Dark Valkyrie Diana Splash screen

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Mid-July Patch Notes

New Skins in the Store

• Mythic Cassiopeia
• Muay Thai Lee Sin

PvP.net v1.63

• New Matchmaking Upgrades
  • Players who are under Level 30 are far less likely to face Level 30s
  • Greatly improved matchmaking for premade groups of 4
  • Matchmaking improved for highly skilled players trying to queue with lower skilled friends
  • Matchmaking in Ranked Solo/Duo Queue now restricts the number of duo queue pairings on each team to 1 per team
• Improved initial seeding for Ranked Teams composed of skilled Ranked Solo/Duo players
• Summoner Profiles now display the highest Ranked Team rating, instead of Arranged Team ratings

League of Legends v1.0.0.143
Zyra, Rise of the Thorns

• Pending the completion of some further testing on PBE, Zyra will be released at a future date.

Akali

• Fixed: Mark of the Assassin's tooltip now states the correct Energy return amount

Amumu

• Fixed: Despair now displays a range indicator when hovered over

Corki

• Fixed: Valkyrie's targeting indicator now scales with distance from Corki

Evelynn (Remade)

• Shadow Walk (Passive)
  • Evelynn fades away into the shadows. She can only be seen by nearby enemy Champions or true sight
  • While in stealth, Evelynn regenerates 1% of her max Mana every second
  • Casting spells, taking damage, or dealing damage unstealths Evelynn for 8 seconds
• Hate Spike
  • 19/23/27/31/35 Mana, 1.5 second Cooldown
  • Evelynn fires a line of spikes through a nearby enemy, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+0.45 Ability Power) (+0.4 bonus Attack Damage) magic damage to all enemies in its path
  • Hate Spike prioritizes what Evelynn has attacked recently
• Dark Frenzy
  • No Cost, 20 second Cooldown
  • Passive: Evelynn's spell hits on enemy Champions grant her 4/8/12/16/20 Movement Speed for 3 seconds (effect stacks up to 4 times)
  • Active: Evelynn removes all slows affecting her and gains 30/40/50/60/70% Movement Speed for 3 seconds
  • Champion kills and assists refresh Dark Frenzy's cooldown
• Ravage
  • 50/55/60/65/70 Mana, 9 second Cooldown
  • Evelynn slashes a target enemy 2 times, dealing 35/60/85/110/135 (+0.5 Ability Power) (+0.4 bonus Attack Damage) magic damage with each strike
  • Evelynn then gains 60/75/90/105/120% Attack Speed for 3 seconds
• Agony's Embrace
  • 100 Mana, 150/120/90 second Cooldown
  • Evelynn impales all enemies in the targeted area, dealing 15/20/25% (+1% per 50 Ability Power) of their maximum Health in magic damage and slowing their Movement Speed by 30/50/70% for 2 seconds
  • Evelynn siphons their pain, gaining a 150/225/300 health shield for each enemy Champion hit which lasts up to 6 seconds

Gangplank

• Parrrley
  • Now refunds half the mana cost if Parrrley kills the target

Garen

• Perseverance
  • Added a buff timer to show when Perseverance will reactivate

Gragas

• Fixed: Body Slam no longer stops when encountering created terrain (ex: Anivia's Crystallize)

Graves

• Smokescreen
  • Sight reduction range reduced to 675 from 800

Jax

• Fixed: Counter Strike's dodge component now works properly against Shen

Kassadin

• Riftwalk
  • Damage reduced to 60/70/80 from 60/90/120
  • Ability Power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.5

Malphite

• Ground Slam
  • Armor ratio reduced to 30% from 50%
  • Now has a 0.2 Ability Power ratio
  • Attack Speed reduction duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4

Malzahar

• Summon Voidling (Passive)
  • Voidlings prioritize enemies Malzahar is autoattacking if Malefic visions isn't present
  • Voidling pathing and general AI improved
  • Voidlings will now hide in brush and won't attack if Malzahar is in brush and not in combat
  • Voidling dance animation added
• Call of the Void
  • Delay is now consistent at 0.6 seconds
  • Now deals damage in a single hit - rather than two separate hits
  • Now grants vision along the entire line path - rather than only at the two end points
  • Now deals damage to units surrounding the end points
• Null Zone
  • Cast time removed - Malzahar may now cast this ability while moving
  • Damage now starts 0.25 seconds after casting the ability
• Nether Grasp
  • Malzahar ignores orders that would cancel his ultimate within the first 0.5 seconds of Nether Grasp
  • Voidlings prioritize champions immobilized in Nether Grasp above all other priorities

