Trouble Bubble

COOLDOWN 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 20/18.5/17/15.5/14 seconds SLOW 10/20/30/40/50% ⇒ 10/15/20/25/30%

Items

Tear of the Goddess Line

All Tear items now belong to a Tear item group, with a maximum of 1 allowed.

We told you that we were potentially nerfing Ezreal last patch, and we decided that targeting his Double Tear build was a better solution than directly changing him. We're putting all Tear items into one group so players can't buy more than one Tear of the Goddess (and subsequently, its upgrades). After these changes go into effect, we don't expect Ezreal to stay as super dominant as he has been, but we’ll be keeping an eye on him.

newWE ARE FAMILY If you own Manamune(/Muramana) or Archangel's Staff(/Seraph's Embrace), you're unable to purchase the other (or another Tear of the Goddess)

Brawler's Gloves

STACK AWAY Critical strike is no longer unique

Runes

Minion Dematerializer

Charges and initial cooldown decreased; damage bonuses increased.

This rune has become a pro staple for its ability to clear cannon minions easily and maintain push/wave control. To help other runes compete, we're decreasing the charges on Dematerializer, but we’re also giving it some buffs so it can still be considered useful in other situations.

CHARGES 6 ⇒ 3 BASE DAMAGE BONUS 4% ⇒ 6% ADDITIONAL DAMAGE BONUS 1% ⇒ 3% STARTING COOLDOWN 240 seconds ⇒ 180 seconds

Overheal

Shield conversion decreased early.

Overheal is currently a must-pick with pros on ADCs. We want players to have more flexibility with rune paths, so we're nerfing it so other runes can keep up.

PASSIVE Converts 40-100% (levels 1-18) of excess healing into shielding ⇒ Converts 20-100% (levels 1-18) of excess healing into shielding

Bounties

Minion and monster gold bounties accrue more slowly and decrease if you lose your advantage. Scoreboard numbers no longer include base kill or first blood gold.

We originally tuned minion and monster gold bounties to match the ratio between gold earned from a champion kill and gold added to your bounty: 50 bounty per 150 farm gold advantage matches 100 bounty per kill since 300 is the base kill gold amount. Gold (and experience) aside, however, kills offer more benefits than farming. As a result, minion and monster gold bounties feel too aggressively tuned. We're adjusting their growth rate and mechanics to bring them to a better spot.

(The support item and accompanying team average lines won't significantly change bounty numbers outside of cases where a team is using multiple support items. They just make the system a little more comprehensive.)

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Minion and Monster Gold Bounties

BOUNTY VALUES 50 gold for every 150 ⇒ 200 more minion and monster gold you have over the enemy team's average newLOST ADVANTAGE Minion and monster gold bounties now decrease if you lose your advantage newVALUABLE SUPPORT Support item gold now contributes to minion and monster gold bounties to accurately reflect when someone is farming and also using a support item. Maybe we should start calling them income bounties? ENEMY TEAM AVERAGE Enemy team's total gold from minion and monster kills divided by 4 ⇒ Enemy team's total gold from support items and minion and monster kills divided by 4.3

Many players interpret the gold numbers on the scoreboard as how much additional gold a kill is worth relative to other members of that team—in other words, just the bounty value. Since we added this visualization at the same time as minion and monster gold bounties, it's also created a misconception that farming well immediately makes you worth hundreds more gold to the enemy team. We're adjusting these display numbers to match the way players interpret them.

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Bounty Visualization

VISUALS Scoreboard and chat bounty numbers now only reflect the gold value from bounties. The 300 base kill gold and 150 first blood gold values have been removed from these displays. Actual gold payout on kill unchanged.

Ability Proc Consistency

We've gone through the types of ability procs in the game and fixed a few inconsistencies. Now, the ability procs split into roughly three main categories: on-ability-hit, DoT & AoE, and pet damage. This work is pretty under-the-hood for the most part, but there are three major changes that'll ensure our proc systems feel more consistent moving forward.

First, we've unified all on-ability-hit procs. Now, if something activates an on-ability-hit proc for one thing, it should proc all the other items and runes that do the same thing. This expands the number of abilities that can proc any of these items/runes.

For DoT and AoE effects, many abilities which fall into both camps were previously labeled as either one or the other. We went through and made sure those abilities are now properly marked as both.

Lastly, we're making pets consistent. Moving forward, all pet attacks will share the same proc behavior. Currently, that means that all effects which proc on-ability-hit (ex. Liandry's, Rylai's, Luden's) now proc off all pet attacks too. This opens the door for effects that'll proc on-ability-hit but not on pet attacks (or the other way around), but if we cross that bridge, we'll do so consistently for all pets.

Below is the list of abilities we directly changed to fit into one of these categories:

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Combination DoT & AoE Abilities

Effects that treat DoT and AoE effects differently will go with the more restrictive classification.

• Alistar's E - Trample
• Anivia's R - Glacial Storm
• Fiddlesticks' R - Crowstorm
• Jayce's W - Lightning Field
• Katarina's R - Death Lotus
• Kennen's R - Slicing Maelstrom
• Lucian's R - The Culling
• Miss Fortune's R - Bullet Time
• Mordekaiser's W - Harvester of Sorrow
• Morgana's W - Tormented Shadow
• Nasus's R - Fury of the Sands
• Rammus' R - Tremors
• Renekton's R - Dominus
• Rumble's R - The Equalizer
• Shyvana's W - Burnout
• Vel'Koz's R - Life Form Disintegration Ray
• Wukong's R - Cyclone

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Pets

The pets listed below have been changed to all proc the same effects. (Again, that currently means all on-ability-hit effects.) Quick sidenote: Champion clones aren't pets.

