League of Legends Patch 11.17 Highlights

League of Legends Patch 11.17 is now live. There are only a couple more patches until Worlds, so now is the time to tie up any loose ends. Patch 11.17 contains nerfs to a few powerful professional and ranked picks. In addition, some underwhelming champions have been given some love. Gangplank, Lucian, Amumu, and Akshan all received minor kit changes. Lastly, multiple items have been ran through a balance pass. Without further ado, here are the League of Legends Patch 11.17 highlights. For the full patch notes, click here.

Major Nerfs

Graves

Q – End of the Line

• Mana Cost 60 ⇒ 80

Graves Mid is now a powerful pick gaining traction in all levels of play. A 20 mana nerf to his wave clear spell will hurt his laning slightly.

Irelia

Q – Bladesurge

• Heal 12/14/16/18/20% Attack Damage ⇒ 8/10/12/14/16% Attack Damage

Irelia’s insane sustain off of Q spamming a wave has been cut by a flat 4 percent. This loss of healing will also be impactful during late game fights.

Leona

W – Eclipse

• Bonus Armor and Magic Resist 20/25/30/35/40 ⇒ 15/20/25/30/35

Leona has lost a flat 5 armor and magic resist from her W. While it may not seem like a lot, losing 10 total defensive stats will make her hit death thresholds noticeably quicker early on.

Viego

Base stats

• Attack Range 225 ⇒ 200

Passive – Sovereign’s Domination

• Healing Upon Possession 8% (+2.5% Bonus Attack Damage)(+1.5% Ability Power)(+2.5% Attack Speed) ⇒ 3% (+3% Bonus Attack Damage)(+2% Ability Power)(+5% Attack Speed)

Q – Blade of the Ruined King

• DAMAGE MULTIPLIER FROM CRIT CHANCE 0-75% (at 0-100% crit chance) ⇒ 0-100% (at 0-100% crit chance)

E – Harrowed Path

• Camouflage Detection Radius 400 ⇒ 450

R – Heartbreaker

• Slow Duration 0.5 seconds ⇒25 seconds

Viego has continued to be an incredibly prevalent pick in pro play and ranked. This set of changes is attempting to take power from his tankier builds and encourage a crit based Shieldbow path. Additionally, the nerfs to his Possession healing and R slow aim to make his resets much less punishing for opponents.

Major Buffs

Ekko

Passive – Z-Drive Resonance

• Increased damage vs monsters 150% ⇒ 200%

When Morgana’s damage vs monsters rose from 150% to 200%, she became the best jungler in the game. While Ekko might not have the same heights as her, this change will heavily incentivize more jungle Ekko testing.

Senna

Passive – Absolution

• Critical Strike Damage 150% ⇒ 160%
• Soul Drop Rate 4.166% ⇒ 10% for minions and small monsters Senna kills (other drop rates unchanged)

Senna has fallen off ever since the nerfs to her tanky builds. Now that she scales better with crit and has access to far more souls while farming, Senna could look to adopt a carry-centric damage build.

Xayah

Q – Double Daggers

• Cast Time 0.25s ⇒25-0.1 (at 0-215% bonus attack speed)

R – Featherstorm

• Base Damage 125/250/375 ⇒ 200/300/400

Xayah has been getting buffed over and over in an attempt to bring her back to glory. This time, her R has been given an immense 75 extra damage at rank one. Additionally, her Q cast time now scales with bonus attack speed which should help her feel much smoother to play.

Kit Changes

Akshan

W – Going Rogue

• Akshan can no longer claim Scoundrels when he’s dead

E – Heroic Swing

• DAMAGE PER SHOT (30/55/80/105/130 + 10% Bonus Attack Damage) x (1 + 30% Bonus Attack Speed) ⇒ (30/50/70/90/110 + 17.5% Bonus Attack Damage) x (1 + 30% Bonus Attack Speed)

R – Comeuppance

• COOLDOWN UPON CANCELLATION 15 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds

Some quality-of-life changes surrounding Ashkan. The E having its damage shifted from level scaling to bonus AD scaling will encourage him to Q max from now on.

