Patch 5.5 notes
Champions
Bard
Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, will be released a bit later during Patch 5.5!
Azir
Increased the range at which soldiers can attack and spears 'pass through' to hit things further. Also base attack speed up.
Recent balance changes haven't been kind to Azir, so we're giving the Emperor some love targeted at his early-game feel when it comes to commanding soldiers. While these buffs don't solve all of Azir's problems, strengthening his sustained damage should ensure he isn't totally mummified.
General
BASE ATTACK SPEED 0.600 ⇒ 0.625
SOLDIER ATTACK RANGE 325 ⇒ 375
SPEAR PASSTHROUGH RANGE 100 ⇒ 50 (total range unchanged)
Gangplank
Weird bugs, man.
Passive - Grog-Soaked Blade
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where slow immune targets were also unaffected by the DoT
Gragas
Base mana up, damage cap versus monsters also up.
While not always thought of primarily as a Jungler, with the Buff Barge 2K15 docking at Jungle Island we thought it'd be a great time to pull back some of Graggy's stat restrictions to help drink Gromp and his friends under the table.
General
MANA 300 ⇒ 400
W - Drunken Rage
DAMAGE CAP VS MONSTERS 250 ⇒ 300
Karma
E - Defiance (Mantra)
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where allied champions were granted the inspire portion of the shield, instead of half of the defiance damage
Karthus
W - Wall of Pain
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where enemy champions could sometimes dash through Karthus' Wall of Pain without being slowed
Kassadin
R cooldown and mana costs are down, range up slightly.
Unlike Riftwalk, we went a little too far last patch. The focus of the changes were to lower the amount of instant mobility Kassadin had access to without changing his long-term movement too dramatically - this patch, we're tuning up his ultimate to put a little spring back into his Riftstep.
General
VISUALS Updated model, textures, animations and slight VFX changes for base and all skins
ICONS New ability icons
R - Riftwalk
COOLDOWN 7/5/3 seconds ⇒ 6/4/2 seconds
RANGE 450 ⇒ 500
COST 60 mana ⇒ 50 mana
Lissandra
Q damage down.
In all levels of play, Lissandra can be summed up in one word: consistency. In each lane she sees play, her relative safety (thanks to her amazing waveclear) sets her up as a top-tier threat thanks to Frozen Tomb's unforgiving CC. Not wanting to over-do it, we're hitting Ice Shard as a way to tone down her damage, clear (and by extension, safety) all in one go.
Q - Ice Shard
DAMAGE 75/110/145/180/215 magic damage ⇒ 70/100/130/160/190 magic damage
Nautilus
W damage down, E's cooldown, mana costs, and slow duration are all reduced.
By being the cornerstone to both his offensive AND defensive ability, Titan's Wrath forces Nautilus into a playstyle that is very binary - break the shield and he's harmless, or suffer if you fail to do so. Shifting power into Riptide lets him clear faster and take more actions per teamfight, which are two key areas we thought were weighing him down.
W - Titan's Wrath
DAMAGE 40/55/70/85/100 magic damage ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70 damage
RATIO 7/9.5/12/14.5/17% max health ⇒ 9/11/13/15/17% max health
E - Riptide
COOLDOWN 10 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds
COST 60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80 mana
RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power
SLOW DURATION 2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds
Nidalee
Trap damage now deals flat magic damage rather than a lower base damage + current health damage.
With the introduction of her rework, Bushwhack's current-health paradigm existed to soften up targets for big takedowns and secure vision to play with her new Hunt passive. Now one of the hottest junglers in the scene, it's enabled her to have the fastest clears in the game. For a skill with so many different uses as-is, we're re-balancing the damage so that while still useful with ability power, doesn't trivialize fighting the toughest monsters out there.
W - Bushwhack
DAMAGE 10/40/60/80/100 (+10/12/14/16/18 (+0.02 ability power)% current health) magic damage ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.2 ability power) magic damage
Rek'Sai
E - Tunnel
TUNNEL COUNT Now uses the ward spawning UI to show the number of existing tunnels vs the maximum as well as displaying which tunnel will be destroyed once you've reached the limit
Shyvana
E's damage proc up!
When looking to punch Shyvana's ticket aboard the Buff Barge, we decided a more general boost to her effectiveness would suffice. Often used for her mixed-damage and innate defensive stats, we like Shy most when she actually has to punch the stuffing out of you to win fights - so that's exactly what we're reinforcing here!
E - Flame Breath
BONUS DAMAGE AGAINST MARKED TARGETS 2% maximum health per autoattack ⇒ 2.5% maximum health per autoattack
Singed
It's called "Mega Adhesive," not "Adequate Adhesive." Fling in peace, summoners.
E - Fling
BUGFIX Fixed several cases where Flinging an enemy into Mega-Adhesive would not immediately root them
Sion
Q's mana costs down, ratio slightly up. E's mana costs up at later ranks.
When it comes to Super-Tanks in top lane, we actually like what Sion brings to teams and how he interacts with opponents, with the exception of his laning phase - so we're keeping things "power-netural" for the big zombie. Shifting power from screaming at minions to dropping the chopper on frightened opponents means it requires a little more effort to win the wet-noodle-war than just never running out of mana.
Q - Decimating Smash
COST 45/50/55/60/65 mana ⇒ 45 mana at all ranks
RATIO 0.6-1.8 total attack damage ⇒ 0.65-1.95 total attack damage
E - Roar of the Slayer
COST 35 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55 mana
Skarner
Q's damage up (hey, it stacks up man), E's damage at later ranks up.
