The latest major League of Legends update, Patch 9.10, introduces the game’s newest champion along with a host of balance changes.
Riot are currently gearing up for the second half of the season, with major balance patches determining how the game will play for at least the start of the summer split.
The biggest feature of the new patch is of course the addition of a new champion, with Yuumi the Magical Cat going live.
Yuumi is a support champion with a unique “Attached” mechanic that allows her to latch on to ally champions, during which time she is untargetable by everything except tower damage. While Attached, Yuumi’s abilities fire from her ally’s location, but she can’t attack enemies.
In addition to the new champion, a host of existing champions have received balance changes. The jungle is once again subject to adjustments, with changes to Xin Zhao, Master Yi and Graves potentially swaying the balance of power once again.
Among the notable nerfs are adjustments for both Riven and Vayne intended to make both champions less frustrating to play against, which will go some way towards appeasing the players that have been calling for such nerfs for some time.
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Changes to items such as Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Hunter’s Talisman will also likely have broader impact on champion balance, and Riot are already preparing to make specific champion adjustments in response to these changes in the next update, Patch 9.11.
The full patch notes can be read below:
Champions
Yuumi
Meow meow meow. Meow mew. Meow cat meow mew 9.10, mewo.
Brand
E damage increased late; ratio increased.
Spritzing some oil on Brand to conflagrate his eternal flame. The change favors mid-lane Brand more than his support counterpart, but he’ll be a bit hotter no matter where he goes.
E – Conflagration
MAGIC DAMAGE: 70/90/110/130/150 (+0.35 ability power) ⇒70/95/120/145/170 (+0.45 ability power)
Caitlyn
W headshot damage increased.
Helping Caitlyn out in a way that doesn’t affect her already strong waveclear and late game, by focusing on when she successfully maneuvers her traps for maximum damage.
W – Yordle Snap Trap
HEADSHOT BONUS DAMAGE: 40/90/140/190/240 ⇒60/105/150/195/240
Fiora
W now blocks Braum’s and Kennen’s stuns rather than preventing them from proccing.
Previously, Fiora’s Riposte stopped some champions’ last passive stack from being applied, which effectively delayed the following stun rather than blocking it.
W – Riposte
INTERACTIONS WITH DEBUFFS: Riposte prevents Braum and Kennen from applying the last stack of their passives ⇒ allows Braum and Kennen to apply the last stack of their passives, blocking the stun (and still blocking the damage from the attack)
Graves
Q damage increased late.
Overall, Graves was feeling underwhelming, so we’re giving him some power in a place that can be counterable.
Q – End of the Line
DETONATION DAMAGE: 85/115/145/175/205 ⇒ 85/120/155/190/225
Master Yi
Q cast time removed, adjusted target scanning. W cast time removed. E no longer grants AD while not on cooldown. R movement speed increased and adjusted.
We want to increase the satisfaction on key parts of Master Yi’s kit while nerfing him in ways that’ll help out those who don’t know how to counter him. Those with more experience won’t find Master Yi significantly better or worse, but he won’t continue to dominate in average play.
Q – Alpha Strike
REMOVED – CAST TIME: No longer takes 0.1 seconds to cast
NEW – BETA STRIKE: If Master Yi has struck fewer than the maximum amount of times he can with Alpha Strike and there are no other nearby eligible targets, he will now strike the same target for 25% of the damage before checking for nearby targets again
W – Meditate
REMOVED – CAST TIME: No longer takes 0.05 seconds to cast
E – Wuju Style
REMOVED: No longer grants 10% attack damage while not on cooldown
R – Highlander
MOVEMENT SPEED: 25/35/45% total movement speed ⇒ 35/45/55% bonus movement speed
Riven
Q cooldown now scales. E cooldown increased.
We’re looking to target a consistent point of frustration that players face when playing against Riven—her up-time defense from spamming E. While she’ll now be able to cast her Q more often, playing against her will be more manageable overall and she’ll have more points of vulnerability when her E is down.
Q – Broken Wings
COOLDOWN: 13 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds
E – Valor
COOLDOWN: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
Shaco
R casts adjusted.
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We’re modernizing Shaco’s ultimate.
