League of Legends Patch 11.20 has now gone live. Compared to the much more sizable previous patches, 11.20 is much smaller. This is due to Worlds being set on patch 11.19 and the fact that no patch for the next couple of months will have professional play on it. Still, there are some champion balance passes that will affect solo queue through the end of Season 11. Without further ado, here are the biggest changes of League of Legends Patch 11.20. For the full patch notes, click here.
Patch 11.20 is much smaller in scope than the previous Worlds patches, but key picks like Irelia and Amumu have still received balance changes. (Images Credit Riot Games)
Nerfs
Amumu
Q – Bandage Toss
- Damage 70/100/130/160/190 (+85% AP) ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170 (+85% AP)
- Mana Cost 30/35/40/45/50 ⇒ 70
After the previous buffs to Amumu’s main engage spell, he has become a staple of the support meta heading into Worlds. Amumu is oppressive in lane, having multiple changes to hit a lethal engage with little punishment for missing. The steep increase in mana cost should help address the accessibility of his all-ins.
Irelia
Passive – Ionian Fervor
- Bonus AD Ratio at Max Stacks 30% ⇒ 20%
The old adage, “don’t fight Irelia at max stacks” has been way too true for a while. By cutting the bonus AD that Irelia gets by 33 percent, the door swings open for other traditional duelists to step in. The likes of Fiora and Jax are now better off in the matchup, especially later in the game when they’ve scaled up and Irelia’s bonus AD loss is greater.
Jarvan IV
Passive – Martial Cadence
- Bonus Damage 10% of target’s current health ⇒ 8% of target’s current health
The 11.16 damage buff to Jarvan’s passive have been reverted. The extra 2 percent max health greatly helped Jarvan assassinate squishies, burn down tanks and bruisers, and clear his camps faster. This nerf should bring his prevalence back down.
Shen
Passive – Ki Barrier
- Shield 60-111 (based on level) (+14% bonus health) ⇒ 50-101 (based on level) (+14% bonus health)
While a 10 damage nerf to Shen’s passive shield may seem like a low amount, this shield procs incredibly often. Shen will be losing effectively hundreds of HP just from laning phase alone. This should allow more picks to fight back against the in-your-face top lane ninja.
Singed
E – Fling
- Base Damage 50/65/80/95/110 ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90
- Damage Ratio 75% AP ⇒ 60% AP
The addition of Grievous Wounds to Singed’s ultimate have spikes his play and win rates in solo queue. Instead of reverting that or removing power from his poison, Riot have opted to take damage off of his second max. With how much AP Singed can reasonably buy, this nerf will start to add up very quickly.
Taliyah
Q – Threaded Volley
- Damage to Monsters from Subsequent Stones 80% ⇒ 75%
Taliyah is one of the premiere AP junglers at the moment. Her pure clearing speed outclasses most of the jungle field. Combine this with a very AD heavy solo lane meta and we have Taliyah being an incredibly important pick. A small 5 percent damage to monsters should slow her down just a notch.
Taliyah will likely remain a prominent pick after this nerf. The question is: will this bring her in line, or will she require more tweaking? (Image Credit Riot Games)
Buffs
Darius
W – Crippling Strike
- Cooldown 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds
Darius has been absent from top lane ever since the heavy hits to Stridebreaker. His touch-up comes in the form of a cooldown reduction on W, his last max. This means that for the entirety of the game, Darius now has a much higher uptime on a 90 percent slow and auto attack reset.
Hecarim
W – Spirit of Dread
- Cooldown 22/21/20/19/18 seconds ⇒ 18 seconds
- Capped Healing Versus Minions and Monsters 90/120/150/180/210 ⇒ 120/150/180/210/240
The original Chemtank duo have been left in the dust by the evolving jungle meta. Hecarim is the better off of the two, yet he has been given a very nice buff. A massive four second cooldown reduction on his W with it now healing 30 more HP will keep Hecarim much healthier while clearing and doing it faster to boot.
Udyr
R – Phoenix Stance
- Cone Damage 50/95/140/185/230/275 (+80% AP) ⇒ 60/110/160/210/260/310 (+80% AP)
Udyr has been given a sizable buff as well. A much earlier nerf to his Phoenix Stance damage has been reverted. R max Udyr now has 20 more damage in an AOE at level five and 35 at max. This will significantly speed up his clearing and help him burn down his foes.
Items
Imperial Mandate
- Initial Hit Bonus Damage 36-60 (based on level) ⇒ 45-75 (based on level)
- Bugfix: Damage dealt by Imperial Mandate’s mark will be properly attributed to the allied champion who consumes it
Mandate has been stuck as one of the weakest Mythic items in the game. Moonstone and Shurelya’s simply brought much more value for enchanters, while more engage CC heavy picks need more tank stats. By increasing the damage on Mandate’s mark, more situations may arise where Mandate can outvalue its counterparts.
Jungle Changes
Smite
- Healing Based on Max Health 15% ⇒ 10%
Jungle Camps
- Gromp Base AD 78 ⇒ 74
- Ancient Krug Base AD 78 ⇒ 74
The Smite summoner spell has been nerfed. It now returns 5 percent less max health healing to the jungler when used on a camp or epic monster. The implications of this change are pretty wide, but mostly it will just mean that fighting a jungler in river is less of a coin toss of if they have a Smite charge to blow on Crab or Dragon/Herald to win it.
Those are the League of Legends Patch 11.20 highlights. It is a very light patch overall with no sweeping changes and a short list of smaller changes. The biggest differences are probably the Amumu nerf and the Smite healing reduction. Expect the next couple of patches to be simple as well as Worlds continues.
