Custom Patch Notes/Champions/Mages

Mages are a staple of many videogame genres and have very well-defined strengths and weaknesses throughout: they have powerful spells, they can often control their enemies and keep them at bay, and they tend to be innately fragile and weak in direct combat. With that said, League of Legends has pushed the envelope on many mages, allowing them to develop into new and unexplored gameplay and thematic fantasies, while expanding on what it means to be a mage. On the flipside, Riot's also been sticking to a few mage tropes I think could be played with a little more, and occasionally been too conservative on the treatment they gave to some older mages. The overarching goals for the mage changes below are the following:

• Less Contrived Stats
• More Varied Playstyles

While every role tends to be guided a little bit too forcefully towards certain stats sometimes, this is particularly true of mages: not only are most mages expected to max out on cooldown reduction and mana sustain, along with AP, those options don't always feel appropriate either. Some mages might not even need that much CDR, or even mana as a resource, but are stuck with those expectations for the sake of conforming to general trends and itemization. While most mages should definitely still run on similar stats, some could afford to be a bit different, whether it be by fully committing to an alternate build or using a different, non-mana resource more appropriate for their playstyle.

Typically, mages are expected to have a core ability combo and mainly play around it. While even that has a ton of potential for variation, often mages have been a bit too beholden to that trope, among many others. Some mages have significantly different playstyles from others, and as such may want to do radically different things, like use lots of basic attacks (e.g.  Azir or  Orianna) or even launch themselves gleefully into the enemy team (basically  Karthus). Currently, though, they can't really do that as well as they'd want to, which has homogenized their playstyles somewhat and neutered some of their most interesting features. Many mages could afford to step even more outside the box and take their unique traits up to 11, which would also help make them stand out in an environment saturated with many overlapping contributions.

• Artillery Mages
• Battle Mages
• Burst Mages

• Vel'Koz

 Vel'Koz

Niche: The Team Melter

• Vel'Koz is perhaps one of the very rare champions to have been made seemingly worse by a rework: though still a tremendously fun champion, his recent changes haven't really put him on the map as much as intended, and instead muddied his playstyle somewhat by making his ultimate occasionally more complicated and less directly satisfying. Truth be told, though, he needed changes, and for the reasons mentioned in his dev blogs: while fun, Vel lacked a strong niche that could make him stand out from the others, and so his potential ended up being squandered through needlessly low play rates and exclusion from pick choices, a problem that would persist as long as he wasn't overpowered. The goal of these changes is to do a slightly different take on his Research mechanic, while also sprucing up his kit a little: one of the promises made throughout his rework process was to make his W more geometry-related, a promise that resonated well with his playerbase, particularly since the ability often feels slightly lackluster. Ideally, the end result should be an artillery powerhouse capable of melting through targets via smart placement of his spells.
• Stats:
  • Now uses energy instead of mana:
    • Energy set to 100.
    • Energy regeneration set to 50.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
• Organic Deconstruction:
  • Renamed to Deconstruction.
  • Reworked: Vel'Koz's abilities initially deal no damage, but instead Research the enemies they hit for 4 seconds, causing subsequent hits to apply damage and refresh Research on them.
• Plasma Fission:
  • Range reduced to 850 from 1050.
  • Secondary bolts range reduced to 850 from 1100.
  • Cost reduced to 25 at all ranks from 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Damage increased to 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 80% AP) from 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 60% AP).
  • Slow removed.
• Void Rift:
  • Renamed to Probe.
  • Cost reduced to 25 at all ranks from 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70.
  • Charges removed.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Range increased to 1200 from 1050.
  • Reworked: Vel'Koz sends out a beam of light that ricochets off all enemies and terrain it hits until it reaches maximum range, dealing 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 80% AP) magic damage to all enemies hit.
• Tectonic Disruption:
  • Renamed to Analyze.
  • Range reduced to 1200 from 850.
  • Cost reduced to 25 at all ranks from 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Reworked: Vel'Koz places a marker at the target location, and can place two more markers within 2 seconds. Once the markers are placed, a pulse of energy forms at the center of the resulting triangle, expanding until it reaches the edges and dealing 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+ 80% AP) magic damage to all enemies it hits.
• Lifeform Disintegration Ray:
  • Cost removed.
  • Passive removed.
  • Range reduced to 1200 from 1550.
  • Duration reduced to 2 from 2.5.
  • Damage per quarter-second increased to 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 25% AP) from 45 / 62.5 / 80 (+ 12.5% AP)
  • Slow removed.

