Maw of Malmortius

“We’re reshaping Maw this patch by trying to make it a powerful light fighter item (think Riven or Fiora). Omnivamp is a much more attractive stat than life steal for these fighters and some added Ability Haste should sweeten the offer. On the flip side, we’re bringing down the MR in order to make it a more clearly aggressive purchase. We also want to load its defensive power into more burst resistance and less of shutting down a mage in the 1v1. Ideally, mages can wait out the shield duration and then resume their assault while light fighters can feel like this is a more worthwhile purchase.”

Death’s Dance

“We’re buffing Death’s Dance with a similar goal to Maw of Malmortius: make it clearly good for aggressive, high-AD fighters. We’re wary of just how snowbally fighters can get, but being forced into melee range already makes fighter’s lives tough enough. We’ll be keeping an eye out to make sure fighters don’t get too snowbally though.”

Build pickrate changes Change >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	5.32%	6.43% 1.11%

View all Death’s Dance builds

Sterak’s Gage

“Sterak’s Gage has been the best-performing defensive fighter item this season so it’s receiving a nerf alongside the item buffs to Maw and Death’s Dance. The goal here is to have each of these three items serve a core subset of the fighter space: Maw for MR, Death’s Dance for armor, and Sterak’s for health.”

Build pickrate changes Change >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	10.02%	30.44% 40.46%
	8.84%	38.54% 47.38%
	6.38%	20.82% 27.2%
	5.91%	6.47% 12.38%
	5.87%	21.63% 27.49%

View all Sterak’s Gage builds

Sundered Sky

“Sundered Sky, along with Sterak’s and Eclipse, is another of the best-performing fighter items. We’re bringing down its teamfight output a little by reducing the healing and how often it can be procced in a fight.”

Build pickrate changes Change >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	10.02%	30.44% 40.46%
	8.84%	38.54% 47.38%
	8.03%	27.63% 35.66%
	6.81%	19.4% 26.21%
	6.38%	20.82% 27.2%

View all Sundered Sky builds

Eclipse

“Eclipse is currently the best-performing first slot fighter item, so we’re taking a little bit off the front-end burst in order to open up some alternative itemization options. It’ll still be the earliest power spike you can receive with its low 2800 gold price point but now it won’t be able to let you win the lane quite as hard.”

Build pickrate changes Change >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	8.84%	38.54% 47.38%
	6.81%	19.4% 26.21%
	5.69%	13.97% 19.65%
	5.43%	13.83% 19.26%

View all Eclipse builds

Akshan

Q movement speed on champion hit no longer scales with level, damage to non-champions decreased. R minimum damage per shot increased, maximum damage adjusted.

“Akshan has long had two problems: First, he’s been a fairly frustrating top and mid laner to face, staying just out of reach from his melee opposition while also having incredible roam power. Second, his baseline reliability is quite low, making him incredibly hard to approach in lower-skilled play. We expect Akshan to require a lot of practice to get the most out of him, but we think we can still bring up his baseline. Due to how fair his R is (minions and turrets can block shots, in addition to champions), we think this ability could use some strong buffs that won't compromise the ability’s counter-play. These R buffs should result in up to 50% more ultimate damage in the most extreme cases late-game, but will typically be closer to 10% against low-health opponents.”

Build pickrate increases Increase >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	5.04%	11.22% 6.18%

View all Akshan builds

Bel’Veth

Passive bonus attack speed adjusted, Q damage decreased, Q damage to monsters increased early game.

“Bel’Veth has continued to terrorize the jungle in higher levels of play, so we’re taking a decent-sized swing at her PVP combat power in this patch. As compensation for lower-skilled play, we’re making her jungle a little more forgiving by buffing her early game monster damage. This monster damage buff then becomes a nerf at about 65 bonus AD while her PVP damage is always lower which should result in the high skill skewed nerf that the Void Empress needs.”

Kennen

E damage range indicator added. R animation added, can now cast while moving.

“Kennen’s a pretty sad yordle in his current state, and that’s Amumu’s job. We’re giving Kennen a meaningful buff by way of making his kit more synergistic with itself. This fast-moving, zapping ninja no longer stands in place when powering up Slicing Maelstrom. We’re turning this anti-synergy with Lightning Rush into a positive one, allowing him to more quickly reach his targets. He’s also got a brand new animation for powering up his R to match the new cast paradigm!”

Build pickrate increases Increase >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	5.79%	27.8% 22.01%

View all Kennen builds

Nilah

Q minimum damage decreased, bonus attack speed increased, bonus damage based on critical strike chance decreased.

