Keeping League of Legends Interesting
Riot has done it again, now with another patch that aims to change a little thing or two in different parts of the game. From a player’s perspective, this means that we get to see improvements/downgrades to different Champions. Therefore we always get the “chills” as we see one element of our collection is changing in different ways. Likewise any other multiplayer game all over the Internet, even the slightest modification is a specific number will likely change the META, completely removing/adding a champion to the “must play” category. Most noteworthy, to avoid radical changes in League of Legends Patches, there are lots of tests in private servers before anything goes live. Let’s dive into League of Legends Patch 9.17.
Besides the regular changes in the current roster, in this patch you’ll find improvements in the UI (User Interface), that aims to improve the aesthetic of the Game Launcher. Hence, it may not look different, but Riot needs to keep with the competition, graphical improvements are always welcome. Additionally, we get to see more bug fixes that tend to annoy the player base with unintended problems. Above all, within this patch, we get to see more “free to play” rotations each week. Indeed, the old sacred number ten for these rotations it always became the standard for League of Legends. Therefore, now with almost 150 Champions to choose from, this “free to play” feature gives us the potential to try more options before spending our hard-earned Shards.
Similarly to the previous League of Legends Patches, we get to see more amazing skins and chromas to make our Champions a lot “prettier.” Now, without further ado, let’s dig into every new part from the 9.17 Patch.
League of Legends Patch 9.17
User Interface Changes
“IN-GAME UI DISABLE The in-game stat panel button that will allow players to check their Eternals progress during a game has been disabled
PROGRESSION DISABLE The Progression tab under Collection that will allow players to test their Eternals and Champion Mastery progress on the client has been disabled.”
A “work in progress” feature that still needs some work to do from Riot, the developers. Therefore, when everything seems to work with the Eternals and Champion Mastery progress in the game, we’ll get to see this option available to us shortly.
However, what are the “Eternals” in the first place?
“Eternals are a new type of cosmetic that let you showcase your accomplishments in League, counting both unique and general gameplay milestones on a per-champion basis. In-game, you’ll see milestones “pop up” on the side of the screen as you hit statistical checkpoints for that Eternal.”
In other words, this cosmetic feature lets you keep a record for all the “pro skills” that you tend to show when you play League of Legends. Furthermore, a pop-up message will surely let know to everyone on the server that you have mastery in a specific Champion, and they should avoid any conflicts when you’re present. Above all, even though this feature looks impressive, currently there are lots of backlashes complains due to the “RP” requirements to get only one.
Collection
“PORTRAIT SIZE: Champions’ portraits are now more giant and match what’s shown in the loading screen and Skins tab more closely, with some space for additional information in the future.”
With this feature, we now a clear understanding of which players in a random match like to give their support to Riot. Furthermore, with the preview on the Eternals feature, we’ll get to see more information about your champion’s mastery and new cosmetics.
“MASTERY CHEST BORDER REPLACEMENT: Champion portraits no longer have a gold border to indicate that a Mastery Chest was earned on that champion for the season. Now, pictures will have a loot chest icon, matching what’s in the champion tooltip.”
Even though this modification is practically minuscule, we will have more information about the progress of all the mastery chests. Therefore, if you see a gold border, try your best to receive a tremendous personal score at the end of the match to earn another chest in your collection.
“FILTER OPTIONS: Champions are now viewable in groups by different categories, including most popular position, similar to Champion Select.”
Due to the short time that we always get to pick our Champion in a random match, you now have more tools to search and find the right choice. For example, you now can look at all those “Assassin” champions that you have in your collection and counter pick teams that use characters with low health pools.
Bug Fixes
“BLANK CHAMPION BUGFIX: Blank champion portraits, labeled “None,” are no longer showing up in the Champions tab.
MASTERY BUGFIX: Mastery levels are correctly showing on the champion portraits in the Champions tab.
TEXT BUGFIX: Fixed some text on the Champion tab and Collection so that they do not incorrectly wrap to the next line.”
With all these improvements, we now have lower chances to see any UI error as the game loads all the assets. Indeed, shortly (and with the inclusion of Eternals), everything will be sorted out and have a great aesthetic in the game.
Champion Modifications
Aurelion Sol
“Passive damage decreased; AP ratio now flat; stars are no longer disabled by CC. Q cooldown now scales; movement speed increased; star will keep up with Aurelion Sol. W now expands stars and rotates at a decaying speed; cooldown increased early, decreased late; cost no longer increases over time. E passive movement speed
removed; range and cooldown altered; speed now scales.”
Well, it seems that Riot doesn’t know what this Champion truly needs to improve its performance in the game. First of all, they removed his passive, one of the positive characteristics of Aurelion Sol. Additionally, almost all the abilities got nerfing damage, reducing the effectiveness of the champion on team fights. Furthermore, by changing to the “scaling” option, it means that the early game you practically need to be hiding between the grass as much as possible. Above all, the current position of this champion is currently not encouraging, making it less appealing to unlock for any player’s roster.
Galio
“Q cooldown decreased. W min and max damage increased.”
