League of Legends patch 10.1 notes: New champion Sett, Sylas rework, more

Riot Games

The first patch of League of Legends Season 10 has arrived, with update 10.1 introducing a new champion and a huge number of balance changes.

Preseason is finally coming to an end, and players will be able to start grinding their way through ranked play from January 10. Before then, however, they’ll have a couple of days to adjust to the changes in the first update of the new year, patch 10.1.

The highlight of the new patch is of course the introduction of yet another new champion, Sett – a physical brawler from the fighting pits of Ionia’s criminal underworld.

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Riot GamesSett will be released sometime on Patch 10.1.

In addition to the new champion, plenty of existing characters are receiving adjustments. With the preseason update having introduced some major systematic changes, including the all-new elemental rift system and adjustments to the likes of support items and jungle experience, patch 10.1 will aim to level things out for the new competitive season.

The biggest target of changes is Sylas, who is receiving adjustments to both his base stats and all of his abilities, with Riot stating that the changes are designed to “help bring the gap between all levels of Sylas players closer.“

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Meanwhile, support items are also getting a slight adjustment following their major overhaul in the preseason update, with the 10.1 patch designed so that support players “are encouraged to do more in the early game in exchange for some combat stats.”

Riot GamesSylas is getting some major adjustments in patch 10.1.

The full patch notes for update 10.1 can be read below:

Season Start

Ranked 2020 begins on January 10, 4:00 AM! Prepare yourself for another year of competition, salt, joyous victories, and soul-crushing losses.

Champions

Sett

The Boss

Sett comes to reign supreme in 10.1.

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High-res versions of Sett’s splash arts are available on League Displays!

Aphelios

Base movement speed and health decreased. Infernum R AoE damage decreased on secondary targets.

Infernum should be Aphelios’ best ultimate option when 3-5 enemies are standing on top of each other, but ‘best’ doesn’t have to mean 1-shotting a whole team. We believe we can trim some damage and still retain its position as the best against stacked enemies, so we’re doing just that.

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Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED: 330  325
HEALTH: 530  500

R – Moonlight Vigil

INFERNUM EMPOWERED AOE DAMAGE: 100% on secondary targets  75% on secondary targets

Aurelion Sol

Passive stars base damage decreased.

Aurelion Sol’s wave control and enemy burst potential in the early lane is a bit too high right now. While we’re quelling some of that damage in the early game, we still want to let him reach those high peaks later.

Passive – Center of the Universe

BASE STAR DAMAGE: 16-120 (levels 1-18)  12-120 (levels 1-18)

Azir

R base damage and wall duration increased.

With Conqueror nerfed and the fact that he’s had low presence in pro play last year, we are being cautiously optimistic and giving Azir some buffs.

R – Emperor’s Divide

BASE DAMAGE: 150/250/450  175/325/475
WALL DURATION: 3 seconds  5 seconds

Corki

R base damage increased later.

Giving Corki some power in a place that won’t greatly increase his early game waveclear, but will overall strengthen his niche as an ability-based marksman. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on his low presence in pro play.

R – Missile Barrage

BASE DAMAGE: 90/115/140  90/125/160

Jax

R now works with Guinsoo’s Rageblade

R – Grandmaster’s Might

GUINSOO’S RAGEBLADE: Now gains effects from Guinsoo’s Rageblade

Jayce

Cannon Q base damage increased later.

Jayce is not in a good spot all across the board. With Kleptomancy gone, he’s definitely seen better days and could use some help elsewhere. Fortunately, the Lethality buffs from the end of last year is helping a bit already, but we’re also giving him back some of his more electrifying power and accentuating the burst he’s known for.

Q – Shock Blast

BASE DAMAGE: 55/105/155/205/255/305  55/110/165/220/275/330

Kalista

Base health and armor growth increased.

Kalista is still pretty weak after the buffs in 9.22, so this time we’re buffing her survivability in the mid-late game in order to help her get damage out in skirmishes and teamfights. Being cautious and optimistic with these buffs, like Azir, based on her low presence in pro play.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH: 89  100
ARMOR GROWTH: 3.5  4

Kassadin

Movement speed decreased. R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.

Kassadin is doing a little too well in mid-tier levels of play. We’re nerfing his roaming and escape potential to target the players that go unpunished in lane and have the ability to be all over the place.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED: 340  335

R – Riftwalk

DEBUFF DISPLAY: Kassadin’s mana debuff duration now displays on R’s border

Kog’Maw

R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.

