League of Legends nerfs and buffs in 10.3 patch

Riot Games have released a massive patch earlier on Tuesday, which introduced a plethora of nerfs and buffs to our favourite League of Legends champions, as well as slight changes to the jungle and VFX updates for some of the older champions. 

 

Getting hit by Aphelios Q from across the map, trying to stop a fed Akali from laying waste on your team or laning against the so-called "support" Senna have been some of the most infuriating and frustrating things League of Legends players were dealing with in recent weeks, however, Riot Games have addressed the issues and hit all three champions with a nerf, which should restore some balance to the Summoner's Rift. 

However, Aphelios, Akali and Senna are not the only three champions which were slightly tweaked in 10.3 patch. Instead, there were a total of 16 champions who got patched, six of whom received marginal buffs, while the remaining 10 were tuned down. Besides that, patch 10.3 also introduced jungle monster changes, VFX and SFX updates, ARAM Balance changes, bugfixes, and of course new skins and chromas. Here we will look over the patch notes for patch 10.3.

CHAMPION CHANGES

 

Akali

Akali has seen the most work done to her out of all the champions who are receiving an update this patch. As stated by Riot Games, the changes made to the Rogue Assasin are due to her presence in pro play where she can be a force to be reckoned with in the right hands. While the implemented changes will be very notable in the professional scene, the everyday players will hardly notice the difference.

The biggest issue Riot games tackled with Akali changes was the sheer number of options Akali had when approaching fights and/or surviving bad situations. Many would agree Akali was simply too flexible, as she was able to split push and team fight without the need to commit to a specific playstyle. 

Five Point Strike (Q) – Energy cost increased from 100/95/90/85/80 to 120/115/110/105/100.

Twilight Shroud (W) – Movement speed in shroud increased, but changed to decaying MS – from 0/25/30/35/40% movement speed to 30/35/40/45/50% decaying movement speed for 2 seconds on the cast.

Perfect Execution (R) – Changed targeting, from target direction to target enemy champion -essentially turning her ultimate into point and click spell. The range of this new ultimate will be set to 675, while the dash distance will be at 675-825 based on distance from the enemy.

 

Aphelios

Aphelios will finally receive a nerf for his Calibrum, The Sniper Rifle, which to date had an infinite range and was arguably way too overpowered.

Calibrum, The Sniper Rifle (Q) – Marked enemy range changed from infinite to 1800 units.

 

Azir

Changing Azir is a very complex thing, which is why Riot Games decided to be very cautious when buffing him, as to avoid power-tripping. Nonetheless, the Emperor has received a minor buff in both mana base stat and his ultimate spell.

Base stats: Mana increased from 438 to 480.

Emperor's Divide (R) – Wall length increased from 5/6/7 soldiers to 6/7/8 soldiers.

 

Corki

Everyone's favourite Yordle pilot has received a very welcomed buff to his Special Delivery, which Riot Believed was not used aggressively enough. For that reason, they added some additional effect for it.

Special Delivery (W) – Damage per second ratio significantly increased from 0.375 bonus attack damage, 0.05 ability power to 0.5 bonus attack damage, 0.06 ability power. The duration of the bur has also been increased by 50% from 1 second to 1.5 seconds.

NEW: Carrier Pigeon: Now slows down champions that are directly hit and knocks them aside for 1.5 seconds.

 

Diana

Slight nerfs for Diana, who got her base mana decreased as well as reduced damage of her Pale Cascade orbs.

Base Stats: Mana decreased from 420 to 375.

Pale Cascade (W) – Damage per org decreased from 22/34/46/58/70 to 18/30/42/54/66.

 

Ekko

Riot Games seemingly believed that the boy who shattered time had a slightly too easy time in the jungle, which is why Ekko has received a nerf on his passive, which will now do lower damage against jungle monsters.

Z-Drive Resonance (Passive) – Resonance stack damage to monsters reduced from200% to 150%.