Amumu

Base stats

• Health Growth 80 ⇒ 75
• Armor Growth 3.8 ⇒5

Q – Bandage Toss

• Amumu now has 2 charges of Q
• Damage 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% Ability Power) ⇒ 70/100/130/160/190 (+85% Ability Power)
• Charge Cooldown 16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds
• Cooldown Between Casts 3 seconds (not reduced by Ability Haste)

W – Despair

• Base Damage per Second 8/12/16/20/24 ⇒ 12/16/20/24/28
• Max Health Damage per Second 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2% (+0.5% per 100 AP) of target’s maximum health ⇒ 1/1.15/1.3/1.45/1.6% (+0.5% per 100 AP) of target’s maximum health

R – Curse of the Sad Mummy

• Stun Duration 1.5/1.75/2 seconds ⇒5 seconds

Amumu has received a lot of changes here. It essentially all boils down to him getting a new second Q charge to help stick to opponents and lock them down. In return, Amumu has lost power in his tankiness, W damage, and ult stun at later levels. Overall, this will likely make him better at making plays early, but worse at scaling.

Gangplank

Passive – Trial by Fire

• Move Speed 30% ⇒ 15-30% by level

Q – Parrrley

• Counts as a ranged basic attack

E – Powder Keg

• Benefits from critical strike damage at 125% effectiveness
• Max Barrels 3 at all ranks ⇒ 3/3/4/4/5
• Recharge Time 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds

With this set of changes, Riot have attempted to disrupt the un-interactive, “get Q spammed by Grasp Gangplank” lane pattern. Now that his Q is a ranged attack, GP cannot utilize any melee runes or items well. Combined with a massive buff to his barrels with crit scaling, Sunderer GP is dead and crit GP is the new meta.

Lucian

Base stats

• Base Attack Damage 64 ⇒ 62

Passive – Lightslinger

Vigilance: Ally buffs empower Lucian’s next 2 basic attacks to deal an additional 14 (+10% Attack Damage) magic damage. Lucian can store up to 4 Vigilance basic attacks at a time.

W – Ardent Blaze

• Mana Cost 70 ⇒ 60
• Triggers Vigilance when an allied champion damages a marked target

R – The Culling

• Number of Shots 22/28/34 ⇒ 22 (+25% Critical Strike Chance)
• Damage Per Shot 20/40/60 (+25% Attack Damage)(+10% Ability Power) ⇒ 15/30/45 (+25% Attack Damage)(+15% Ability Power)

Lucian bot lane has been far inferior to his solo laning for years now. A new addition to his passive will give him a burst of extra damage when he is buffed by an ally. He will also get that extra damage when an ally hits a target Lucian has marked with his W. Lucian now benefits largely from having a support near him at all times.

Item Changes

Divine Sunderer

• Attack Damage 40 ⇒ 35

Sunderer has continued to be one of the most widely used Mythic items in the game. A base stat nerf should help open up the discussion for champions who don’t utilize it the best such as Gnar.

Serpent’s Fang

• Lethality 18 ⇒ 12

Serpent’s Fang flew under the radar for much of this season. Now that the majority of the player base has realized that the item brings tons of damage and utility at a dirt-cheap cost, Riot have decided to pull back on the damage aspect.

Youmuu’s Ghostblade

• Total Cost 3000 gold ⇒ 2900 gold
• Build Path: Serrated Dirk + Pickaxe + 1025 gold ⇒ Caulfield’s Warhammer + Serrated Dirk + 700 gold
• Attack Damage 60 ⇒ 55
• Added: Ability Haste 15

To make up for the nerf of one Lethality item, Youmuu’s has been given a very nice buff. It is now 100 gold cheaper and brings 15 ability haste, a stat which all assassins adore. More champions should be looking to pick one up when snowballing.

…And those are the most important changes of League of Legends Patch 11.17. Overall, this patch contains enough large changes to make an impact in the meta. Expect to see some varied picks and builds being tried in the coming weeks.