• Aurelion Sol
• Azir
• Heimerdinger
• Karthus
• Ryze
• Viktor

 Aurelion Sol

Niche: The Center of Attention

• This started out as far more of a fanciful "here is my take on this champion" set of changes than a truly serious rework, considering this was written before even Aurelion Sol's release. Part of these changes likely came from a excessive willingness to streamline, which is already not a big task considering the simplicity of his base kit, but also because of some minor regrets coming from the main gameplay designer himself: when discussing his champion, Rabid Llama admitted that his somewhat underwhelming ultimate was added mainly for functionality in place of a potentially far more awe-inspiring, though power-hungry effect, and mentioned his not-too-relevant mana costs as if they were more of an afterthought than a conscious design decision. The goal of these changes is to move bits of his kit around for the sake of efficiency, focusing completely on his star damage, to make him properly manaless, since his passive and E gameplay make him a champion that doesn't really need to run on a resource, and to give him a suitably flashy ultimate, though one that would be appropriate for his gameplay and power budget.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
• Center of the Universe:
  • Stars now only activate when Aurelion Sol initiates a command to attack or activates Celestial Expansion, and persist thereafter until he leaves combat.
    • Abilities that disarm Aurelion Sol now also disable his stars for the duration.
    • Stars now damage wards, structures and other objects otherwise only affected by basic attacks.
  • Damage increased to 55 − 225 (based on level) (+ 21 − 55 (based on level)% AP) from <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="20☂22☂24☂26☂28☂31☂34☂37☂40☂45☂50☂55☂60☂67☂74☂81☂88☂97☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="18 plus 2 at each level up to 5, then 3 at each level up to 9, 5 at each level up to 13, 7 at each level up to 17, and 9 at level 18" data-values1="☂" >20 − 97 (based on level) (+ 18 − 35 (based on level)% AP).
  • Since the stars' damage is always above 25, they no longer need to execute minions below 25 health.
• Starsurge:
  • Damage removed.
  • Bonus movement speed removed.
  • Travel speed is now based on Aurelion Sol's movement speed, slowing down the further the star core is from him.
  • Initial projectile size reduced.
    • Projectile is now exhaled from Aurelion Sol's breath.
• Celestial Expansion:
  • Passive removed.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2 from 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2.
  • Active no longer increases Center of the Universe's damage.
  • Automatically ends after not damaging an enemy champion within the past 4 seconds.
• Comet of Legend:
  • Escape Velocity renamed to Flow.
  • Flow is now displayed in Aurelion Sol's resource bar.
• Voice of Light:
  • Renamed to Supernova.
  • Cooldown increased to 140 / 120 / 100 from 120 / 100 / 80
  • Reworked: Aurelion Sol charges himself with cosmic energy over the next 4 seconds, emanating a glow so bright he can be seen anywhere on the map. At the end of the duration, upon recasting the ability or upon its cancellation, Aurelion Sol releases all of the accumulated energy in an explosive burst, dealing up to 400 / 700 / 1000 (+ 100% AP) magic damage, and a minimum of 80 / 140 / 200 (+ 20% AP) damage, to all enemies within the Outer Rim, knocking them away to the edge, and slowing them by 50 / 60 / 70%, decaying over 1 second plus every second spent charging.