Mordekaiser

• Fixed: Children of the Grave's initial damage now correctly draws turret aggro

Morgana

• Black Shield
  • Cooldown increased at earlier ranks to 23/21/19/17/15 seconds from 15 at all ranks
  • Cast range increased to 750 from 600
  Soul Shackles
  • Leash range is now more accurate (now updates every 0.25 seconds from 0.5 seconds)

Nocturne

• Shroud of Darkness
  • Shield duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2
• Paranoia
  • Cooldown increased at earlier ranks to 180/140/100 seconds from 160/130/100
  • Updated Umbra Blades tooltip

Nunu

• Fixed: Visionary will now grant free cost spells even if spells were ranked up while the Visionary buff was already active

Orianna

• General
  • Fixed: Attack Range is now 525 at all times.
• Command: Attack
  • Ability Power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4
• Command: Shockwave
  • Fixed: Now stuns enemies that were in the middle of a movement skill.

Sejuani

• Fixed: Arctic Assault no longer stops when encountering created terrain (ex: Anivia's Crystallize)

Sona

• General
  • Basic attack and Power Chord missile speeds increased to 2000 from 1500
  • Aura persistence duration reduced to 1 second after deactivation from 2
  • Global cooldown reduced to 0.5 seconds from 2
• Power Chord
  • Power Chord now resets your attack timer so you can use it immediately
• Crescendo
  • Now deals all its damage instantly, rather than over time
  • Fixed: Opponents can no longer Cleanse the damage portion of Crescendo

Shen

• Ki Strike
  • Damage reduced to 4 + 4 per level from 4 + 6 per level

Teemo

• Camouflage (Passive)
  • Fixed: Teemo now gains the Attack Speed buff instantly after leaving invisibility

Tristana

• Explosive Shot
  • Fixed: Passive damage no longer activates from spell damage
  • Fixed: Tooltip now reflects the Ability Power ratio

Twitch (Remade)

• Stats
  • Attack Range increased to 550 from 500
  • Base Health increased to 389 from 356
  • Health per level increased to 81 from 78
  • Base Mana increased to 220 from 180
  • Mana per level increased to 40 from 35
  • Base Attack Damage reduced to 47 from 51.56
  • Attack Damage per level reduced to 3 from 3.3
  • Attack animation improved
• Deadly Venom (Passive)
  • Damage reduced to 12/24/36/48 per stack from 15/30/45/60
• Ambush
  • 60 Mana, 16 second Cooldown
  • After 1.25 seconds, Twitch becomes invisible for 4/5/6/7/8 seconds and gains 20% Movement Speed. Twitch gains 30/40/50/60/70% Attack Speed for 5 seconds after revealing himself
• Venom Cask
  • 50 Mana, 13/12/11/10/9 second Cooldown
  • Twitch hurls a cask full of venom to target area that slows targets by 25/30/35/40/45% for 3 seconds and adds 2 stacks of Deadly Venom
• Expunge
  • 70/75/80/85/90 Mana, 12/11/10/9/8 second Cooldown
  • Deals 20/35/50/65/80 plus 15/20/25/30/35 (+0.2 Ability Power) (+0.25 bonus Attack Damage) per stack of Deadly Venom as physical damage to all nearby enemies affected by Deadly Venom
  • No longer removes Deadly Venom stacks
• Spray and Pray
  • 100/125/150 Mana, 120/110/100 second Cooldown
  • Twitch's basic attacks become powerful piercing bolts with 300 bonus range, and Twitch gains 20/28/36 Attack Damage. Each bolt deals 20% less damage to subsequent targets down to a minimum of 40% damage. Lasts 7 seconds.

