11.10 brings jungle changes, a kog’maw vfx update, and the resurrection of a fewBard

Bard

Passive – Traveler’s Call

Base Damage: 40 ⇒ 30

Bard has been gaining more popularity as he is a support that can both heal, and do quite a bit of damage. I think his passive is really important to him, so I think that this is a good change. Most changes that are made to champs affect early game, and because this isn’t a scaling percentage this 10 damage reduction will really only affect games in the beginning, so I don’t see this doing much more than maybe influencing a fight a little bit.

Darius

E – Apprehend

Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 seconds ⇒ 26/24/22/20/18 seconds

What a good change! Seriously! This is a change that i’m really excited about, and I hope they don’t get cold feet and go back and change him around to counteract this. This change is going to be massive early game, and even late game is going to help people get out of fights and go in more confidently against areas. Darius is one of the hardest people to push in lane and has a lot of lane control so it can be really hard to farm, however I think this will give people more confidence after he uses his e to push in because he won’t have it up for an even longer amount of time. Especially the 12 to 18 change, it’s massive.

Galio

W – Shield of Durand

Cooldown: 18/17.5/17/16.5/16 seconds ⇒ 18 seconds
Magic Damage Shield: 8/11/14/17/20% of maximum health ⇒ 8/9.75/11.5/13.25/15% of maximum health

I’ve been noticing that midlane Galio was gaining some more popularity, and he is the biggest Mage counter in the game. He can be extremely hard to push as a mage because he takes up so much damage. I think this magic damage shield nerf is going to really help in all stages of the game; this isn’t just an early game change. This should help people like Lux and Veigar when laning against him as he won’t be able to pop his magic shield and run away as well as he could before

Jinx

Base Stats

Armor: 28 ⇒ 26

R – Super Mega Death Rocket!

New – Smaller Mega Death Rocket: Execute damage against epic monsters is now capped at 1000 (AoE damage is capped at 800)

I’m personally starting to play a little bit of jinx and I can see how strong she is, especially at pushing objectives. This change is going to really really help the enemy team because the rocket will not have to be timed basically perfectly for the jungler not to be able to smite. It should help people on the enemy team get more dragons and maybe even Baron as 1k on her r was just way too much.

Katarina

Base Stats

Movement speed: 340 ⇒ 335

I think this is a good change, because Katerina roams so much and can run it down in lane really hard with her q-e combo. This should give people enough time to get out of bot lane or top lane when your mid laner has pinging her missing.

Kayle

Passive – Divine Ascent

Aflame AP Damage Ratio: 20% ⇒ 25%
Transcendent Bonus Attack Range: 50 (575 total) ⇒ 100 (625 total)
Muramana Bugfix: Kayle’s fire waves now properly apply Muramana’s Shock

Honestly this change is disgusting, an extra 50 range is going to be literally crushing in lane. I don’t think the changes needed at all if Cale nearly always scales and can carry games even if she loses Lane really hard this is going to make her start winning lane and then destroying people in the game, which I don’t think was needed. the AP damage ratio was also not needed, now her AP builds are going to be even more popular. This is going to make kale really strong and I wouldn’t be surprised if they wheel back this change not too far in the future.

Kennen

W – Electrical Surge

Maximum stacks bonus damage: 10/20/30/40/50 (20% AP) (60/70/80/90/100% AD) ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 (25% AP) (60/70/80/90/100% AD)

I feel like they make some changes, like this one are done to remind people that certain Champs are still in the game, and maybe give them a little push to try them out. This change won’t change Kennen too much but it might give people a chance to want to think about playing him or try and throw him into their cycle as a new champ.

Lux

E – Lucent Singularity

Damage: 60/105/150/195/240 (+60% AP) ⇒ 60/110/160/210/260 (+65% AP)

Nobody’s happy to see this change. I don’t know why they thought this was necessary as she tears up lane if she maxes out e, now with an extra 5% ap and 20 base damage it’s going to be even worse. I don’t think this change was needed at all and it really throws lux far into the meta.

Sejuani

E – Permafrost

Updated – Targeting: 250 for all targets ⇒ Prioritizes champions within 50 of cursor, then non-champions within 50 of cursor, then champions within 350 of cursor, then closest unit to cursor within 2500 (this only applies if there is no target directly under your cursor)

Sejuani is really really fun to play and I think this is an interesting change to her as it’ll make her stun easier to land without accidentally clicking on a minion or something. It’s not a big change, it’s more of just a quality-of-life change, either way it’s good that they’re giving Sejuani some attention.