This time around, Galio found nothing but Buffs in this particular patch. Due to the increase of mana regen, it will have more chances to throw more abilities to the enemy’s team. Consequently, two of its amazing skills now have more effectiveness in the early game. Overall, it seems that Galio has a better arsenal to throw itself in the middle of the battle and create some chaos.
Kalista
“Base attack damage, mana, and mana growth increased.”
On this occasion, Riot only made a little tweak in the main stats of this champion. In contrast to the usual buffing procedure, no cooldowns or ability damage has any modification at all. As a result, almost all the community that already unlocked Kalista will find no difficulties in adapting to the recent changes from this update.
Kayle
“Passive bonuses adjusted for all four forms. Q now refunds mana; cast delay, missile speed, and range decreased; cast time updated; enemy shred decreased, but duration increased. E bonus damage decreased later; ratio increased; on-hit rate updated. R cost now scales; radius increased.”
In contrast to Kalista, this specific champion became almost entirely new (theoretically speaking). First of all, the way that her passive works in now wholly different than before. Therefore, she reaches Arisen from at level 6, and Aflame from at level 11. Additionally, Kayle gains more movement speed to all directions, and the attack range improves overtime. Most noteworthy, all of the abilities now have a “later game” mentality, which means that they scale significantly later on if you manage to reach the 30-minute mark.
Leona
“Q cooldown decreased.”
Although it may look minuscule to remove a second in this ability, it helps Leona a lot in the entire duration of the match. As a result, you’ll be able to deal a lot more damage and most importantly crowd control chances with the one-second stun. Therefore, you’ll never go wrong if you spam Q as much as you like in the lane and between all the team fights.
Lucian
“Base AD increased.”
Even though this type of change seems a little bit minuscule, to every Attack Damage Carry, it’s always welcome. Furthermore, since every level, almost all the items from these types of heroes tend to increase this powerful stat. Therefore, you’ll end up multiplying the damage of all your right-clicks, killing everything on your path.
Neeko
“Neeko can now deactivate her passive without taking damage or casting another ability.”
By adding more tools in Neeko’s repertoire, you’ll able to create more chaos in the middle of a fight. Therefore, you now have the chance to get out of any shapeshift costume by selecting yourself as the primary target. Additionally, if you’re taking this route, the cooldown will only be two seconds.
Pantheon
“Q Thrusts now grant execute damage. E monster damage reduction removed.”
By applying these changes into two different abilities, Pantheon now has a better chance to own another role in League of Legends. As a result, in the jungle, your Q will do much damage to the low health monsters, and E doesn’t have damage reduction anymore. Therefore, you’ll be able to deal as much damage as possible, get the farm that you need, and kill all the monsters that wait for you in different camps of the map.
Qiyana
“E base damage decreased. R cooldown flattened.”
We all saw these nerfs coming from miles away. First of all, Riot still keeps the habit of releasing overpowerful new champions to the roster. Secondly, they kept them intact for a couple of weeks. Finally, when the sales (unlocking) decrease, they nerf them little by little. This time around, one of Qiyana’s core assassin ability has gotten a slight damage decrease. Furthermore, her ultimate now only has the largest cooldown (120 seconds), in all ranks.
Ryze
“Base magic resists increased.”
Again, we see now another little improvement in some main stats. In contrast to Lucian, Ryze needs magic resistance a lot more than some changes in the attack damage number. Therefore, in the late game, this particular champion can sustain a lot more magical source damage in the middle of any team fight.
Zyra
“R cost flattened; cooldown decreased.”
Zyra has now an overall change to her ultimate with lots of improvements to create a lot more damage. First of all, the cost now only takes the lowest number (100 mana), which means that you have more chances to cast more abilities in the late game. Additionally, there’s less cooldown time to cast the ultimate over and over again.
Free to Play Rotations
“In 2017, players asked us to expand the weekly free champion rotation beyond just ten champions. As a result, we updated our model to include 10% of the total number of available champions to the rotation and increased the number to 14. With Qiyana, we’re officially at 145 champions! As promised, we’re formally expanding the number of champions to 15 in the next free-to-play rotation on the first week of September 2019.”
Finally, after all these years (even far than 2017), we see some improvements in the free champion rotation! This time around, we’ll able to pick between 15 options to try out before we permanently unlock a new element in our roster. Furthermore, it looks astonishing that we now have 145 champions to choose and practice whenever we get the chance. As a result, finding the right spot to see the neutral ground for all these characters is practically impossible to achieve. Still, though, Riot surprises us with every balancing patch that we get in League of Legends. Most noteworthy, who knows the limit of the number of champions that will arrive at the end, at the moment, it feels like it never is going to end.
More Bugfixes
“Soraka now properly heals herself with R – Wish for more when she is under 40% of her maximum health.
Individual champions’ movement abilities are now correctly disabled when they’re Grounded (Zac’s E – Elastic Slingshot, Malphite’s R – Unstoppable Force, Camille’s E – Hookshot, Graves’ R – Collateral Damage, Thresh’s W – Dark Passage, and Fiddlestick’s R – Crowstorm).