You're not the only one that misses your kind, Skarner. Another beneficiary of our focus on jungles this patch, we're aiming to give more damage back to the scorpion, especially in the later-game where his rank-ups can feel relatively poor.
Q - Crystal Slash
DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 physical damage ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 physical damage
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy
E - Fracture
MAGIC DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180
Sona
For a while we've been normalizing mana costs on ultimates, and Sona's the recipient of the next round. Sona buffs. What a time to be alive.
Passive - Power Chord
BUGFIX No longer consumed on hitting blue trinket ward or Kalista's Sentinel
R - Crescendo
COST 100/150/200 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks
Soraka
Q - Starcall
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Starcall's bonus damage sweetspot was not multiplying the bonus damage from Soraka's AP
Tristana
Rapid Fire's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each basic attack she lands against an Explosive Charge'd champion.
When it comes right down to it, hyper-carries amongst marksmen usually care about one thing: basic attacking. As her primary source of damage, Tristana often felt awkward about giving up DPS to cast Explosive Shot, only to have them escape before she could make use of its damage potential. Adding the cooldown incentive should make it up to her, as well as giving her things to do when she's forced to shoot the durdling brawlers and tanks that try to scrap deep behind enemy lines.
Q - Rapid Fire
RAPIDEST FIRE Each basic attack against a target marked with Explosive Charge reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 1 second
Trundle
Passive range upped to match experience range. W's healing amp is now the same at all ranks, and R's been slightly buffed due to a bugfix.
What's a Tank to a King? While most of these changes are focused on bugfixes and feel improvements, we felt it wouldn't be fair to address such a large number of tanks and tank-enablers without mentioning their natural predator. Focusing on sustain and regen should let Trundle keep pace with his opponents, biding his time before he goes all-out clubbing and takes their hard-earned stats.
Passive - King's Tribute
RANGE 1000 ⇒ 1400
W - Frozen Domain
HEALING AMPLIFICATION 8/11/14/17/20% ⇒ 20% at all ranks
R - Subjugate
BUGFIX Fixed a bug that caused Subjugate to only steal 36% of the target's Armor and Magic Resistance instead of 40%
Urgot
Urgot's shield now also scales with total mana, and R's cooldown has been reduced at later levels.
Urgot's going to need a lot more under-the-hood work before he can hit the big-time, but in the interim we thought he could use some help. A Mana ratio on W makes his beefy/CDR build more rewarding, keeping him active in sustained fights without adding to his snowball potential once the Acid Hunters set their sights on you. Although he has a dark, secret past, even the buff barge couldn't resist giving some love to League's original scuttle-crab.
W - Terror Capacitor
BASE SHIELD 80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
newMANA RATIO 8% total mana
R - Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
COOLDOWN 120/110/100 ⇒ 120/100/80
Varus
Cooldown now starts ticking the moment he starts charging.
More of a quality of life change, Varus players should feel encouraged to charge their arrows instead of feeling penalized.
Q - Piercing Arrow
IONIAN SNIPER Now begins its cooldown at charge start, rather than when the arrow fires
Veigar
E's delay before walls appearing has been reduced slightly. Q is around 14% faster!
One of the larger themes for his 5.4 update was lowering reliability in favor of creating consistent high moments for master Veigar players. It appears we overshot (not a short joke), so we're dialing back to help Veigar feel less like a sitting duck when it comes to intense situations. Throw in some 'Quality of Doom' changes for Event Horizon, and the tiny master of evil should be turning tables and cackling like a super villain all the way to the nexus.
Q - Baleful Strike
MISSILE SPEED 1750 ⇒ 2000 (~14% faster)
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Baleful Strike would fail to cast if you got CCed during the cast
E - Event Horizon
DELAY BEFORE WALLS APPEAR 0.75 ⇒ 0.5
WARNING PARTICLE DISPLAY After cast time ⇒ On cast
Vi
Movement speed down, R damage down at early and mid ranks.
Known for punching first (and asking questions while punching), Vi's never been good about giving her opponents much of a chance to fight back. Being one of the toughest champions to peel (combined with devastating ganks) make fighting her feel stacked - so we're draining some power from these areas to even the odds.
General
MOVEMENT SPEED 350 ⇒ 345
R - Assault and Battery
PHYSICAL DAMAGE 200/325/450 ⇒ 150/300/450
Viktor
E - Death Ray
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where the detonation on upgraded Death Ray was canceling Viktor's autoattacks
Volibear
Bite a monster, get half your cooldown back. Winning!
W - Frenzy
newTASTES LIKE RAPTORS Refunds half of the cooldown if used on a monster
Xin Zhao
W's base healing up at early levels, E's damage up at later levels.
As a jungler on the borderline of viability, we're giving X to the Z a bump towards his strengths (sustain and skirmishing) to help him get down to business.
W - Battle Cry
BASE HEAL 26/32/38/44/50 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50
E - Audacious Charge
DAMAGE 70/105/140/175/210 magic damage ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage
Zac
Chunks now reduce W's cooldown, even if he casts it slightly after he picks up a chunk. E knocks up for longer.
Smoothing out Unstable Matter's CDR mechanic and doubling E's knockup time so Zac players can feel better about doing what they've always done: throw yourself with reckless abandon into the enemy team.
