Custom Patch Notes/Champions/Fighters

Fighters are a class that form the largest part of League's champion roster, and have remained a pretty common sight in every game thanks to their general flexibility. However, a great deal many fighters suffer from a lack of originality, with many champions overlapping heavily in both gameplay and niche, and on top of that many fighters lack a real niche to speak of, being so flexible that they don't shine at anything in particular. This issue is compounded by the plethora of on-demand stats fighter champions tend to receive on their abilities, which usually make them good at standard tanky DPS fare in the least interesting way possible. The goals of the changes below are the following:

• Proper Niches
• Involved Gameplay
• Greater Team Contributions

For a long while, especially during Seasons One and Two, the overall design paradigm for fighters was simply "be strong". The result for that timeline has been a long stream of fighters who often lack any real specialty or reason to be picked over another besides vague notions of overall versatility, scaling or conformity to the current meta (what's  Volibear's specialty, for example?). The Juggernaut update carved out a space for low-mobility, low-reach fighters to shine in their own unique way, with more likely coming along, but on top of that there is also a wide array of diver/bruiser-type fighters who all tend to have the same mix of effects on their kit, and who each need a bit more differentiation and specialization.

A common criticism of fighters is that combat between them tends to turn into "noodle fights", i.e. protracted duels involving mostly basic attacks that don't produce major results at any given instant. Tied into this is the fact that a lot of fighters tend to not have that much strategic or mechanical depth, which in turn limits the ways in which they can feel powerful or successful. The most common example of power on fighters that carries too little gameplay is free stat steroids: while it's absolutely possible to have meaningful and substantially powerful stat bonuses ( Gnar's transformations, for example, or  Darius's Noxian Might), those effects trade off reliability for their power, and require those champions to work a little to earn that extra strength. In general, the power given to fighters needs to be a little less on-demand, and should carry a deeper level of strategic choice, and perhaps occasional mechanical skill, which would then allow each individual ability to noticeably affect the course of battle.

For a long while, fighters epitomized selfish power, with ability sets and typical builds focused purely on making themselves stronger while caring little for more team-oriented strength. While that has become significantly less true now, with many prominent fighter items providing bonuses that can benefit allies and contribute to teamfights, as well as many modern fighters having kits capable of working well with others, a lot of fighter champions still fail to provide much for their team, or even put their team-beneficial effects (such as crowd control) to the use of their allies. As much as fighters should still carry a lot of personal strength, perhaps the greatest persistent self-oriented power out of any class, that power deserves to be expressed in a manner that makes those fighters a valuable asset to their team, rather than lone wolves with little interest in working with their allies besides the potential to rack up more kills.

• Divers
• Juggernauts
• Striders

• Hecarim
• Jarvan IV
• Lee Sin
• Rek'Sai
• Vi

 Hecarim

Niche: The High-Speed Diver

• Despite being a fairly old champion, namely a bruiser created in an era of mostly generic and samey fighters (he also has some trademark effects of that time, such as low-cooldown PBAoE nukes and self-healing), Hecarim has managed to carve out a unique feel for himself, as well as a strong presence in and out of the competitive scene. He is, however, not without fault, and suffers from a few issues related to antiquated design: his passive is a boring, mostly invisible stat steroid that only becomes truly relevant in abusive cases (e.g. when teleporting in with the Homeguard effect), and coupled with the spread of damage across his kit, causes him to kill squishy enemies far too quickly even while building tanky, sometimes within the space of a single combo. The goal of these changes is to sync up his natural backline-diving capabilities with his theme: as an undead rider, Hecarim should be constantly on the move, stampeding through enemies to get to his quarry. With these changes, Hec should be taking a bit more time to kill squishies, though he'd still have a very strong burst of initiation, and in return he should have a much better time speeding around and surviving mid-battle, as well as a potentially more attractive early game should he choose to lane.
• Stats:
  • Now uses Flow instead of mana, generating 1 Flow per 40 units traveled.
• Warpath:
  • Reworked: At 100 Flow, Hecarim's next basic attack consumes all Flow, gains 150 bonus range and knocks his target back, causing him to dash through with them and jump over all terrain while reaching them.
• Rampage:
  • Reworked into a passive: Hecarim's basic attacks cause him to move through his target and are each followed by a cleave, dealing 110 / 120 / 130 / 140 / 150% AD physical damage to all enemies in an arc in front of him.
• Spirit of Dread:
  • Cooldown reduced to 10 at all ranks from 22 / 21 / 20 / 19 / 18.
  • Reworked: While off cooldown, Hecarim passively leaves a trail behind him that lasts 4 seconds. Closing the trail upon itself allows activation, which consumes the trail and heals Hecarim for 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20% missing health for every enemy champion and large monster within.
• Devastating Charge:
  • Reworked into a passive: While out of combat, Hecarim initiates a charge, gaining 50 bonus movement speed every 0.5 seconds for 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 seconds, and retaining the bonus until his next basic attack.
• Onslaught of Shadows:
  • Damage removed.
  • Flee duration increased to 1 / 1.5 / 2 from 1 at all ranks.
  • Spectral riders cause enemies to flee across the ability's full range.