 Azir

Niche: The Army Commander

• Azir's been struggling a lot recently: at his core, he's intended to be an AP autoattacking hypercarry mage, yet some of his power keeps bleeding into poke and excessive safety, making him a powerful lane bully with an overbearing early game against many champions. He's a tremendously popular pick in competitive play, but often for the wrong reasons (i.e. for his Q poke, rather than his core autoattacking fantasy), and the nerfs that target that kind of power inevitably end up making him even weaker in the hands of all but the most dedicated players. The goal of these changes is to make a more radical change to his damage output, focusing it exclusively on his Sand Soldiers while paring off and concentrating the power on his other abilities down to their core functions (Q is to reposition soldiers, E is to reposition Azir, etc.). The end result should be a champion who'd be much more at ease at what he does best, with potentially better (and new) item synergy and use of riskier strats (Shurima Shuffle FTW), while also having more pronounced weaknesses and less abuse potential.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base attack speed increased to 0.694 from 0.625.
  • Attack speed growth increased to 4% from 1.5%.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage and attack range removed (set to 0).
• Conquering Sands:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 740.
  • Cooldown now applies per Sand Soldier, and not to the ability itself.
  • Damage removed.
  • Slow removed.
  • Now only commands the Sand Soldier closest to the target to dash.
  • No longer resets Azir's autoattack timer.
• Arise!:
  • Now has six ranks, with Azir starting the game with one rank in the ability.
  • Bonus attack speed removed.
  • Cast range increased to 500 from 450.
  • Cooldown increased to 23 / 20 / 17 / 14 / 11 / 8 from 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8.
  • Cooldown in-between soldier casts removed.
  • Command range restriction removed.
  • Damage changed to 70 − 240 (based on level) (+ 49 − 100 (based on level)% AP) from 50 − 170 (based on level) (+ 60% AP).
  • Enemies can only be damaged by one Sand Soldier per basic attack.
  • Each Sand Soldier applies on-hit, on-attack and spell effects.
    • Stacking per-attack effects still only count each basic attack as one instance, even if multiple soldiers are attacking, and life steal effects provide no healing.
  • If Azir has no Sand Soldiers active, casting Arise! does not require or consume a charge.
  • Sand Soldiers can now attack turrets, and when spawned directly on them appear next to them instead of sacrificing themselves.
  • Sand Soldiers last indefinitely, and only disintegrate after 4 seconds of not dealing damage to an enemy champion or large monster.
• Shifting Sands:
  • Range restriction removed.
  • Damage removed.
  • Shield removed.
  • Cooldown changed to 26 / 22 / 18 / 14 / 10 from 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15.
  • Azir now stops immediately behind enemy champions who interrupt his dash, rather than in front of them.
• Emperor's Divide:
  • Damage removed.

