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.
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.“
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.”
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.
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Champions
Sett
The Boss
Sett comes to reign supreme in 10.1.
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.
Base Stats
R – Moonlight Vigil
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
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
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
Jax
R now works with Guinsoo’s Rageblade
R – Grandmaster’s Might
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
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
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
R – Riftwalk
Kog’Maw
R mana penalty duration now displays on icon.
R – Living Artillery
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
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
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
Passive – Fury of the North
E – Permafrost
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
E – Flame Breath
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
Passive – Petricite Burst
Q – Chain Lash
W – Kingslayer
E – Abscond/Abduct
R – Hijack
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
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
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
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
Targon’s Buckler
Bulwark of the Mountain
Steel Shoulderguards
Runesteel Spaulders
Pauldrons of Whiterock
Spectral Sickle
Harrowing Crescent
Black Mist Scythe
Spellthief’s Edge
Frostfang
Shard of True Ice
Runes
Conqueror
Now shows the total healing in its tooltip.
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.
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