 Jarvan IV

Niche: The Team Position Freezer

• Jarvan IV is a well-balanced and well-loved champion, having enjoyed a fairly stable play rate over the past few seasons without ever doing anything too horrendously unhealthy. However, this stability has also carried the tradeoff of not making him stand out too much at anything in particular, and recently he's gradually declined as both a top and jungle pick in the face of more specifically-oriented champions, particularly since the rise of late-game junglers has made his strength as an early game pick a bit less valuable. Part of his issue comes from him having a bit of power all over the place, including low-visibility areas (why does he have an attack speed aura?), which has also likely prevented him from having truly concentrated power (his shield doesn't really scale, for example). Additionally, there's a certain degree of over-versatility or confusion to his skillset: he's meant to be really good at diving, but has a certain degree of poke too, in spite of having some DPS and sustained fighting power he has a ton of burst (he occasionally turns into an "assassin tank" as a result), and his passive, while really useful at clearing, is always a bit less useful than it could be due to him dealing ability damage first before getting into melee range. The goal of these changes is to trim off or move some of his less valuable power while putting a lot more power into his ability to initiate, pin down masses of enemies at a time and move around at tremendous speeds.
• Stats:
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.694 from 0.658.
  • Base mana reduced to 100 from 302.2.
  • Mana growth removed.
  • Base mana regeneration reduced to 5 from 6.756.
  • Mana regeneration growth removed.
• Martial Cadence:
  • Reworked: when Jarvan IV casts an ability, he gains 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% (based on level) bonus attack speed, stacking with every nearby allied champion.
• Dragon Strike:
  • Range increased to 1100 from 770.
  • Cost reduced to 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 from 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65.
  • Cooldown changed to 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 / 5 from 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6.
  • Damage reduced to 100 / 105 / 110 / 115 / 120% AD from 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 120% bonus AD).
  • Armor reduction removed.
  • knockup now matches Jarvan IV's model and factors in his size.
• Golden Aegis:
  • Cost removed.
  • Cooldown reduced to 20 / 17.5 / 15 / 12.5 / 10 from 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12.
  • Shield duration reduced to 4 from 5.
  • Shield strength changed to 10% maximum health, stacking with every allied champion in range, from 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160, plus 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 / 3% maximum health per enemy champion in range.
  • Slow removed.
• Demacian Standard:
  • Range increased to 1000 from 830.
  • Cost reduced to 18 / 15 / 12 / 9 / 6 from 55 at all ranks.
  • Cooldown changed to 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 from 13 / 12.5 / 12 / 11.5 / 11.
  • Bonus attack speed removed.
  • Active no longer grants allies bonus attack speed.
  • Damage changed to 110 / 120 / 130 / 140 / 150% AD physical damage from 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 80% AP magic damage.
  • Flag duration reduced to 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 seconds from 8 at all ranks.
  • Flag only remains if it hits an enemy, and follows their movements.
  • knockup affects the enemy hit by the flag as well.
  • No longer grants sight.
• Cataclysm:
  • Cost removed.
  • Cooldown reduced to 100 / 75 / 50 from 120 / 105 / 90.
  • Dash removed.
  • Active is now centered around Jarvan IV and the nearest enemy champion within range.
  • Active radius increased to 400 from 325.
  • No longer grants sight.
  • Damage removed.
  • Circle duration changed to 2 / 3 / 4 from 3.5 at all ranks.
  • Circle now knocks down all enemies who collide with its walls from within.

 Lee Sin

Niche: The Blind Monk (For Real)

• Lee Sin presents some of the most interesting design conundrums in League. On one hand, he's a beloved champion who's enjoyed consistently high popularity since his release, is really fun overall to play as and against, and who stands out among the roster even in a game populated by an increasing number of unconventional effects and mobility. On the other hand, he's also so popular and versatile that it's caused serious issues for the health of the game, and especially the jungle, for years, as he can do pretty much everything well and has demanded similarly overloaded design on junglers for a very long time in order to compete with him, often crowding out the rest. Practically his entire kit is iconic, including his identity as a jack-of-all trades, but that also means he lacks a major weakness, which just led him to being nerfed so much over time that he can only be played successfully at a high level of mastery. There are two main goals to these changes: the first is to concentrate his power as much as possible, removing more persistent and oftentimes less visible instances of power (namely, his attack speed and sustain steroids) in favor of even stronger abilities, which would place even more importance on his unique combination of versatile mobility, utility and crowd control, and the second is to give him a genuine weakness. In this case, the solution might in fact be to carry his namesake to its fullest extent by making him truly blind, which would be a good reason to seriously buff everything else about him. As a champion with a unique vision paradigm (and deficit), he would not only have a legitimate reason to have both heavy personal power and ally synergy, and so huge overall versatility, but he'd also have unique synergies with certain ally comps (namely aggressive, vision- and area dominance-oriented comps), along with weaknesses to some enemy comps (particularly those good at countering vision and poking from a distance).
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion, and no longer uses energy.
  • Base health increased to 600 from 570.8.
  • Health growth increased to 100 from 85.
  • Base health regeneration increased to 10 from 7.425.
  • Health regeneration growth increased to 1 from 0.7.
  • Base attack damage reduced to 81 from 61.176.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 7 from 3.2.
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.75 from 0.651.
  • Attack speed growth increased to 6% from 3%.
  • Base armor increased to 30 from 24.216.
  • Armor growth increased to 4 from 3.7.
  • Base movement speed increased to 355 from 350.
• Flurry:
  • Renamed to Blind Monk.
  • Reworked: Lee Sin is blind, and his sight is reduced to his immediate surroundings and shared sight.
• Sonic Wave:
  • Renamed to Resonating Strike.
  • Range increased to 1300 from 1100.
  • Cooldown reduced to 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 from 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7.
  • Damage changed to 0 / 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 (+ 100% bonus AD) from 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+ 90% bonus AD).
  • No longer grants true sight of the target.
  • Now causes Lee Sin to automatically dash to his target.
• Resonating Strike:
  • Removed.
• Safeguard:
  • Cooldown reduced to 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 from 14 at all ranks.
  • Shield duration reduced to 1.5 from 2.
  • Shield strength increased to 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 20% bonus health) from 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+ 80% AP).
  • Lee Sin can no longer dash to wards.
  • When dashing, Lee Sin now positions himself between them and the nearest visible enemy champion.
• Iron Will:
  • Removed.
• Tempest:
  • Renamed to Cripple.
  • Cooldown reduced to 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 from 10 at all ranks.
  • Damage changed to 100% AD at all ranks from 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 100% bonus AD).
  • Damage type changed to physical from magic.
  • No longer grants true sight of targets.
  • Now slows all enemies hit by 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% for 1.5 seconds.
• Cripple:
  • Removed.
• Dragon's Rage:
  • Range reduced to 125 from 375.
  • Damage changed to (+ 100% AD) at all ranks from 150 / 300 / 450 (+ 200% bonus AD).