R – Living Artillery

DEBUFF DISPLAY: Kog’Maw’s mana debuff duration now displays on R’s border

Mordekaiser

Passive duration decreased; movement speed now flat.

For a juggernaut, Mordekaiser is too hard to get away from and kite. That coupled with his synergy with Rylai’s makes it difficult to escape from him.

Passive – Darkness Rise

DURATION: 5 seconds  4 seconds
MOVEMENT SPEED: 3/6/9% (levels 1/6/11)  3% (levels 1-18)

Nami

E now also empowers the target’s abilities.

Most enchanters are almost entirely designed to support their marksman and Nami’s no exception. But we see the opportunity to broaden her utility a bit so that she can benefit both basic attacking marksmen and ability-based champions.

E – Tidecaller’s Blessing

BLESSING: Empowers the target’s next 3 basic attacks  Empowers the target’s next 3 basic attacks and abilities (AoE spells empowered by Tidecaller’s Blessing deal 33-66% less damage to non-champions)

Sejuani

Base health growth increased. Frost Armor resistances ratio increased. E base damage increased later.

We’re happy with Sejuani’s identity as a scaling tank, so we’re doubling down on it and buffing her scaling capabilities, while leaving her early game vulnerabilities intact.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH: 95  100

Passive – Fury of the North

FROST ARMOR: 10 (+0.35 bonus armor) bonus armor and 10 (+0.35 bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance  10 (+0.5 bonus armor) bonus armor and 10 (+0.5 bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance

E – Permafrost

BASE DAMAGE: 40/80/120/160/200  40/90/140/190/240

Shyvana

Gains resistances when slaying Elder Dragon. Fury gains increased in lieu of ultimate CDR when slaying Cloud Drakes. E marked target damage ratio and monster damage cap increased.

For a dragon-killing dragon girl, Shyvana’s been losing out on some of the new Rise of the Elements dragon interactions. We’re fixing that and also giving her some small buffs to her sustained damage.

Passive – Fury of the Dragonborn

DRAGON SLAYER: Shyvana now gains 5 permanent bonus armor and bonus magic resistance for every elemental drake and Elder Dragon her team slays
RAGING WINDS: Cloud Drake now increases Shyvana’s Fury gains by 10/20/30/40% (because her ultimate does not have a cooldown)

E – Flame Breath

MARKED TARGET DAMAGE RATIO: 3.25% of target’s maximum health  3.75% of target’s maximum health
MARKED MONSTER DAMAGE CAP: 100  150

Sylas

Less base stats early, more later. Passive now gives attack speed. W cooldown decreased. E AP ratio increased. W, E1, and R basic attack reset removed.

Sylas has been difficult to stabilize for all brackets of players and has an extremely long record of changes since his release. Due to that, we promised that we’d do some bigger work on him outside of number tweaks that would help bring the gap between all levels of Sylas players closer.

First, we’re changing his early lane to be more in line with someone like Ekko and Fizz, champions that have less control in the early laning phase, but get stronger with levels. Secondly, we’re balancing him as a midlaner and prioritizing changes that encourage him to be used there instead of other lanes. And finally, by removing his E>Q combo and slowing down his basic attack pattern, we’re making a good faith effort to retain his auto-weaving bruiser playstyle while also making measures against the speed in which he bursts down his enemies.

We’ll be looking closely at him in the coming months to see how these changes have landed!

Base Stats

HEALTH: 585  525
HEALTH GROWTH: 95  115
ARMOR: 32  27
ARMOR GROWTH: 3  4
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 39  32
MAGIC RESISTANCE GROWTH: 1.25  1.75

Passive – Petricite Burst

PRIMARY TARGET DAMAGE RATIO: 1.1 total attack damage (+0.2 ability power)  1.1 total attack damage (+0.25 ability power)
RADIUS: 400 range  300 range
NEW – FAST CHAINZ: Now grants Sylas 60% attack speed when available
PETRICITE BURST: 2 stacks  3 stacks
NEW – MINION EXECUTE: Now executes secondary target minions below 25 health

Q – Chain Lash

COOLDOWN: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds  10/9/8/7/6 seconds
CHAIN DAMAGE: 45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 ability power)  40/55/70/85/100 (+0.4 ability power)
DETONATION DAMAGE: 45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 ability power)  60/105/150/195/240 (+0.8 ability power)
DETONATION MINION DAMAGE REDUCTION: 45%  60%
REMOVED – DETONATION SLOW: No longer slows enemies hit for 2 seconds
NEW – CAGED: Can no longer be cast during E – Abduct

