The League of Legends 10.2 patch notes released on January 21, revealing official changes coming to the Rift that include Qiyana and Nautilus nerfs, changes to Aphelios, and more.
There’s been a lot of talk from the Riot Games devs on how to balance one of the newest champions, Aphelios. Changes to the Weapon of the Faithful were included in the 10.1 patch, and the devs are at it again on 10.2 when it launches on January 23.
With the imminent release of the client-based tournament mode “Clash,” the devs are refining their game as much as they can so that tournaments can go off without a hitch.
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More Aphelios changes
Who knew that a champion with five different playstyles would need more balances? Riot has made changes to Aphelios’s sniper rifle, Chakram, and scythe pistol.
Mostly, the changes reflect a general nerf to attack damage that slightly reduces the potency of the weapons.
- Read more: Thorin’s Take: The Inimitable FORG1VEN
“Following up with a couple of more adjustments based on his performance since launch and how he’s stacked up after the couple of bugfixes and changes at the start of the year,” developer Hanna ‘shio shoujo’ Woo wrote of the fixes.
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Qiyana the laner
Qiyana has been a popular flex pick for her ability to switch from the jungle to top lane, and of course, the mid lane, which she was meant for.
However, developers want to hold back her potential in the jungle just a bit to “encourage her identity as a mid-laner and keep her from running amok in the woods.”
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To do this, her W, called Terrashape, will have its passive attack speed gutted from a base of 20% to a scaling increase starting a 5%, and ending at 25% at max level.
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Nautilus less of a “bully”
Nautilus has been getting a lot of attention as a laner in Season 10. While his popularity is perfectly fine, Riot has seen that the Titan of the Depths can sometimes “overwhelm” enemies at the start of games.
“Nautilus is like that bully in high school that’d push your head in the toilet and almost drown you just because he can,” shio soujo continued. “Doing something about that so enemies aren’t completely overwhelmed, especially early.”
Naut’s Q, called Dredge Line, had its damage at every level ticked down, from a base of 80 damage and 280 at max level to 70 damage and 250 at max level.
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Aside from that, there are a ton of new changes to multiple champs coming in the January 23 patch, which players can take a look at the official patch notes below, courtesy of Riot Games.
Aphelios
Calibrum basic attack mark damage now flat; Calibrum Q cooldown increased. Crescendum mirror Chakrams do less damage after the first one. Severum onslaught damage ratio decreased.
Following up with a couple of more adjustments based on his performance since launch and how he’s stacked up after the couple of bugfixes and changes at the start of the year.
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle
Crescendum, the Chakram
Severum, the Scythe Pistol
Draven
R damage ratio now scales.
Draven seems to have come out of the item changes from Preseason a bit worse for wear.
R – Whirling Death
Jinx
Passive bonus movement speed now applies with Epic Monsters as well.
Jinx has always been a big fan of taking objectives. So increasing the list of things her passive procs off of is a very champion-resonant way to have more “Jinx moments” each game without massively increasing Jinx’s actual power level.
Passive – Get Excited!
Karma
Q and W base damage increased.
Helping out Karma’s early ability to scrap against her opponents.
Q – Inner Flame
W – Focused Resolve
Lulu
Base armor and attack damage rounded up. E cooldown decreased.
Making Pix a lot more available and, therefore, useful, so Lulu can make best use of her best faerie friend.
Base Stats
E – Help, Pix!
Nautilus
Q base damage decreased.
Nautilus is like that bully in high school that’d push your head in the toilet and almost drown you just because he can. Doing something about that so enemies aren’t completely overwhelmed, especially early.
Q – Dredge Line
Qiyana
W passive attack speed now scales.
Qiyana’s strength in the jungle was making it difficult to keep her in check since she was such a reliable flex pick in pro play. We want to encourage her identity as a mid-laner and keep her from running amok in the woods.
W – Terrashape
Sona
E self movement speed now flat and increased.