 Rek'Sai

Niche: The Land Shark

• Upon her release, Rek'Sai was poised to be the solution to dual-kit champions, offering a mix of practically every effect in amounts parceled well enough to be satisfying, while still retaining strong core strengths (mobility, damage, utility), weaknesses (no real fighting capabilities and total blindness while burrowed, no mobility when unburrowed), and a unique contribution in the form of her Tremor Sense, while also succeeding at being strong early game without being overbearing, as well as falling off gracefully late-game. Unfortunately, she's ended up running into many of the same problems plaguing practically all loaded champions: her damage and scalings have been shaved off so hard that her abilities now feel mostly unsatisfying (even her burrowed Q, which only had its AP ratio nerfed, doesn't feel good in most circumstances), and she's been forced away from offensive jungle enchantments into constant Cinderhulk purchases, which in turn makes her passive healing feel comparatively far weaker later on. The goal of these changes is to answer those issues, which look like they could be solved by better parceling out Rek'Sai's power: by shifting her damage away from some sources (i.e. her burrowed Q, which feels super-weak already, and Unburrow, which is more about its knockup than its damage) and onto her primary damaging abilities, while also putting more emphasis on some of her weaknesses (immobile enemies should be completely untouchable to her if she has no direct vision of them, her mobility should revolve around her tunnels), Rek'Sai could afford to have more concentrated instances of power on each ability while retaining similar overall damage, mobility, utility, and the like.
• Stats:
  • Attack speed growth increased to 4% from 2%.
  • Fury generation normalized to 20 per basic attack against enemy champions and large monsters, from 5 per basic attack, 10 per Queen's Wrath, Unburrow and Furious Bite and 2.5 per additional enemy hit.
  • Fury decay timer reduced to 4 from 5.
• Fury of the Xer'Sai:
  • Maximum healing per second changed to 1 / 2 / 3 / 4% (based on level) maximum health from 5 − 90 (based on level).
    • Maximum total healing changed to 5 / 10 / 15 / 20% (based on level) maximum health from 25 − 450 (based on level).
• Queen's Wrath:
  • Damage per hit changed to 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% AD from 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 (+ 20% bonus AD).
    • Total damage changed to 90 / 105 / 120 / 135 / 150% AD from 45 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 60% bonus AD).
• Prey Seeker:
  • Range reduced to 1200 from 1650.
  • Damage removed.
  • Sight removed.
  • Now slows affected enemies by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% for 2 seconds.
• Burrow:
  • Tremor sense range reduced to 1200 from 1300.
  • Bonus movement speed removed.
  • Now has no cooldown, but automatically activates out of combat, and cannot be activated otherwise.
• Unburrow:
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Damage removed.
  • Maximum knockup duration increased to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 from 1 at all ranks.
• Furious Bite
  • Base damage changed to 100% AD at all ranks from 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120% AD.
  • Now applies on-hit effects.
  • Damage multiplier increased to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2% per Fury from 1% at all ranks.
    • Maximum damage increased to 200 / 225 / 250 / 275 / 300% AD from 160 / 180 / 200 / 220 / 240% AD.
  • No longer deals true damage at maximum Fury.
• Tunnel:
  • Cooldown reduced to 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 from 20 / 19.5 / 19 / 18.5 / 18.
  • Per-tunnel cooldown can now be reduced by cooldown reduction.
    • This makes the per-cooldown tunnel always half the ability's cooldown.
• Void Rush:
  • Cooldown changed to 150 / 75 / 0 from 100 / 80 / 60.
  • Passive removed.
  • Active reworked: Rek'Sai channels for 2 seconds, with enemy champion damage canceling the channel, and upon completing it successfully, dashes to the target Tunnel.

 Vi

Niche: The Target Softener

• Vi's enjoyed decent play since her release, and while a small part of the community's been recently complaining about her ultimate's counterplay (or lack of it), that in itself has worked more as a unique advantage to her and her team than a real detriment to gameplay overall. The reliability to her point-and-click CC ultimate has allowed her to shine above others as a diver capable of reliably picking marksmen out, and allows her to become a great last-resort measure against kite-heavy marksmen hiding behind otherwise impenetrable front lines. However, what might not be so healthy on her is the amount of fairly reliable burst she gets to have in addition to those effects, which has often led to frustration from marksmen being singled out and busted before they had a real opportunity to recover from her ult. The goal of these changes is to shift that power a little bit more towards DPS, allowing her to output even better consistent power when in the thick of combat, and adjust her squishy-busting strength in a manner that would involve her teammates more, as well as reward the enemy team better for trying to block her assault (and battery).
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
• Blast Shield:
  • Shield strength increased to 20% maximum health from 10% maximum health.
  • Shield duration reduced to 2 seconds from 3 seconds.
  • Cooldown changed to 23 - (Vi's level) from 18 − 8 (based on level).
  • Now only applies when damaging an enemy champion or large monster, rather than any enemy.
• Vault Breaker:
  • Maximum range increased to 1000 from 725.
  • Maximum range charge-up time increased to 2 from 1.25.
  • Damage removed.
  • Displacement removed.
  • Vi now applies a basic attack to all enemies hit.
  • Taking champion damage now cancels the channel.
• Denting Blows:
  • Damage changed to 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100% AD from 4 / 5.5 / 7 / 8.5 / 10% (+「 1% per 35 」「 2.86% per 100 」bonus AD) of target's maximum health.
  • Is now a critical strike modifier.
  • No longer provides bonus attack speed.
  • No longer reduces the target's armor.
  • Now marks affected targets for 4 seconds, causing all allied champion critical strikes to also deal the same damage and refresh the mark.
• Excessive Force:
  • Recharge time changed to 15 / 12.5 / 10 / 7.5 / 5 from 14 / 12.5 / 11 / 9.5 / 8.
  • Bonus damage removed.
• Assault and Battery:
  • Cooldown reduced to 50 at all ranks from 150 / 115 / 80.
  • Range reduced to 125 from 800.
  • Dash removed.
  • Reworked: Vi knocks the target into the air with a massive uppercut for 1 / 2 / 3 seconds, applying a basic attack to them.

