6.23 Patch Notes

Shyvana

Shyvana’s one of League’s first opportunistic updates, where a smaller amount of work (compared to big updates) can still yield big improvements. Shyvana’s already a pretty cool champion - we wanted to make her better. We wrote a nifty article about Shyvana’s changes - this context is a simplified summary of it, so if you’ve still got questions, click that link! 

Shyvana’s unique strength is that she periodically gets to ignore one of the juggernaut class’s core weaknesses: reliably getting to their targets. Ignoring weaknesses doesn’t help when you’re too behind to flex your strengths, which is why Shyvana has such a hard time clawing her way back from a disadvantage. Broadly speaking, we aimed to give Shyvana more flexibility and help her make better use of juggernaut items. In Dragon Form, Flame Breath’s been redesigned away from a basic damage cone toward something she has more options around using. Dragon Form now gives health instead of resistances, letting her leverage health-scaling items like Titanic Hydra and Sterak’s Gage. 

In exchange, we shaved off some mechanics she should still be able to function without. Burnout’s flame trail in Dragon Form asked Shyvana to stay in front of enemies she otherwise wanted in front of her, so we nixed it. We also had to shrink Dragonborn’s resistances based on playtest results, though rather than pure nerfs, we added in a way for her to gain back some resistances if she and her team play the objective game well.

Passive - Fury of the Dragonborn

W - Burnout

UPDATEDE - Flame Breath

R - Dragon's Descent

Akali

Akali’s update was focused around shifting her damage pattern into repeated, telegraphed spikes. We’re happy with how that pattern’s shaken out, but after a little time in the wild it’s clear that those ‘spikes’ of damage aren’t as sharp as they need to be. For Akali to do her job she’s gotta have the potential for lethal damage, so we’re administering a booster-shot to her scalings to keep her damage threatening.

Passive - Twin Disciplines

W - Twilight Shroud

E - Crescent Slash

Anivia

Anivia’s R-E combo has been a staple of her play for years, but the instant, unavoidable burst and lane pressure it provides overshadows the success Anivia sees from trapping foes in Glacial Storm with well-placed walls and Q stuns. That said, burst damage does seem like a fair reward when Anivia makes use of all the tools available to her. We’re helping her earn her damage payoffs by hastening Glacial Storm’s “cook” time and letting her drop more walls, but giving her less instant gratification.

W - Crystallize

E - Frostbite

R - Glacial Storm

Evelynn

Passive - Shadow Walk

Katarina

Stop walking away from your target, Katarina.

E - Shunpo

Lux

Concerns around color-blind readability prompted us to look into Final Spark’s indicator, and we realized it could stand to be easier to read in general.

R - Final Spark

Malzahar

Love him or hate him, Malzahar’s damage output can be downright confusing. When standing against his Void Swarm, the lack of clarity surrounding how the voidlings operate (and what you should do to fight them) can be more than a little overwhelming. In light of this, we’re adjusting how the mechanic functions to keep things understandable. With a heavier focus on chaining Malefic Visions for voidling success, Malzahar will have to set up minion waves to keep his swarm going - but opponents will have a far easier time stemming the tide by simply killing them.

W - Void Swarm

Orianna

We’re reverting a bug we introduced that allowed Orianna to chain her abilities in a way that was too hard to react to. While this is a power-down for Orianna’s maximum overall potential, she’s powerful enough that we’re not looking to compensate right now. (It also helps avoid confusing Orianna players!)

W - Command: Dissonance

Rengar

Sorry, kitty.

Bonetooth Necklace

Shen

Shen brings a lot of unique tools that other tanks lack (global teleport, anybody?) but at the moment his base stats are pretty low for the job. His dueling power spikes pretty hard at level 9, thanks to the power of Twilight Assault, but we want to make sure he scales past that into the late game as well.

General

Yorick

We originally changed Dark Procession’s cast behavior in 6.20 to give Yorick players snappier, more reactive W casts. We knew accuracy would take a small hit, but that tradeoff ended up more problematic than expected. So, we’re reverting the change.

W - Dark Procession

Blade of the Ruined King

Blade of the Ruined King has been out of the spotlight for a while, even for champions we expect should like it. Blade of the Ruined King should be the go-to item for basic-attacking champions who want dueling power out of their first item. To accomplish that, it should be doing a bit more at the start of fights.

Guinsoo's Rageblade

Technically speaking, Rageblade still counts as an attack speed item because of its stacking buff. That said, the loss of the flat value feels like (and often is) a step backward, given that attack speed is necessary to stack Rageblade quickly. As a result, it only feels good to purchase Guinsoo’s if you can supplement it with other attack speed items. We want the Rageblade to feel unconditionally better when you complete it, even if you don’t have other attack speed items.

Sterak's Gage

Sterak’s Gage serves acceptably as a defensive item for fighters who want to start a fight and live to finish it. It’s a smidge weak for its price tag, though, so we’re making it a little easier to pick up.

Lord Van Damm's Pillager

Reminder: Lord Van Damm’s Pillager only exists on Twisted Treeline! 

Like Mejai’s Soulstealer, Pillager is meant to be a risky purchase that doesn’t always pan out. Unlike Mejai’s, Pillager is an end-game item that requires a ton of investment to build. Losing control of Treeline’s altars is still a big hit to Pillager’s effectiveness, but its cost is now more appropriate for its baseline strength.