 Heimerdinger

Niche: The Base Builder

• A long time ago, Heimerdinger was one of the most unsuccessful champions in the game, with a kit that was impossible to balance and reduced him to a joke champion. While his rework completely revolutionized his kit, making it truly fun to use, it didn't fully address some of his old problems, namely his oppressiveness relative to many champions and his overall viability: Heimerdinger's still a pubstomper, one who can completely dominate the laning phase just by sitting around and plonking turrets non-stop, but he's also been relegated to that role, and so has remained out of any sort of competitive setting, where he falls apart against coordinated dives. One way of addressing this would be to give him more late-game autonomy, where the only means of dealing with a pushing Heimerdinger would be to break down his base before attacking him (going for him directly and ignoring his defenses should incur casualties). To complement this, though, he also needs to have his laning patterns made more interactive: right now, he wins by attrition, forcing his opponent to play a losing game where he can poke safely and regen most incoming damage, while they get few opportunities to do much in return unless they can easily take down his turrets. An answer to both could take the form of a unique resource system, which would allow Heimerdinger to be even stronger when fully stocked in a well set-up base, while also forcing him to leave the safety of his turrets to gather supplies. The goal of these changes (aside from a moderate power shift away from lane) is to reinforce Heimerdinger's base-building niche and give him the options he needs to adapt to hard focus and faster-paced late games, while also forcing windows of vulnerability upon him in order to prevent him from just winning by default in stand-offs. Another goal that developed later was to concentrate his ult into something much more interesting: UPGRADE!!! is a "basic ability plus" ultimate in a game that already has Karma and LeBlanc, and in almost every case R + Q trumps both other choices. Additionally, having massive burst and massive crowd control doesn't fit into Heimerdinger's fantasy or gameplay niche all that well, so the changes further below take his base-building, turret-centric playstyle up to 11 and place the focus squarely on his big turret.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Base health regeneration reduced to 5 from 11.005.
  • Health regeneration growth reduced to 0.5 from 1.75.
• Techmaturgical Repair Bots
  • Renamed to Endless Discovery.
  • Reworked: Heimerdinger uses Spare Parts to craft his inventions, and can hold up to 3 − 12 (based on level), displayed in his resource bar. Each basic ability costs 1 Spare Part to use, and while Heimerdinger cannot regenerate Spare Parts of his own outside of the fountain, he can make them from resource nodes on the map: whenever Heimerdinger is lacking Spare Parts, an invisible node periodically spawns near him, remaining for a moderate duration, and the D.I.N.G.R. lights up to indicate its presence, beeping faster the closer he is to it. Upon getting close enough to the node, it becomes visible and the D.I.N.G.R. picks it up automatically, granting Heimerdinger a Spare Part and disabling node generation around that area for a longer period.
    • Node placement is semi-random and slightly skewed towards riskier locations (e.g. brush, portions of the lane closer to the enemy, neutral or enemy side of the jungle).
    • Additionally, large enemies drop a spare part upon dying.
• H-28G Evolution Turret
  • Attack range increased to 550 from 525.
  • Spare part storage removed (moved to Endless Discovery Endless Discovery).
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Charge per second removed.
  • Turrets now generate 10% charge per attack across all levels, from 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5%.
  • Damage per attack changed to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+ 11.5 − 20 (based on level))% AP) from 12 / 18 / 23 / 29 / 34 (+ 15% AP).
  • Beam damage changed to 「 triple the damage per attack 」「 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 34.5 − 60 (based on level))% AP) 」 from 40 / 60 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 55% AP).
  • Turrets now deactivate immediately upon Heimerdinger's death or him leaving their leash range.
  • Heimerdinger can use H-28G Evolution Turret on a nearby turret that's been deployed for 10 seconds or more to pick it up, destroy it and generate 1 Spare Part.
  • Turrets no longer have resistances, and instead have 6 health, taking modified incoming damage:
    • 1 damage from minions, monsters and inhibitor and base turrets.
    • 2 damage from ranged champion basic attacks.
    • 3 damage from damaging spells, melee champion basic attacks, outer and inner turrets and large monsters.
    • 6 damage from Smite and effects that imitate it (e.g. Consume).
• Hextech Micro-Rockets
  • Cooldown reduced to 5 from 11.
  • Damage changed to 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 (+ 37.5% AP) from 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 45% AP).
  • Damage per additional rocket increased to 25% from 20%.
    • Total damage reduced to 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 / 250 (+ 75% AP) from 108 / 162 / 216 / 270 / 324 (+ 81% AP).
• CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade
  • Cooldown reduced to 10 at all ranks from 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10.
  • Base damage reduced to 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 from 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220.
  • Range increased to 1100 from 925.
  • Radius reduced to 200 from 210.
  • Now stuns all enemies hit for 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 seconds, from 1.25 seconds against enemies in the epicenter.
• UPGRADE!!!
  • Renamed to Ultimate Creation.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Reworked: Heimerdinger deploys a massive turret and places himself in stasis inside it.
    • The turret has 12 / 18 / 24 health and follows the same rules for damage and crowd control as any H-28G Evolution Turret.
    • Left-clicking while inside the turret fires large energy projectiles in the target direction that detonate upon impact with an enemy, dealing 200 / 250 / 300 (+ 60% AP) magic damage in an area and slowing enemies hit by 25% for 1 second, at a maximum rate of 1 attack per second.
      • Projectiles count as spells, rather than basic attacks, and so apply spell effects, but not on-hit effects, and do not affect structures.
      • The turret has a turn speed.
    • Right-clicking to move exits the turret, but leaves it out, albeit inactive. Any allied champion can move to the inactive turret to enter, place themselves in stasis and control it.
    • Reactivating Ultimate Creation while within deployment range of the turret will deconstruct it and save it for future use, keeping its current health levels.
      • If someone is occupying the turret, they exit automatically upon its deconstruction.
    • The turret is powered by its own Charge reserve, consuming 5 Charge per half-second while in use and regenerating 1 Charge per second while inactive or deconstructed. At 0 Charge, the turret becomes inactive and ejects its user.
      • Turret cannot be deployed or entered at under 10 Charge.
    • Collecting a Spare Part heals the turret for 2 health, tripled if Heimerdinger is full on Spare Parts.
    • If the turret is destroyed, it becomes usable again reaching full Charge or full health, whichever comes first.

