Introduction:
The latest Patch 6.24 is here, meaning ranked season is on its way! Before you hop in though, be sure to read up on the top 10 tips for ranked placement matches to maximize your win potential!
This patch features some buffs on some extremely popular champions such as Azir and Nidalee. Meanwhile, they've surprisingly nerfed AP Kog'Maw despite his extremely low play rate. Another thing of note is the large tweak on Rylai's, which reduces the stats, but also the cost. Check out the full scoop below!
Summary
Buffs: Akali, Azir, Fiddlesticks, Garen, Katarina, Kog'Maw, Nidalee, Varus
Nerfs: Ivern, Leblanc, Rengar, Twitch, Vayne
Tweaks: Master Yi
Item Changes: Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Liandry's Torment
Mastery Changes: Courage of the Colossus, Fervor of Battle
Patch 6.24 notes
BY SCARIZARD, AETHER, GENTLEMAN GUSTAF & LUQIZILLA
Season’s Greetings, Summoners,
Welcome to patch 6.24, the last one of 2016. Another patch, another round of pre-season follow-up. This one’s a bit bigger than 6.23 - an extra patch’s worth of data gives us a clearer picture of how shifts like the assassin updates and jungle camp changes are settling in for the long term. Plus, Camille’s hookshotting her way onto the Rift!
On the client update front, open beta’s progressing well. Performance and stability have been our top priorities since open beta launched, so if you’ve been waiting to switch over, now’s a great time to hop on in. As a side bonus, downloading the updated client now saves time over the coming months: starting now, patches will contain big chunks of the overall download to reduce the final patch size when it comes time to deprecate the legacy client. We’ve got another client ‘pre-patch’ some time between 6.24 and 7.1, so keep an eye out for that.
Finally, we’re about to ring in the 2017 season (yes, it’s earlier this time). This patch will bring the ladder reset marking the start of official ranked, so hopefully you’ve been training during pre-season. No pressure or anything.
From all of us at Riot Games: good luck, have fun, and we’ll see you on the Rift. Speaking of, the weather’s looking a bit gray...
Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough
Paul "Aether" Perscheid Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman Lucas "Luqizilla" Moutinho
Start of Ranked 2017 Season
The 2017 ranked season starts during patch 6.24!
Champions
Camille
Camille, the Steel Shadow, will be released later on during patch 6.24! In the meantime, learn more about League’s newest champion here:
Severed Ties
Champion Reveal
Champion Bio
Champion Insights
Inside Camille Dev
Akali
Passive procs on turrets.
When we shifted Twin Disciplines from an always-on effect to one compressed into two procs, we held off on allowing it to work on structures. This was a hit to Akali’s pushing strength, given her basic attacks against structures lost some AP scaling without reaping the benefits of the updated Twin Disciplines. We did this to maintain Twin Discipline’s combat focus for the first release of her update, ensuring we’d have a clearer read on follow-up balance needs (see: last patch’s ratio buffs). Now that things have settled a bit and we’ve had a chance to observe how all the changes are playing out, we’re comfortable giving back Twin Disciplines’ pushing potential.
Passive - Twin Disciplines
NINJA PUSHINGCan now be used against structures
Azir
W cooldown reduced. Sun Discs deal more damage and give enemies less gold.
We haven’t talked much about Azir since he fell out of the spotlight about half a year ago. To quickly summarize, Azir’s got too many strengths and not enough weaknesses. This makes balance an extremely finnicky task: with no clear vulnerabilities to exploit, it’s hard to bring Azir back down once he starts picking up a lead.
This patch, we’re raising Azir’s baseline effectiveness without substantially raising his poke potential. He’ll be able to reach and maintain three soldiers more quickly when going all-in on a fight, and faster soldier charges also means better access to Shifting Sands (whether for slick getaways or the Shurima Shuffle). We’re also giving some love to the Sun Disc - “temporary replacement turret” is a cool strategic strength only Azir brings to the table, but it felt a bit bad to use since it could end up as quick gold for the enemy team.
