League of Legends 9.23 patch notes: the pre-season is here
Patch 9.23 kicks off the pre-season with an absolutely gigantic update.
League of Legends 9.17 patch notes: Hero rebalancing and Collection updates
Champion changes
Aurelion Sol
Passive - Center of the Universe
DAMAGE: 20/23/26/29/32/35/40/45/50/55/60/70/80/90/100/110/120/130 ⇒ 16/18/20/22/24/27/30/35/40/45/50/60/70/80/90/100/110/120
RATIO: 0.18-0.35 (levels 1-18) ability power ⇒ 0.25 ability power
REMOVED - NULLIFYING CC: Ability-inhibiting crowd control no longer nullifies Center of the Universe
Q - Starsurge
COOLDOWN: 10 seconds ⇒ 11/10/9/8/7 seconds
MOVEMENT SPEED: 10% ⇒ 20%
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NEW - CATCH ME CATCH YOU: If Aurelion Sol is faster than his star, the star will speed up to keep up with him
W - Celestial Expansion
NEW - LET IT RIP: When Aurelion Sol pushes his stars out to the Outer Limit, they gain increased damage and rotate at a high, but decaying speed. After 3 seconds or if Aurelion Sol reactivates it early, the stars will retract and grant Aurelion Sol 40% movement speed, decaying over 1.5 seconds
COOLDOWN: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 seconds ⇒ 8/6.5/5/3.5/2 seconds
MANA: 40 mana + 22/24/26/28/30 mana per second it's activated ⇒ 70/80/90/100/110 mana on cast
E - Comet of Legend
REMOVED - PASSIVE: Aurelion Sol no longer gains bonus movement speed when moving in the same direction for a period of time
RANGE: 3000/4000/5000/6000/7000 ⇒ 5500/6000/6500/7000/7500
COOLDOWN: 60/55/50/45/40 seconds ⇒ 80/75/70/65/60 seconds
SPEED: 600 ⇒ 600/650/700/750/800
"We're making Aurelion Sol more vulnerable to counterplay in the early game so that we have room to buff his scaling and presence in the late game. His adjusted W should also help make him a more approachable champion to those new to him, with clearer indicators of success and more satisfying in-game payoff."
Galio
Base Stats
Rounding out an unnecessarily gross number
MANA REGEN: 9.335 ⇒ 9.5
Q - Winds of War
COOLDOWN: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds
W - Shield of Durand
MINIMUM DAMAGE: 10/20/30/40/50 ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80
MAXIMUM DAMAGE: 30/60/90/120/150 ⇒ 60/105/150/195/240
"Galio's been underperforming for the last few patches so we're helping him out to keep him competitive against other choices."
Kalista
Base Stats
ATTACK DAMAGE: 67 ⇒ 69
MANA: 231.8 ⇒ 250
MANA GROWTH: 35 ⇒ 45
"Buffing Kalista in this specific way so she can succeed more in the hands of an average player and generally in a wider range of games."
Kayle
Passive - Divine Ascent
FORM LEVEL ORDER: Kayle ascends to her Aflame form at level 6 and Arisen form at level 11 ⇒ Arisen form at level 6 and Aflame form at level 11
ZEALOUS BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED: 15% when Exalted and moving toward enemies ⇒ 8% when Exalted in all directions
ZEALOUS STACK SOURCES: Basic attacks against non-structures ⇒ All basic attacks
ARISEN ATTACK RANGE: 550 ⇒ 525
REMOVED - ARISEN ATTACK SPEED PER STACK: Kayle's bonus attack speed from her Zealous form no longer increases to 10% bonus attack speed per stack when Kayle is in her Arisen form
REMOVED - TRANSCENDENT FIRE WAVE TRUE DAMAGE: Fire waves no longer deal true damage
NEW - TRANSCENDENT ATTACK RANGE: When Kayle is in her Transcendent form, she gains an additional 50 range for a total of 575 attack range on basic attacks
Q - Radiant Blast
NEW - MANA REFUND: Now refunds 50% of the ability's mana for each champion hit with it
CAST DELAY: 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds
CAST TIME: Attack speed timer ⇒ 0.25 seconds
MISSILE SPEED: 2000 ⇒ 1600
RANGE: 950 ⇒ 900
RESISTANCES REDUCTION: 20% of the target's armor and magic resistance for 3 seconds ⇒ 15% of the target's armor and magic resistance for 4 seconds
BUGFIX: Fixed a bug where Radiant Blast wouldn't pierce as far if it hit its target at point-blank range
E - Starfire Spellblade
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE: 8/10/12/14/16% (+1% per 100 ability power) of the target's missing health ⇒ 8/9/10/11/12% (+1% per 50 ability power) of the target's missing health
ON-HIT RATIO: 0.1 total attack damage and 0.2 ability power ⇒ 0.1 bonus attack damage and 0.25 ability power
R - Divine Judgment
COST: 100 mana ⇒ 100/50/0 mana
AOE RADIUS: 475 ⇒ 500
"We're shifting power into Kayle's early game at the cost of some of her late-game carry potential. Kayle should still be a weaker champion early who ascends into a god, but she (and her opponents) should now have more influence on whether or not she gets there."