Urgot

• Acid Hunter
  • Damage adjusted to 50/80/110/140/170 (+1.2 bonus Attack Damage) from 10/40/70/100/130 (+0.85 total Attack Damage)
  • Lock-on missile cast range reduced to 1200 from 1500
  • Fixed: Rank 1 range is no longer higher than the other ranks
• Noxian Corrosive Charge
  • Cooldown increased to 15/14/13/12/11 seconds from 11 at all ranks
  • Cast range reduced to 900 from 950
• Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
  • Cast range reduced to 550/700/850 from 700/775/850

Vladimir

• Sanguine Pool
  • Movement Speed bonus now decays over time

Xerath

• Arcane Barrage
  • Reduced the delay between casting the spell and the impact to 0.5 seconds from 0.875 seconds
  • The visual indicator for the ultimate will appear at the start of the cast bar instead of at the end

Xin Zhao (Remade)

• Stats
  • Base Attack Speed increased to 0.672 from 0.658
  • Attack Speed per level increased to 2.7% from 2.5%
  Challenge (Passive)
  • Xin Zhao challenges his target with his basic attacks and Audacious Charge, reducing their Armor by 15% for 3 seconds. Only one target can be challenged at a time.
• Three Talon Strikes
  • Now reduces his other ability cooldowns by 1 second with each strike
  • Attack Damage ratio increased to 1.2 from 1.0
  • Cooldown reduced to 9/8/7/6/5 seconds from 10
• Battle Cry
  • Passive: Heals Xin Zhao for 26/32/38/44/50 (+0.7 Ability Power) every third basic attack
  • Active no longer reduces other abilities' cooldowns
  • Cooldown reduced to 16/15/14/13/12 seconds from 24/22/20/18/16
  • Mana Cost increased to 40 from 35
• Audacious Charge
  • Now challenges the target
  • Damage increased to 70/115/160/205/250 (+0.6 Ability Power) from 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.4 Ability Power)
  • Slow increased to 25/30/35/40/45% from 20/25/30/35/40%
  • Slow duration increased to 2 seconds from 1.5
  • Range reduced to 600 from 650
  • Cooldown reduced to 13/12/11/10/9 seconds from 16/15/14/13/12
• Crescent Sweep
  • Now knocks all unchallenged targets back
  • Now has a 1.0 bonus Attack Damage ratio
  • Cooldown increased to 100/90/80 seconds from 75
  • Armor and Magic Resist bonus adjusted to 15/20/25 per champion hit from 25 + 7/10/13 per champion hit
  • Now has a new particle

Yorick

• Fixed: Unholy Covenant (Passive) no longer reduces true damage

Ziggs

• Satchel Charge
  • Cooldown reduced at earlier ranks to 26/24/22/20/18 seconds from 30/27/24/21/18

Summoner's Rift

• Outer turret vision range increased to 1095 from 800

Twisted Treeline

• The Dragon on Twisted Treeline now has the same chat kill announcement as the Dragon on Summoner's Rift

Items

• Heart of Gold
  • Health reduced to 200 from 250
• Ionic Spark
  • Added a counter to show when Ionic Spark will be charged
• Philosopher's Stone
  • Health Regen per 5 seconds reduced to 15 from 18
• Avarice Blade, Heart of Gold, Kage's Lucky Pick, and Philospher's Stone now have counters in their tooltip to indicate how much gold the item has generated over the course of the game

Co-op vs. AI

• Changed the way bots evaluate towers to better take into account minions and enemies
• Changed return to base logic for bots to make them more likely to heal and purchase items
• Dominion bots should now properly ignore invisible units when deciding to defend capture points
• Beginner bots are now less likely to assist each other during kill and retreat situations
• Fixed: Bot assist logic now works during the laning phase
• Updated Ashe Bot's item build
• Master Yi Bot should now properly purchase Sanguine Blade on Dominion instead of The Bloodthirster

General

• Added character portraits to the Spectator-mode Dragon and Baron kill announcements
• Fixed: Spectator no longer occasionally causes floating text announcements to be permanently displayed throughout the game
• Fixed: When using time controls, gold numbers will no longer get stuck on the screen for some users
• Fixed several issues that occur when reconnecting, including ghost minions, invisible champions, untargetable towers, and strange store behavior
• When disconnected, the game will now attempt to reconnect automatically

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Cass new particles

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League of Legends - Zyra Art Spotlight

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Ability Remake: Twitch, the Plague Rat

In an upcoming patch we’ll be revisiting one of our original classic champions: Twitch, the Plague Rat. Twitch’s Ambush ability will be seeing some changes to shift him toward a more aggressive role on the battlefield. Since this ability allowed Twitch to remain invisible for significant periods of time, enemy players were forced to adopt an extremely cautious and defensive playstyle in response. Since we want League of Legends to be a fun, fast-paced experience, we decided to update Twitch with a new version of Ambush.