Sona has room for some buffs when you compare her to other enchanters. We nerfed her in the past to prevent double-support-item shenanigans, but since we’ve mitigated those concerns, we have the opportunity to give her a little tuning. This change will give her more of an opportunity to dodge skill shots and the ability to maneuver around the map and get to her allies.
E – Song of Celerity
Thresh
Additional changes from his VFX update in 10.1.
Q – Death Sentence
E – Flay
Trundle
W movement speed increased. E slow increased.
Trundle has been suffering all around, but especially when allies have to rely on him for ganks.
W – Frozen Domain
E – Pillar of Ice
Viktor
Passive mana bugfix.
Passive – Glorious Evolution
Ziggs
Q base damage increased. W enemy knockback increased. E slow increased.
We’re giving Ziggs a stronger way to disrupt opponents and encourage a greater presence in the early game.
Q – Bouncing Bomb
W – Satchel Charge
E – Hexplosive Minefield
Cloak of Agility
The initial goal of buffing Cloak of Agility last year was to account for the fact that it was slightly underpowered for the gold cost. However, this has led to folks stacking Cloaks on crit champions, which also makes the decision between Cloak of Agility and Pickaxe more of a math problem than desired and doesn’t help the average player measure how their lane went. A clearer item hierarchy is more helpful (B.F. Sword > Pickaxe > Cloak of Agility) when considering this key indicator of success.
Frozen Heart
Frozen Heart is underperforming compared to other options for armor. We want it to be a go-to consideration when a champion is facing many physical threats.
Stormrazor
Nerfing Stormrazor as it’s overperforming a tad, focusing on the tAD so it keeps its unique and impactful slow utility.
Rift Herald
Rift Herald takes a little too long to defeat, so teams lessen the priority on it compared to other objectives. We want her to get a little love too, so we’re looking to lessen the gap between the pros and cons of killing her.
Base Stats
- Caitlyn no longer gets bonus Headshots by inputting the attack-move command near the target while they are trapped and netted simultaneously
- Caitlyn can no longer use attack-move to attack trapped or netted targets while she is crowd controlled.
- Braum can no longer intercept Elder Dragon’s fireball with E – Unbreakable and die from it instead of the ally he was protecting
- After casting W – Yordle Snap Trap into Q – Piltover Peacemaker, Caitlyn’s basic attacks are no longer temporarily slower than they should be
- Sylas’ W – Kingslayer now properly goes on cooldown, deals damage, and heals him if he hits the same target with E2 – Abscond
- Sylas is properly unable to cast E2 – Abscond into Q – Chain Lash after casting a stolen ultimate, after losing the ability to do so in 10.1
- Miss Fortune’s basic attacks no longer continues to apply bonus damage from Nami’s E – Tidecaller’s Blessing after consuming three stacks of Passive – Love Tap
- Upgraded Relic Shield, Spectral Sickle, Steel Shoulderguards, and Spellthief’s Edge wards now properly show their vision range indicator
- Lux’s E – Lucent Singularity no longer reveals areas outside of its range
- Prototype: Omnistone-granted Predator now has a proper cooldown regardless of when the user upgrades its boots
- Garen’s Q – Decisive Strike is no longer blocked by spell-shielded champions
- Cassiopeia heals for the proper amount from casting E – Twin Fang on large monsters
- Using E – Shunpo to kill a target no longer make Katarina unresponsive for a few moments
- Darius’ R – Maximum Damage always factors in Passive – Noxian Might, not only when the latter is active
- Champions can no longer ignore any forced movement crowd control effect (i.e. Taunt, Flee, Charm) by using any targetable Summoner Spells (i.e. Smite, Ignite, Exhaust) on a target that is out of their range
- Casting Q – Bone Skewer no longer makes Pyke unresponsive for a few moments
- Various champions’ abilities are no longer visible or audible in Fog of War if cast outside their Field of Vision
- Completing any of the support items’ quests and then selling it to repurchase a different support item will no longer automatically complete the quest for that second support item