Rek’Sai no longer gains a short “Can’t Be Displaced” buff if her target dies as she starts R – Void Rush
Cleanse now correctly clears the stun from Viktor’s AUGMENT: IMPLOSION W – Gravity Field.
Lee Sin’s Q – Resonating Strike’s dash speed is now at its proper speed (not as slow as it was in 9.16).
If Sylas dies immediately after casting Pantheon’s R – Grand Starfall via R – Hijack, he will no longer be locked out of using items and basic abilities.
Sivir’s W – Ricochet now correctly bounces when recasting when she reaches 45% CDR by holding Spear of Shojin or Cosmic Insight.
Statikk Shiv will no longer hit nearby targets outside of Mordekaiser’s R – Realm of Death when the holder attacks him within it.
When Tahm Kench dies while using W – Devour on another unit, that unit’s HP can now properly go below 1 HP.”
Analysis
Due to the enormous quantity of coding parameters from the development team, and the amount of content in this game; it is almost impossible that something may never break when new content arrives. Furthermore, since the gaming engine has been practically the same thing all over these years, sometimes the same bugs appear over and over again with every patch or maintenance. As a result, the task to keep everything working correctly and stable, it’s almost a routine for Riot. Indeed, with this League of Legends Patch, we get to see fixes in lots of the champion’s abilities that had unusual behaviors.
Additionally, with maintenance such as these, we hope that this game reaches the “almost perfect” state. Making every champion functional, and every part of the UI functional and joyful to witness.
Upcoming Skins
Elderwood Theme
Different types of lore tend to linger between all the champions of League of Legends. Indeed, one of the exciting themes that are available at the moment is the Elderwood saga. This time around, powerful magic coming from the sun and the moon changed the appearance of some champions, turning them into a wood-like creature.
Elderwood Ahri
Fables of the trickster spirit Ahri have been part of humankind’s history for countless generations. Fair-skinned and eternally youthful, she is portrayed as a curious, quizzical member of the Elderwood’s feyfolk… though in recent years her heart has hardened, as she fights a growing corruption within her ancestral home.
Elderwood Nocturne
The high corpses of the Old Gods fed the land, and in time even the Elderwood would come to grow over their putrid rot–hiding it, perhaps, for a time. However, the Gods never indeed died and, with the resurgence of the Coven, one has risen again–Nocturne, the Eternal Nightmare.
Elderwood Veigar
A small number of the Elderwood’s children remain mostly unaffected by the growing influence of the Coven, to the relief of scholars and storytellers alike. Unfortunately, those particular children are some of the most whimsical and dangerous, including among their number the insane goblin Veigar and his cursed, hallucinogenic toadstools.
Infernal Theme
In this alternative universe, the Ashen Lord as taken everything under control, creating chaos and destruction as it travels across the world. Consequently, between the ashes, some of the champions resurface as fire entities, following their creator’s path.
Infernal Galio
A black-hearted monstrosity leading the hellish Infernal hordes, Galio is titanic even by the standards of his fiery kin. His steps melt the very bedrock beneath him, swallowing entire armies without so much as a second thought.
Infernal Shen
An Infernal warrior risen from the raging depths of the underworld, Shen appears on battlefields in the blink of an eye, shielding his fellow titans from even the most well-organized resistance.
Infernal Varus
The Infernal Varus rips massive gouts of magma from the foundation of the earth, before firing them in volleys at those who would fight back against him. Each arrow lands with the ferocity of an exploding volcano, reducing all resistance to ash.
Upcoming Chromas
Once again, we get the chance to modify the champion’s color palate in exchange for some Riot Points. As a result, we now can make our compelling characters outline the accustomed forest-like theme of the main map with colors that may let you stand out between a vast crowd. Above all, every new skin from this League of Legends Patch has now the option to add these chromas. Therefore, if you like to collect things like this, go free and take all you can.
Future Changes
At the moment, there are two “main features” to focus on the upcoming League of Legends Patches in the forthcoming months. First of all, Riot wants to implement that “Eternals” thingy in the main game, making all these achievements flashy and outstanding in the middle of the match. Therefore, there may be lots of work to improve the aesthetics of the User Interphase to make everything appealing.
Secondly, the tournament Worlds is around the corner, always full of professional players and challenges. Hence, the development team needs to focus on creating a middle ground for all the available champions in the roster. As a result, we’ll get to see that the professional players try every element in the list to create new combos and surprises to the audience.
Conclusion
Thanks to all these improvements with every League of Legends Patch, we get to see better graphics on the UI, Champion’s balance, and Bug fixes. Indeed, with every update that hits the servers, the development team aims to keep the game alive through all these years. Therefore, every time we explore the contents of any new patch note, we only hope that our favorite champions get some improvements and dominate the META forever.
Last but not least, more than often, we get to see new skins that tend to have outstanding art with different themes that change the aesthetic of every champion. Hence, with this kind of content, we have the chance to support the development team and keep the focus on the game for more years to come.