Patch 5.21 Notes

Caitlyn

Caitlyn mains rejoice: the Sheriff's basic attack animation should no longer de-sync from damage being dealt when Lulu (or Pix, to be more accurate) is in the game. We're pretty sure that was the only cause of the de-sync, but we'll be keeping an eye on Cait this patch to see if any outliers crop up.

In the meantime, go forth and last hit.

General

Cho'Gath

For dedicated Cho'Gath mains, Feast can be his highest high (nomming even the heartiest of meals) and his lowest low (endlessly playing catch-up on Feast stacks if he falls behind the curve). Adding extra bonuses to Feast's success case gives Cho bigger rewards for getting aggressive hungry, as well giving him the option to top off his already massive health pool once he's full.

R - Feast

Gangplank

Gangplank's laning is as efficient as it is deadly, granting him guaranteed access to gold with little interaction available to his opposition. Sure, it just starts with a few harmless Q's for extra cash, but then it leads to a single barrel clearing the caster minions before ending in chain-barrels to vacuum entire waves. This nasty slippery slope of Parrrleys ultimately leaves GP swimming in silver serpents and big-ticket upgrades, out-statting anyone that gets in his way.

This chain of events feels pretty awesome when Gangplank's the one doing it, but often leaves his opponents scrambling to catch up. These changes provide a wrench to toss into his plans, forcing him to run out of gas (or life) for applying pressure to his farm-centric game plan. He'll still terrorize the seas (eventually), but now the responsibility of 'shutting him down' feels more realistic.

General

Q - Parrrley

Kassadin

For being a late-game monster, Kassadin pays perhaps the highest price in terms of his weaknesses, often losing games outright before completing the items he needs to get rolling. We don't want to go overboard, but... here we go. Kassadin buffs.

W - Nether Blade

Kha'Zix

Clarity. Been awhile since we said that word, hasn't it? Clarity.

Q - Taste Their Fear

Kindred

Just addressing some bugs with Kindred while players get used to their more unique ways of stalking the jungle.

Passive - Mark of the Kindred

Mordekaiser

This one's pretty simple. The experience sharing mechanic's been vital for Mordekaiser's success in a duo lane but the amount's clearly off - turning what was intended to help him survive against his ranged oppressors into something that only serves to further snowball Mordekaisers that get ahead. We're pulling back to strike a balance, seeing if we can maintain Mordekaiser as a viable pick without becoming the mandatory dragonlord he is at present.

General

W - Harvesters of Sorrow

R - Children of the Grave

Riven

Riven's a champion that's equal parts impressive and frustrating when she succeeds, turning the battle lines into a blur of knock-ups and danger pings, leaving her opponents without many options. For a champion whose 3 basic abilities are so powerful on their own, Blade of the Exile's cooldown's always been finely tuned in concert with her access to cooldown reduction. Now, however, with the growing popularity of things like cooldown runes and The Black Cleaver, it's never been easier for Riven to hit the 40% cap and start breaking the laws of physics.

Increasing the cooldown of Riven's ultimate won't move the needle too much once she reaches that point, but stretches enough of her engagement window to make a difference in the skirmishes and scraps Riven's face along the way to make-or-break her snowball.

R - Blade of the Exile

Veigar

Recently Veigar's dreams of crushing his opponents have become grim reality. No longer falling short on delivering the damage, he towers above the competition as perhaps the hardest scaling AP champion in League. We like Veigar's curve of amassing farm and rising to notoriety over the course of the game, so we're clipping some of his bases to rely even more on his ability to stack Baleful Strike (and your ability to interfere with that) as a focus for his success.

Q - Baleful Strike

W - Dark Matter

Zilean

Zilean's passive is one of those ideas that's really neat in theory, but lackluster in execution. Manipulating experience is a slam dunk thematically, what with his wisdom and time-lord status, but ran into the same problems auras typically do - they either feel incredibly weak (even when balanced), or are tuned so you can feel their effects (in which case they're overpowered). Instead of dealing with the headache of an aura that affects an already-invisible strength (experience?), he's getting a brand new one: Time in a Bottle.

In essence, Zilean's time-bottle does the same thing as the previous passive, in the sense that it gives experience to allies nearby, but splits it into clear chunks that you and your allies can appreciate. Now Zilean players everywhere can feel cool about their contributions to a team - finishing a jungler's level so he can gank with his newly-ranked ultimate, or stacking one member of your time even higher to combine with Chronoshift for time-powered carry potential.

Lastly, we've got a bunch of changes to Time Bomb to make it feel much more responsive. They may look small in practice, but we dug in to solve a large number of player-reported issues (particularly associated with usability and visual clarity) so take a gander and let us know what you think. If you weren't the biggest fan of the Zileanaire, there's never been a better time to pick him up (we'll show ourselves out).

General

NEWPassive - Time in a Bottle

Q - Time Bomb

Scrying Orb