Talon

Q – Noxian Diplomacy

Damage ratio: 110% bonus AD ⇒ 100% bonus AD

Not much to say about this, I hate Talon, good change. This will really hurt his early bleed, so it should help people escape fights against him more often.

Thresh

Base Stats

Health: 561 ⇒ 530
Health Growth: 93 ⇒ 95

31 Health loss is a massive chunk at the beginning of a game, and it will really make someone think twice about pulling in an enemy, as that’s an entire auto attack lower. The health growth will pull it back in the late game, but either way the 30 hp will be a hit.

Yuumi

Q – Prowling Projectile

Base Damage: 40/70/100/130/160/190 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170/200
Base Empowered Damage: 45/85/125/165/205/245 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220/260

This change is going to be good, as Yuumi was already gaining some popularity I would argue. I would think that this change would help her a bit around level 3 engage for a little bit more damage on the engage with her adc. I think this is a good change because she needs to be able to supplement for not giving her enemy lanes a target to shoot at the adc takes up all damage.

Zyra

Passive – Garden of Thorns

Vine Lasher Slow: 25% ⇒ 30%

W – Rampant Growth

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds ⇒ 18/16/14/12/10 seconds

This buff is pretty crazy, two seconds off of a cooldown at level 1 and an extra 5% slow is really strong, buffing something like a slow has an effect on the whole game, not just early stages. As a static buff to an effect like a slow or blind can only be changed with something that gives tenacity. I think this is a good change to someone who is already pretty strong.

Abyssal Mask

Health: 350 ⇒ 400.
Damage amp potency: 10% ⇒ 15%.
Damage amp duration: 4s ⇒ 5s.

To me this item is already insane, and an extra 5% is absolutely crazy. 5% from all sources is a ton, especially when you have someone like Leona who cc’s a lot, I think this item is a must have on a stunning support. Even a top laner can take advantage of this, or a jungler like Nunu. This is a very big change, and one that lets people know Abyssal is a serious item.

Goredrinker

Thirsting Slash Healing: 25% AD (+8% of missing health) ⇒ 25% AD (+10% of missing health)

I think this is a good change solely because they nerfed Goredrinker into the group after people discovered how useful it was. I’m glad that Riot didn’t just leave this item to rot and then eventually remove it, I would really love to see this item make a comeback as it gives a bit of variation and can make some insane plays.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade

Combine cost: 2800 gold ⇒ 2600 gold.

My honest opinion on this item is simple, I don’t think that Riot will ever be able to bring it back, it was so good with the previous effects that it did on some champs, but now Rageblade is just a shadow of its former self, I think it would be more useful to just get rid of it.

Riftmaker

Combat Trigger: Dealing damage to enemy champions ⇒ Dealing damage to and taking damage from enemy champions
Void Corruption Increased Damage per second: 2%, stacking up to 5 times for a maximum of 10% ⇒ 3%, stacking up to 3 times for a maximum of 9%

This is a good change and I think of it as a nerf. Now when you take damage, you will either be forced to engage in a fight, or you will waste your Riftmaker active, which then allows for more people to go in on you and start to see you as vulnerable. I think this will be good as someone like Caitlyn can target a Morde, hit his Riftmaker so he doesnt have it anymore, and then the team can engage in a fight.

Phase Rush

Cooldown: 15 seconds ⇒ 30-10 seconds (based on level)
Bonus Movement Speed: 40%-60% for melee || 25-40% for ranged ⇒ 30%-60% for melee || 15-40% for ranged

I think this is a good change because melee champs like Sett can use this early nonstop to just run down lane and engage, I think this change was needed because it has to be said that this rune was too strong on some champs. I’m glad to see this change, and hopefully they can buff some runes that aren’t as useful.

Jungle

I’m throwing all jungle changes under this title because there are just too many to go over. What I see in this change is them going back and changing this because they messed up when they nerfed jungle a while back. Jungle is a lane where you don’t see many even matchups, you see a lot of one jungle dominating and one jungler suffering. I’m hoping the extra gold and XP will help people that are falling behind more as the jungle can be a tough role to play. I hope that they don’t go back and reverse this again, but everything is always subject to change. I could see this making fights more even and will allow for some easier than normal comebacks for junglers.