• Cho'Gath
• Darius
• Dr. Mundo
• Garen
• Illaoi
• Mordekaiser
• Nasus
• Udyr

 Cho'Gath

Niche: The Kaiju

• Despite being officially labeled a tank, Cho's got more juggernaut blood in him than anything else: as a tanky champion with enough burst to 100-0 squishies in a single combo, at the cost of limited range and a tremendous lack of mobility, Cho fits the juggernaut bill really well, as does his theme as a giant monster who grows bigger and bigger as he eats people. However, that theme's also been heavily underused, both in terms of gameplay and flavor: putting aside his really old and not-too-awesome current model, neither his W nor his E have the feel they should for a giant, city-stomping abomination, nor do they really contribute much to his gameplay (E doesn't feel that especially good, W is straight-up unhealthy in lane). The goal of these changes is to reformat Cho's power around him feeling like a kaiju, with powerful and iconic abilities reminiscent of giant monster movies, as well as the unique ability to disable, ravage and even eat enemy structures. Along with this, his ability to kill enemies in a single combo, particularly punier foes, would remain, though it would require use of his entire kit, and would have more guards added in to make being devoured feel less unfair.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base movement speed reduced to 325 from 345.
  • Base attack damage reduced to 60 from 61.156.
  • Attack damage growth removed.
  • Attack speed growth reduced to 1% from 1.44%.
• Carnivore:
  • Renamed to Carnage.
  • Reworked: Cho'Gath's basic attacks each deal 3% maximum health (+ 30% AP) bonus magic damage and cleave all enemy units and structures in front of him and within his attack range, dealing the same magic damage to them.
• Rupture:
  • Cooldown increased to 10 from 9.
  • Range increased to 1000 from 950.
  • Damage removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • Knockup duration increased to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 from 1 at all ranks.
  • Also disables turrets for the same duration if used directly under them.
• Feral Scream:
  • Cooldown reduced to 10 from 13.
  • Range reduced to 400 from 700.
  • Active reworked: Cho'Gath stands still and channels for up to 2 seconds, drawing in massive amounts of air and dragging all enemies in a cone towards his mouth (does not count as airborne), at a rate of 300 / 325 / 350 / 375 / 400 units per second. When the channel ends, Cho'Gath lets out a devastating scream, silencing all affected enemies for up to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds, based on the time spent channeling.
    • Enemies can still move while being dragged.
• Vorpal Spikes:
  • Renamed to Enrage.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 at all ranks from 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4.
  • Reworked: Cho'Gath enters a frenzy, reaching maximum attack speed for 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 seconds.
• Feast:
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Can no longer be used on enemy minions or non-epic monsters, but can be used on enemy structures.
  • Can now only be used on enemies who can be killed by the ability.
    • Now consumes the victim's corpse if they are a champion, removing it from the map.
  • Bonus health gain no longer heals Cho'Gath.

 Darius

Niche: The Time Bomb

• Darius is largely considered to be the only successful rework from the Juggernaut Update: unlike the other champions, whose new mechanics were mostly gimmicky and didn't fit with their playstyles, Darius's changes, and the addition of his Noxian Might effect, perfectly complemented his base gameplay, and made him healthier while also giving him a legitimate reason to be picked in team comps. His changes weren't perfect, though, and he remains with quite a few issues: several of his mechanics mostly punish enemies who end up near him, instead of giving either side more agency, and his bleed especially makes him very oppressive against melee laners. In addition, damage over time doesn't synergize quite well with his ult, which encourages him to land the last hit with it and thus cut the bleed short. The goal of these changes is to realign some of his less healthy power, giving him more counterplay against targets he catches, while giving him more opportunities to catch targets in the first place.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack damage increased to 65 from 56.
• Hemorrhage:
  • Renamed to Noxian Might.
  • Reworked: Darius gains 20 Fury every time he lands a damaging strike against an enemy champion or large monster, and loses 20 Fury per second after not having generated Fury for 4 seconds. While at 100 Fury, Darius deals double damage.
• Decimate:
  • Inner radius no longer deals damage.
  • Self-heal removed.
  • Damage changed to 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 / 200% AD from 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140% AD).
• Crippling Strike:
  • Bonus damage removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • Attack now sprays blood from the target in a cone, slowing all other enemies hit by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% for 2 seconds.
  • Refund on kill removed.
• Apprehend:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 535.
  • Cooldown reduced to 21 / 17 / 13 / 9 / 5 from 24 / 21 / 18 / 15 / 12.
  • Armor penetration removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • No longer grants sight of the area.
• Noxian Guillotine:
  • Dash removed.
  • Damage changed to 100 / 150 / 200% AD from 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 75% bonus AD).
  • Cooldown reset is now enabled at rank 1.

 Dr. Mundo

Niche: The Steroid Master

• Dr. Mundo is one of the oldest champions in the game, and has not aged exceptionally well over time: his theme is kind of out of place in League's more grounded new universe, and most of his gameplay has a great deal many problems, often encouraging passive play and winning through sheer stats rather than interesting plays. As a juggernaut, he has some unique outputs in the form of his poke, but otherwise often does not present many opportunities for proper interaction, as his healing has no real interactivity, and two of his main damage sources take the form of boring stat steroids or bland, persistent PBAoE damage. As such, he's often not fun to play against but frequently also not all that interesting to play. He does, however, have tremendous potential as a steroid-focused juggernaut, provided that kind of power had some real skill expression behind it. The goal of these changes is to give Mundo much better-defined highs and lows in his power, allowing him to lay down persistent damage while also giving him both far more counterplay and skill expression.
• Stats:
  • Base attack damage increased to 65 from 61.27.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 5 from 3.5.
  • Base health reduced to 500 from 582.52.
  • Health growth reduced to 80 from 89.
• Adrenaline Rush:
  • Renamed to Bad Medicine.
  • Reworked: Dr. Mundo converts 40 / 60 / 80 / 100% (based on level) of all damage he takes into grey health, which decays over 4 seconds while out of combat. Striking an enemy champions consumes up to 20% maximum health grey health over 4 seconds to regenerate the same amount.
• Infected Cleaver:
  • Renamed to Scalpel!.
  • Cost changed to 10% base health at all ranks from 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90.
  • No longer slows the target.
  • No longer refunds its health cost on hit or kill.
  • Damage changed to 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+ 100% AD) physical damage, increased by 1% per 1% of target's current health, from 15 / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25% of target's current health magic damage, with a 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 minimum damage threshold and 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 500 damage cap against non-champions.
• Burning Agony:
  • Renamed to Intensive Care.
  • Cost removed.
  • Cooldown increased to 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10.
  • Reworked: Dr. Mundo frenzies himself for 4 seconds, during which he is nearsighted but otherwise unstoppable to enemy crowd control. While frenzied, Mundo swings his cleaver in a cone in front of him twice per second, dealing 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100% AD physical damage to all enemies hit.
• Masochism:
  • Renamed to Under the Knife.
  • Passive removed.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Cost changed to 5% base health at all ranks from 25 / 35 / 55 / 65.
  • Active reworked: Dr. Mundo grants himself 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% bonus movement speed for 1 second, causing his next basic attack within the duration to hit all nearby enemies and deal 25% AD bonus physical damage. Casting Under the Knife while the empowerment is still active refreshes the bonus movement speed and stacks the bonus damage, with the cast applying one stack more from the previous cast's health cost and additional damage.
• Sadism:
  • Renamed to Preventative Treatment.
  • Cost removed.
  • Reworked: Dr. Mundo initiates a 4-second countdown, causing 50 / 100 / 150% of all the damage he receives from enemies then to shield him for the same amount at the end of the duration for 4 seconds.