W - Unstable Matter
SLAM CHUNK Picking up a chunk now briefly gives Zac a "reservoir" of CDR, even if he casts W within the 1 second following pickup of a chunk.
E - Elastic Slingshot
KNOCKBACK DURATION 0.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second
Zilean
Q cooldown down.
As with all changes that both increase complexity and skill-ceiling, Zilean saw a pretty dramatic shift last patch. While we want to give more time for players to learn how to use him effectively, this change enables his Q+W+Q combo that folks are used to.
Q - Time Bomb
COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds
Mass Texture Rebalance (Part 8)
We're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the newly-updated Rift. Reminder: texture rebalancing isn't meant to replace - and doesn't delay - larger-scale updates!
Cho'Gath
Base, Gentleman, Jurassic, Loch Ness, Nightmare
Janna
Base, Frost Queen, Hextech, Tempest, Victorious
Taric
Base, Armor of the Fifth Age, Bloodstone, Emerald
Warwick
Base, Big Bad, Feral, Firefang, Grey, Hyena, Tundra Hunter, Urf
Items
new
Luden's Echo
IT'S HAPPENING!!!
Our new 120 ability power item is here to fill the void left by the passing of Deathfire Grasp (rest in pieces). Goals up front: we want to provide a unique item that helps out movement-focused, spell-slinging mages, like kitey Lux, bursty-train Akali, or even spell-slingy (that's a word) Karthus. Try it out and let us know what combinations work with you - we'll be keeping a close eye here as new experiments get brought out. It's also important to note that this works on spell hits, not basic attacks!
RECIPE Needlessly Large Rod + Aether Wisp + 650 gold (total cost: 3100 gold)
ABILITY POWER 120
MOVEMENT SPEED 7%
UNIQUE PASSIVE Gains charges upon moving or casting. At 100 charges, the next spell hit expends all charges to deal 100 (+0.15 ability power) bonus magic damage to up to 4 targets on hit. Applies spell Effects (e.g., Spell Vamp, Rylai's, etc).
Sweeping Lens (Tier 2 Red Trinket)
When the cooldown on the upgraded red trinket was increased, we missed the fact that the middle tier red trinket now had a lower cooldown than the item it upgraded into. We changed the tooltip last patch and we're making the actual change now.
COOLDOWN AT LEVEL 9+ 60 seconds ⇒ 75 seconds
Wards
THEATRICS Unskinned Sight and Vision Wards now have spawn and death animations to provide better feedback. Don't get distracted.
Jungle Items
new
Bami's Cinder
Baby sunfire.
We've mentioned this before, but one of our goals with this 'new' tanky jungle enchant was to provide an item that not only provides valuable tank stats but also helps junglers with their early to mid game clears. We've had to be very careful in balancing champions with this new item (ie: Amumu and Sejuani probably don't need anything in addition to the new Cinder), but we're excited to see what possibilities emerge. Want to play a tank jungler? GET FIRED.
RECIPE Ruby Crystal + 600 gold (1000 gold total)
HEALTH 300
UNIQUE PASSIVE Immolate - Deals 5 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Deals 50% bonus damage to minions and monsters.
new
Cinderhulk Enchantment
Juggernaut has been replaced by Cinderhulk.
See above with our point regarding a tanky item that also boosts clear speeds. This is that item all grown up. It's also important to note that +25% bonus health stat. Note it. Appreciate it.
RECIPE Tier 2 Jungle Item + Bami's Cinder + 350 gold (2200 gold total)
HEALTH 350
UNIQUE PASSIVE Grants +25% bonus health
UNIQUE PASSIVE Immolate - Deals 16 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Increases with time in combat up to 24 (+ 1.5 per champion level).
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire now builds out of Bami's Cinder instead of Giant's Belt.
Just a very small directional change to make Sunfire Cape more focused on wave clearing for tanky dudes. There's a little less health on that build path, but you can get to your area-effect burn a little faster.
RECIPE Chain Vest + Bami's Cinder + 850 gold (2600 gold total [unchanged])
STATS Unchanged. Just so you know.
newPASSIVE Is now UNIQUE so you know you can't stack it
Strategic Itemization
Raptor Cloak
BUFFS!
Since those two item build paths are so situational, we want you to feel better about just sitting on a Raptor Cloak.
ARMOR 30 ⇒ 40
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
Zz'rot Portal
MORE BUFFS!
Now that we think players have good ways to deal with this (see: ability power damage to structures, etc), we're giving it some extra love. Also, please don't build this item against Nasus. Trust us.
ARMOR 50 ⇒ 60
MAGIC RESISTANCE 50 ⇒ 60
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST STRUCTURES 50 ⇒ 100
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST NON-STRUCTURES 20 ⇒ 50
VOIDSPAWN TIME UNTIL THEY BEGIN TO DECAY 4 seconds ⇒ 5.5 seconds
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST INHIBITORS 300 ⇒ 350
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST NEXUS 300 ⇒ 450
Ohmwrecker
CASUALTY OF THE RAPTOR CLOAK BUFFS.
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
Righteous Glory
This item is actually very close to a healthy spot. We're just pushing it a little further so getting it earlier in the game improves its synergy with the new Cinderhulk enchantment.
HEALTH +500 ⇒ +650
Banner of Command
This item seems to actually be in a pretty healthy state. It's good for breaking delayed out sieges against an Anivia or Ziggs, and it's a strong augment to your own siege with a Baron buff. Only calling this out to note that we're still looking if it needs anything for later patches. In other words, we're just talking. Hello, how are you. We're fine.