“Back in 13.22, we nerfed Nilah’s attack speed from Q, which ended up nerfing her more in high level play. We’re reverting that nerf and nudging her gameplay toward consistent DPS as opposed to burst damage, so we’re returning that attack speed and instead reducing some up-front burst damage on her active instead. Nilah is a bit stronger than where we think she should be, so our intent for these changes to leave Nilah a bit weaker than she currently is, especially in lower-skilled play.”

Sejuani

Passive bonus resistances increased. W damage adjusted.

“Sejuani’s had the unfortunate fate of being left weaker than she ought to in order to not make the pro play jungle pool too boaring. Now that we won’t see Pro play for a few patches, we’re rushing to her aid. We’re trying to give her a mix of added damage and durability that strongly scales with her gold income, as pro junglers tend to get much less gold than the rest of us.”

Skarner

Mana regen growth increased. Q damage decreased, buff no longer refreshed when hitting wards/plants. W slow decreased.

“Skarner is currently very overpowered, especially in elite play, where he’s making the Rift AND enemy’s boots quake. His potent early game often ends games before other champions can reach their power spikes which is why we’re going after his early game. We’ll be doing this by taking down a mix of his early damage and his sticking power with his Q and W. The mana regen line is here to give him a bit of compensation in top lane, as he’s currently a much stronger jungler than top laner and players are clearly happy to play him in both roles.”

Ahri

W damage decreased. R cooldown increased.

“As Ahri players have embraced Malignance for its strong synergy with Spirit Rush, her late-game mobility has simply gotten too high as a result. In combination with her extra R casts, her damage output has become too reliable. Nerfing the uptime of Ahri’s R and the damage output of Fox-Fire is meant to make her rely more on her skill shots and patience to achieve the same levels of success.”

Amumu

Base AD and base armor increased.

“Amumu is one of the easiest champions to play in the game and, as a result, we expect him to be quite powerful in lower skill brackets. Right now, Amumu barely has a passing grade for most players, which means he’s just extremely weak. This patch we’re bringing up a bunch of baseline reliability in order to make his early game more comfortable and make him a bit less sad. But still a little sad because that's his thing.”

Build pickrate increases Increase >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	6.22%	65.46% 59.24%

View all Amumu builds

Aurelion Sol

E damage decreased.

“Patch 14.3’s changes gave Aurelion Sol much more agency over his fate and turned him from a passive E-and-wait champion into an active participant in game. Those changes have been extremely effective, as evidenced by both a massive increase in pick rate, but also ban rate. Now that he’s got much more agency over the game, his resting win rate simply can’t be so high any more. We’re taking down his E damage, which is disproportionately powerful in lower skill brackets, just like ASol in general. One extra call-out for those of you who are currently banning him. He received several bug fixes during 14.7 that made his Q not sneak past minions anymore and properly draw minion aggro, so you may want to try your luck against him again.”

Blitzcrank

Passive shield duration decreased. W initial bonus movement speed decreased.

“Blitzcrank is in an interesting space. First, they’re one of the easier supports to play, which means if we expect that every champion loses some win rate from having some unskilled players, Blitzcrank should be one of the better performers. Second, Blitz is the go-to pick for auto-filled supports, which means we should see win rates lower than their actual power level. Ultimately, we think Blitzcrank is a bit too reliably able to engage without their hook or run away from mistakes. The shield duration makes it clearly long enough to tank an up-front burst of damage, but now gives opponents the option to wait it out. Overdrive’s move speed nerf makes it a bit less likely for him to close the gap for E or escape from a bad time, so make sure to use it wisely!”

Evelynn

W slow decreased. R damage decreased.

“Like Bel’Veth, Evelynn has been a large threat in higher skilled brackets of play, and as a high skill cap champion, some of that is to be expected. But even with that in mind she’s overperforming. This patch we’re taking down her ability to one-shot victims by reducing her ultimate’s AP ratio, which should make hitting the execute threshold more important to achieve kills. Nerfing her W slow also makes her have to wait to kill her prey more commonly, though it also gives her the option to drag opponents farther with the charm effect since they aren’t as slow anymore.”

Janna

W damage decreased. E shield increased.

“We’ve known that Janna’s been on the strong side for a while, but wanted to see the results from the nerfs to Zaz’Zak’s and Imperial Mandate before accidentally hitting her with a double nerf. With the dust settled, we’re aiming to nerf Janna a bit while bringing her two core builds of W-max and E-max closer together. She’ll deal less damage and be less threatening as an early roamer, but still able to peel and protect her back line like the best of them. Our hope is that whichever style of Janna you prefer, you’ll have a good time playing a fun champion.”