 Garen

Niche: The Anti-Bully

• Garen has consistently suffered from a fairly shallow kit: while easy to pick up, it offers little potential for mastery, and even less outplay potential against players who know to stay away from him, while also not providing all that much counterplay against melee opponents. His rework did very little to address this, and the Villain mechanic it added, while flavorful, did not add depth to his gameplay. Garen's biggest problem right now is that there is absolutely nothing he can do to contribute beyond his short combat range, and as long as that weakness remains as pronounced, he will continue to remain binary and lacking in a competitively attractive contribution. The goal of these changes is to take Garen's current features and retool them into a deeper kit, increasing his skill floor ever so slightly in the hopes of massively raising his skill ceiling. Garen should have many more options against enemies at a distance, and should offer more outplay avenues to enemies even if they are caught in melee range.
• Perseverance:
  • Renamed to Judgment.
  • Reworked: Garen's next basic attack enacts Judgment for 5 seconds: during Judgment, Garen is unable to use basic attacks, but instead spins his sword around him at a rate of 1 spin per 1 − 0.5 (based on level) seconds, with each spin dealing 100% AD physical damage to all enemies around him. Judgment ends once Garen reaches 0 Fury, and goes on cooldown for 1 seconds, with each of Garen's basic attacks reducing the cooldown by an additional 1 second.
• Decisive Strike:
  • Renamed to Perseverance.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 from 8.
  • Reworked: Garen cleanses himself of all crowd control and gains 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200 bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds, during which he is also immune to crowd control.
• Courage:
  • Active removed.
  • Passive reworked: Garen converts 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% of the damage he takes into grey health. Landing 4 spins of Judgment against an enemy champion heals Garen for all of his grey health instantly, consuming it in the process.
• Judgment:
  • Renamed to Verdict.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 from 9.
  • Reworked: Garen projects an image of his sword in the target direction that follows his movement and detonates after 1 second, silencing all enemies hit for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds.
• Demacian Justice:
  • Villain mechanic removed.
  • Range increased to 1200 from 400.
  • Cooldown increased to 200 / 150 / 100 from 120 / 100 / 80.
  • Reworked: Garen instantly kills all visible enemy champions in range below 200 − 500 (based on level) health.

 Illaoi

Niche: The Stagnancy Buster

• Illaoi's got an interesting theme and a good niche, but like many other Juggernauts, tends to be fairly binary in her overall success: she can obliterate disorganized teams if they get too close to her, but against a team that knows how to kite and play defensively, she has very few options. Additionally, her power is tuned completely around her best-case scenario of hitting the entire enemy at a time with her ultimate, and as a result is fairly underwhelming in most other situations. The goal of these changes is to tone down those extremes a little, giving Illaoi a bit more leeway in less extreme situations while also toning down both her early lane bullying and anti-team burst.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack damage increased to 81 from 60.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 7 from 5.
• Prophet of an Elder God:
  • Tentacle damage changed to 100% AD at all ranks from 10 − 180 (based on level) (+ 120 / 130 / 140 / 150 / 160% AD).
  • Tentacle damage no longer stacks.
  • Tentacles are now spawned across the entire map from the start, are untargetable and invulnerable, and only become visible and active when Illaoi is in range.
  • Illaoi's basic attacks no longer deal damage, but instead command all active tentacles to smash her target.
• Tentacle Smash:
  • Passive removed.
  • Now causes all other active tentacles to also smash towards the target point.
• Harsh Lesson:
  • Reworked into a passive: Illaoi heals herself for 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% maximum health every time two or more of her tentacles each hit an enemy champion or large monster within the same strike.
• Test of Spirit:
  • Is now targeted, and can only be used on enemy champions.
  • Vessel effect removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • Damage transfer now only occurs if the affected enemy moves out of range, whereupon it transfers the full damage taken by the spirit.
  • Damage transfer changed to 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100% from 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% (+ 8% per 100 AD).
• Leap of Faith:
  • Cooldown reduced to 100 / 75 / 50 from 120 / 105 / 90.
  • Damage removed.
  • No longer modifies tentacles.
  • Harsh Lesson cooldown reduction removed.

