'League of Legends' 8.8 Patch Notes: Ahri Rework, Sweeping Lens Removed and More

League of Legends will revert some of its most heinous reworks and create a few more in patch 8.8. Leblanc is going back to her assassin ways and Ahri is getting a lot slower in this week's patch update. Since the midseason is just around the corner, Riot Games didn't dump any heavy changes in 8.8, keeping it on the lighter side. That doesn't mean it's any less important, with Sweeping Lens getting removed and Oracle Alteration coming available level one, vision control is going to get a lot crazier.

Here are League of Legends Patch Notes 8.8, courtesy of Riot Games:

Champions

LeBlanc

Updated. Just read it!

First things first, this is a partial revert of the changes we made to LeBlanc during the Assassin Update. At the time, we had two goals for the update. For assassins as a whole, we wanted to give champions more time to play against assassins. For LeBlanc specifically, we wanted to reinforce her identity as a combo-based assassin who cared about the order in which she cast her spells. In LeBlanc's case, we feel that we've missed the mark on those goals, and we're turning back the clock on some of her changes.

Those two goals can most be exemplified by two abilities: Passive - Sigil of Malice, and R - Mimic. However, neither of these changes have quite hit the mark, so we'll be reverting them, and making some tweaks to the rest of her kit for balance purposes. More on the changes to each ability below.

UPDATED Passive - Mirror Image

At the moment, no matter how far ahead she is, LeBlanc needs to stick around for about two seconds to have a shot at killing a target. It feels pretty awkward having the right thing to do often be holding off on using your abilities (until your passive has cooked).

WHAT IS OLD IS NEW AGAIN When LeBlanc drops below 40 percent health, she becomes invisible for one second and creates a Mirror Image that deals no damage and lasts for up to eight seconds.

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where an attack launched by the clone from Passive - Mirror Image could deal damage if the clone died before that basic attack landed. Funny story, we had this bugfix ready to go when we initially reworked LeBlanc, but there was no need to ship it because that ability no longer existed. So now we're finally shipping it!

Q - Sigil of Malice

• NAME Shatter Orb ⇒ Sigil of Malice
• NEW SIGIL OF MALICE Applies a mark to the target. Damaging the marked target with an ability detonates the mark to deal additional damage.
• ORB BASE DAMAGE 55/90/125/160/195 (unchanged)
• ORB DAMAGE RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.4 ability power
• MARK BASE DAMAGE 55/80/105/130/155
• MARK DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 ability power
• COST 40/45/50/55/60 mana ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90 mana

W - Distortion

• BASE DAMAGE 40/55/70/85/100 ⇒ 85/125/165/205/245
• DAMAGE RATIO 0.2 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power
• COOLDOWN 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
• SPEED 1600 ⇒ 1450
• REACTIVATION DELAY 0.85 seconds from initial cast ⇒ 0.2 seconds from finishing dash

E - Ethereal Chains

• LATCH-ON BASE DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 (unchanged)
• LATCH-ON DAMAGE RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power
• ROOT BASE DAMAGE 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180
• ROOT DAMAGE RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.7 ability power
• COST 40 mana ⇒ 70 mana
• TETHER RANGE 885 ⇒ 865

UPDATED - Mimic

LeBlanc's reworked ult was supposed to give her more interesting combos by allowing her to choose which ability to duplicate. In practice, however, it allows her to go all in and still have Mimicked Distortion to get far, far away if mistakes were made.

• MIMIC Casts LeBlanc's most recently cast spell upon pressing R
• RQ ORB BASE DAMAGE 70/140/210
• RQ ORB DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 ability power
• RQ MARK BASE DAMAGE 140/280/420
• RQ MARK DAMAGE RATIO 0.8 ability power
• RW BASE DAMAGE 150/300/450
• RW DAMAGE RATIO 0.75 ability power
• RE LATCH-ON BASE DAMAGE 70/140/210
• RE LATCH-ON DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 ability power
• RE ROOT BASE DAMAGE 140/280/420
• RE ROOT DAMAGE RATIO 0.8 ability power

Ahri

E now amplifies Ahri's subsequent damage on the target it strikes. R and E base damage decreased. R damage ratio increased. Q no longer grants movement speed. W prioritizes targets Ahri has recently charmed or basic attacked.

