League of Legends 9.13 update patch notes – New champ, Illaoi buffs, Pyke nerfs, and more

Alan Bernal

The League of Legends developers are getting ready to roll out the 9.13 update to their MOBA which will introduce a new champion, major changes to top lane picks, nerfs in junglers and a lot more.

Lost in the excitement over the imminent release of Teamfight Tactics, summoners might have forgotten that Riot Games are on the cusp of releasing their 146th champion named Qiyana.

The incoming patch is going to be letting loose a ton of balance changes that will hopefully cool down some champs that Riot’s been keeping a close eye on, while buffing some forgotten top laners to raise their effectiveness in games.

Illaoi could be making her way back into priority with her new buffs.

Illaoi is slamming down in 9.13

Melee top laners will have to get their Illaoi bans prepped after the 9.13 patch rolls out, seeing as Riot are giving the Kraken Priestess some buffs to get her back into contention with the bevy of champions appearing in that role.

Her Prophet of an Elder God is now equipped with 0.4 ability power, moreover the reduction of time it takes for her tentacles to despawn after Illaoi leaves the area from 60 seconds to half, now at 30 seconds.

While the change will ease up the lane for her enemy, she’s getting buffs that will really deal some damage. Her E received significant changes, mainly that the time between tentacle attacks have reduced from a base of once every 10 seconds in all levels to once every 5/4/3 seconds at levels 1, 7, and 13, respectively.

Pyke is going to get a lot less threatening in a 1v1 in patch 9.13.

Pyke is cooling down in lane

While Pyke players have been enjoying his solo laning abilities, Riot is nerfing his wave clear to bring the Bloodharbor Ripper back to a more support role.

Bone Skewer will no longer deal AoE, instead it will be a single target ability, while also taking away its bonus stab damage.

While Ghostwater Dive is going to make him faster with every ability level, his Phantom Undertow isn’t going to hurt non-champions anymore. Further gutting his ability to lane.

Sona is getting nerfs in the next patch to League of Legends.

Sona’s tunes are getting nerfs

The Maven of the Strings has been growing in popularity, especially with top tier players using her as a bot lane carry.

But Riot were quick to point out that those trends in playstyle weren’t the reason for her nerfs. It still means her aura from her Q is going to get a tick weaker, going from 0.3 to 0.2 ability power.

Players will definitely feel the SOng of Celerity nerfs that is going to reduce her chase down ability a bit as her 6% movement speed per 100 ability power is going down to 3% per 100 AP.

League of Legends’ 9.13 update is going to have a ton more changes, so make sure to check out the patch notes below courtesy of Riot.


Qiyana

Empress of the Elements

Qiyana arrives to conquer the Rift on June 28!

Corki

R ammo bar now reads left-to-right. The Package ARAM timers adjusted.

For ARAM enthusiasts, we’ve adjusted Corki’s Package timers on the Howling Abyss to give him more chances to hit his opponents with a Special Delivery. For Corki fans of all stripes, we’ve adjusted how his ammo bar tracks missiles: The leftmost missile is now the next to fire. Since Corki’s ammo is still attached to the left of his health bar, this means the next missile no longer moves when Corki gets another charge, making it easier to know at a glance if the next missile is a Big One.

Passive – Hextech Munitions

ARAM FIRST PACKAGE SPAWN TIME 8:00 ⇒ 5:00

ARAM PACKAGE COOLDOWN 240 seconds ⇒ 150 seconds

R – Missile Barrage

AMMO BAR Left missile is now always the next to fire, with new charges loading in from the right

Diana

Q QoL changes.

We’ve recoded Diana’s Q so it feels better when casting. Most of the improvements are pretty subtle, so we’ve listed a couple of the more explicit upgrades here to make sure you know about ’em.

Q – Crescent Strike

TIP OF THE MOONBERG Tip of the Diana’s Crescent Strike arc now reveals Fog of War for a short duration

MOONLIGHT SONATA Crescent Strike casts more consistently aim toward the cursor

CRASH LANDING Crescent Strike travels slightly faster

Illaoi

W minimum damage added; also applies to turrets. Tentacles disappear faster when Illaoi leaves. E Spirit and Vessel duration decreased; time between Tentacle attacks decreased. R Tentacle cap increased.

