League of Legends Patch 11.3 Highlights

Champions

Ivern

HEALTH GROWTH

• 95 ⇒ 85

E – Triggerseed

• SHIELD 80/115/150/185/220 ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200

Ivern has been dominating in the solo queue environment. Patch 11.2 saw him top the win rate charts for junglers over meta picks such as Udyr and Olaf. His success even carried over to the pro scene where he was spotted as a solo laner of all things. While the recently popularized MoonStaff build has been a reason for his rise, Riot has decided Ivern is too oppressive overall. With these changes, Ivern has lost some of the power that allowed him to be a menace in both forms of play.

Losing 10 HP per level affects how Ivern is able to clear camps. Since the amount of HP used per passive usage hasn’t changed, Ivern will be noticeably squishier. The change to his shield will also be felt somewhat heavily. Since E is his first max, Ivern will be missing that extra 20 HP as soon as level 9. Assuming by this point he has Moonstone Renewer and Lucidity Boots, Ivern’s E will be on a 5-second cooldown. Losing a potential 240 shielding per minute should help Ivern’s enemies cut him down.

Jinx

HEALTH

• 610 ⇒ 550

Q – Switcheroo!

• BONUS RANGE 75/100/125/150/175 ⇒ 100/125/150/175/200
• FISHBONES BONUS ATTACK SPEED PENALTY -25% ⇒ -10%

E – Flame Chompers!

• COST 70 mana ⇒ 90 mana
• ARM TIME 0.7 seconds ⇒ 0.5 seconds
• When casting Flame Chompers! farther than max range, it now casts to the max range instead of causing you to walk into range and then casting

Jinx hasn’t been having the easiest time in the new season. As an immobile, scaling ADC, she often gets jumped on early and doesn’t have the power to live until her later item spikes. These changes aim to give Jinx an easier time navigating the League landscape.

By giving Jinx 25 extra range on her Rocket Launcher and decreasing the attack speed penalty by 15%, she is now able to position and kite better both while farming and in team fights. Cutting the arm time on Flame Chompers also makes it easier for her to chain crown control with her team or peel herself from potential pursuers.

Karma

MANA REGEN

• 11.5 ⇒ 13

Q – Inner Flame

• COST 65 mana ⇒ 55 mana

Karma has been in a weak spot for a while now. Ranged enchanter supports are already not favored in solo queue or pro play, and the ones that tend to take all the spotlight. These changes should help Karma get some extra mileage from her early game prowess. A more spammable Q should allow her to push waves and poke more efficiently. While this change won’t solve her getting out-scaled at the drop of a hat, she at least will have the chance to make a greater impact in lane.

Olaf

HEALTH

• 597 ⇒ 575

Passive – Berserker Rage

• BONUS ATTACK SPEED 0-100% ⇒ 0-75%
• The amount of attack speed being granted is now displayed on Olaf’s passive icon

Olaf has been the go-to meta pick for junglers throughout the season so far. The raw early game power he provides goes perfectly with the new item system to propel him into oppressiveness. These changes combined with some item changes later in the patch notes should help bring him in line.

His passive is primarily what makes him a clearing savant. This 25% reduction in max attack speed seems like a massive change, but what exactly does it mean? Previously, Olaf gained 1% attack speed per 1% missing health. That number is now 0.75% AS per 1% missing HP. Assuming Olaf goes down to around 20% HP on his first clear, his bonus attack speed changes from 80% to 60%. A loss of almost two Daggers worth of AS is a change that will definitely be felt.

Pantheon

Q – Comet Spear

• REDUCED DAMAGE AGAINST Minions ⇒ Minions and monsters
• COOLDOWN 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds ⇒ 13/11.75/10.5/9.25/8 seconds

These changes basically make lane Pantheon weaker and jungle Pantheon unplayable. While the CDR difference will be evened out at level 9, 3 seconds off of rank one Q means Pantheon has less shoving and trading power early in lane. For jungle, less Q casts plus reduced damage on Q means his clear will be nowhere near as fast as it was last patch.

Sylas

Q – Chain Lash

• COST 50/55/60/65/70 mana ⇒ 55 mana

W – Kingslayer

• DAMAGE 65/100/135/170/205 (+85% AP) ⇒ 70/105/140/175/210 (+90% AP)

While underwhelming in solo queue, Sylas has been a fringe pick in the professional scene. Sylas will continue to be gated by what champions he is picked into, but these buffs should help him see more success when that time does come.

Sylas doesn’t build any mana items, so the mana reduction on his second max of Q will be helpful for his wave clear in the mid game. His two-item core of Liandry’s and Zhonya’s plus a double AP rune setup lands him at 163 ability power. Alongside the 5 extra base damage, Sylas’s W will be dealing about 13 more damage a cast in the mid game. Nothing too crazy overall, but definitely changes that make him stronger.

