Patch 7.13 Notes

Galio

Galio’s throwing his weight around a bit too well, so we’ve got a few changes to help opponents go toe to toe with the big guy in lane. First, we’re reining in his ability to instaclear waves without speccing into damage. Second, we’re making him more vulnerable to physical damage, given his niche is the anti-magic tank. Finally, we’re giving opponents a larger window to knock Galio down when he tries to Hero’s Entrance Exit a hostile gank.

Base stats

Q - Winds of War

R - Hero's Entrance

Gnar

Gnar’s having trouble getting the job done, both as a lane bully in Mini form and a teamfight initiator in Mega form. In Mini Gnar’s case, Boomerang Throw could pack a harder punch as his primary means of whittling skittish enemies down and out of lane. Mega Gnar by contrast already has the raw power necessary to wreak havoc on his foes, but needs help getting into range to use those tools. These changes together help Gnar regardless of which hat he’s currently wearing.

Q - Boomerang Throw

Mega E - Crunch

Kennen

As a basic-attack-focused mage, Kennen has access to both physical- and magic-damage focused builds. Choosing between them affects the strengths Kennen brings to the table: the physical build gives him more consistent, unrelenting damage, while the magic build makes him a burstier threat to deal with. In theory. The balance between these builds is off-kilter: AD Kennen's sustained damage is actually pretty bursty, and AP Kennen isn't bursting hard enough. We're giving AP Kennen better scaling, but our work on AD Kennen's a bit more nuanced.

Primarily, we're removing Electrical Surge as a repeatable damage spike in the physical build. Surge’s AD scaling is down, and in the (usual) case where Kennen picks up Runaan's Hurricane, it no longer triples Electrical Surge's stack rate. The nuance is in the ratio switch from total AD to bonus, a change meant to mitigate the impact to bot lane Kennen, who we’d like to keep viable as a niche strategic option. Switching to bonus AD removes the innate disadvantage bot lane Kennen faces with total AD scaling (bot laners are generally lower-level than solo laners, so their base AD hasn’t scaled as much) while letting us make a smaller ratio reduction than if we had stuck with total AD.

W - Electrical Surge

E - Lightning Rush

Kha'Zix

While getting each of Kha’Zix’s ability evolutions to at least niche appeal has been a juggling act as long as he’s existed in the game, Evolved Active Cloaking is currently in a pretty unpickable state. To remedy this, we’re making it easier for KZ to chain-stealth through multiple brush patches with R’s evolution, closing greater distances unseen. To make space for the buff, we’re reducing Q’s damage outside of Isolated situations (where it’s actually stronger! Something something strategic identity.)

Q - Taste Their Fear

R - Void Assault

Kindred

Since their update, we’ve had more time to assess Kindred's power and there was potential to give them a little bit more power throughout their kit. First we have the marks - as the game progresses, it gets harder to acquire marks, which makes it even harder for Kindred to access their bonus range, so we're easing the curve on the passive a bit. Additionally, early trades were still a bit on the weak side and Wolf attacks during Wolf's Frenzy didn't feel meaningfully more powerful with each successful hunt.

Passive - Mark of the Kindred

W - Wolf's Frenzy

E - Mounting Dread

Maokai

Maokai is on the doorstep of finding his home on the Rift, so we’re giving him the keys to unlock what the Twisted Treant is supposed to be doing more often and more successfully.

Base stats

R - Nature's Grasp

Poppy

Midseason left some tanks with less damage than they need to function. A little bump to Poppy’s bread and butter skill should go a long way toward bringing her back.

Q - Hammer Shock

Rek'Sai

After a couple of patches, we’re pretty comfortable with where Rek’Sai sits right now. We think there’s still slightly more room for Void Rush to scale, and we’re also making Rek’Sai’s gameplay more fluid and consistent.

Q - Queen's Wrath

Burrowed W - Un-burrow

R - Void Rush

Shaco

Shaco isn’t getting to live out his assassin fantasy, instead playing as a “sort of tanky fighter with some dashes and a slow that allows him to stick to one target and stat check them to death”. We want him to feel more rewarded for building damage and stabbing people.

E - Two-Shiv Poison

Trundle

For a champion who excels at split-pushing and dueling his laner, Trundle’s Chomp not applying to turrets is just unintuitive. We’re adding that interaction back in, and taking the time to clean up the way Chomp works.

Q - Chomp

W - Frozen Domain

Xayah

After last patch’s changes, we figured we could make Xayah feel a little bit smoother to play as the game progresses.

Q - Double Daggers

Rammus

Ok.

General

Abyssal Mask

(We’re leading in with a bunch of words about stuff that’s not Abyssal Mask, but trust us, we’re going somewhere with it.)

Doran’s Ring stacking had created an unhealthy pattern in lane; waveclear from a distance, get all of your mana back, repeat. However, its removal leaves some tanks feeling like they don’t have items that support their laning patterns at all. Catalyst of Aeons is a solid paradigm for in-lane sustain, but tanks don’t feel great about the items it builds into, especially now that Righteous Glory no longer builds out of it.

So that’s one side of things. On the other hand, Abyssal Mask had been underperforming, and we were looking for ways to make it a more palatable item. And that leads us to our changes. Abyssal Mask’s passive is a natural fit for tanks. Tanks need an item that builds out of Catalyst of the Aeons, and we just put the two ideas together to make the new Abyssal Mask.

Adaptive Helm

Adaptive Helm isn’t quite providing the raw oomph it need to be a competitive defensive item, so we’re buffing the tankiness it provides just a bit.

Ancient Coin

The Coin line is underperforming to a pretty significant degree. Hence, buffs.

Nomad's Medallion, Talisman of Ascension & Eye of the Oasis

Zeke's Convergence

Bami's Cinder

Tanks don’t have a very smooth item progression in the jungle. If they have a good first gank and a solid clear, they sometimes back with enough gold to pick up Bami’s Cinder. But most of the time, they’re stuck sitting on a Ruby Crystal while other junglers get to keep picking up small components (aka Long Swords for days).

Worse, health doesn’t do anything for clear speed, so while tanks are trying to farm Cinderhulk, everybody else around them is already farming more quickly - thanks to those aforementioned small components. On top of that, Bami’s Cinder’s monster damage isn’t very powerful, which only amplifies the problem.

Enchantment: Cinderhulk

Sunfire Cape

Build path adjustment for Bami’s Cinder cost changes above.