We’re hitting two octopi with one tentacle and buffing Illaoi while also modernizing the way her abilities work. She should feel a lot better to play and stronger in general when you add up all the smaller QoL changes and buffs.

Passive – Prophet of an Elder God

NEWTENTACLE AP RATIO 0.4 ability power

REMOVEDTMI Tentacles will no longer go into an idle state when Illaoi is not around to command them

NEWTICK TOCK Illaoi can now ping Prophet of an Elder God’s cooldown to her team

BYE Tentacles despawn after Illaoi has left the area for 60 seconds ⇒ 30 seconds

FOG OF WAR Enemies gain vision of Tentacles through Fog of War within 1400 range ⇒ 1000 range

BUGFIX Enemy champions no longer globally get vision of attacking Tentacles

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Tentacle slams that were mid-flight when Illaoi died dealt no damage

W – Harsh Lesson

NEWMINIMUM DAMAGE 20/30/40/50/60

NEWKICK IT INTO OVERDRIVE Minimum damage is dealt as bonus damage to turrets

E – Test of Spirit

REMOVEDREDUCED SPIRIT DURATION Spirit duration is no longer reduced each time Illaoi is damaged by the target

BASE SPIRIT DURATION 10 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds

BASE VESSEL DURATION 12 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds

TIME BETWEEN TENTACLE ATTACKS Once every 10 seconds at all levels ⇒ Once every 5/4/3 seconds (levels 1/7/13)

R – Leap of Faith

MAXIMUM SUMMONS 5 Tentacles ⇒ 6 Tentacles

LENIENCY Leap of Faith Tentacles no longer despawn mid-attack if Illaoi commands them to slam with Harsh Lesson

Karma

Base E movement speed duration decreased.

Karma definitely had room for some power heading into 9.12, but we went too hard. We’re pulling her buffs back a touch.

E – Inspire

MOVEMENT SPEED DURATION 2.5 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds (empowered E duration still 2.5 seconds)

Ornn

Q damage ratio increased.

Helping Ornn battle more in lane.

Q – Volcanic Rupture

RATIO 1.0 attack damage ⇒ 1.1 attack damage

Pyke

Q cooldown decreased early; stab damage bonus removed. W movement speed now scales. E no longer damages non-champions.

We’re targeting solo lane Pyke because his strong anti-harass tools make him an impossible-to-avoid death trap if he gets too far ahead. To help curb that, we’re specifically hitting his wave clear.

Q – Bone Skewer

STAB TARGETING AoE (30% reduced damage on non-champions) ⇒ Single target (hits nearest unit, preferring nearest champion)

REMOVEDBONUS STAB DAMAGE Bone Skewer’s stab cast no longer deals 15% bonus damage

COOLDOWN 14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

W – Ghostwater Dive

MOVEMENT SPEED 40% (decaying over 5 seconds) ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60% (decaying over 5 seconds)

E – Phantom Undertow

REMOVED MINION & MONSTER DAMAGE Phantom Undertow no longer damages non-champions

Sejuani

Health growth decreased. W second cast damage ratio decreased.

The last time Sejuani was buffed was right before MSI in patch 9.8. Since then, she has climbed from a fringe pro pick to being in nearly 100% of pro games. While the buff was intended to let Sejuani scale better with items, we went too far, so we’re pulling back a bit.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH 105 ⇒ 95

W – Winter’s Wrath

SECOND CAST DAMAGE RATIO 6% Sejuani’s maximum health ⇒ 5.25% Sejuani’s maximum health

Sivir

Attack damage growth, mana regen decreased. W cost increased.

We went a little lighter on Sivir because (spoiler alert) the Essence Reaver nerfs going live this patch will undoubtedly affect her. We’re mainly targeting her early game pressure through W’s mana change and applying #cleannumbers to some base stats (less for the minimal balance impact, more because weird decimals are unsightly).

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3.11 ⇒ 3

MANA REGEN 8.012 ⇒ 8

W – Ricochet

COST 60 mana ⇒ 75 mana

Sona

Q aura damage ratio decreased. E bonus movement speed ratio decreased.

(A note from Shio Shoujo: Y’all knew it was coming. We’re nerfing my baby girl.)

While it may seem like we’re doing this just because of the in-vogue bot lane Sona, she’s been extremely close to our thresholds for acceptable win rates (outlined in our Balance Framework that you should go read if you haven’t already) in solo queue for awhile and is the most commonly banned bot lane champion in pro play right now.