W – Kingslayer

REMOVED – BASIC ATTACK RESET: Casting Kingslayer no longer resets Sylas’ basic attack
DAMAGE: 65/100/135/170/205 (+0.65 ability power)  65/100/135/170/205 (+0.85 ability power)
COOLDOWN: 14/13.5/13/12.5/12 seconds  14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds
REMOVED – MERCY: No longer deals 50% increased damage to targets below 40% health
INCREASED HEAL: Heals for 75% more if Sylas is below 40%  Heals more based on Sylas’ health, up to 100% more at 40% health
COST: 40 mana  70/80/90/100/110 mana

E – Abscond/Abduct

REMOVED – E1 BASIC ATTACK RESET: Casting Abscond no longer resets Sylas’ basic attack
E2 DAMAGE: 70/85/100/115/130 (+0.2 ability power)  80/130/180/230/280 (+1.0 ability power)
REMOVED – SHIELD: No longer gains a magic damage shield for 2 seconds
COOLDOWN: 14 seconds  14/13/12/11/10 seconds
LOCKOUT: 0.2 seconds when moving if Abduct hits  0.05 seconds when moving after Abduct

R – Hijack

REMOVED – BASIC ATTACK RESET: Casting Hijack no longer resets Sylas’ basic attack

Varus

Q cooldown and Blight cooldown refund decreased.

Varus’ role as a poke marksman has been quite weak since his last set of major changes in 2018. For an ability-based marksman, that playstyle should be one of, if not, his strongest, so we’re specifically focusing on strengthening it.

Q – Piercing Arrow

COOLDOWN: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds  18/16/14/12/10 seconds
BLIGHT COOLDOWN REFUND: 4 seconds  3 seconds

Vi

R now Unstoppable for its whole duration.

Giving Vi a QoL change to her ultimate, making it work more consistently against knock-ups and knockbacks and letting her stick to her target throughout the ability’s duration.

R – Assault and Battery

NEW – DENZEL WASHINGTON: Vi remains Unstoppable for the duration of her uppercut

Zyra

Empowered E slow decreased.

Zyra never had a reason to spawn multiple Vine Lashers since having one was the same as having two. But now that we made the Lashers’ slow stackable, Zyra can plan her actions around the plants and actually think about which one she wants.

E – Grasping Roots

VINE LASHER SLOW: 30%, not stacking  25%, stacking up to two times, but only once per plant

Support Items

We’re following up on our big support item changes during 9.23, tailoring them so that their users are encouraged to do more in the early game in exchange for some combat stats. Tanky champions will be slightly more resilient and ability-casting champions will have more mana for abilities.

Relic Shield

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 25%

Targon’s Buckler

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 50% Base Health Regeneration

Bulwark of the Mountain

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 100%
ABILITY POWER: 40  25

Steel Shoulderguards

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 25%

Runesteel Spaulders

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 50%

Pauldrons of Whiterock

NEW – BASE HEALTH REGEN: 100%
ATTACK DAMAGE: 24  15

Spectral Sickle

NEW – MANA REGEN: 25%

Harrowing Crescent

NEW – MANA REGEN: 50%

Black Mist Scythe

NEW – MANA REGEN: 100%
ATTACK DAMAGE: 35  25
HEALTH: 150  100

Spellthief’s Edge

NEW – MANA REGEN25%

Frostfang

NEW – MANA REGEN50%

Shard of True Ice

NEW – MANA REGEN: 100%
HEALTH: 150  100
ABILITY POWER: 60  45

Runes

Conqueror

Now shows the total healing in its tooltip.

HEALING DISPLAY: Now shows the total healing gained in the tooltip, including when hovering over the rune on the scoreboard

Prototype: Omnistone

Cooldown decreased.

Omnistone continues to significantly underperform, so we’re giving it a buff so it has enough power to compete with the other choices.

COOLDOWN: 7-3 seconds for melee champions, 11-7 seconds for ranged champions  5-3 seconds for melee champions, 9-7 for ranged champions

Bugfixes

  • Warwick’s Q – Jaws of the Beast no longer depletes mana or goes on cooldown if the target dies during its cast.
  • Ardent Censer’s bonus attack speed Unique passive no longer activates on a champion that’s shielding themselves
  • Missile-type abilities in that wouldn’t normally be in your vision will no longer give you an early warning in Fog of War