 Mordekaiser

Niche: The Subjugator

• After having been forgotten for years, Mordekaiser's gone through a lot of pain during the Juggernaut Update: as a slow, short-ranged tanky DPS champion with no gapclosers or crowd control, Morde is the perfect Juggernaut, and the update was a pristine opportunity to fix the issues that had been plaguing him thus far, such as his oppressive solo laning and lack of a strong niche. Unfortunately, while his changes did give him Juggernaut-level power and uniqueness, they also gave him serious problems without addressing many of his current ones: he still has a kit that is unhealthy in a solo lane, but now he's been shoehorned into a duo lane setup, and the heavy power budget mismanagement on his kit has been skewed even further by an invisible power passive on his W and a poorly tacked-on, though interesting, effect on his ultimate, which is already eating up a lot of his power without producing too much satisfaction. The goal of these changes is to address these issues, repurposing his power and allowing him to make more consistent contributions, while staying true to his gameplay and thematic fantasy: while proper metal-mancing should likely be the purview of another champion, Mordekaiser is pretty much the personnification of all things heavy metal, and deserves to do metal things. He's meant to be an unstoppable necromantic suit of armor, and while damage and durability are still his core strengths, he should be able to truly dominate his opponents and push through their attacks at the right times.
• Stats:
  • Base health increased to 600 from 525.
  • Health growth increased to 100 from 73.
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.625 from 0.601.
    • Attack delay no longer has a modified scaling or delay.
  • Health costs removed on all abilities.
  • Now uses Fury, generating 20 Fury on every basic attack that hits an enemy champion or large monster, and losing 20 Fury per second after not generating Fury for 4 seconds.
• Iron Man:
  • Reworked: At 100 Fury, Mordekaiser consumes all of his Fury to heal himself for 50% missing health.
• Mace of Spades:
  • Cooldown increased to 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 / 5 from 10 / 8.5 / 7 / 5.5 / 4.
  • Reworked: Mordekaiser marches forward while swinging his mace in an arc in front of him three times, dealing 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 80% AP) magic damage with each swing to all enemies hit.
• Harvester of Sorrow:
  • Renamed to Domination.
  • Cooldown changed to 10 at all ranks from 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8.
  • Passive removed.
  • Reworked: Mordekaiser surrounds himself with shards of his own armor for 3 seconds, shielding himself for 13 / 16 / 19 / 22 / 25% maximum health for the duration and becoming unstoppable while it holds.
• Siphon of Destruction:
  • Cooldown increased to 10 at all ranks from 6 / 5.75 / 5.5 / 5.25 / 5.
  • Reworked: Mordekaiser causes the ground to erupt in three waves in the target cone at 0.25 second delays, with each wave dealing 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 80% AP) magic damage.
• Children of the Grave
  • Passive reworked: Mordekaiser curses enemy champions he strikes for 4 seconds, causing their souls to remain trapped on the battlefield for the same duration upon their death.
  • Active reworked: Mordekaiser raises the target fallen soul as a Lich, who serves him for 45 / 60 / 75 seconds. While a Lich is active, using Children of the Grave directs them. The Lich has 550 attack range, 100% of Mordekaiser's movement speed, 50% of Mordekaiser's health, and deals <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="45☂60☂75☂90☂105☂120☂135☂150☂165☂180☂195☂210☂225☂240☂255☂270☂285☂300☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="30 + 15 × level" data-values1="☂" >45 − 300 (based on level) (+ 80% AP) magic damage per second.

 Nasus

Niche: The Debuff Juggernaut

• One of the first juggernauts to exist in League, before the subclass was formalized as such, Nasus has aged fairly well, appropriately enough. He definitely embodies the slow, yet hard-hitting fantasy of juggernauts, but also has a powerful array of tools he can use from a distance to influence fights. However, there are some improvements that can be made to him: Siphoning Strike, for example, is core to his gameplay and power fantasy, but often leads to very passive play, Wither often leaves its victims with the feeling they never had the option to escape from it, and Fury of the Sands, while recently streamlined, is still a bit too focused on different stat boosts. The goal of these changes is to cement Nasus's niche as the game's most debuff-oriented juggernaut, putting a focus on using his abilities at the right time, letting his power build up and reaping the rewards. In exchange for tremendous ranged influence and above-average crowd control, his damage should be mostly single-target and not too splitpush-friendly, yet he should still have many different interesting choices to make even during the laning phase.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack damage increased to 65 from 59.2.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 5 from 3.5.
• Soul Eater:
  • Reworked: Nasus's next basic attack is periodically enhanced every 4 seconds, dealing 40 bonus physical damage. If it strikes a large enemy, Soul Eater's bonus damage is permanently increased by 8.
• Siphoning Strike:
  • Renamed to Counterattack.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 at all ranks from 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4.
  • Reworked: Nasus raises his defenses for 0.5 seconds, causing all enemies who attack him then to be disarmed for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds.
• Wither:
  • Targets can now only be withered if they have recently been struck by Nasus or his allied champions in the past 4 seconds.
  • No longer reduces the target's attack speed.
  • Slow duration reduced to 4 from 5.
  • Initial slow reduced to 20% from 35%.
  • Maximum slow reduced to 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% from 47 / 59 / 71 / 83 / 95%.
  • Further strikes by Nasus or his allied champions accelerate the slow to its maximum value.
• Spirit Fire:
  • Renamed to Ascended Fire.
  • Reworked: Nasus unleashes a pillar of sunfire at the target location, causing every affected target to have 160 / 180 / 200 / 220 / 240% AD health converted into grey health, which regenerates over 4 seconds while the target has not been struck in the past 4 seconds.
  • Enemies cannot be reduced below 1 health.
• Fury of the Sands:
  • Reworked: Nasus shields himself for 50 / 75 / 100% maximum health for 8 seconds. While the shield holds, he increases his size by 50 / 75 / 100% and Soul Eater applies on every attack.