Even beyond its duration, we saw some major issues with the Ambush ability, primarily surrounding the nature of the Attack Speed bonus that it provided. While Attack Speed helps quickly stack up charges of Deadly Venom, this bonus ramped up over the total duration Twitch remained invisible. This forced players to strike a balance between selecting the ideal time to strike and attempting to lurk for as long as possible in order to reach the maximum bonus. This was especially problematic for Plague Rat enthusiasts, since it forced Twitch to forego farming gold in order to reach his maximum Attack Speed bonus. 

To shift emphasis towards a more action-oriented style of play, we retooled Ambush to promote aggressive repositioning over stalking. The first step in accomplishing this was to change the ability so that it always applies the maximum Attack Speed bonus, solidifying the emphasis on selecting the opportune moment of attack. We also drastically shortened the duration to give the ability a more tactical context, and gave Ambush a Movement Speed boost to help Twitch quickly outflank his opponent.

Another issue Twitch faced was an over-reliance on the enormous damage potential of his ultimate ability. More often than not, Twitch’s success or failure on the battlefield depended on his ability to output massive amounts of damage over the course of Spray and Pray rather than on Deadly Venom and Expunge. Since most of his interesting gameplay revolved around poison combos, we wanted to augment this aspect of his kit both to make him more interesting to play and to make him less one dimensional. 

For starters, we noticed most Twitch players using Debilitating Poison to begin every engagement rather than waiting to build up stacks of Deadly Venom. For this reason, we decided to replace this ability with one that was better suited to initiating combat. This new ability, Venom Cask, not only allows Twitch to initiate by slowing a group of enemies at range, but also gives him a head start on his combo by adding stacks of Deadly Venom to those caught within the area of effect. To top things off, while Expunge still adds bonus damage for each stack of Deadly Venom on the target, it no longer consumes those stacks when cast, allowing your poisons to continue to tick away. Expunge will also now receive a damage bonus based on your total Attack Damage, preserving its function as a heavy hitting nuke even into the late game.

The final step in the process was repurposing Spray and Pray to better support this new emphasis on poison gameplay. To do this, we scaled back the massive, team-wide damage potential by making each missile deal reduced damage after passing through each target. To compensate for this, we increased its missile speed to make attacks more difficult to dodge and removed the ammunition requirement, allowing Twitch to spray poisoned arrows to his heart’s content for the full duration of his ultimate. This allows tanks to take the brunt of the initial assault for their team through good positioning, but still allows Twitch to douse the more vulnerable enemies at the back of the formation with stacks of Deadly Venom. These more powerful poison-delivery options help Twitch maintain a constant threat level, allowing him to take down high value targets without leaning so heavily on Spray and Pray.

Abilities

• Deadly Venom (Passive): Twitch’s basic attacks infect the target, dealing true damage over time.
• Ambush: Twitch becomes invisible for a short duration and gains Movement Speed. At the end of this effect, Twitch gains Attack Speed for a short duration.
• Venom Cask: Twitch hurls a cask of venom that explodes on contact, slowing targets in the area and applying Deadly Venom.
• Expunge: All nearby enemies secrete Twitch's Deadly Venom from their bodies, dealing damage for each stack.
• Spray and Pray: Twitch closes his eyes and rapidly fires his crossbow, quickly spraying powerful poisoned bolts ahead of him.

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#101 Champion Zyra (Plant Mage)

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Champion Spotlight - Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow

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Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow Revealed

If you’re ready to add a little versatility to your fighter or ranged carry game, look no further than Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow. Jayce’s transforming weapon allows him to adapt to nearly any situation, making him an extremely versatile champion for whatever role you need filled on the Fields of Justice.