R – Hallucinate
APPEAR: Random position 50-250 range in any direction around cast position, facing a random direction ⇒ 200 range in the direction of Shaco’s cursor, facing the clone
CLONE APPEAR: Random position 50-250 range in any direction around cast position, facing a random direction ⇒ 200 range in the opposite direction of Shaco’s cursor, facing Shaco
Soraka
Q movement speed increased; decays more slowly.
Following up on the 9.9 changes to Soraka, since we missed on the power level a bit back then. These changes should be significant enough that Starcall’s haste should now be a relevant factor when Soraka and her allies make heat-of-the-moment choices.
Q – Starcall
BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED: 14/18/22/26/30% ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35%
MOVEMENT SPEED DECAY: Rapidly ⇒ Significantly less rapidly
Tryndamere
E cooldown decreased. AP ratio decreased.
Tryndamere is struggling in a world with more mobile, ranged opponents in the top lane. We’re helping his mobility so he can find more of a footing in those matchups.
E – Spinning Slash
COOLDOWN: 13/12/11/10/9 seconds ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds
RATIO: 1.0 ability power ⇒ 0.8 ability power
Vayne
R Tumble cooldown reduction now scales.
Similar to Riven, we want to work on targeting the frustration around playing against Vayne beyond just her raw stats. Right now, Vayne ramps up a little too early and is especially frustrating because of how often she goes invisible. These changes should lessen her power spike at level 6.
R – Final Hour
TUMBLE COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 50% at all ranks ⇒ 30/40/50%
Xin Zhao
Q cooldown decreased.
Now that Scuttler spawns later, other champions aren’t forced to fight Xin as much at his biggest power spike. But because of that, his niche as an early game powerhouse doesn’t have as big of an impact, especially on the outcome of a game. We can now help him out so he can do better throughout a game without worry.
Q – Three Talon Strike
COOLDOWN: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds
Zyra
Plants no longer take additional damage from basic attacks that do not trigger on-hit effects.
Reducing the damage Zyra’s plants takes, especially from those that shouldn’t trigger additional effects.
Passive – Garden of Thorns
FERTILIZER: Damage from basic attacks that doesn’t trigger on-hit effects (ex. Corki’s Hextech Munitions, Miss Fortune’s Love Tap, etc.) no longer deals a separate instance of damage to Zyra’s plants
Items
Essence Reaver
Attack damage increased.
We’re giving Essence Reaver’s core users more motivation to consider it as their attack damage option.
ATTACK DAMAGE: 65 ⇒ 70
Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Phantom Hit frequency decreased. Armor and magic penetration increased and flattened.
Rageblade gives too much power to champions whose abilities naturally align with the frequency of Phantom Hits. We’ll be keeping an eye on how much these core users are affected since we still want to keep their Phantom Hit synergy relevant—just not as unilaterally success-defining as it currently is.
PHANTOM HIT FREQUENCY:Every 2 attacks ⇒ Every 3 attacks
ARMOR PENETRATION: 6% (+0.5% per level, 15% max) ⇒ 15%
MAGIC PENETRATION: 6% (+0.5% per level, 15% max) ⇒ 15%
Hunter’s Talisman
Champions’ pets’ attacks now also apply burn.
Since pets feel like a champion’s ability and abilities trigger Hunter’s Talisman’s burn, we’re making it so that pets also apply that burn.
NEW – HOT DOGS: Passive burn effect now applies on attacks from pets
ITEM FAMILY: Also applies to all of Hunter’s Talisman’s upgrades (Stalker’s Blade, Skirmisher’s Sabre, and all their variants)
Runic Echoes
Combine and total costs decreased.
Letting Runic users get their jungle enchanted item sooner so they can compete with other types of junglers, as well as encouraging non-users to experiment with the item.
COMBINE COST: 375 gold ⇒ 250 gold
TOTAL COST: 2625 gold ⇒ 2500 gold
Runes
Conqueror
True damage and healing decreased.
We hear you. It’s too strong, so we’re nerfing it.
GR8: At full stacks, 10% ⇒ 8% of the damage dealt against champions is converted to true damage and healing