 Udyr

Niche: The Stance Dancer

• A popular solo queue pick for his versatility and fun playstyle, Udyr never really rose to competitive prominence, mainly because of the combination of his short range, absence of gapclosers and poorly defined niche (he can clear, splitpush and even gank well, but suffers in teamfights and doesn't do stuff that shines above other champions). The Juggernaut update changed things, however, and allowed fighters with low reach and no gapclosers to become not only relevant at all stages of the game, but also hugely influential if allowed to operate in teamfights. Since Udyr is a Juggernaut in almost every respect (Bear Stance is exceptional due to the movement speed it gives), it would make sense to give him a similar update: the goal of these changes is to a) retain Udyr's versatility while making the use of each stance richer in decision-making (he would have to adapt on the fly rather than go through a set rotation), b) diversify his gameplay by making each of his abilities a proper fighting stance, each with its own combat style, and c) give him a proper niche in teamfights by giving him various different tools to push his power through the enemy front line. The end result should be an Udyr who'd be more confident in entering larger fights, and who'd have more interesting options with each ability use, at some cost in reliability.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack damage increas to 81 from 58.286.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 7 from 3.2.
  • Abilities no longer have any cooldowns, but still count as spell casts, and activating an ability disables its use until another ability is cast.
• Monkey's Agility:
  • Renamed to Primal Avatar.
  • Reworked: Udyr generates 20 Fury per basic attack against enemy champions or large monsters. At 100 Fury, Udyr can activate the stance he is currently in for an empowered active, consuming all of his Fury and preventing himself from generating Fury for the next 50 seconds.
  • Additionally, Udyr gains an additional ability point upon taking down the Elder Dragon, Rift Herald or Baron Nashor, though he can only gain this bonus once per camp.
    • This means Udyr can gain a total of 20 ability points over the course of a single game, 18 from leveling and 2 from epic monster takedowns.
• Tiger Stance:
  • Renamed to Tiger's Savagery.
  • Stance reworked: After striking an enemy champion or large monster, Udyr gains 20% bonus attack attack damage against them for 2 seconds, stacking indefinitely.
  • Primal Avatar: Udyr deals 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200% AD physical damage to the target over 2 seconds, refreshed with each strike.
• Turtle Stance:
  • Renamed to Turtle's Resolve.
  • Stance reworked: Udyr negates all damage he takes from the back.
  • Primal Avatar: Udyr heals himself for 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100% maximum health.
• Bear Stance:
  • Renamed to Bear's Might.
  • Stance reworked: Udyr's basic attacks block the arc he hit on his target for 1 second, preventing them from moving, attacking or casting abilities in that direction, after which that side becomes immune to blocking for 1 second.
  • Primal Avatar: Udyr stuns all nearby enemies for 0.4 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.6 / 2 seconds.
• Phoenix Stance:
  • Renamed to Phoenix's Radiance.
  • Stance reworked: Udyr's basic attacks damage all enemies he damaged in the past 4 seconds.
  • Primal Avatar: Udyr deals 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300% AD physical damage to all nearby enemies.

• Ekko
• Gangplank
• Master Yi
• Yasuo

 Ekko

Niche: The CC Strider

• It seems strange to put Ekko here, but I think there are a lot of valid reasons why he's actually a fighter, rather than an assassin. When he was released, he was touted as an assassin who traded upfront burst for massive amounts of crowd control, but in practice that has never quite turned out as planned. Barring all the times when Ekko went tanky and started playing like a bruiser, even when built for full damage, he tends to spend a lot of time autoattacking and using his tools as situational defenses, and his relatively low backline access and persistent, low-downtime damage means he doesn't especially have much trouble taking down frontliners. All of these are hallmarks of a light fighter playstyle. His ultimate also doesn't really work well as a traditional big-cooldown nuke, and is partially responsible for Ekko having to build like a bruiser in order to fully use it. On top of that, there's a fair amount of thematic dissonance: in all of the lore, Ekko rewinds time to fix his mistakes and keep on trying, but in practice he just has one shot, and he uses it to kill those around him. The goal of these changes is to refit him towards a light fighter playstyle, making him purely DPS-focused, while enhancing the tools at his disposal, let him bend time harder and more often.
• Stats
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.644 from 0.625.
• Z-Drive Resonance:
  • Effect is now mapped onto critical strikes.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Bonus movement speed removed.
  • Damage increased to 77 − 400 (based on level) (+ 100% AP) from 20 − 190 (based on level) (+ 80% AP).
• Timewinder:
  • Slow changed to 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% from 32 / 39 / 46 / 53 / 60%.
  • Damage removed.
• Parallel Convergence:
  • Passive removed.
  • Sphere duration changed to 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2.
  • Sphere now stuns all enemies it hits while it holds upon detonation.
  • Shield removed.
  • Ekko now becomes untargetable while within the sphere.
• Phase Dive:
  • Cooldown reduced to 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 / 5 from 13 / 11.5 / 10 / 8.5 / 7.
  • Dash range reduced to 300 from 325.
  • Bonus attack range reduced to 175 from 300.
  • Ability-specific damage removed.
• Chronobreak:
  • Cooldown reduced to 20 / 15 / 10 from 110 / 90 / 70.
  • Damage removed.
  • Now changes Ekko's health to its amount at the beginning of the time mark, instead of healing him.
  • While Chronobreak is available, a mark is placed on Ekko's health bar, indicating the value he will revert to upon activating the ability.

 Gangplank

Niche: The AoE Strider

• Until recently, Gangplank's been a weird champion for years, one defined mostly by theme (he's a pirate who crits, plunders gold and eats oranges) at the cost of gameplay coherence. His rework fixed many of his core problems in an awesome manner, keeping everything iconic to him (pistol basic attacks, citrus fruit, Bankplank) while adding awesome and thematic gameplay on top (barrels and cannon upgrades). For that reason, the proposed changes below are not intended to be a rework to his playstyle or mechanics; rather, their goal is to answer some more minor issues with his current kit (namely, his laning, which is still slightly oppressive to due his ability to eke out gold advantages), as well as streamline his power a bit more.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Gangplank's basic abilities now each have 6 ranks.
• Trial by Fire:
  • Damage changed to 200% AD physical damage from 30 − 200 (based on level) (+ 100% bonus AD) true damage.
  • Duration reduced to 2 from 2.5.
  • No longer grants Gangplank bonus movement speed upon applying Trial by Fire or detonating a Powder Keg.
• Parrrley:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 625.
  • Damage reduced to 100% AD at all ranks from 20 / 45 / 70 / 95 / 120 (+ 100% AD).
  • Plunder removed (moved to Trial by Fire.
  • Using Parrrley on an enemy affected by Trial by Fire extends its duration by 0 / 0.4 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.6 / 2.
• Remove Scurvy:
  • Cooldown increased to 23 / 20 / 17 / 14 / 13 / 10 from 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 / 14.
  • Heal changed to 25% missing health at all ranks from 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+ 90% AP) (+ 15% missing health).
• Powder Keg
  • No longer ignores a portion of the target's armor.
  • Bonus champion damage removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • Kegs now spawn with 1 health and arm after 0.5 seconds.
• Cannon Barrage:
  • Cooldown changed to 150 at all ranks from 180 / 160 / 140.
  • Upgrades removed.
  • Damage per wave changed to 50 physical damage from 35 / 60 / 85 (+ 10% AP) magic damage.
  • Slow removed.
  • New passive - Plunder: Enemies killed by Gangplank's abilities or Trial by Fire each reward him with 1 Silver Serpent, quintupled to 5 against large enemies.
  • Can no longer be unlocked or ranked up with levels, even if its passive is available at level 1. Instead, Gangplank must unlock Cannon Barrage by buying it for 50 Silver Serpents. The ability can then be ranked indefinitely, with each rank costing 50 Silver Serpents and adding 50 damage per wave.