Leona
Q - Shield of Daybreak
COOLDOWN: 6 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds
"We're letting Leona really lock into the engaging supports that she fares well against to keep her a good counter against those specific match-ups."
Lucian
Base Stats
ATTACK DAMAGE: 61 ⇒ 64
"Giving Lucian a bit more power in the early laning phase to punish champs who have been able to run around freely without fear."
Neeko
Passive - Inherent Glamour
NEW - I'M BEAUTIFUL: When disguised, Neeko can select herself to deactivate her disguise, putting it on a 2 second cooldown
"Giving Neeko a QoL change so she can return to her own form without having to expend a resource or take damage."
Pantheon
Q - Comet Spear
NEW - THRUST DAMAGE: Thrusting Pantheon's spear (releasing the ability within 0.35 seconds) now also increases the physical damage on targets below 25% of their maximum health (matching a fully hurled spear's bonus damage)
E - Aegis Assault
REMOVED - MONSTER DAMAGE REDUCTION: No longer reduces damage against non-epic monsters
"Even after the removal and decrease of the monster damage reduction on his Q and E, respectively, jungle Pantheon is just not as strong as his other roles. We're following up by entirely removing the monster damage penalty on his E, since it appears we were being too cautious regarding his jungle prowess. This and the change to his Q Thrust shouldn't swing his balance too much, and only help those who are struggling with relearning him."
Quiyana
E - Audacity
BASE DAMAGE: 70/105/140/175/210 ⇒ 60/95/130/165/200
R - Supreme Display of Talent
COOLDOWN: 120/100/80 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds at all ranks
"Qiyana's early trade damage makes her stronger than she should be in lane. That coupled with her near constant ults later is a bit too overbearing throughout the whole game."
Ryze
Base Stats
MAGIC RESIST: 30 ⇒ 34
"Now that Ryze has proven he can be useful without Overloading his enemies in competitive play, we think it's safe to give him a smidge more survivability."
Zyra
R - Stranglethorns
COST: 100/120/140 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks
COOLDOWN: 130/120/110 seconds ⇒ 110/100/90 seconds
"We're giving Zyra more opportunities to burst down her enemies."
Free to play champion rotation
"In 2017, players asked us to expand the weekly free champion rotation beyond just 10 champions. As a result, we updated our model to include 10% of the total number of available champions to the rotation and increased the number to 14. With Qiyana, we're officially at 145 champions! As promised, we're officially increasing the number of champions to 15 in the next free-to-play rotation on the first week of September 2019."
Bug fixes
- Soraka now properly heals herself with R - Wish for more when she is under 40% of her maximum health.
- Certain champions' movement abilities are now properly disabled when they're Grounded (Zac's E - Elastic Slingshot, Malphite's R - Unstoppable Force, Camille's E - Hookshot, Graves' R - Collateral Damage, Thresh's W - Dark Passage, and Fiddlestick's R - Crowstorm)
- Rek'Sai no longer gains a short "Can't Be Displaced" buff if her target dies as she starts R - Void Rush
- Cleanse now properly clears the stun from Viktor's AUGMENT:IMPLOSION W - Gravity Field
- Lee Sin's Q - Resonating Strike's dash speed is now at its proper speed (not as slow as it was in 9.16)
- If Sylas dies immediately after casting Pantheon's R - Grand Starfall via R - Hijack, he will no longer be locked out of using items and basic abilities
- Sivir's W - Ricochet now properly bounces when recast when she reaches 45% CDR by holding Spear of Shojin or Cosmic Insight
- Statikk Shiv will no longer hit nearby targets outside of Mordekaiser's R - Realm of Death when the holder attacks him within it
- When Tahm Kench dies while using W - Devour on another unit, that unit's HP can now properly go below 1 HP
Upcoming skins
Elderwood Ahri
Elderwood Veigar
Elderwood Nocturne
Infernus Varus, Shen, & Galio
Upcoming Chromas
Elderwood Ahri
Elderwood Veigar
Elderwood Nocturne
Infernus Varus
Infernus Shen
Infernus Galio
Sarah is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With five years of experience writing freelance for several publications, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.