• Elise's Spiderlings
• Shaco's Jack in the Boxes
• Zyra's Plants
• Mordekaiser's Dragon Ghost (also classified as an AoE effect)
• Heimerdinger's Turrets (turret lasers, ult turret shots, and ult turret lasers are classified as AoE effects, too)
• Malzahar's Voidlings (also classified as basic attacks for dodge purposes)
• Yorick's Ghouls (also classified as basic attacks for dodge purposes)
• Annie's Tibbers swipes (also classified as basic attacks for dodge purposes). The fire aura is classified as an ability hit and an AoE effect.
• Ivern's Daisy (also classified as basic attacks for dodge purposes). The big slam is classified as an ability hit and an AoE effect.

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Miscellaneous Changes

VIKTOR'S Q - SIPHON POWER Empowered attack portion now activates on-ability-hit procs < 8000 span class="attribute">GUARDIAN'S HORN (ARAM ITEM) Damage reduction now behaves consistently against all DoT abilities SUMMON: AERY Should now proc consistently off everything except non-ability DoTs such as Corrupting Potion, Scorch, and other items, runes, and buffs YASUO'S Q - STEEL TEMPEST Secondary targets hit are now accounted for by runes YASUO'S E - SWEEPING BLADE TO Q - STEEL TEMPEST Secondary targets hit are now accounted for by runes

Ranked

We turned off Position Ranks in North America and Korea partway through last patch and won't be rolling them out in other regions. We want to thank all the players who tried out the Position Ranks during this time and for submitting feedback to the team.

Looking forward, we'll be partially resetting the top of the ranked ladder when 9.6 releases. As a reminder, here's what this entails:

MASTER+ Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players become Master 0 LP DIAMOND I-III Diamond III, II, and I players are demoted by one division, preserving promotion series progress and LP DIAMOND IV Diamond IV players become Diamond IV 0 LP no matter what DIAMOND I PROMOS For Diamond I players in series, 2 wins or losses become 1 win or loss—for example, 2–2 becomes 1–1 REWARDS You keep rewards, but they’ll match your new rank GRANDMASTER AND CHALLENGER Grandmaster and Challenger lock until March 27 and April 3, respectively

Here are a few other changes too!

BUGFIX Fixed a bug that caused players in Platinum to be subject to LP decay TUNING Players who choose mid as their primary position will get it more often

High-End Framerate Cap

We've seen reports of spikey FPS and a few visual bugs from players who use the Uncapped framerate setting. Since Uncapped is currently the default setting, tons of players are (often unknowingly) using it without coming anywhere close to 240 FPS, the next cap down. We're changing the default FPS and doing a one-time switch for everyone currently using Uncapped to address the majority of these issues.

DEFAULT The default framerate cap is changing from "Uncapped" to 240 FPS RESET Players who currently have their framerate cap set to "Uncapped" will have their setting changed to 240 FPS when patch 9.6 launches. You can choose to switch back to "Uncapped" if you'd like.

Missions Tracker

The missions tracker now groups missions into tabs based on event and mission type. You can navigate through tabs via a new sidebar in the tracker. If you're a big picture sort of person, there's an option to show all of your missions at once.

LeaverBuster

We took a pass at updating LeaverBuster to improve its accuracy and effectiveness. Overall, it'll be more forgiving for those who are unintentionally leaving games for reasons outside of their control.

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where the game would sometimes fail to detect a leaver COMEBACK INCENTIVE Leaver detection is slightly more lenient if your team wins the game FORGIVE AND FORGET LeaverBuster now takes regional connectivity into account THEY WON'T MIND LeaverBuster penalties are reduced in most Co-op vs. AI and Premade 5's games

Bugfixes

• Arclight Brand now appropriately opens his mouth when laughing or taunting
• Fixed Lucian's W - Ardent Blaze tooltip to mention that marked targets are briefly revealed
• Elderwood Hecarim's recall no longer uses the base skin's recall audio
• Traditional Karma's E - Inspire voiceover no longer uses her base skin's audio
• Fixed a bug where PROJECT: Ashe's R - Enchanted Crystal Arrow was missing its VFX
• Fixed a bug where Shen was not saying his signature wind-up voiceover when casting R - Stand United
• Fixed a bug where players could cast abilities while inside the Catapult of Champions in ARURF
• Heartbreaker Vi's W - Denting Blows' proc glow no longer lingers on Epic Monsters
• Zed's R - Death Mark "Unit will die to Death Mark" indicator is no longer miscalculated
• Diana's Passive - Moonsilver Blade cleave effect no longer misses its target after dashes
• Diana's E - Moonfall no longer draws nearby enemies in the wrong direction (away from her)
• Renekton's W - animation no longer breaks when Renekton casts it while not on full Conqueror stacks

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!

Corgi Corki

Fuzz Fizz

Meowrick

Pretty Kitty Rengar

Fuzz Fizz Prestige Edition

The following chromas will be released this patch:

Pretty Kitty Rengar

Corgi Corki

Meowrick