UNCHANGED UNCHANGED. We just wanted to talk about Banner of Command, man.
Global Summoner's Rift Changes
Inhibitor Turrets
Inhibitor turrets give reduced gold and no experience.
This is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.
Global team gold on inhibitor turrets 175 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on inhibitor laser turrets 100 ⇒ 0
Nexus Turrets
Laser turrets give reduced gold and no experience.
See above! We can copy paste it here, that's okay: this is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.
Global team gold on nexus laser turrets 150 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on nexus laser turrets 120 ⇒ 0
Shield Turrets (inner turrets)
Middle lane inner turrets no longer have a shielding mechanic. Top and bottom lane turrets shield for less, but all turrets have more health.
The goal of turret shields has always been to mitigate the oppressiveness of poke-heavy teams when they hit their stride. That said, the shields are a little too weighted in favor of the defending team, and we're seeing common stallouts on mid-lane inner turrets. With this change, we still want to reward split pushing and smart map rotations as counters to stall-focused teams, but we're reducing a little strength here so they're not just artificially drawing out games.
removedGET POKED Middle lane inner turrets no longer shield nearby champions
Top and bottom lane turret shield health 200 ⇒ 30
Inner turret health 2000 ⇒ 2300
Minion Health
Minions got healthier, but turrets still do the same damage to them.
The unsung hero of sieging in League of Legends: minions. That said, they're currently not living up to their full potential and are getting washed out before any meaningful sieging can be done. Realizing this, we sent the minions to the gym so they'll be a little more resilient when marching down the lane. Our goal wasn't to affect last-hitting under turrets (hence the weird turret damage upgrade), but a bug made the timing slip by about 1.5 minutes. In other words, from 9:00 to 10:30, when you're last hitting minions under the turret, melee minions will have 6 more health when in "last hit" range (ie: after two turret shots), caster minions will have 3 more health (after one turret shot), and siege minions will have 9 more health.
CASTER MINIONS Caster minion health increased by 3 at 9 minutes, and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter
MELEE MINIONS Melee minion health increased by 6 at 9 minutes and an additional 6 every 90 seconds thereafter
SIEGE MINIONS Siege minion health increased by 9 at 9 minutes and an additional 9 every 90 seconds thereafter
OUTER AND INNER TURRETS Outer and inner turrets (non-laser) deal 3 damage per minion upgrade at 10.5 minutes and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter
Jungle Camps
Some of the inequalities between camps were a bit too pronounced, with some jungle routes being much, much better than others. Since one of our goals with the 2015 season was to ensure there wasn't a single best path for the jungle, but that junglers had to modify their clears (and jungle buffs) according to the pace of the game, we're adjusting. TLDR: Making camps easier.
GROMP ATTACK DAMAGE 90 ⇒ 83
LARGE RAPTOR DAMAGE 55 ⇒ 45
SMALL RAPTOR DAMAGE 20 ⇒ 16
BIG WOLF REWARD 48 gold ⇒ 53 gold
SMALL WOLF REWARD 14 gold ⇒ 16 gold
Gromp Buff Buffs
Say that three times fast. Gromp buff now scales with bonus health so jungle tanks can scale better in their jungle clears, even without Cinderhulk.
GROMP POISON 4 + (8 x level) ⇒ 10 + 10% of bonus health
Rift Scuttler Speed Boost
This includes all other things considered 'pets,' so Tibbers, Voidlings, and even clones. It's technically a Shaco buff too, which is concerning.
newHERE COMES TIBBERS The Rift Scuttler speed shrine now affects pets
new
Dragon Buff Counter for Spectator
Counts buffs, not kills. Also glows when a team hits 5 stacks. Very exciting.
newEXISTS Is now a thing
End of Summoner's Rift Beta
Patch 5.5 marks the end of the Summoner's Rift Beta we launched last November! We're celebrating this milestone with a comprehensive colors pass and the animated Victory/Defeat screens we teased back in our beta announcement video.
Though the beta has come to an end, we're continuing to look for opportunities to update the rift. We really appreciate all the feedback you've given us and hope that, together, we've made Summoner's Rift a place you want to spend your game time in.
Visual Rebalance
We've heard a lot of player feedback around the art style of the updated Rift: many of you feel the new map is less vivid and lively than the original. We've been working on a comprehensive pass to bring back some of the vibrance of the old Summoner's Rift without sacrificing the clarity and readability the update offers.
HUE & SATURATION Amped up to make the environment feel warmer and help the more colorful map elements pop
VALUE RANGE Widened while maintaining champion and particle contrast against the environment
MAP DETAILS More have been added to help anchor your champion on the map, similar to how each quadrant of the jungle has a distinct feel. We also added a duck, but he's pretty noncommittal so you might not see him too frequently.
LIGHTING & SHADOWS Redone to be more consistent across the map and give a greater sense of direction and three-dimensionality
Victory & Defeat Banners
Looks cool but we ran into technical issues when we launched the beta, so we decided to ship without them. That's…about all the context we have.
VICTORY & DEFEAT BANNERS Image ⇒ Animated
Landing Page Articles
We're making a change to the landing page which'll allow you to read news articles in-client instead of being linked out to your web browser. We've got a bit more testing to do following the release of patch 5.5 so this won't be active right off the bat, but look for this quality-of-life improvement in the weeks to come!