 Karthus

Niche: The Suicide Mage

• A few seasons ago, back when immobile mages completely ruled the mid lane, Karthus was one of the most popular champions around, offering tremendous global influence on top of safe overall laning, and even occasionally haunted the jungle, using its safety and his constant damage to power through camps and invade lanes. Times have changed, though, and many of the pillars responsible for the Deathsinger's success have crumbled: the prominence of assassins and mobile champions have made his laning experience so harrowing that people often refuse to play him for his lane counters; the increased difficulty of the jungle and removal of the Magus enchantment have made his early jungle clears almost impossible to achieve; his infamous Teleport + Revive combo has been undone by the removal of the latter spell, and his uniqueness as an AP hypercarry has been eclipsed by the likes of  Azir and  Cassiopeia, who outperform him while carrying more overall safety. More importantly, though, the cracks in his kit are starting to show: as a squishy mage, Karthus needs to dive his targets at extremely close ranges and thereby sacrifice his life, but the massive risk he takes often has an insufficient payoff due to the inherent cost of dying. The goal of these changes is to reinforce and better support that identity: not only should Karthus feel comfortable when acting suicidal, he should be truly rewarded for it, and his abilities should fully revolve around enabling and enacting death upon his enemies.
• Stats
  • Is now a manaless champion
  • Health growth reduced to 65 from 75.
  • Base movement speed reduced to 325 from 335.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
  • Karthus's abilities now have no ranks, and his ultimate is available at level 1.
• Death Defied:
  • If Karthus kills an enemy champion or epic monster during Death Defied, he reforms his body, resurrecting at 100% maximum health.
  • Only counts Karthus's death once he expires without resurrecting.
• Lay Waste:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 875.
  • Base damage changed to 40 − 125 (based on level) from 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120.
• Wall of Pain:
  • Renamed to Veil of Mortality.
  • Cooldown reduced to 15 from 18.
  • Wall now deploys after a 0.5-second delay, rather than instantly.
  • Slow removed.
  • No longer reduces affected targets' magic resistance.
  • Now converts <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="75☂100☂125☂150☂175☂200☂225☂250☂275☂300☂325☂350☂375☂400☂425☂450☂475☂500☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="50 + 25 × level" data-values1="☂" >75 − 500 (based on level) (+ 100% AP) health into grey health, which regenerates over 4 seconds after not having been struck for 4 seconds.
    • This cannot bring targets below 1 health.
• Defile:
  • Range reduced to 250 from 425.
  • Toggle off effect removed.
  • Toggle on effect is now a permanent passive.
  • Damage changed to up to <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="16☂18☂20☂22☂24☂26☂28☂30☂32☂34☂36☂38☂40☂42☂44☂46☂48☂50☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="14 + 2 × 18" data-values1="☂" >16 − 50 (based on level) (+ 10% AP), based on the target's current health, per 0.25 seconds, from 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+ 20% AP) per second.
  • Taking down an enemy now permanently increases its range by 2, quintupled to 10 against enemy champions, large minions and monsters, up to a maximum of 250 bonus range (500 total range).
    • Captured souls are now displayed in Karthus's resource bar.
• Requiem:
  • Cooldown reduced to 150 from 200 / 180 / 160.
  • Active reworked: Karthus instantly kills every enemy champion on the map below <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="125☂150☂175☂200☂225☂250☂275☂300☂325☂350☂375☂400☂425☂450☂475☂500☂525☂550☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="100 + 25 × level" data-values1="☂" >125 − 550 (based on level) (+ 60% AP) health.
  • Karthus's voice can now be heard globally on cast.

 Ryze

Niche: The Machine Gun Mage

• Ryze has historically been a difficult champion to balance and design around, mainly due to his core gameplay: he's a durable mage with low-cooldown, mostly point-and-click spells that he hurls as fast as they come off cooldown onto his targets. It's been difficult to make his spells spammable yet still have them feel powerful, and equally difficult to make him feel strong without simply making him too good overall, or too difficult to approach. His most recent rework, though, seems to have solved this, allowing him to have high moments and compelling, on-the-fly choices without compromising the consistency of his kit. Some issues remain, however, notably the presence of burst on his kit, which he shouldn't really have. Additionally, his mana scalings have become even more math-y and less relevant on a kit that really isn't meant to function with resource gates. The goal of these changes is to remove Ryze's less necessary features, namely his burst and bonus movement speed, and instead make him completely DPS-based, letting him cast spells freely with concerns only for his setup and target selection, and not costs or cooldowns.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
  • Ryze's abilities now have no ranks, and his ultimate is available at level 1.
• Arcane Mastery:
  • Reworked: hitting an enemy champion or large monster with an ability shields Ryze from 15% maximum health for 2 seconds. This cannot be triggered more than once every 15 seconds, though each enemy champion or large monster subsequently damaged reduces Arcane Mastery's cooldown by 1 second.
• Overload:
  • Passive removed.
  • Range reduced to 600 from 1000.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Damage changed to <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="81☂88☂95☂102☂109☂116☂123☂130☂137☂144☂151☂158☂165☂172☂179☂186☂193☂200☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="74 + 7 × level" data-values1="☂" >81 − 200 (based on level) (+ 50% AP) from 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 / 185 (+ 45% AP) (+ 3% bonus mana).
  • Enemies are immune to Overload until they are marked by Spell Flux.
• Rune Prison:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 615.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Damage removed.
  • Can now only be used on enemies marked by Spell Flux.
  • Enemies are immune to Rune Prison for 10 seconds after being hit by the ability.
• Spell Flux:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 615.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Reworked: Ryze marks the target enemy with Flux for 2 seconds, allowing him to use his other basic abilities against them, which reverberate to all other enemies marked with Flux.
• Realm Warp:
  • Range changed to 3000 from 1500 / 3000.