Ahri is supposed to be an aggressive, snowballing assassin who specializes in isolating a target and eliminating them. With her ultimate's mobility, which allows her to surge into other lanes, she wants to rack up kills around the map and lead her team to victory. At the moment, Ahri getting ahead just isn't the terrifying prospect it should be. We're upping her ability to prioritize all of her damage onto one champion so she has a better chance of going from fed to victorious.

In exchange, that's going to mean Ahri has to give up some safety in lane. As it is, the bonus movement speed attached to her Q allows her to toss it out just to avoid ganks. Removing that—and changing up her sustain model—should make her easier to punish in lane.

UPDATED Passive - Vastayan Grace

• If Ahri earns 2 spell hits against an enemy champion within a 1.5 second period, she gains 20 percent movement speed for three seconds (nine second cooldown)

Q - Orb of Deception

• REMOVED NOT SO FAST No longer grants movement speed
• NEW THREE THREE HIT COMBO If Ahri earns nine spell hits (max three per cast), she gains Essence Theft, causing her next Q cast that lands to restore 3/5/9/18 (at levels 1/6/11/16) health for each enemy hit.

W - Fox-Fire

• COST 50 mana ⇒ 40 mana
• NEW FOX'S CUNNING Fox-Fire prioritizes any enemy champion affected by Charm's damage amp and the target Ahri most recently basic-attacked within the past 3 seconds
• RANGE VS PRIORITY TARGETS 725 (range vs non-priority targets unchanged at 700)
• DELAY FOR NON-PRIORITY TARGETING 0.25 seconds ⇒ 0.4 seconds (delay vs priority targets unchanged at 0.25 seconds)

E - Charm

• BASE DAMAGE 60/95/130/165/200 ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180
• DAMAGE RATIO 0.60 ability power ⇒ 0.40 ability power
• NEWHERE IT COMES When Charm damages a champion, Ahri's abilities deal 20 percent more damage to them for 5 seconds

R - Spirit Rush

• BASE DAMAGE 70/110/150 ⇒ 60/90/120
• DAMAGE RATIO 0.25 ability power ⇒ 0.35 ability power

Irelia

Base armor increased. Q damage to minions increased. R cooldown increased. R damage (missile and wall) decreased, especially at later ranks.

Irelia's laning phase is pretty weak, but if she makes it to late game she's quite strong. We're trimming her late-game power by decreasing her ult's base damage, and giving her more consistent lane strength in exchange .

Base Stats

BASE ARMOR 31 ⇒ 34

Q - Bladesurge

• DAMAGE TO MINIONS 60 percent ⇒ 70 percent

E - Flawless Duet

• BUGFIX No longer credits Irelia for several minion kills with each cast

R - Vanguard's Edge

• COOLDOWN 120/105/90 seconds ⇒ 140/120/100 seconds
• MISSILE DAMAGE 150/275/400 ⇒ 125/225/325
• WALL DAMAGE 125/200/275 ⇒ 75/125/175

Azir

Soldier damage to non-primary targets decreased at earlier levels.

Azir's high waveclear - especially early game - gives him too much control over the tempo of a lane.

W - Arise!

• DAMAGE TO NONPRIMARY TARGETS 40/70/100 percent (at levels 1/6/11) ⇒ 25/50/75/100 percent at (at levels 1/6/11/16)

Braum

Armor growth decreased. W bonus resistances decreased.

He's too tanky! Cannot do shit when he's so tanky.

Base Stats

ARMOR GROWTH 4.5 ⇒ 4

W - Stand Behind Me

• RESISTANCES GRANTED 17.5/20/22.5/25/27.5 ⇒ 10/14/18/22/26
• STAND AT ATTENTION Bonus resistances are now applied more responsively

Galio

R cooldown increased.

As players have learned how to position themselves preemptively to use Galio's ultimate well, it's become pretty clear that it's available too often.

R - Hero's Entrance

• COOLDOWN 180/150/120 seconds ⇒ 200/180/160 seconds

Graves

Health growth increased. R cooldown decreased.

For a ranged champion, Graves has to get pretty up close and personal to contribute, and right now his baseline tankiness isn't enough to consistently sustain that.