Champions
Bard
Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, will be released a bit later during Patch 5.5!
Azir
Increased the range at which soldiers can attack and spears 'pass through' to hit things further. Also base attack speed up.
Recent balance changes haven't been kind to Azir, so we're giving the Emperor some love targeted at his early-game feel when it comes to commanding soldiers. While these buffs don't solve all of Azir's problems, strengthening his sustained damage should ensure he isn't totally mummified.
General
BASE ATTACK SPEED 0.600 ⇒ 0.625
SOLDIER ATTACK RANGE 325 ⇒ 375
SPEAR PASSTHROUGH RANGE 100 ⇒ 50 (total range unchanged)
Gangplank
Weird bugs, man.
Passive - Grog-Soaked Blade
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where slow immune targets were also unaffected by the DoT
Gragas
Base mana up, damage cap versus monsters also up.
While not always thought of primarily as a Jungler, with the Buff Barge 2K15 docking at Jungle Island we thought it'd be a great time to pull back some of Graggy's stat restrictions to help drink Gromp and his friends under the table.
General
MANA 300 ⇒ 400
W - Drunken Rage
DAMAGE CAP VS MONSTERS 250 ⇒ 300
Karma
E - Defiance (Mantra)
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where allied champions were granted the inspire portion of the shield, instead of half of the defiance damage
Karthus
W - Wall of Pain
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where enemy champions could sometimes dash through Karthus' Wall of Pain without being slowed
Kassadin
R cooldown and mana costs are down, range up slightly.
Unlike Riftwalk, we went a little too far last patch. The focus of the changes were to lower the amount of instant mobility Kassadin had access to without changing his long-term movement too dramatically - this patch, we're tuning up his ultimate to put a little spring back into his Riftstep.
General
VISUALS Updated model, textures, animations and slight VFX changes for base and all skins
ICONS New ability icons
R - Riftwalk
COOLDOWN 7/5/3 seconds ⇒ 6/4/2 seconds
RANGE 450 ⇒ 500
COST 60 mana ⇒ 50 mana
Lissandra
Q damage down.
In all levels of play, Lissandra can be summed up in one word: consistency. In each lane she sees play, her relative safety (thanks to her amazing waveclear) sets her up as a top-tier threat thanks to Frozen Tomb's unforgiving CC. Not wanting to over-do it, we're hitting Ice Shard as a way to tone down her damage, clear (and by extension, safety) all in one go.
Q - Ice Shard
DAMAGE 75/110/145/180/215 magic damage ⇒ 70/100/130/160/190 magic damage
Nautilus
W damage down, E's cooldown, mana costs, and slow duration are all reduced.
By being the cornerstone to both his offensive AND defensive ability, Titan's Wrath forces Nautilus into a playstyle that is very binary - break the shield and he's harmless, or suffer if you fail to do so. Shifting power into Riptide lets him clear faster and take more actions per teamfight, which are two key areas we thought were weighing him down.
W - Titan's Wrath
DAMAGE 40/55/70/85/100 magic damage ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70 damage
RATIO 7/9.5/12/14.5/17% max health ⇒ 9/11/13/15/17% max health
E - Riptide
COOLDOWN 10 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds
COST 60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80 mana
RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power
SLOW DURATION 2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds
Nidalee
Trap damage now deals flat magic damage rather than a lower base damage + current health damage.
With the introduction of her rework, Bushwhack's current-health paradigm existed to soften up targets for big takedowns and secure vision to play with her new Hunt passive. Now one of the hottest junglers in the scene, it's enabled her to have the fastest clears in the game. For a skill with so many different uses as-is, we're re-balancing the damage so that while still useful with ability power, doesn't trivialize fighting the toughest monsters out there.
W - Bushwhack
DAMAGE 10/40/60/80/100 (+10/12/14/16/18 (+0.02 ability power)% current health) magic damage ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.2 ability power) magic damage
Rek'Sai
E - Tunnel
TUNNEL COUNT Now uses the ward spawning UI to show the number of existing tunnels vs the maximum as well as displaying which tunnel will be destroyed once you've reached the limit
Shyvana
E's damage proc up!
When looking to punch Shyvana's ticket aboard the Buff Barge, we decided a more general boost to her effectiveness would suffice. Often used for her mixed-damage and innate defensive stats, we like Shy most when she actually has to punch the stuffing out of you to win fights - so that's exactly what we're reinforcing here!
E - Flame Breath
BONUS DAMAGE AGAINST MARKED TARGETS 2% maximum health per autoattack ⇒ 2.5% maximum health per autoattack
Singed
It's called "Mega Adhesive," not "Adequate Adhesive." Fling in peace, summoners.
E - Fling
BUGFIX Fixed several cases where Flinging an enemy into Mega-Adhesive would not immediately root them
Sion
Q's mana costs down, ratio slightly up. E's mana costs up at later ranks.
When it comes to Super-Tanks in top lane, we actually like what Sion brings to teams and how he interacts with opponents, with the exception of his laning phase - so we're keeping things "power-netural" for the big zombie. Shifting power from screaming at minions to dropping the chopper on frightened opponents means it requires a little more effort to win the wet-noodle-war than just never running out of mana.
Q - Decimating Smash
COST 45/50/55/60/65 mana ⇒ 45 mana at all ranks
RATIO 0.6-1.8 total attack damage ⇒ 0.65-1.95 total attack damage
E - Roar of the Slayer
COST 35 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55 mana
Skarner
Q's damage up (hey, it stacks up man), E's damage at later ranks up.