Build pickrate increases Increase >5%

Build	PR increase	Pickrate
	9.86%	50.69% 40.83%
	6.19%	13.6% 7.4%

View all Janna builds

Jinx

R cooldown increased.

“Jinx is currently the most picked ADC in the game and it’s extremely… not even close. That isn’t necessarily a problem, but she’s also performing much better than she ought to, especially in higher skilled play where we expect coordinated dives and flanking to more easily shut her down. As a result, we’re taking a shot at one of her elite-skewed aspects—her ability to throw out rockets in the early game just to stop recalls to gain tempo in lane.”

Karma

Q slow increased. R+E shield on secondary targets increased, bonus movement speed increased.

“After the dust has settled from her previous changes, Karma’s currently a little weaker than she should be, so we’d like to give her back some power that will improve her for her primary player base in support. We’re happy that she’s also viable in mid, but we’re being cautious around her potential frustration in that role forcing her ban rate back up. As a result, we’re juicing up her utility aspects more than her damage this go around.”

Kassadin

E damage decreased.

“Kassadin has been popping off recently and is due for a nerf to bring him back into line. We’re specifically leaving Riftwalk untouched as a large portion of his damage budget so that he has to commit to melee range in order to succeed, instead of using Riftwalk as a spacing tool and killing his opponents from range.”

Malzahar

Q mana cost decreased. E cooldown decreased.

“Malzahar hasn’t been in the best spot for a while now, especially in higher-skill brackets where the early game matters much more. We’re giving him some early game focused buffs this patch, which should also make some of his laning pain points feel a lot better without making his lanes more un-interactive for opponents.”

Master Yi

E bonus true damage decreased.

“While popular opinion places Master Yi as a straightforward menace in lower-skill levels with an extremely lofty late game, that’s simply not true anymore. He’s actually equally performant across all levels of play and is just about as strong in the early game as he is in the late game. He’s also simply overpowered, so we need to nerf him a bit. Tactically, we’re going after these unexpected early game strengths, which we know will disproportionately affect him in higher skill levels. We’d like if Master Yi’s power level was the result of straightforward late game DPS more than early game dueling.”

Olaf

Q damage decreased, bonus damage to monsters increased. R passive resistances decreased.

“Olaf is currently too lane dominant up in top lane and his late game resists make him disproportionately good against magic damage, specifically flat magic penetration, which we’d like to soften. This still leaves Olaf as a fairly tanky late game champion, but makes him rely more on his W and life steal to achieve that.”

Pyke

W mana cost increased, cooldown increased.

“Pyke’s had his ups and downs throughout the years and right now he’s on one of his stronger stints. We think his damage is at an appropriate level for what Pyke needs to succeed, but we’d like to weaken his roaming power and ability to bypass wards, as he’s especially stronger in higher-skilled play for those very reasons.”

Seraphine

Q AP ratio increased.

“With bot lane APC Seraphine becoming weaker, Seraphine support finally has room for buffs! We’re playing up her damage a little bit as we think she can comfortably sit as one of the higher damage supports.”

Taliyah

Q mana cost increased, damage to monsters decreased.

“Taliyah has been rocking in the mid lane for a while now, so we’d like to bring down her laning phase power a bit via how many rocks she can throw. We’re making a smaller nerf to her jungle by slowing her mid- and late-game jungle clears, which are exceedingly fast at the moment. She’ll definitely still be strong, but that’s intended since she provides variety as one of few notable mage junglers.”

Twitch

Base health decreased, health growth increased. W slow AP ratio decreased. R bonus AD decreased.

“Once Infinity Edge was buffed, Twitch started to catch on as an under-the-radar strong ADC, steadily increasing his pick and ban rates over the last couple patches. As our nerf strategy tends to be that we’ll only nerf things once players have caught on, players have officially caught on—so we’re nerfing him. The goals of our changes here are to nudge Twitch away from simply being yet another late-game hyper carry (as there are already plenty of those). We’re also lightly tapping down AP Twitch so that it doesn’t become his de-facto build as it’s already strong too.”

Urgot

Armor growth decreased.

“Urgot’s one of top lane’s top performers at the moment, so we’re giving him a fairly small nerf. We’re picking his late-game armor as it’s one of the highest in the game, and his stat line isn’t meant to read so similarly to pure tanks.”