 Viktor

Niche: The Path Clearer

• Viktor has one of the richest and most easily recognizable themes in the game: evolution. Above everyone else, he represents the pinnacle of technological advancement, and in-game this translates mostly pretty well through a versatile kit. However, there is a fine line between being versatile and being spread out across too many strengths: under the official terminology, Viktor is a disruptor/battle/burst mage hybrid, but here he's really a cross between a burst mage and a battle mage. That in itself is fine, but he also has a lot of extra crowd control that takes from his power budge, without making him feel especially valued because of it. His battle/burst pattern also gets somewhat abusive when he gets to delete squishy champions by approaching them. Despite the additional effects provided by his Hex Core, and the significant improvement it represented over its older version, it still feels like a missed opportunity: his unique item doesn't feel special in itself, and its evolution system is basically a rip of  Kha'Zix's own, tied to an item rather than his ultimate. The goal of these changes is to switch him towards being much more of a battle mage as his primary role: he'd have some burst mage elements, namely his stun combo, but he'd be much more focused around creating persistent, mobile zones of threat and laying down massive damage over time, rather than raw instant damage. With this would be a different evolution system that would, ideally, present Viktor with many more choices, without saddling him with too many different effects, and allow him to start out burstier if he chooses, before eventually settling into battle mage territory.
• Stats:
  • Base mana reduced to 100 from 324.
  • Mana growth removed.
  • Base mana regeneration reduced to 5 from 6.
  • Mana regeneration growth removed.
  • Attack range reduced to 500 from 525.
  • Base movement speed increased to 340 from 335.
• Glorious Evolution:
  • Reworked: Viktor's abilities are not ranked up normally. Instead, he can choose from a selection of augments to grant them specific empowerments. Each basic ability has four evolutions, and his ultimate has two.
• Siphon Power:
  • Renamed to Overcharge.
  • Cooldown increased to 8 at all ranks from 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4.
  • Mana cost reduced to 10 at all ranks from 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65.
  • Reworked: Viktor shields himself for 5% maximum health for 2 seconds, charging while the shield holds. After charging for 1 second, Viktor's next basic attack while the shield holds deals 52 − 120 (based on level) (+ 30% AP) bonus magic damage.
  • Augment - Deflection: doubles Overcharge's shield.
  • Augment - Discharge: doubles Overcharge's damage.
  • Augment - Turbocharge: halves Overcharge's base cooldown.
  • Augment - Siphon: halves Overcharge's mana cost.
• Gravity Field:
  • Renaimed to Containment Field
  • Range reduced to 500 from 700.
  • Cooldown increased to 20 at all ranks from 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13.
  • Mana cost reduced to 20 from 65.
  • Reworked: Viktor deploys a device at the target location that arms after a brief delay, lasting 4 seconds thereafter. Enemies who pass through are slowed by an additive 10% every 0.25 seconds. Enemies at 100% have the slow removed and become immune to it, but are stunned for 0.5 seconds.
  • Augment - Singularity: doubles Containment Field's slow strength.
  • Augment - Suspension: doubles Containment Field's stun duration.
  • Augment - Permanence: halves Containment Field's base cooldown.
  • Augment - Drain: halves Containment Field's mana cost.
• Death Ray:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 525.
  • Cooldown increased to 16 at all ranks from 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9.
  • Mana cost reduced to 16 from 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110.
  • Reworked: Viktor fires a laser across the target vector, dealing 49 − 100 (based on level) (+ 25% AP) magic damage to all enemies it hits. The laser leaves a trail that detonates after 1 second, dealing 49 − 100 (based on level) (+ 25% AP) magic damage to every enemy hit.
  • Augment - Disintegration: doubles Death Ray's laser damage.
  • Augment - Aftershock: doubles Death Ray's aftershock damage.
  • Augment - Rearming: halves Death Ray's base cooldown.
  • Augment - Superconductor: halves Death Ray's mana cost.
• Chaos Storm:
  • Range reduced to 500 from 700.
  • Cooldown increased to 150 from 120 / 110 / 100.
  • Mana cost removed.
  • Initial damage removed.
  • Interrupt removed.
  • Duration increased to 8 from 6.5.
  • Damage per pulse changed to 115 − 200 (based on level) (+ 40% AP) from 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 60% AP).
  • Augment - Entropy: doubles Chaos Storm's damage.
  • Augment - Surge: halves Chaos Storm's cooldown.