You're not the only one that misses your kind, Skarner. Another beneficiary of our focus on jungles this patch, we're aiming to give more damage back to the scorpion, especially in the later-game where his rank-ups can feel relatively poor.
Q - Crystal Slash
DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 physical damage ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 physical damage
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE 18/28/38/48/58 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy
E - Fracture
MAGIC DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180
Sona
For a while we've been normalizing mana costs on ultimates, and Sona's the recipient of the next round. Sona buffs. What a time to be alive.
Passive - Power Chord
BUGFIX No longer consumed on hitting blue trinket ward or Kalista's Sentinel
R - Crescendo
COST 100/150/200 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks
Soraka
Q - Starcall
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Starcall's bonus damage sweetspot was not multiplying the bonus damage from Soraka's AP
Tristana
Rapid Fire's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each basic attack she lands against an Explosive Charge'd champion.
When it comes right down to it, hyper-carries amongst marksmen usually care about one thing: basic attacking. As her primary source of damage, Tristana often felt awkward about giving up DPS to cast Explosive Shot, only to have them escape before she could make use of its damage potential. Adding the cooldown incentive should make it up to her, as well as giving her things to do when she's forced to shoot the durdling brawlers and tanks that try to scrap deep behind enemy lines.
Q - Rapid Fire
RAPIDEST FIRE Each basic attack against a target marked with Explosive Charge reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 1 second
Trundle
Passive range upped to match experience range. W's healing amp is now the same at all ranks, and R's been slightly buffed due to a bugfix.
What's a Tank to a King? While most of these changes are focused on bugfixes and feel improvements, we felt it wouldn't be fair to address such a large number of tanks and tank-enablers without mentioning their natural predator. Focusing on sustain and regen should let Trundle keep pace with his opponents, biding his time before he goes all-out clubbing and takes their hard-earned stats.
Passive - King's Tribute
RANGE 1000 ⇒ 1400
W - Frozen Domain
HEALING AMPLIFICATION 8/11/14/17/20% ⇒ 20% at all ranks
R - Subjugate
BUGFIX Fixed a bug that caused Subjugate to only steal 36% of the target's Armor and Magic Resistance instead of 40%
Urgot
Urgot's shield now also scales with total mana, and R's cooldown has been reduced at later levels.
Urgot's going to need a lot more under-the-hood work before he can hit the big-time, but in the interim we thought he could use some help. A Mana ratio on W makes his beefy/CDR build more rewarding, keeping him active in sustained fights without adding to his snowball potential once the Acid Hunters set their sights on you. Although he has a dark, secret past, even the buff barge couldn't resist giving some love to League's original scuttle-crab.
W - Terror Capacitor
BASE SHIELD 80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
newMANA RATIO 8% total mana
R - Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
COOLDOWN 120/110/100 ⇒ 120/100/80
Varus
Cooldown now starts ticking the moment he starts charging.
More of a quality of life change, Varus players should feel encouraged to charge their arrows instead of feeling penalized.
Q - Piercing Arrow
IONIAN SNIPER Now begins its cooldown at charge start, rather than when the arrow fires
Veigar
E's delay before walls appearing has been reduced slightly. Q is around 14% faster!
One of the larger themes for his 5.4 update was lowering reliability in favor of creating consistent high moments for master Veigar players. It appears we overshot (not a short joke), so we're dialing back to help Veigar feel less like a sitting duck when it comes to intense situations. Throw in some 'Quality of Doom' changes for Event Horizon, and the tiny master of evil should be turning tables and cackling like a super villain all the way to the nexus.
Q - Baleful Strike
MISSILE SPEED 1750 ⇒ 2000 (~14% faster)
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Baleful Strike would fail to cast if you got CCed during the cast
E - Event Horizon
DELAY BEFORE WALLS APPEAR 0.75 ⇒ 0.5
WARNING PARTICLE DISPLAY After cast time ⇒ On cast
Vi
Movement speed down, R damage down at early and mid ranks.
Known for punching first (and asking questions while punching), Vi's never been good about giving her opponents much of a chance to fight back. Being one of the toughest champions to peel (combined with devastating ganks) make fighting her feel stacked - so we're draining some power from these areas to even the odds.
General
MOVEMENT SPEED 350 ⇒ 345
R - Assault and Battery
PHYSICAL DAMAGE 200/325/450 ⇒ 150/300/450
Viktor
E - Death Ray
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where the detonation on upgraded Death Ray was canceling Viktor's autoattacks
Volibear
Bite a monster, get half your cooldown back. Winning!
W - Frenzy
newTASTES LIKE RAPTORS Refunds half of the cooldown if used on a monster
Xin Zhao
W's base healing up at early levels, E's damage up at later levels.
As a jungler on the borderline of viability, we're giving X to the Z a bump towards his strengths (sustain and skirmishing) to help him get down to business.
W - Battle Cry
BASE HEAL 26/32/38/44/50 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50
E - Audacious Charge
DAMAGE 70/105/140/175/210 magic damage ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage
Zac
Chunks now reduce W's cooldown, even if he casts it slightly after he picks up a chunk. E knocks up for longer.
Smoothing out Unstable Matter's CDR mechanic and doubling E's knockup time so Zac players can feel better about doing what they've always done: throw yourself with reckless abandon into the enemy team.
