While the newest patch for League of Legends doesn’t include too many changes, it does have some big ones. Most notably, Urgot is receiving buffs that should bring him back to prominence in the top lane. On the other hand, Kayle’s late game is getting nerfed, and Ezreal won’t be able to stack Tear of the Goddess items going forward.
Patch Highlights 9.6
Full notes 👉 https://t.co/ae8QuD02x1 pic.twitter.com/s4uCS6awWU— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) March 20, 2019
The buffs
After hitting Urgot a bit too hard, he is getting power back through big changes to his kit. At maximum rank, Urgot’s turret form becomes a toggled ability with no mana cost, allowing one to remain in the form until disabled. The shield from this ability has been transferred over to his gap closer, which now costs less mana and does more damage early. His passive also no longer deals reduced damage to enemies. Finally, Urgot’s ultimate has a larger range and increased base damage. These changes will surely bring Urgot back into the meta, as the buffs help both his laning phase and team fight potential.
Many other champions received minor buffs. Neeko’s attack speed growth is being bumped back up after being nerfed during 9.5. Nautilus now has more base armor and his passive stun is on a shorter cooldown. Caitlyn’s ultimate now has an additional base 50 damage at every rank. Mega Gnar’s stun cooldown is reduced. While Ornn received some quality-of-life buffs, they don’t significantly impact his power potential.
The nerfs
As she exists now, Kayle’s weak early game is negated by her incredible power late game. While Kayle did receive quality-of-life buffs that make weaving spells into auto attacks more fluid, she was hit hard on the ratios that led to her late game power spike. Both Kayle’s attack damage and attack speed growth were lowered. Kayle will likely still be viable, but she won’t become a beast without proper items.
Zoe also got nerfs to her Sleepy Trouble Bubble ability. The cooldown has been increased at all ranks and the slow has been reduced at higher ranks. This change punishes Zoe for using her bubble in lane phase and gives some counterplay to dodge her followup damage once hit by it.
Ezreal was indirectly nerfed by changes to Tear of the Goddess items. Players can no longer stack items in the group, which was really only utilized by Ezreal. It also means that we can’t buy six tears at the end of games, which is a nerf to us all.
Other small nerfs include the reduction of Jayce’s health stats, which will make him weaker early in skirmishes. Rek’Sai’s ultimate ability has a higher cooldown at later ranks and the AD ratio is lower. Sylas’ heal has been weakened overall, and the ability power ratio has been slightly lowered.
Rune changes
The Minion Dematerializer and Overheal runes were also nerfed to allow for more variety in build paths. Dematerializer now only has three charges, although the damage bonuses have been increased. While the rune is still useful, it can’t be used to guarantee six straight cannon minions. For bot lane, Overheal’s shield has been reduced at early levels, which will affect the rune’s prominence in pro play.
Other changes
Bounties now won’t punish players as hard for gaining a farming lead. In addition, bounties can be reduced by losing a farming advantage. The scoreboard now more accurately displays bounties at all times.
Abilities should now more accurately proc on-hit, damage over time, and area of effect bonuses.
The changes to Diamond ranks and above are coming, and we wrote about what changes you can expect. For more details on these tweaks and many more, check out the official 9.6 patch notes.
And finally… skins
Perhaps the greatest League of Legends skin of all time is here, and it features Corki flying on a majestic Welsh Corgi. The 2019 April Fools skin line features Fizz, Corki, Rengar, and Yorick as our beloved feline and canine companions.
Do you like the 9.6 changes to League of Legends? What champions do you think need additional tuning? Let us know in the comments below!
Published: Mar 22, 2019 06:41 pm