Base Stats

HEALTH GROWTH 84 ⇒ 92

R - Collateral Damage

• COOLDOWN 120/100/80 ⇒ 110/85/60

Janna

Movement speed decreased. W damage decreased.

Janna's high speed allows her a bit too much control over trades, while the base strength of Zephyr means she's just winning those trades too often.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED 320 ⇒ 315

W - Zephyr

• BASE DAMAGE 60/105/150/195/240 ⇒ 55/100/145/190/235

Kai'sa

Health regen and health regen growth decreased. Q damage ratio decreased.

In her early patches, Kai'Sa was struggling to get through the laning phase, so we boosted her laning phase with some buffs. As players continue to learn how to play her, we're stripping that strength away.

Base stats

BASE HEALTH REGEN 6.2 ⇒ 5.2

HEALTH REGEN GROWTH 0.75 ⇒ 0.55

Q - Icathian Rain

• DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.35 bonus attack damage
• 6 MISSILE DAMAGE RATIO 1.0 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.875 bonus attack damage
• 12 MISSILE DAMAGE RATIO 1.72 bonus attack damage ⇒ 1.505 bonus attack damage

Lissandra

Q mana cost decreased. R cooldown decreased at earlier ranks.

Lissandra has very sharp strengths as an initiator and mid-range damage dealer, and has historically need to be gated by mana and cooldowns to keep her in line. Right now she's struggling, so we're giving her more opportunities to do those things.

Q - Ice Shard

• COST 85 mana ⇒ 75 mana

R - Frozen Tomb

• COOLDOWN 130/105/80 seconds ⇒ 120/100/80 seconds

Nautilus

Mana increased. Attack damage increased. Q cooldown decreased at earlier ranks.

Nautilus is struggling a bit, and we want to try to give him strength that will help him find success in all of his historical roles (top, jungle, and support). His identity as a giant anchor-thrower should be pretty relevant in each of those lanes, so that's a good place to start.

Base Stats

BASE MANA 334 ⇒ 400

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 57.54 ⇒ 61

Q - Dredge Line

• COOLDOWN 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

Ryze

E mana cost increased at early ranks.

Ryze's high waveclear - especially early game - gives him too much control over the tempo of a lane.

E - Spell Flux

• COST 40/55/70/85/100 mana ⇒ 60/70/80/90/100 mana

Sion

Q damage ratio decreased at earlier ranks.

Sion doesn't currently sacrifice much damage in order to max E - Roar of the Slayer instead of Q - Decimating Smash. In return he gains strong ranged poke, which is making him a dominant pick not only in top lane, but also mid in some matchups. There are times when it should make sense to max E first (ranged harass, using the slow to make Q easier to hit), but we want to make this less of a clear-cut choice.

Q - Decimating Smash

• BASE DAMAGE 20/40/60/80/100 ⇒ 30/47.5/65/82.5/100
• DAMAGE RATIO 0.65 total attack damage ⇒ 0.45/0.5/0.55/0.6/0.65 total attack damage
• FULL CHARGE DAMAGE 1.95 total attack damage ⇒ 1.35/1.5/1.65/1.8/1.95 total attack damage

Tahm Kench

E health restore decreased. W no longer grants Tahm Kench movement speed while moving towards enemy champions with a friend in his belly.

Tahm Kench is good at protecting allies by hiding them in his belly, but the high durability his E grants him means opponents don't feel great about the damage they land on him instead of his allies. Dialing that back should help him feel more fair to play against.

There's also something a bit more complicated here, and that's the bonus movement speed Devour gives Tahm Kench when running towards enemy champions. Because "towards" has a lot of leeway, in scattered teamfights "away from the person who is killing me" often means "towards some other opponent", which is allowing Tahm Kench too much escapability for both him and an ally.

W - Devour

• REMOVEDNO MORE FAST FOOD Tahm Kench no longer gains movement speed while moving towards enemy champions with a friend in his belly

E - Thick Skin

• GREY HEALTH RESTORED OVER TIME 25/30/35/40/45 percent ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35 percent

Taliyah

Base health decreased. Q Cooldown increased at earlier ranks.

Taliyah has become a prized pick, thanks to her ability to shove and roam. We're pulling back some of her waveclear, but also decreasing her tankiness so that assassins can be a more consistent counterpick against her.