• Ahri
• Syndra
• LeBlanc

 Ahri

Niche: The Pick Mage

• Ahri's a champion with a strong fan base and a solid kit, one that offers a unique mage-assasin hybrid playstyle and a unique combination of advantages usually reserved to either class, namely ultra-high mobility and powerful crowd control. However, she has also suffered for having a bit too much of everything, and if there's one oddball effect on her kit, it's her passive, for many reasons: sustain isn't really a feature common to assassins or mages, and so doesn't really fit a champion who's already a hybrid of two classes, the innate itself has been nerfed repeatedly to the point where it's unsatisfying even in optimal use cases, all while making Ahri sometimes too hard to dislodge from lane, and its purpose is covered far more elegantly by the more recent movement speed buff on her Q, which lets her kite enemies to avoid damage instead of healing back some of the damage they managed to deal. The goal of these changes is to bring edge-of-danger kiting to the forefront of Ahri's playstyle and reinforce her role as a champion who rushes in and out of fights to pick off select targets, while also turning some of her less appropriate poking power into better all-in and movement-based damage.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • Attack range reduced to 500 from 550.
  • Base attack damage reduced to 49 from 53.04.
  • Attack speed growth increased to 3% from 2%.
  • Movement speed reduced to 325 from 330.
• Essence Theft:
  • Reworked: Whenever Ahri's abilities damage an enemy champion or large monster, she gains 325 bonus movement speed, decaying over 0.5 seconds, refreshed with each new application.
• Orb of Deception:
  • Cooldown reduced to 5 from 7.
  • Damage per pass increased to 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+ 60% AP) from 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 35% AP).
  • Bonus movement speed removed.
  • Projectile now decelerates towards the end of its trajectory, pauses, then accelerates again upon returning.
  • Return now deals magic damage instead of true damage.
• Fox-Fire:
  • Reworked: Ahri summons three spectral flames which orbit her for up to 5 seconds. For the duration, each of her basic attacks hurls a flame at her target, consuming it and dealing 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100% AD (+ 60% AP) bonus magic damage per flame.
• Charm:
  • Cooldown changed to 13 / 11 / 9 / 7 / 5 from 12.
  • Damage removed.
  • Charm duration reduced to 1 at all ranks from 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2.
• Spirit Rush:
  • Cooldown between casts removed.
  • No longer fires damaging bolts.

 Syndra

Niche: The Telekinetic

• Despite a history of extreme highs and lows in her success, Syndra's core fantasy has often been a bit too mellow in its implementation. Though intended to represent her limitless potential, Transcendent feels anything but, and for a passive that doesn't manifest until later in the game, its effects are fairly underwhelming. What's strange is that Syndra herself has a clearly-defined fundamental gameplay mechanic, that of her sphere manipulation, yet it is a system that is heavily underutilized. Often it resumes itself to spamming spheres for ammo, regardless of champion interaction, ulting a champion to kill them, and then not making any real use of the huge cluster of spheres she then has at her disposal. The goal of these changes is to make Syndra focus much more on manipulating lots of little objects at a time and making full use of them: while she should still be able to delete people with her ult, she should also have more opportunities beyond it to make impressive plays with her spheres.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
  • Syndra's abilities now have no ranks, and her ultimate is available at level 1.
• Transcendent:
  • Renamed to Mind Over Matter.
  • Reworked: Syndra continually uproots parts of the world around her, turning them into dark spheres that she can manipulate with her abilities. The spheres last for 4 seconds, and all of them have their duration refreshed when at least one impacts an enemy champion or large monster. Enemies hit by a sphere in motion are dealt 81 − 200 (based on level) (+ 50% AP) magic damage.
• Dark Sphere:
  • Renamed to Crush.
  • Range reduced to 750 from 800.
  • Cooldown increased to 5 from 4.
  • Reworked: Syndra creates an implosion at the target area after a short delay, drawing all spheres towards it.
• Force of Will:
  • Range reduced to 750 from 925.
  • Cooldown removed.
  • Damage removed.
  • No longer affects non-spheres.
  • No longer pauses sphere decay.
  • Spheres cannot be moved by Force of Will again until they have had their duration refreshed.
  • Slow removed.
• Scatter the Weak:
  • Range increased to 750 from 700.
  • Launch range reduced to 750 from 1100.
  • Cooldown reduced to 5 from 18 / 16.5 / 15 / 13.5 / 12.
  • Knockback removed.
  • Stun removed.
• Unleashed Power:
  • Range increased to 750 from 675.
  • Cooldown changed to 100 from 120 / 100 / 80.
  • Reworked: Syndra gathers all of her spheres, causing them to orbit her. Releasing Unleashed Power then causes Syndra to launch all of her spheres in the target direction, where they stop upon hitting an enemy.

