League 10.5 update patch notes: Ornn & Sett nerfs, Top changes, Eternals

Alan Bernal

The League of Legends 10.5 patch will attempt to, once again, further widen the jungle champion pool, bring noticeable changes to the Top lane, as well as nerfs to some of the bigger lane bullies like Ornn and Sett.

Riot has been looking at how to address the ‘zero-CS-top-lane’ strat and while they already started taking care of the issue by nerfing Sona and Soraka in 10.4, the devs are still looking for ways to get rid of the problematic playstyle.

Instead of nerfing a specific champ, they’re making bigger changes to how the lane works, specifically by changing up how turret’s behave and introducing an increase in cost per plate that should make it more of a priority to take.

Nerfs for Ornn and Sett

Ornn is getting some nerfs to make him more balanced in League of Legends.

Ornn can win in almost any situation, even if he hard loses lane. The Fire Below the Mountain is a pivotal part of team fights and a sneaky chase-down solo 1v1 champ, but Riot are looking to implement a few balance changes to even him out.

To start, the damage when his Brittle passive procs is going to get a nerf from 12-20.5% of the target’s maximum health down to just 10-18%.

Meanwhile, the Masterwork item upgrades all got pushed back one level, so he can auto-upgrade an item at level 13 instead of 12, and for allies, that too has been pushed back by one.

Sett is strong in both lane and the jungle, so Riot are tuning him down in 10.5.

Sett, however, has been a hard-hitter in both the top lane and jungle, so Riot are going to take “some swings to reduce power in both places.”

The Boss is going to have a few noticeable changes to his base stats, primarily his Armor and Health Regen that has been changed from 37 from 33 and 8 to 7, respectively.

Along with the decreased slow duration from his Show Stopper ultimate ability, the changes should give opponents a bit more confidence in harassing him when he shows up in the lane.

“Top lane significance”

Top laners should be getting some assistance to feel more impactful in their role.

Top laners have felt like their role is either weak or negligible compared to what’s happening around the map. To fix this, Riot are going to make turret plating grant more gold, more susceptible to melee damage, and tankier from group pushes.

The goal for this is to make it more rewarding (literally) for solo-melee pushers to do their job by getting more gold out of their effort. In turn, that gold advantage can start to transition into a lane lead and more items to make them more imposing during fights.

This will also keep Top laners from roaming too much, since melee pushers can crash the wave into the turret, leading the opponent to give up a heap of gold as a consequence. Riot are still experimenting on how to make Top lane more significant, so expect more changes in that part of the map if the 10.5 changes don’t do the trick.

Eternals are here

After much confusion and ire from the LoL community, Eternals are finally set to make their debut.

After much controversy, explanation videos, and changes to how they work, Eternals are finally making their way to League of Legends.

“Capture, celebrate, and flex your moments of glory in and out of game on your main and track your per-game personal bests,” the Riot devs said.

Starter Series Eternals will be available for purchase with Blue Essence and the Series 1 Eternals will get an RP price.

Among the changes, Riot is targeting a host of characters for balance updates in 10.5.

In the patch notes, Riot stressed that there are components in LoL that might not be for everyone, a nod to the confusion and ire the devs got from the community after detailing the launch of Eternals.

In either case, they will be coming out in 10.5 and will have stat-tracking lovers well taken care of as soon as they release. Check out everything else coming in the patch notes below, courtesy of Riot Games.

Alistar

Base health increased. Passive stack gain no longer has a cooldown after Alistar roars.

Base Stats

Health: 575  600

 

Passive – Triumphant Roar

STACK COOLDOWN: Once Triumph stacks are consumed, Alistar can gain new stacks after a 3-second cooldown  immediately (Triumphant Roar still can’t proc more than once every 3 seconds)

Amumu

R cooldown increased early – We’re pulling back on some of the power we gave him in 10.4.