 Master Yi

Niche: The Speed Carry

• Master Yi was the prototype for light fighters before Riot had even begun to dig deep into the subclass, with  Yasuo as their first real experiment. As such, he suffers from a large degree of binariness, exacerbated by a snowbally, relatively simplistic playstyle, one that feels overwhelming against teams that aren't built to deal with him, while presenting only few opportunities to maneuver against organized teamwork. A major part of the issue is with Yi's power, which is bundled into several steroids and strengths that could either be compressed (his Highlander speed boost, for example) or taken out to allow for more interesting gameplay (e.g. his slow immunity while ulting). The goal of these changes is to bring Yi in line with other melee carries, firstly by adding in more outplay potential for both him and his opponents at the cost of more persistent power (though he still has some of that), and secondly by emphasizing his core strengths, namely his incredible speed, with all the map influence it gives him.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base health reduced to 555 from 598.56.
  • Health growth reduced reduced to 85 from 92.
  • Base attack damage increased to 65 from 60.04.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 5 from 3.
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.694 from 0.679.
  • Attack speed growth increased to 5% from 2%.
• Double Strike:
  • Is now activated on Master Yi's critical strikes.
  • Damage increased to 100% AD from 50% AD.
• Alpha Strike:
  • Cooldown changed to 17 / 14 / 11 / 8 / 5 from 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14.
  • Cooldown is no longer reduced by basic attacks.
  • Damage removed.
  • Master Yi now applies a basic attack to each enemy he targets with Alpha Strike.
• Meditate:
  • Cooldown changed to 30 / 25 / 20 / 15 / 10 from 35 at all ranks.
  • Active reworked: Master Yi channels for up to 4 seconds, during which he is untargetable.
• Wuju Style:
  • Active removed.
  • Passive reworked: After striking an enemy champion, Master Yi's next basic against them within 2 seconds gains 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% bonus attack speed, stacking indefinitely.
• Highlander:
  • Cooldown increased to 100 from 75.
  • Passive removed.
  • Active reworked: Master Yi channels for 2 seconds, during which champion damage will interrupt him and put Highlander on a static 3-second cooldown, and upon successfully completing the channel gains 1000 / 1500 / 2000 bonus movement speed for 7 seconds.

 Yasuo

Niche: The Defensive Strider

• Yasuo's been a contentious champion ever since his release, breaking new ground in offering unparalleled mobility, crowd control and utility on top of heavy damage. He started out as an experimental champion, in many ways, and offered a new model for melee carries, one that has proved decently successful so far. Yasuo himself, however, has a few lingering issues: though he was intended to be relatively stable and gold-independent enough to do consistently well in teamfights, he's turned out to be fairly snowbally, often chain-killing multiple enemies at a time or falling before he can make a major impact. Additionally, his power's fluctuated heavily over time, with his abilities often feeling either way too strong to fight against or unsatisfying to use. A large part of the problem comes from his ability set being a bit too loaded: his hamfisted double crit passive is heavily responsible for his snowballiness in lane, the armor penetration on his ultimate is tremendously powerful without being too visible, and the ramping damage on Sweeping Blade has no real impact in the late game. The goal of these changes is to streamline his power by trimming some of the fat on his kit (especially his crit passive, which would also become obsolete in view of an alternate crit system that would reward consecutive attacks and abilities rather than random chance) and forcing his early game power down into a lower, more stable curve, while still allowing him to scale tremendously well and letting him survive teamfights even better.
• Stats:
  • Base health regeneration reduced to 4 from 6.51.
  • Health regeneration growth reduced to 0.5 from 0.9.
  • Base attack damage increased to 81 from 55.376.
  • Attack damage growth increased to 7 from 3.2.
  • Base magic resistance increased to 32.1 from 30.
  • Magic resistance growth increased to 1.25 from 0.
  • Base movement speed increased to 355 from 345.
• Way of the Wanderer:
  • Intent removed.
    • As the only effect, Resolve is now Way of the Wanderer.
  • Flow generation increased to 1 per 40 units traveled at all levels from 59 / 52 / 46 (based on level).
  • Shield strength changed to「 95.5 - 750 」「 57 + (38.5 × level) 」from「 100 – 510 」「 100 − 510 (based on level) 」.
• Steel Tempest:
  • Base damage removed.
  • Cooldown changed to 2.5「 / attack speed 」「  ×  attack delay 」 from 4 - 1.33 based on bonus attack speed.
  • Cast no longer changes while used during Sweeping Blade.
• Wind Wall:
  • Cooldown reduced to 25 / 20 / 15 / 10 / 5 from 26 / 24 / 22 / 20 / 18.
  • Wall width reduced to 300 at all ranks from 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 500.
  • Wall duration reduced to 0.75 from 3.75.
  • Now instead causes all allies behind the wall, including Yasuo himself, to be untargetable to attacks passing through it, instead of blocking all incoming projectiles.
• Sweeping Blade:
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Can only be recast once Yasuo completes his dash.
  • Damage removed.
  • Unique dash properties are no longer specified (now common to all dashes).
• Last Breath:
  • Cooldown reduced to 60 / 30 / 0 from 80 / 55 / 30.
  • Damage removed.
  • Armor penetration removed.
  • No longer generates maximum Flow.
  • Can now only be activated on enemies knocked up by Steel Tempest.
  • Yasuo can now cast and attack freely during Last Breath.

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