The lynchpin in Jayce’s kit is his ultimate. Starting with a free rank at Level 1, Jayce can activate his ultimate to transform his weapon into either the short range Mercury Hammer or the long range Mercury Cannon. Each time he transitions he’ll receive a bonus effect on his next basic attack that either shreds the target’s defensive stats (ranged mode) or deals significantly increased damage (melee mode).

Selecting the right weapon type for your current engagement is the key to playing Jayce effectively. While ranged, Jayce can pepper enemies with ranged attacks, deploying Shock Blast and Hypercharge to wear down opponents while utilizing Acceleration Gate to keep his team at a safe distance. Having worn an enemy down in this manner, Acceleration Gate can be repurposed to give chase, allowing him to shift his weapon into its hammer form and leap into the fray with To The Skies!

Once he’s closed the distance, he can utilize Thundering Blow to pick up a quick kill, while the additional Armor from being in melee mode gives him the toughness necessary to either withdraw or continue fighting at close range. However you choose to play Jayce, canny shifting between his weapon modes will make or break your success on the battlefield.

Abilities (Mercury Hammer):

• Hextech Capacitor (Passive): Jayce gains a quick burst of movement speed and ignores unit collision each time Transform is cast
• To the Skies!: Jayce leaps to an enemy dealing physical damage and slowing enemies.
• Lightning Field:
  • Passive: Jayce restores mana per strike.
  • Active: Jayce creates a field of lightning damaging nearby enemies for several seconds.
• Thundering Blow: Jayce deals magic damage to an enemy based on their maximum health and knocks them back a short distance.
• Transform: Mercury Cannon (Ultimate): Transforms the Mercury Hammer into the Mercury Cannon gaining new abilities and increased range. The first attack in this form reduces the target's Armor and Magic Resist.

Abilities (Mercury Cannon)

• Hextech Capacitor (Passive): Jayce gains a quick burst of movement speed and ignores unit collision each time Transform is cast
• Shock Blast: Jayce fires an orb of electricity that detonates upon hitting an enemy (or reaching the end of its path) dealing physical damage to all enemies in the area of the explosion.
• Hyper Charge: Jayce gains a burst of energy, increasing attack speed to maximum for several attacks.
• Acceleration Gate: Jayce deploys an Acceleration Gate increasing the movement speed of all allies who pass through it. If Shock Blast is fired through the gate the missile speed, range, and damage will increase.
• Transform: Mercury Hammer (Ultimate): Transforms the Mercury Cannon into the Mercury Hammer gaining new abilities and increasing Armor and Magic Resist. The first attack in this form deals additional magic damage.

Lore:

Armed with wit, charm, and his signature transforming hammer, Jayce lives to protect his native Piltover. He rose to prominence as an inventor, one whose magnetic personality and innovative creations brightened the lives of his nation's people. However, his technological marvels also attracted the attention of Piltover's enemies. Viktor, the machine-augmented scientist from Zaun, staged a deadly raid on Jayce's laboratory. Barely impeded by the lab's meager security force, Viktor stole designs for an arcane power converter. Jayce was sure Viktor would use his technology to create devastating weapons. He implored the Piltover government to respond, but the officials were unwilling to support an act of aggression. He decided to take matters into his own hands, realizing that if he did not strike back now, Piltover would never be safe.

Jayce returned to his laboratory and began making preparations for his one-man attack. After an intense period of research, development, and hands-on testing, he emerged. He had created an array of powerful armaments, including his crowning achievement - the versatile, transforming Mercury Hammer. Armed and ready, Jayce began his assault, easily smashing aside Viktor's acolytes as they rushed to stop him. Jayce fought his way into the heart of the lab and confronted Viktor, forcing the Zaunite to flee. After destroying Viktor's prototype weapon, Jayce returned to Piltover where he was hailed as a hero. He reveled in the adoration, but he knew that his actions had provoked the nation's enemies. Now devoted to the defense of his people, Jayce is Piltover's best hope for a bright future.

''Trust me: if we're smart, Piltover can stand strong against any threat. Hey, I'm living proof.'' - Jayce

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