Vladimir

R – Hemoplague

• COOLDOWN 150/135/120 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds

The change to ability haste from cooldown reduction has hurt Vladimir quite a bit. As a champion who is solely gated by how must he can spam abilities, Vlad’s build often requires him to spec into things like a scaling ability haste rune or the sub-optimally rushed Cosmic Drive item. Cutting a whopping 30 seconds off of his level 1 ultimate should help him be prepared for more situations until his ability haste comes online.

Items

Lich Bane

• ABILITY POWER 80 ⇒ 70

Lich Bane was a frequently acquired second or third item by champions such as Ekko, Evelynn, and Viktor. Losing 10 AP may lead these champs to consider other items earlier, especially since the item’s passive auto attack scales with AP.

Verdant Barrier

• Every 60 seconds gain 3 bonus magic resistance, stacking up to 5 times. Taking magic damage reduces the time it takes to gain magic resistance ⇒ Grants 0.5 magic resistance per each unit   killed (maximum 15)
• COMBINE COST 315 gold ⇒ 115 gold

Verdant Barrier’s magic resistance stacking mechanic has now been aligned with that of Seeker’s Armguard, a welcome change. The combine cost being lowered will make it a viable rush item against heavy magic damage, much in the way Seeker’s acts against heavy AD.

Banshee’s Veil

• ABILITY POWER 65 ⇒ 80
• COMBINE COST 400 gold ⇒ 700 gold

The missing combine cost from Verdant plus 100g more has been moved to Banshee’s Veil, but with a caveat. The item has been given 15 more AP, a change that makes Banshee’s a very viable early item pickup for a number of champions in the right circumstances. These changes to it and Verdant will likely make the item appear much more often.

Chemtech Putrifier

• ABILITY HASTE 15 ⇒ 20
• PASSIVE Inflicts immobilized enemy champions with 60% Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds ⇒ Healing or shielding an allied champion now empowers the ally’s next damage to an enemy champion with 60% Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds

The enchanter Grievous Wounds item has been changed to actually favor enchanters. Being able to give allies GW on any spell or auto attack is a very powerful ability that shouldn’t be overlooked. Champions such as Karma, Seraphine, and Sona who have AOE shields/heals will be able to give every single player on their team GW at a moment’s notice. Additionally, the MoonStaff build which allows champions to have healing buffs running on multiple teammates at once will also benefit largely from this. Leaving a supportive champion to build Chemtech Putrifier while carries can focus their gold on bigger item spikes could be very impactful.

Immortal Shieldbow

• ATTACK DAMAGE 50 ⇒ 55
• ATTACK SPEED 15% ⇒ 20%

Shieldbow was already a strong item on the champions who could utilize its full potential. Now, those champions have been given straight buff. Yasuo, Yone, and Samira are three of the biggest users of the item. While Yasuo could definitely use some love, Yone and Samira were already strong champions who had good presence in both solo queue and pro play.

Lord Dominik’s Regards

• ARMOR PENETRATION 25% ⇒ 35%

A simple buff to LDR. This change will likely bring the item up over Serylda’s Grudge, which was the premier armor penetration item until this point.

Goredrinker

• THIRSTING SLASH HEAL 25% AD + 12% missing health ⇒ 25% AD + 8% missing Health

Without context, losing 4% missing health’s worth of healing on an item’s active seems like an average hit to an item that saw tons of presence. In reality, tons of champions will be affected by this change. Every bruiser/fighter champion such as Olaf, Renekton, Rhast, and anyone who needed Goredrinker to be relevant will be feeling this nerf. If a champion could build this item but had other options, they will likely start to use those other items more often. It’s hard to imagine exactly what the game will look like after this change, but the fallout could be big.

Ravenous Hydra

• OMNIVAMP 15% ⇒ 10%

To add on to the Goredrinker nerf, Ravenous Hydra has lost 33% of its omnivamp value. This hurts a similar class of fighter champions but also hits champions like Camille who build the item without GD.

Sterak’s Gage

• LIFELINE SHIELD 200 ⇒ 100
• LIFELINE SHIELD DURATION 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds

Capping off the fighter item nerfs, Sterak’s has lost 100 HP of shielding. By itself, the change isn’t super impactful. However, combined with all of the other item changes. Fighters have lost a ton of power in this patch.

Frozen Heart

• TOTAL COST 2700 gold ⇒ 2500 gold
• COMBINE COST 800 gold ⇒ 600 gold
• ARMOR 80 ⇒ 70

Frozen Heart has been made 200 gold cheaper at the cost of 10 armor. For an item that has a passive that excels in specific cases, these changes greatly increase the clarity on when it is a good purchase.

…And those are the major changes of patch 11.3. All in all, this was an unusually big patch for being so early in the season. Riot is clearly trying to clean up the messy remains of the off-season item rework and solidify the meta. It will be interesting to see where exactly the game lands once all the dust settles.