Passive - Shurima's Legacy
ATTACK DAMAGE SCALING3 per minute ⇒ 4 per minute
ENEMY REWARD WHEN DESTROYED100 gold ⇒ 50 gold
W - Arise!
CHARGE COOLDOWN12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
Fiddlesticks
W damage increased early. E cooldown reduced.
The new jungle hasn’t been kind to Fiddlesticks, who’s lost a lot of clearing speed against buff camps and Krugs. We’re giving him back some jungling efficiency in the early game, though it’s still safe to say the new jungle’s shifted some of Fid’s clearing strength from Dark Wind to Drain.
W - Drain
DAMAGE PER TICK60/90/120/150/180 ⇒ 80/105/130/155/180
BUFF-FIXFixed a bug that caused Drain to not apply its final tick of damage
E - Dark Wind
COOLDOWN15/14/13/12/11 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds
Fizz
Clarity improvements around how whiffed R fishes attach to enemies that step on them.
One of the side effects of Chum the Waters growing with distance is that when Fizz misses, the fish pick-up radius tends to be much bigger than before. That increased size exposed some shortcomings in terms of how that pick-up mechanic is displayed, so we’re making a few visual improvements.
R - Chum the Waters
CAUTION TAPEWhiffed fishes now display their attachment radius to enemies
ENTHUSIASMWhiffed fishes now visually hop onto enemies they attach to, rather than instantly teleporting onto them
IT’S DEAD, JIMFishes that can’t attach to enemies (dropped after hitting a spell shield or when the original target dies) don’t display the attachment ring and instead flop over onto their bellies
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug where W - Seastone Trident’s cooldown wasn’t refunded if it killed an enemy champion with a post-death form (ex. Karthus, Sion)
Garen
Spinning shreds enemy armor after four hits.
Garen’s been struggling for a few different reasons, but the underlying theme is consistency. He’s vulnerable to peel by design, but even compared to other juggernauts, he loses way too much impact when the enemy team’s able to keep him at bay. This is nigh-inevitable as the game progresses: Garen doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have the tools to ignore the peel efforts of a coordinated team. But, once he’s stuck butting heads with the enemy frontliners, his threat vanishes since he has no means of piercing their durability. Given his lack of utility elsewhere (Nasus has Wither, Darius has Apprehend, etc), this often leaves Garen feeling like dead weight.
This change isn’t a silver bullet for Garen’s problems, but lets him better carry his weight against tankier foes when he can’t reach the Villain and gives allies a way to capitalize on Garen’s efforts.
E - Judgment
NEWARMOR SHREDEnemy champions hit 4 times have their armor reduced by 25% for 6 seconds (hits after the 4th refresh the duration)
Ivern
E costs more mana and slows for less.
Right now, Ivern is one of the most challenging champions to master. As players have climbed that curve, it’s become apparent that the wolf-cuddling jungler is pretty dang strong. His mid and late game seem about right, but the consistency of his early ganks is too damn high. Triggerseed is the main offender, with the slow providing too much consistency early on, and combined with his unique clear speed, he’s posing too much of an early threat to laners.
E - Triggerseed
COST50 mana ⇒ 70 mana
MOVEMENT SPEED SLOW70% at all ranks ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60%
Katarina
Dagger damage increased in the early/mid game.
Given Katarina’s focus on damage dealing, it’s a bit surprising that only one of her basic abilities (Bouncing Blade) gains substantial base damage with rank-up. Instead, a huge chunk of damage comes from champion level scaling via Kat’s new dagger mechanic. So, the Sinister Blade hits a mid-game slump: though daggers keep gaining damage with level and she gets better dagger access via lower Preparation and Shunpo cooldowns, Kat’s unable to prioritize damage itself in her skill-ups once she’s maxed Bouncing Blade.