We’re also seeing more than just Sona with Taric, mind you. We’re seeing Sona and Tahm Kench, Sona and Pyke, etc. which points toward specifically nerfing her rather than Taric. To be clear, we’re not explicitly trying to kill Sona + XX bot lanes: Even if she were a standard bot carry, she’d still be deserving of a nerf on multiple fronts.

Q – Hymn of Valor

AURA DAMAGE RATIO 0.3 ability power ⇒ 0.2 ability power

E – Song of Celerity

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED RATIO 6% movement speed per 100 ability power ⇒ 3% movement speed per 100 ability power

Sylas

Base attack damage, health growth increased. W base damage increased.

We’re giving Sylas longer-term attention as we assess his status in higher levels of play. In the meantime, we’re giving him some power back.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE 58 ⇒ 61

HEALTH GROWTH 85 ⇒ 95

W – Kingslayer

BASE DAMAGE 60/90/120/150/180 ⇒ 65/100/135/170/205

E – Abscond/Abduct

BUGFIX Tooltip now properly mentions all mana scaling per rank information

Syndra

Mana growth increased.

Syndra’s currently not a must-pick in higher levels of play like she has been in the past, so we want to take this opportunity to boost her a little in an attempt to make her more viable across all skill brackets where players are more likely to run into mana issues.

Base Stats

MANA GROWTH 30 ⇒ 40

Tristana

Attack damage growth, mana increased; mana regen decreased. W damage increased.

Cleaning up her base stats and giving her a minor buff for when she opts into a more aggressive playstyle.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3.11 ⇒ 3.3

MANA 246.76 ⇒ 250

MANA REGEN 7.206 ⇒ 7.2

W – Rocket Jump

MAGIC DAMAGE 85/135/185/235/285 ⇒ 95/145/185/245/295

Udyr

All abilities can now be leveled to rank 6.

We’re looking to bring some balance to Udyr’s stances and playstyles so he’s not overwhelmingly choosing one over the others. Plus he’ll now have some useful points to spend at later levels.

Passive – Monkey’s Ability

NEWABILITY RANKS All abilities can now be leveled up 6 times, starting at level 16

Q – Tiger Stance

DAMAGE 30/60/90/120/150 (+1.2/1.35/1.5/1.65/1.8 attack damage) ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150/180 (+1.1/1.25/1.4/1.55/1.7/1.85 attack damage)

W – Turtle Stance

SHIELD 60/95/130/165/200 ⇒ 60/95/130/165/200/235

E – Bear Stance

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 15/20/25/30/35% ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35/40%

BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED DURATION 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds ⇒ 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3/3.25 seconds

R – Phoenix Stance

CONE DAMAGE 40/80/120/160/200 ⇒ 50/95/140/185/230/275

DAMAGE PER TICK 10/20/30/40/50 ⇒10/20/30/40/50/60

Responsiveness Pass

Similar to some of the work on Diana’s Q, the following abilities more quickly and reliably apply their effects to enemies they hit:

Jarvan IV’s E – Demacian Standard > Q – Dragon Strike

Kennen’s E – Lightning Rush

Tryndamere’s E – Spinning Slash

Items

Essence Reaver

Upgrade cost decreased; total cost increased. Build path adjusted.

We made it stronger and think it merits B.F. Sword’s inclusion in its recipe again. However, now that it is stronger, it shouldn’t be easier to build than Infinity Edge, which it is similar to in strength and tier.

COST 3200 gold ⇒ 3300 gold

BUILD PATH Pickaxe + Caulfield’s Warhammer + Cloak of Agility + 425 gold ⇒ B.F. Sword + Caulfield’s Warhammer + Cloak of Agility + 100 gold

Randuin’s Omen

Upgrade and total cost decreased.

Giving more options in armor choices for those who want to build more tanky.

COST 2900 gold (900 gold combine cost) ⇒ 2700 gold (700 gold combine cost)

Rod of Ages

Upgrade and total cost decreased.

Rod of Ages takes too long to provide its benefits in a relatively fast paced meta. A price reduction makes it a slightly more realistic option for users that might consider it.

COST 2700 gold (750 gold combine cost) ⇒ 2600 gold (650 gold combine cost)