 

Ezreal

Once the go-to ADC champion and now almost completely forgotten, Ezreal has fallen out of favour with players due to the dominance of Aphelios, Senna and Miss Fortune in the bottom lane. Buffs to Ezreal have been long overdue, but they are finally here, although only to his base stats.

Base stats: Mana growth increased from 42 to 50, while the attack speed growth has been increased from 1.5% to 2.5%.

 

Galio

In the right hands, Galio can be a force to be reckoned with and now, he is getting even stronger with a buff to his Q tornado damage.

Winds of War (Q) – Tornado duration increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Tornado damage ticks increased by 33% from 3 to 4.

 

Leona

The queen of the bottom lane and arguably one of the most annoying support champions to lane against, Leona, is receiving a nerf to her Eclipse and Zenith Blade damage.

Eclipse (W) – Damage reduced from 60/100/140/180/220 to 60/95/130/165/200.

Zenith Blade (E) – Damage reduced from 60/100/140/180/220 to 50/90/130/170/210.

 

Miss Fortune

Miss Fortune has been doing exceptionally well in all skill brackets, which called for some nerfs to tune her down a bit. Instead of ability nerfs, however, Riot Games balance team decided to make some changes to her base stats, as to not punish players who know how to utilize her abilities better.

Base stats: Attack speed growth decreased from 3% to 2.25%.

 

Rumble

Rumble will see his base stats rounded, receive a slight nerfs to his Scrap Shield bonus movement speed and his shield.

Base stats: Armor increased from 30.88 to 31, attack damage decreased from 61.036 to 61.

Scrap Shield (W) – Bonus movement speed decreased from 20/25/30/35/40% (30/37.5/45/52.5/60% when enhanced) to 15/20/25/30/35% (22.5/30/37.5/45/52.5% when enhanced).

Shield decreased from 80/110/140/170/200 to 60/95/130/165/200.

 

Sejuani

Sejuani is getting a small buff, but will also see some elements to her passive removed, as Riot believes those elements are not capitalized on by most of the players. That said, the Riot Games balance team has unveiled that with the removal of some elements of her passive, it gives them room to buff her in the future, if the need arises.

Base stats: Bonus attack speed at level 1 increased from 0% to 10%.

Fury of the North (Passive) – Frost armour removed.

 

Senna

Everyone's favourite support… scratch that; everyone's favourite ADC champion is getting Mist Wraith's drop chance adjusted in order to make her less dominant as a support. Riot Games will also fix her Curse of the Black Mist bug.

Absolution (Passive) – Mist Wraith Drop chance changed from 20% on minions Senna doesn't kill, 100% on cannon minions Senna kills to 25% on minions Senna doesn't kill and 1.67% on cannon minions Senna kills.

NEW: Mist Wraith Drop Chance (Spoils of War) – Minion kills via spoils of War (Relic Shield and Steel Shoulderguards) that Seena gets credit for now count as kills by Senna, reducing the drop chance to 1.67%.

Curse of the Black Mist (E) – Bugfix, where allies camouflaged by Curse of the Black mist no longer become invisible if Senna dies, meaning the ability's effect will persist through Senna's death.

 

Sett

The newest addition to the Rift will receive some significant nerf, as he proved to be too strong to deal with and many players would agree – besides the new Sett's One Tricks and mains. The changes will make it so it will be harder for Sett to duel, as the players will have to focus on making the most out of his Haymaker instead of spamming it multiple times in a single fight.

Base stats: Health regen decreased from 9.25 to 8.

Haymaker (W) – Cooldown increased from 16/14/12/10/8 seconds to 18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds. It's base damage has also been decreased from 90/125/160/195/230 to 90/120/150/180/210.

 

Sona

Riot Games balance team believes Sona is way too fast for other champions, which is why her Song of Celerity is receiving a notable nerf to slow her down a bit.