R – Curse of the Sad Mummy

COOLDOWN: 130/115/100 seconds  150/125/100 seconds

Bard

Passive chime damage decreased – After a history of Journeying under the radar, Bard has to be pulled back a bit due to how much he’s succeeding at high levels of play. We’re slightly reducing the impact of the Meeps’ sweet chime music.

Passive – Traveler’s Call

ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER FIVE CHIMES: 15  12

Blitzcrank

Base armor decreased – A small nerf since he just barely hit our triggers.

Base Stats

ARMOR: 40  37

Graves

Base MR and MR growth increased. Q cost now flat; cooldown decreased – Graves has been weak for higher tier play, and middling for everyone else. Giving him back some of the Magic Resist we pulled off his E, as well as a buff aimed to help both his jungle and laning.

Base Stats

MAGIC RESIST 30  32
MAGIC RESIST GROWTH 1  1.25

Q – End of the Line

COST: 60/65/70/75/80 mana  60 mana
COOLDOWN: 13/12/11/10/9 seconds  12/11/10/9/8 seconds

Kai’sa

Q AP ratio decreased; upgraded missiles increased. W base damage and AP ratio increased, tAD decreased; upgraded cooldown refund increased – The goal of these changes are to power up Kai’Sa as she evolves, especially as she starts to specialize in either AP or AD. However, there should also be more of a trade-off based on that evolution

Q – Icathian Rain

DAMAGE RATIO: 0.4 ability power  0.25 ability power
LIVING WEAPON UPGRADE: 10 missiles  12 missiles

W – Void Seeker

DAMAGE: 20/45/70/95/120 (+0.6 ability power)(+1.5 total attack damage)  30/55/80/105/130 (+0.7 ability power)(+1.3 total attack damage)
LIVING WEAPON UPGRADE: 50% cooldown refunded against champions  70% cooldown refunded against champions

Kayn

Passive orb gain increased. W slow increased – Smoothing out Kayn’s transformation rules so he’s not punished due to confusion or complexity. We’re adding a slight buff to his catching ability too to overall make him easier to succeed with.

Passive – The Darkin Scythe

ORB GAIN RATE: Increases at 8 and 12 minutes  Increases constantly (every second) after 5 minutes, flattening out at 13 minutes

W – Blade’s Reach

DECAYING SLOW: 60%  70%

Lissandra

Q AP ratio increased – We’re putting some power back into Lissandra’s (cold) bread and (frozen) butter ability, so enemies know they can’t just eat them willy nilly.

Q – Ice Shard

DAMAGE RATIO: 0.7 ability power  0.8 ability power

Neeko

Base AS growth and ratio increased. E AP ratio increased. R shield increased – Giving Neeko some buffs for any situation, no matter what shape she takes.

Base Stats

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH: 3%  3.5%
ATTACK SPEED RATIO: 0.645  0.670

E – Tangle Barbs

DAMAGE RATIO: 0.4 ability power  0.6 ability power

R – Pop Blossom

SHIELD: 50/80/110 (+0.5 ability power)  75/100/125 (+0.75 ability power)

Ornn

Passive empowered damage decreased; item auto-upgrade level increased; ally item upgrade available later – We’re lowering his damage a bit and reverting a prior buff that we had originally put in to ram him back into pro play. The ram’s now a little too aggressive and butting heads way too often.

Passive – Living Forge

BRITTLE PROC DAMAGE: 12-20.5% target’s maximum health (level 1-18)  10-18% target’s maximum health (level 1-18)
MASTERWORK ITEM AUTO-UPGRADE: Level 12  Level 13
ALLY MASTERWORK UPGRADE AVAILABILITY: Levels 13, 14, 15, 16  Levels 14, 15, 16, 17

Rammus

Base AS ratio decreased – Wasn’t actually “ok.” like we thought. Pulling back some of the power from 10.4’s buffs.

Base Stats

ATTACK SPEED RATIO: 0.656  0.625 (base attack speed unchanged)

Sett

Base armor, health regen, and health regen growth decreased. R slow duration decreased – While he’s mostly showing off in the top lane, Sett is also showstoppingly strong in the jungle. Taking some swings to reduce power in both places.