Base Stats

HEALTH 532 ⇒ 502

Q - Threaded Volley

• COOLDOWN 9/7.5/6/5.5/3 seconds ⇒ 11/9/7/5/3 seconds

Varus

W on-hit damage decreased. W now has an active which empowers Varus' next Q to deal bonus damage.

Piercing Arrow is Varus' most iconic spell, but it's pretty underwhelming in many of his current builds. We want to create more incentives for him to care about charging his Q, even when he's building on-hit. Given that he was pretty balanced before, adding a whole new active requires us to trim some power elsewhere.

Passive - Living Vengeance

• BONUS ATTACK SPEED ON CHAMPION KILL 50 percent ⇒ 30 percent
• BONUS ATTACK SPEED ON MINION KILL 25 percent ⇒ 15 percent

W - Blighted Quiver

• ON-HIT DAMAGE 10/14/18/22/26 ⇒ 5/9/13/17/21
• NEWACTIVE Varus' next Q - Piercing Arrow deals additional damage equal to 6/7/8/9/10 percent of the target's missing HP. Damage is increased by up to 50 percent (to 9/10.5/12/13.5/15 percent) based on charge time.

Vi

Base armor decreased. Armor growth increased. Health regen and health regen growth increased. Passive and Q cooldowns decreased at early levels. E mana cost decreased.

We're looking to buff Vi, but also think it would be cool if she could sneak back into top lane (fun fact, Vi was designed as a top laner before becoming a jungler). By bringing some of her cooldowns and costs down and upping her health regen, we're aiming to give her more strength in solo lanes as well as in the jungle.

Base Stats

BASE ARMOR 35 ⇒ 30

ARMOR GROWTH 3.5 ⇒ 4

BASE HEALTH REGEN 9 ⇒ 10

HEALTH REGEN GROWTH 0.9 ⇒ 1

Passive - Blast Shield

• COOLDOWN 16-8 seconds (at levels 1-9) ⇒ 12-8 seconds (at levels 1-9)

Q - Vault Breaker

• COOLDOWN 16/14/12/10/8 seconds ⇒ 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

E - Excessive Force

• COST 40/45/50/55/60 mana ⇒ 26/32/38/44/50 mana

Xayah

Base health regen decreased. Base attack damage decreased.

Xayah is currently able to coast through hard matchups and get to her strong mid and late game too easily.

Base Stats

BASE HEALTH REGEN 6 ⇒ 5

Passive - Clean Cuts

• PASS THROUGH DAMAGE 50 percent ⇒ 30/40/50 percent (at levels 1/7/13)

Rek'Sai

Bug fixes

Passive - Fury of the Xer'Sai

• UPDATED HANGRY Rek'Sai's fury no longer decays from being out of combat while she is consuming it for burrowed regeneration
• UPDATED TIMELY Rek'Sai's out of combat fury decay now begins precisely at 8 seconds (as opposed to 8-9 seconds)

Swain

Bug fixes

E - Nevermove

• UPDATEDNO RUSH Now only gives one stack for Phase Rush purposes

Items

Archangel's Staff

Mana-to-ability-power conversion decreased.

Archangel's Staff is spiking too early, so we're decreasing some of its ability scaling before it upgrades to Seraph's Embrace.

MANA TO ABILITY POWER CONVERSION 3 percent ⇒ 1 percent (unchanged on Seraph's Embrace)

Runes

Lethal Tempo

Attack speed bonus increased.

Lethal Tempo still isn't doing well on most champions, so we're increasing the strength of the effect.

ATTACK SPEED 30-80 percent (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 40-110 percent (at levels 1-18)

Dark Harvest

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where a VFX box appeared when a soul was dropped on the ground

BUGFIX Fixed a bug where, if multiple players took Dark Harvest, only one of them could see the soul glow on units that will drop Dark Harvest Souls

BUGFIX On ARAM, tooltip now properly indicates that champion souls are worth less soul essence

Trinkets

Sweeping Lens removed. Oracle Alteration now available at level 1. Swapping trinkets now retains the same percentage cooldown as the previous one.