In most reasonable matches, Kat hits this wall before her ability power scaling takes off, making it hard to keep pace with enemies. We’re giving her a little help while she fills out her inventory.
Passive - Voracity
WTF NUMBERSDaggers deal slightly more damage at all levels, scaling faster early but more slowly later (damage at levels 1 and 18 are roughly unchanged). The damage difference peaks at level 10 (+10 damage).
DAGGER DAMAGE (LEVELS 1 - 6)75/78/83/88/95/103 ⇒75/80/87/94/102/111
DAGGER DAMAGE (LEVELS 7 - 12)112/122/133/145/159/173 ⇒120/131/143/155/168/183
DAGGER DAMAGE (LEVELS 13 - 18)189/206/224/243/264/285 ⇒198/214/231/248/267/287
Bugfixes
Katarina’s R - Death Lotus icon no longer lights up while dead when enemies walk near her corpse
If Katarina catches a W - Preparation dagger at the end of E - Shunpo’s cast time, the Preparation dagger’s damage no longer follows her to Shunpo’s location
If Katarina E - Shunpo’s to an ally or a dagger, Shunpo’s damage now properly transfers to the nearest minion or jungle monster if no enemy champions are in range
Kog'Maw
W deals more on-hit damage. E damage and ability power ratio reduced.
Kog’s been on the road to recovery since his un-update a few patches back. His marksman build’s been steadily climbing thanks in part to a bunch of indirect buffs (ex. Blade of the Ruined King/Guinsoo’s Rageblade last patch), and his mage build bounced back a bit too well after our first wave of follow-up in 6.21. A few light touches should get both flavors of the void puppy to a stable spot. For marksman Kog, that’s adding a small bit of oomph to his people-melting button; for mage Kog, that’s pulling some excess waveclear out of his lane phase to keep him on his toes.
W - Bio-Arcane Barrage
ON-HIT DAMAGE2/3/4/5/6% maximum health ⇒ 3/4/5/6/7% maximum health
E - Void Ooze
DAMAGE60/110/160/210/260 ⇒ 60/105/150/195/240
RATIO0.7 ability power ⇒ 0.5 ability power
LeBlanc
Health regen down. Q damage up, but damage against minions down. E damage down.
Given that LeBlanc’s pre-season changes spread her (previously instant) damage out over a brief window, it’s not surprising that players have been exploring her other strengths. Two patches out, it’s safe to say LeBlanc’s shifted farther away from her assassin roots than we intended. We’re siphoning some power back into her traditional bursty playstyle while tapping down a few unexpected strengths.
Base Stats
HEALTH REGEN8.5 ⇒ 7.4
HEALTH REGEN GROWTH STAT0.8 ⇒ 0.55
Q - Shatter Orb
DAMAGE55/80/105/130/155 ⇒ 55/90/125/160/195
BOUNCE DAMAGE VS MINIONS120% ⇒ 80%
TOOLTIP FIXShatter Orb’s tooltip now reflects the correct bounce damage against minions
BUGFIXShatter Orb bounces no longer count as single-target spells for Spell Vamp
E - Ethereal Chains
DAMAGE40/65/90/115/140 ⇒ 40/60/80/100/120
Master Yi
Alpha Strike better follows enemies that Flash away after being tagged.
This is a lot of text that says if Master Yi’s primary target Flashes away the moment before he reappears, Yi will follow them rather than awkwardly popping out at the spot the target just Flashed away from.
Also, a bugfix we will decline to comment on.
Passive - Double Strike
STOP HITTING YOURSELFFixed a bug where Guinsoo’s Rageblade dealt damage to Master Yi on Double Strike’s second hit
Q - Alpha Strike
CAN’T ESCAPEAlpha Strike now determines Master Yi’s ending position when damage is dealt, rather than 0.05 seconds beforehand. In other words, Master Yi more reliably ends up next to his target if the target Flashes at the end of Alpha Strike. (Alpha Strike duration unchanged)
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