LOL Patch 11.16 Notes (LOL 11.16) – August 11, 2021

DIANA

Passive damage to non-epic monsters decreased.

Since our 11.8 changes, Diana’s become a popular jungle pick, and a powerful one at that, especially in competitive play. Although we’re happy that Diana’s found a second home, she’s a little too strong. To nudge down her jungle strength, we’re nerfing her jungle clear.

PASSIVE – MOONSILVER BLADE

FIORA

E cooldown increased later.

Fiora’s been on the strong side for a while, especially in higher levels of play. We’re bringing down her split pushing and tower whacking power in mid to late phases of the game.

E – BLADEWORK

JARVAN IV

Passive damage increased. R bonus damage ratio increased.

The Exemplar of Demacia hasn’t been excelling in any level of play. We’re amping up Cataclysm to help him make a bigger impact while also buffing his dueling and clearing potential.

PASSIVE – MARTIAL CADENCE

R – CATACLYSM

JHIN

W damage increased. R minimum damage ratio increased.

Jhin has been feeling rather lackluster, and he hasn’t been making the cut into most games. With a deadlier flourish and an even deadlier finale, he’ll have a better shot at picking off enemies when playing off of allies and in key fights.

W – DEADLY FLOURISH

R – CURTAIN CALL

KARMA

Passive on-hit cooldown reduction removed; cooldown reduction from abilities now flat. Q base damage decreased early; cooldown increased early and decreased later; cost decreased. Q2 initial damage increased. E base shield increased later; bonus movement speed now flat; Defiance now only grants allies bonus movement speed.

Karma’s been much stronger in coordinated Pro play than in solo queue for a while. Rather than continuing to make minor changes, we’re attempting to make bigger ones to help Karma succeed in the hands of all players.

To do so, we’re targeting her consistent early game pressure and waveclear, along with her R-E shield-and-speed buff for her full team. In return, we’re rewarding her with more Mantras when she lands abilities on champions, which will also be helped by her Q’s lower cooldown and cost. We’re also strengthening her R-Q so that she’s still able to obliterate her foes when she’s on her own.

PASSIVE – GATHERING FIRE

Q – INNER FLAME

Q2 – SOULFLARE

E – INSPIRE

LEE SIN

W omnivamp decreased.

Lee Sin came out of our 11.13 nerfs kicking, making his way from dominating lanes straight into dominating the jungle. This time, we’re laying down a straightforward nerf that should curb his early- to mid-game dueling power.

W – IRON WILL

LULU

W cooldown increased. R cooldown increased early.

While Lulu’s power in Average play is balanced, she’s strong in Skilled and even stronger in Elite. Back in patch 11.9, we purposefully buffed Lulu, targeting these skill brackets by reducing the cooldown on her W and increasing its bonus attack speed. The increased uptime on reliable peel made her a highly frustrating champion to play against, which has been reflected in her high ban rates. To get her back in action, we’re reverting the buff on her Skilled-skewed mechanic of instant CC and increasing her R cooldown.

W – WHIMSY

R – WILD GROWTH

MAOKAI

Passive heal increased. E detonation damage decreased.

Top Maokai has been struggling to stay in lane even with his tank builds, so we’re increasing his sustain. On the other hand, Support Mao and his saplings have been causing a commotion in the bot lane, where AP builds offer powerful scaling. Maokai will still have strong poke, but we’re toning it down.

One more thing: Maokai’s original passive values were bugged. He was healing for less of his maximum health (5-13% instead of 6-13%) and it wasn’t scaling properly (it was scaling linearly at every level instead of its intended breakpoints of level 1/6/9…). so the previous values of his passive’s heal reflect the bugged, in-game values. Now, the scaling has been corrected, and the heal from his maximum health has an even bigger bump than his tooltip would have you believe.

PASSIVE – SAP MAGIC

E – SAPLING TOSS

NUNU

Base movement speed increased. E damage ratio per snowball increased.

Nunu & Willump have hit a slump, it’s time to give them a good ol’ bump! To get the snowball rolling, we’re reverting part of their nerf from patch 11.2 while throwing them more damage when they’re building more aggressively.

BASE STATS

E – SNOWBALL BARRAGE

SHACO

Q orange smoke VFX removed. R bugfixes.

Okay, so last patch (11.15), we fixed a longstanding bug where Shaco’s smoke poof wasn’t showing up through the Fog of War. And by longstanding, we mean like, 2 years. This change also sparked a conversation around proper counterplay in League. Constantly panning around to look for orange smoke isn’t the type of gameplay we want to enforce, so we’re reverting the poof and fixing some of his goofs.

Q – DECEIVE

R – HALLUCINATE

SIVIR

W damage ratio increased later.

Sivir’s a team-shredding, boomerang mercenary, but even her crit builds have left her feeling incomplete, so we’re sharpening up her blades.

W – RICOCHET

SONA

New passive! Mana costs reduced and aura mana refunds removed. R now also hits minions and monsters.

In patch 10.4, our baby girl was given a mana refund mechanic to prevent oppressive playstyles. This wasn’t a particularly fun mechanic, and sometimes it put Sona in situations where she was punished for using her spells correctly, like rotating around the map with E by herself. To fix this, we’re replacing the mechanic with a new one that should feel much more like a reward than a punishment.

Now Sona has a stacking mechanic that rewards her for using some of her abilities, eventually giving her more access to her ult, and giving you all those Crescendo plays that you definitely never miss.

PASSIVE – POWER CHORD

Q – HYMN OF VALOR

W – ARIA OF PERSEVERANCE

E – SONG OF CELERITY

R – CRESCENDO

TAHM KENCH

Passive base damage decreased early. Q base heal decreased.

Tahm Kench’s early game power has been especially strong in top lane, where he’s able to issue beatdowns and heal through brawls. We’re dialing both back to give his enemies more time to lick their wounds.

PASSIVE – AN ACQUIRED TASTE

Q – TONGUE LASH

VLADIMIR

Passive AP to bonus health conversion increased; bonus health to AP conversion increased.

 Top Vlad has been dragging behind his mid lane counterpart. To help him hold his own in top lane, we’re increasing his passive bonuses, which should also let him reap the benefits of building tankier items.

PASSIVE – CRIMSON PACT

XIN ZHAO

Base attack damage decreased.

 Even after our last set of nerfs in patch 11.14, Xin Zhao is still one of the top dogs in the jungle at all levels of play. With longer ranges on his new W and E, Xin doesn’t need to be one of the best-in-class early game bullies, since he has better access to his targets than ever before. We’re trimming his base damage so that he’s still strong early, but isn’t as easily able to overwhelm other junglers.

BASE STATS

ZIGGS

Base mana increased. E base damage per mine decreased early and increased later; slow decreased early.

 Our 11.14 nerf to bot lane Ziggs seemed to fizzle out, so we’re giving back his mana and dialing back his second-max ability instead. This should curb his power more in bot lane, which shouldbe more easily recouped in mid.

BASE STATS

E – HEXPLOSIVE MINEFIELD

DARK SEAL

While Dark Seal is meant to be a high-risk, high-reward item, it’s become a consistently high-value option for most AP users, even for champions that appreciate the mana on Doran’s Ring. We’re pulling back on the stacking pace of the item so that there’s more risk involved when opting into Dark Seal.

REDEMPTION

Redemption is being overshadowed by the other Enchanter items and has struggled to find its niche this season. We’re increasing the power and availability of its exciting moments so that it can be more effective in more team fights.