The decision-making surrounding trinket swaps is currently a bit more complicated than it needs to be. By making swaps more consistent and decreasing the number of potential swaps, we're hoping to make the gains from those swaps more clear.

REMOVED Sweeping Lens

SOLD OUT Sweeping Lens is no longer available in the store

Oracle Alteration

LEVEL REQUIREMENT 9 ⇒ 1

Trinket Swap Rules

SAME COOLDOWN Swapping from one trinket to another now retains the same percentage cooldown as the previous one, rather than resetting to a 120 second cooldown

Homestart

Homestart buff is granted by fountain until slightly later in the game. Homestart now begins to fall off at outer turrets, not the river.

Homestart gives too significant of a defender's advantage to champions who never cross into the river. Defensively, champions can run out to the brush near the river, retain the movement speed buff, and easily run away from any invaders—who lost their movement speed bonus once they set foot in the river. We're changing the movement speed buff to fall off a bit closer to your side of the map to make early aggression slightly more likely to succeed.

FOUNTAIN GRANTS HOMESTART BUFF UNTIL 35 seconds into the game ⇒ 55 seconds into the game

REMOVED COLD FEET Homestart buff no longer falls off instantly after crossing the river line

NO PLACE LIKE HOME : Homestart buff rapidly decays over 0.75 seconds after crossing the outer turret line

Bugfixes

• Fixed another way where Warwick's Q could double-cast. We're pretty sure it's the last one.
• Cannon minion gold value now correctly scales past 87 gold
• Clones can now correctly be feared by Volibear's Majestic Roar
• Fixed a bug where Tiamat counted towards procs for Electrocute or Phase Rush
• Snow Fawn Poppy's recall and spell SFX have been restored and no longer use base SFX
• Seams have been minimized on Pool Party Graves and all of his chromas when on lower graphics settings
• Seams have been minimized on Renektoy chromas when on lower graphics settings
• Seams have been minimized on Arcade Miss Fortune chromas when on lower graphics settings
• Texture compression is now more consistent across Darius' chroma pack
• Sandstorm Ekko's hourglass and Chrono Blade are now better attached to his model during all of his animations
• The orb during Reaper Soraka's Recall has been restored
• Santa Draven's Q - Spinning Axe landing location's particles are no longer overlapped by on-ground area of effect abilities' particles
• Pool Party Lulu's Pix attack projectiles are no longer missing their trail particles
• Nightbringer Yasuo's and PROJECT: Yasuo's Q - Steel Tempest ground particle no longer clips into the ground on elevation change
• Iron Solari Leona's R - Solar Flare decal will no longer be improperly rotated on lower graphics settings
• Q - Light Binding for Elementalist Lux no longer fade out prematurely when compared to other Lux skins
• Dreadnova Darius' idle VFX have been restored
• Particles during Woad King Darius and Dunkmaster Darius' critical attacks are no longer misplaced
• Unique particles have been restored for Cosmic Reaver Kassadin's Auto Attack on-hits and W - Nether Blade
• Unique particles have been restored for all of Conqueror Karma's spells
• Blood Moon Twisted Fate's Recall animation no longer has missing pixels
• The catling that Meowkai holds in his hand has been found and safely returned to him!
• Snow Day Graves' eyes now properly follow his head's movement during all animations
• Nami's laugh VFX once again play properly when emote is used
• Leprechaun Veigar's W - Dark Matter VFX once again have rainbows!
• Star Guardian Soraka's homeguard VFX once again properly overlay the champion's model
• Freljord Taliyah once again has basic attack on-hit VFX when hitting structures and jungle monsters
• SKT T1 Ryze's crowd cheers have been restored in his Recall animation
• Shiny VFX are no longer missing on Ashen Lord Aurelion Sol's sunglasses during his joke animation
• Secret Agent Xin Zhao's recall SFX have been restored
• SKT T1 Ekko is no longer missing VFX during his joke, taunt, dance, and death
• Steel Legion Garen's Villain Mark is now at the same height when comparing it to enemy and ally perspectives
• Battle Bozz Malzahar's recall VFX have been restored
• Lancer Paragon Blitzcrank / Lancer Rogue Blitzcrank's Recall is no longer missing lightning effects VFX
• Astronautilus' helmet VFX no longer linger after W - Titan's Wrath has expired