Base Stats

ARMOR: 37  33
HEALTH REGEN: 8  7
HEALTH REGEN GROWTH: 0.75  0.5

R – The Show Stopper

SLOW DURATION 1.5 seconds to target and all enemies in the impact area  1 second to target and all enemies in the impact area
ASSIST BUGFIX Sett properly gets Assist credit even when the target dies while suppressed

Sivir

Q damage increased later. R minimum movement speed now scales – Sivir is on the weaker side across all games, so we’re buffing her.

Q – Boomerang Blade

DAMAGE PER PASS: 35/55/75/95/115 (+0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0/1.1 total attack damage) (+0.5 ability power)  35/50/65/80/95 (+0.7/0.85/1.0/1.15/1.3 total attack damage) (+0.5 ability power)

R – On The Hunt

MINIMUM MOVEMENT SPEED: 20%  20/25/30%

Sona

Base AD and AD growth increased. E self-movement speed increased and now flat- We’re reverting the mid-patch 10.4 changes since we decided to go forward with changes to the Tribute support question line, including Spellthief’s Edge, in this patch. All in all, that should bring her back to respectable levels in her main lane and keep her out of top lane for good.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE: 45  49
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH: 2  3

E – Song of Celerity

SELF MOVEMENT SPEED: 10/11/12/13/14%  20%

Abilities changed

  • Miss Fortune’s E – Make it Rain
  • Syndra’s Q – Dark Sphere
  • Varus’s E – Hail of Arrows

Last patch’s round of jungle champ pool changes went well—lots of players in the target skill range have been finding success trying the new picks out, without those picks also crushing the competition at higher parts of the ladder. Morde and Darius were the underperformers of the pack so we’re giving them a bit more help. We’re also adding Poppy to the mix: She’s actually already a decently strong jungler in the hands of some players, so she just needs a slight bump.

Darius

HEMORRHAGE DAMAGE TO MONSTERS: 120%  175%

Mordekaiser

DARKNESS RISE MAX DAMAGE TO MONSTERS: 25-110 (lv 1-18)  28-164 (lv 1-18)

Poppy

HAMMER SHOCK MAX HEALTH DAMAGE CAP VS NON-CHAMPS: 40/60/80/100/120  50/80/110/140/170

Turret Plating

Turret plates grant more gold, take more damage from melee champions, and are more resilient to group pushes.

We’re changing turret plating in a few ways toward the goal of making it a more appealing top-lane objective for solo melee pushers. Since plates take more damage from melee champs, most of the top lane roster will have an easier time downing them (and an easier time securing first turret gold as a result). Increasing Bulwark resistances means group pushes won’t be as rewarding, with ‘gank bot and set up for dragon’ the most common group push case in lane phase. Higher gold value adds extra consequence to these changes. All said, the tradeoff for abandoning a lane and roaming will be literally more costly once 10.5 hits.

To ranged readers: The second and third lines even out to you dealing the same damage to plating as you did before. We just didn’t want to say “turret plates take increased damage from melee champions”.

GOLD PER PLATE: 120  160
NEWRANGED RESISTANCE: Turret plates take 17% reduced damage from ranged champions
OUTER TURRET ARMOR & MR: 40/80/120/160/200 (at 0-4 plates lost)  15/50/85/120/155 (at 0-4 plates lost)
BULWARK RESISTANCES: 35 per nearby enemy champion past the second  45 per nearby enemy champion past the second
OUTER TURRET ARMOR & MR AFTER PLATES FALL: 40 (unchanged)

Blade of the Ruined King

Current health damage increased for melee champions – Blade of the Ruined King has been out of fighter inventories for a while now. We’re buffing it to be a luxury option for shredding through juggernauts and tanks.

UNIQUE PASSIVE: Basic attacks deal bonus physical damage on hit equal to 8% target’s current health  8% target’s current health for ranged users, 12% target’s current health for melee users
ORNN: Change also applies to Might of the Ruined King

Ravenous Hydra

Lifesteal increased. Active area of effect increased, now occurs at your max attack range – Increasing Ravenous Hydra’s strength should open its appeal to more fighters and buff the ones who already pick it up. We’re also making the Crescent active work as expected for those who have longer than 125 attack range.