W - Unstable Matter
SLAM CHUNK Picking up a chunk now briefly gives Zac a "reservoir" of CDR, even if he casts W within the 1 second following pickup of a chunk.
E - Elastic Slingshot
KNOCKBACK DURATION 0.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second
Zilean
Q cooldown down.
As with all changes that both increase complexity and skill-ceiling, Zilean saw a pretty dramatic shift last patch. While we want to give more time for players to learn how to use him effectively, this change enables his Q+W+Q combo that folks are used to.
Q - Time Bomb
COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds
Mass Texture Rebalance (Part 8)
We're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the newly-updated Rift. Reminder: texture rebalancing isn't meant to replace - and doesn't delay - larger-scale updates!
Cho'Gath
Base, Gentleman, Jurassic, Loch Ness, Nightmare
Janna
Base, Frost Queen, Hextech, Tempest, Victorious
Taric
Base, Armor of the Fifth Age, Bloodstone, Emerald
Warwick
Base, Big Bad, Feral, Firefang, Grey, Hyena, Tundra Hunter, Urf
Items
new
Luden's Echo
IT'S HAPPENING!!!
Our new 120 ability power item is here to fill the void left by the passing of Deathfire Grasp (rest in pieces). Goals up front: we want to provide a unique item that helps out movement-focused, spell-slinging mages, like kitey Lux, bursty-train Akali, or even spell-slingy (that's a word) Karthus. Try it out and let us know what combinations work with you - we'll be keeping a close eye here as new experiments get brought out. It's also important to note that this works on spell hits, not basic attacks!
RECIPE Needlessly Large Rod + Aether Wisp + 650 gold (total cost: 3100 gold)
ABILITY POWER 120
MOVEMENT SPEED 7%
UNIQUE PASSIVE Gains charges upon moving or casting. At 100 charges, the next spell hit expends all charges to deal 100 (+0.15 ability power) bonus magic damage to up to 4 targets on hit. Applies spell Effects (e.g., Spell Vamp, Rylai's, etc).
Sweeping Lens (Tier 2 Red Trinket)
When the cooldown on the upgraded red trinket was increased, we missed the fact that the middle tier red trinket now had a lower cooldown than the item it upgraded into. We changed the tooltip last patch and we're making the actual change now.
COOLDOWN AT LEVEL 9+ 60 seconds ⇒ 75 seconds
Wards
THEATRICS Unskinned Sight and Vision Wards now have spawn and death animations to provide better feedback. Don't get distracted.
Jungle Items
new
Bami's Cinder
Baby sunfire.
We've mentioned this before, but one of our goals with this 'new' tanky jungle enchant was to provide an item that not only provides valuable tank stats but also helps junglers with their early to mid game clears. We've had to be very careful in balancing champions with this new item (ie: Amumu and Sejuani probably don't need anything in addition to the new Cinder), but we're excited to see what possibilities emerge. Want to play a tank jungler? GET FIRED.
RECIPE Ruby Crystal + 600 gold (1000 gold total)
HEALTH 300
UNIQUE PASSIVE Immolate - Deals 5 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Deals 50% bonus damage to minions and monsters.
new
Cinderhulk Enchantment
Juggernaut has been replaced by Cinderhulk.
See above with our point regarding a tanky item that also boosts clear speeds. This is that item all grown up. It's also important to note that +25% bonus health stat. Note it. Appreciate it.
RECIPE Tier 2 Jungle Item + Bami's Cinder + 350 gold (2200 gold total)
HEALTH 350
UNIQUE PASSIVE Grants +25% bonus health
UNIQUE PASSIVE Immolate - Deals 16 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Increases with time in combat up to 24 (+ 1.5 per champion level).
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire now builds out of Bami's Cinder instead of Giant's Belt.
Just a very small directional change to make Sunfire Cape more focused on wave clearing for tanky dudes. There's a little less health on that build path, but you can get to your area-effect burn a little faster.
RECIPE Chain Vest + Bami's Cinder + 850 gold (2600 gold total [unchanged])
STATS Unchanged. Just so you know.
newPASSIVE Is now UNIQUE so you know you can't stack it
Strategic Itemization
Raptor Cloak
BUFFS!
Since those two item build paths are so situational, we want you to feel better about just sitting on a Raptor Cloak.
ARMOR 30 ⇒ 40
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
Zz'rot Portal
MORE BUFFS!
Now that we think players have good ways to deal with this (see: ability power damage to structures, etc), we're giving it some extra love. Also, please don't build this item against Nasus. Trust us.
ARMOR 50 ⇒ 60
MAGIC RESISTANCE 50 ⇒ 60
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST STRUCTURES 50 ⇒ 100
VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST NON-STRUCTURES 20 ⇒ 50
VOIDSPAWN TIME UNTIL THEY BEGIN TO DECAY 4 seconds ⇒ 5.5 seconds
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST INHIBITORS 300 ⇒ 350
VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST NEXUS 300 ⇒ 450
Ohmwrecker
CASUALTY OF THE RAPTOR CLOAK BUFFS.
newUNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets
Righteous Glory
This item is actually very close to a healthy spot. We're just pushing it a little further so getting it earlier in the game improves its synergy with the new Cinderhulk enchantment.
HEALTH +500 ⇒ +650
Banner of Command
This item seems to actually be in a pretty healthy state. It's good for breaking delayed out sieges against an Anivia or Ziggs, and it's a strong augment to your own siege with a Baron buff. Only calling this out to note that we're still looking if it needs anything for later patches. In other words, we're just talking. Hello, how are you. We're fine.