 LeBlanc

Niche: The Deceiver

• For years, LeBlanc's been infamous for her lack of counterplay, especially in lane, with an instant burst pattern that left her opponents with little opportunity to react. Her rework sought to address this, but instead ended up turning her into a kite mage, causing her to become frustrating by being excessively difficult to reach. In both cases, her theme as a deceiver has hardly been used at all, as her gameplay features little deception in practice, and instead relies much more on brute force. There are, however, elements of deception in both her lore and her kit that, if brought to the forefront, could truly allow her to play mind games on her opponents and play in a completely unique manner. The goal of these changes is to focus her play around deceiving her targets, rather than assaulting them with raw power, and thereby make her potentially more interactive and interesting to fight.
• Stats:
  • Is now a manaless champion.
  • No longer uses basic attacks.
    • Attack damage, attack speed and attack range removed (set to 0).
• Sigil of Malice:
  • Reworked: LeBlanc can target a nearby visible target to apply a Sigil of Malice, which charges up over the course of 4 seconds. Switching targets, losing sight of the target, moving too far from them, or completing the charge breaks the sigil, causing it to deal up to <span class="pp-tooltip" style="position:relative; border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help; color: ;" data-size="18" data-values="520☂560☂600☂640☂680☂720☂760☂800☂840☂880☂920☂960☂1000☂1040☂1080☂1120☂1160☂1200☂1☂2☂3☂4☂5☂6☂7☂8☂9☂10☂11☂12☂13☂14☂15☂16☂17☂18" data-label1="Level" data-displayformula="480 + 40 × level" data-values1="☂" >520 − 1200 (based on level) (+ 400% AP) magic damage to the target, based on the time spent charging. Afterwards, the victim cannot be targeted by Sigil of Malice for the next 10 seconds if they are a champion.
• Shatter Orb:
  • Renamed to Mimic.
  • Range increased to global, from 700.
  • Cooldown increased to 20 / 15 / 10 / 5 / 0 from 6 at all ranks.
  • Reworked: LeBlanc memorizes the appearance of the target non-enemy, non-Baron Nashor unit, which can include herself, allowing Mimic to be recast. Recasting Mimic grants this appearance to the target non-enemy unit, causing them to appear like the chosen unit to all enemies until the target strikes or is struck.
• Distortion:
  • Range increased to 750 from 600.
  • Reworked: LeBlanc instantly switches places with the target non-enemy, non-Baron Nashor unit, swapping their appearances in the process and showing no indication of the switch to the enemy. Each retains their disguise until they strike or are struck.
• Ethereal Chains:
  • Renamed to Mirror Image.
  • Cooldown increased to 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10.
  • Reworked: LeBlanc splits into two, creating a controllable mirror image of herself at her current health that lasts up to 4 seconds. The Mirror Image imitates LeBlanc's Sigil of Malice casts on the same target, but deals no damage of its own.
• Mimic:
  • Renamed to Shadow of the Rose.
  • Cooldown reduced to 50 / 25 / 0 from 160 / 140 / 129.
  • Reworked: LeBlanc channels indefinitely, during which she remains immobile. While channeling, she creates a copy of herself at the target location with her current health, which deals no damage and cannot use items or summoner spells, but which she can otherwise fully control as if it were herself. The channel ends if Shadow of the Rose is reactivated, if the channel is interrupted, or if LeBlanc or her image dies.

Return to Champions