LIFESTEAL: 12%  18%
ACTIVE RADIUS: 400  450
ACTIVE CENTER POINT: 125 distance in front of you  At your basic attack range (up to 200 distance – sorry Rengar)

TITANIC HYDRA

Passive damage to targets in the cone increased – We’re buffing Titanic Hydra’s health scaling to increase the threat it presents in HP-heavy builds.

PASSIVE DAMAGE TO PRIMARY TARGET 5 (+1% user’s max health)  5 (+1.5% user’s max health)
PASSIVE DAMAGE TO SECONDARY TARGETS 40 (+2.5% user’s max health)  40 (+3% user’s max health)

Spellthief’s Edge

Tribute procs now require a nearby ally – Removing support items from being used in solo lanes.

NEW PARTNER IN CRIME: Tribute procs now require an ally champion (even dead ally champions) within 2000 range (also affects Frostfang)

Spectral Sickle

Tribute procs now require a nearby ally – Removing support items from being used in solo lanes.

NEWPARTNER IN CRIME Tribute procs now require an ally (even dead ally champions) within 2000 range (also affects Harrowing Crescent)

Boots of Mobility

Cost increased – Mobi’s heavily increase the ability to snowball in higher ranked games, allowing very strong lanes to spread their leads easily and decreasing diversity in your shoe choices. We’re making them a bit more of a premium boot to buy, instead of something you can easily get once you’re in that position.

COST: 900 gold  1000 gold

Boots of Swiftness

Movement speed increased – Swifties are just not great right now, so we’re helping it be more competitive.

MOVEMENT SPEED 55  60

10.5 Buffs

AKALI: +18% damage dealt & -12% damage taken  +18% damage dealt & -15% damage taken

10.5 Nerfs

ALISTAR: Normal  +5% damage taken
YUUMI: +5% damage dealt  Normal
ZAC: +5% damage dealt  Normal

Eternals are available starting in 10.5. Capture, celebrate, and flex your moments of glory in and out of game on your main and track your per-game personal bests. Starter Series Eternals are available for Blue Essence and Series 1 Eternals are available for RP.

  • Renekton’s E – Slice and Dice no longer plays its on-hit audio if it doesn’t hit anything
  • Perfect Timing’s Commencing Stopwatch no longer swaps item slots when it becomes a Replica Stopwatch
  • Tahm Kench’s W – Devour cooldown is no longer halved when an allied champion stays inside his mouth for the full duration and no longer applies Passive – An Acquired Taste damage twice
  • Rakan can no longer stack Spellbinder by casting E2 – Battle Dance on allies that are out of range
  • Summoner names no longer appear out of order in Clash during scouting
  • Hovering over the Ocean Drake Soul in the Scoreboard will no longer cause the game to hitch for a brief moment
  • Death’s Dance last tick of stored damage now properly kills the target champion instead of leaving them at 1 HP
  • Fixed a bug where the Delete button would not be togglable in Collections’ Runes tab, causing players to not be able to mass delete Rune pages
  • When entering the End of Game screen, players’ Summoners name are no longer grayed out if they’re still in the lobby
  • The Revive button in the Practice Tool now functions correctly and revives the champion
  • Champions with Lethal Tempo equipped will now properly gain bonus attack speed after attacking enemy champions even if the target is shielded
  • Casting Fiddlesticks’ W – Drain at the same time as Fiora’s W – Riposte will now properly deal damage and heal him
  • Champions who are basic attacking an enemy will no longer be able to follow them as they enter Fog of War
  • Quickly changing forms as DJ Sona will no longer lock her with Ethereal form’s helm
  • If Sion channels R – Unstoppable Onslaught for 3+ seconds and then runs into an enemy champion, he now properly stuns the target for the intended 1.75 seconds