UNCHANGED UNCHANGED. We just wanted to talk about Banner of Command, man.
Global Summoner's Rift Changes
Inhibitor Turrets
Inhibitor turrets give reduced gold and no experience.
This is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.
Global team gold on inhibitor turrets 175 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on inhibitor laser turrets 100 ⇒ 0
Nexus Turrets
Laser turrets give reduced gold and no experience.
See above! We can copy paste it here, that's okay: this is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.
Global team gold on nexus laser turrets 150 ⇒ 50
Global team experience on nexus laser turrets 120 ⇒ 0
Shield Turrets (inner turrets)
Middle lane inner turrets no longer have a shielding mechanic. Top and bottom lane turrets shield for less, but all turrets have more health.
The goal of turret shields has always been to mitigate the oppressiveness of poke-heavy teams when they hit their stride. That said, the shields are a little too weighted in favor of the defending team, and we're seeing common stallouts on mid-lane inner turrets. With this change, we still want to reward split pushing and smart map rotations as counters to stall-focused teams, but we're reducing a little strength here so they're not just artificially drawing out games.
removedGET POKED Middle lane inner turrets no longer shield nearby champions
Top and bottom lane turret shield health 200 ⇒ 30
Inner turret health 2000 ⇒ 2300
Minion Health
Minions got healthier, but turrets still do the same damage to them.
The unsung hero of sieging in League of Legends: minions. That said, they're currently not living up to their full potential and are getting washed out before any meaningful sieging can be done. Realizing this, we sent the minions to the gym so they'll be a little more resilient when marching down the lane. Our goal wasn't to affect last-hitting under turrets (hence the weird turret damage upgrade), but a bug made the timing slip by about 1.5 minutes. In other words, from 9:00 to 10:30, when you're last hitting minions under the turret, melee minions will have 6 more health when in "last hit" range (ie: after two turret shots), caster minions will have 3 more health (after one turret shot), and siege minions will have 9 more health.
CASTER MINIONS Caster minion health increased by 3 at 9 minutes, and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter
MELEE MINIONS Melee minion health increased by 6 at 9 minutes and an additional 6 every 90 seconds thereafter
SIEGE MINIONS Siege minion health increased by 9 at 9 minutes and an additional 9 every 90 seconds thereafter
OUTER AND INNER TURRETS Outer and inner turrets (non-laser) deal 3 damage per minion upgrade at 10.5 minutes and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter
Jungle Camps
Some of the inequalities between camps were a bit too pronounced, with some jungle routes being much, much better than others. Since one of our goals with the 2015 season was to ensure there wasn't a single best path for the jungle, but that junglers had to modify their clears (and jungle buffs) according to the pace of the game, we're adjusting. TLDR: Making camps easier.
GROMP ATTACK DAMAGE 90 ⇒ 83
LARGE RAPTOR DAMAGE 55 ⇒ 45
SMALL RAPTOR DAMAGE 20 ⇒ 16
BIG WOLF REWARD 48 gold ⇒ 53 gold
SMALL WOLF REWARD 14 gold ⇒ 16 gold
Gromp Buff Buffs
Say that three times fast. Gromp buff now scales with bonus health so jungle tanks can scale better in their jungle clears, even without Cinderhulk.
GROMP POISON 4 + (8 x level) ⇒ 10 + 10% of bonus health
Rift Scuttler Speed Boost
This includes all other things considered 'pets,' so Tibbers, Voidlings, and even clones. It's technically a Shaco buff too, which is concerning.
newHERE COMES TIBBERS The Rift Scuttler speed shrine now affects pets
new
Dragon Buff Counter for Spectator
Counts buffs, not kills. Also glows when a team hits 5 stacks. Very exciting.
newEXISTS Is now a thing
End of Summoner's Rift Beta
Patch 5.5 marks the end of the Summoner's Rift Beta we launched last November! We're celebrating this milestone with a comprehensive colors pass and the animated Victory/Defeat screens we teased back in our beta announcement video.
Though the beta has come to an end, we're continuing to look for opportunities to update the rift. We really appreciate all the feedback you've given us and hope that, together, we've made Summoner's Rift a place you want to spend your game time in.
Visual Rebalance
We've heard a lot of player feedback around the art style of the updated Rift: many of you feel the new map is less vivid and lively than the original. We've been working on a comprehensive pass to bring back some of the vibrance of the old Summoner's Rift without sacrificing the clarity and readability the update offers.
HUE & SATURATION Amped up to make the environment feel warmer and help the more colorful map elements pop
VALUE RANGE Widened while maintaining champion and particle contrast against the environment
MAP DETAILS More have been added to help anchor your champion on the map, similar to how each quadrant of the jungle has a distinct feel. We also added a duck, but he's pretty noncommittal so you might not see him too frequently.
LIGHTING & SHADOWS Redone to be more consistent across the map and give a greater sense of direction and three-dimensionality
Victory & Defeat Banners
Looks cool but we ran into technical issues when we launched the beta, so we decided to ship without them. That's…about all the context we have.
VICTORY & DEFEAT BANNERS Image ⇒ Animated
Landing Page Articles
We're making a change to the landing page which'll allow you to read news articles in-client instead of being linked out to your web browser. We've got a bit more testing to do following the release of patch 5.5 so this won't be active right off the bat, but look for this quality-of-life improvement in the weeks to come!