Song of Celerity (E) – Self-movement speed decreased from 25% (+0.04 per 100 ability power) to 20% (+0.03 per 100 ability power).

 

Yuumi

Yummi will receive a plethora of changes to her abilities. Her Prowling Projectile will now take into account the target's health, while You and Me will no longer be affected by silences, making Yummi much harder to catch off guard. Zoomies is also receiving its flat damage decreased, in favour of bonus ability power damage.

Prowling Projectile (Q) – damage changed from 50/95/140/185/230/275 (+0.4 ability power) to 45/80/115/150/185/220 (+0.4 ability power) (+0.02-0.08 of target's current health).Cost of the spell has also been changed to 90 at all ranks.

You and Me! (W) – Silences will no longer count as immobilizing effect that used to put You and Me! on a five-second cooldown.

Zoomies (E) – heal changed from 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.3 ability power) to 70/94/118/142/166/190 (+0.4 ability power), which should change Yummi's build path into more ability power-oriented build in order to take advantage of the AP bonus.

 

JUNGLE MONSTERS CHANGES

 

In 2019 preseason, Riot Games nerfed junglers with reduced EXP gain, resulting in junglers gaining 40 less EXP per minute. Now the Riot balance team decided to give junglers back around half of the EXP they took, but will compensate that with changes that will force jungler to itemize differently so laners won't be able to co-opt it.

Additionally, there are some significant changes to Krugs, which will become much more desirable to kill, while still demanding the intended time to do so for the reward trade-off. The jungle changes will also address the "funnel strategies" by further tightening the minion gold restrictions for junglers.

Monster Hunters (UNIQUE) – Large monsters EXP will now award 60 EXP instead of 50. The first large monster kill EXP Bonus reduced from 165 to 150.

Minion gold penalty changed from 10 less gold from lane minions if more than half of your farm gold is from minions; removed on item completion to 13 less gold from lane minions if more than half of your farm gold is from minions. The new penalty will be removed at 14 minutes.

 

Krugs changes:

Total EXP gained from Krugs camp changed from 160 to 175.

Total gold gained from Krugs camp changed from 125g to 135g.

Base EXP from Large Krug changed from 55 to 37.

Base EXP from Medium Krug changed from 15 to 18.

Base EXP from Small Krug changed from 10 to 14.

Base gold from Large Krug changed from 65g to 42g.

Base gold from Medium Krug changed from 10g to 13g.

Base gold from Small Krug changed from 5g to 9g.

 

Red Brambleback and Blue Sentinel base EXP changed from 115 to 110.

Monster EXP level scaling modified for level four and five-six.

Level 4 – 1.025x to 1.075x

Level 5-6 – 1.1x to 1.15x.

 

ARAM Changes

In Aram, eight champions will receive nerf, while 13 champions will be buffed with 10.3 patch.

 

NERFS:

Janna: -2% Shielding, -10% Healing.

Maokai: -3% Damage Dealt.

Nami: -10% Healing.

Singed: -5% Damage Dealt.

Sylas: No longer does +5% Damage.

Teemo: +2% Damage Dealth + 5% Damage Taken.

Trundle: -10% Healing.

Ziggs: +2% Damage Taken.

 

BUFFS:

Aatrox: -5% Damage Taken.

Azir: +5% Damage Dealt.

Bard: +2% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage taken.

Elise: -5% Damage Taken

Evelynn: -5% Damage taken

Jax: -5% Damage taken.

Kassadin: -10% Damage taken.

Leblanc: +3% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken.

Leona: Removal of +5% Damage Taken.

Poppy: -5% Damage Taken.

Qiyana: +2% Damage Dealt, -2% Damage Taken.

Tryndamere: +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken.

Urgot: Removal of -5% Damage Dealt penalty.

 

League of Legends Patch 10.3 also introduced a plethora of bugfixes, new skins for Senna, Jinx and Juumi, the latter two will also receive chroma skins.