League of Legends Patch 11.5 Highlights

Champions

Gragas

Q – Barrel Roll

• COST 60/65/70/75/80 mana ⇒ 80 mana (at all ranks)

A simple nerf to the notorious quadra-flex pick that is Gragas. The Rabble Rouser has maintained a high pick rate in pro play for quite a while. This one change aims to hit something that makes Gragas oppressive in lane. Raising the cost of his Q at rank one by 20 means each cast costs him 20 percent of his mana pool instead of 15 percent at level 1.

On the patch notes page, Riot says this change is aimed at Top Gragas. Since Jungle and Mid both max Q for jungle and wave clear, they would hit the same mana cost by level 9 anyways. However, an E maxing Top or Support Gragas will feel this change later into the game.

Karma

Q – Inner Flame

• COOLDOWN 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 seconds ⇒ 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds

The classic cycle of Karma seems to be well underway. Patch 11.3 saw Karma receive buffs to her Mana Regen and Q Mana Cost. This one second reduction to her Q Cooldown is one more step to forcing her into the meta as an oppressive laner. Additionally, the Chemtech Putrifier rework gives Karma an insanely powerful and cheap mid game spike. Her low solo queue stats and lack of pro presence do justify a look at buffing her, but only time will tell of all of these small buffs cause an avalanche.

Pyke

Passive – Gift of the Drowned Ones

• GREY HEALTH STORAGE 25-50% of damage taken (levels 1-18) ⇒ 10% of damage taken (+25% lethality), increased to 35% of damage taken (+50% lethality) when 2 or more enemies are nearby

Pyke’s passive has been rearranged to heavily disincentivize playing him in the Mid lane. The new rate that he gains Grey Health is absolutely abysmal in a solo lane. Before he gets any Lethality, Pyke will only be able to regenerate 10 percent of the poke he takes. This means ranged Mid laners will be able to shove him out of lane with ease. Even if he gets a full Duskblade at around level 9, he will still only earn 13.6 percent of his HP back in a solo lane.

Meanwhile, Support Pyke loves this change. The base of 35 percent regen when two enemies are present is equal to the old scaling number at level 8, meaning this is an early lane sustain buff in Bot lane. The same level 9 Duskblade will put Pyke at 42.2 percent regen, nearly equal to his old regen at level 13.

Rell

Base Stats

• ARMOR 35 ⇒ 32

W – Ferromancy: Crash Down

• COOLDOWN 11 seconds ⇒ 13 seconds

W – Ferromancy: Mount Up

• COOLDOWN 11 seconds ⇒ 13 seconds

Rell has been a staple of the professional scene for quite a while. Her instant burst of AOE engage is nearly unrivaled in League of Legends. However, she does have her fair share of bad matchups and hard counters. Instead of gutting what make’s Rell a strong champion, Riot has decided to give her nerfs that make her weaknesses more pronounced.

Adding two seconds onto both sides of Ferromancy makes her ability to get multiple spell rotations in a fight even harder. Additionally, interrupting her W with instant crowd control such as Alistar Q/W or Janna Q will take Rell out of a fight for longer. Rell will be even more of a “kill them all or die trying” champion after this nerf.

Seraphine

Passive – Stage Presence

• Seraphine’s Notes no longer decay in damage to non-minions
• Notes from allies now only deal 25% damage of Seraphine’s Note damage to all targets, including minions
• NOTE DAMAGE 4-16 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 4/8/14/24 (levels 1/6/11/16)

R – Encore

• COOLDOWN 160/140/120 seconds ⇒ 180/150/120 seconds

Seraphine has been hit with another sizable support Nerf with the goal of making her Mid lane presence a better option. Getting only a quarter of the damage from ally notes will heavily reduce her poke potential in a duo lane. Meanwhile, her own notes will pack more of a punch if she can scale to level 16.

Her ultimate has also had its cooldown increased by 20 seconds at rank one and 10 at rank two. All of these changes combine for an overall nerf to Seraphine until level 16, which is much easier to get while soaking solo experience.

Shaco

W – Jack In The Box

• BASE DAMAGE 15/20/25/30/35 ⇒ 10/15/20/25/30
• SINGLE TARGET BASE DAMAGE 35/50/65/80/95 ⇒ 25/40/55/70/85
• Jack in the Box now deals an additional 10/20/30/40/50 damage to monsters

Shaco’s best role for a couple patches now has been Support instead of Jungle. The easiest way to fix this was by reducing the base damage on boxes and giving that damage back against jungle camps. While Shaco Support will still be a viable pick, he should be less oppressive against melee champions who can’t always steer clear of the boxes.

Udyr

Base Stats

• HEALTH GROWTH 99 ⇒ 92

R – Phoenix Stance

• AURA TOTAL DAMAGE 50/95/140/185/230/275 over 4 seconds ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200/240 over 4 seconds

Udyr has remained a strong champion even after the jungle nerfs due to his clear speed and itemization. Cutting the damage on his clearing tool should show him down. A 10 damage nerf scaling to 35 damage at level 9 is certainly a big hit to his AOE clearing. More jungle champions should be able to contest him in terms of speed. Also, the Base Health nerf adds up to about 100 HP missing at level 14.

Items

Muramana

• SHOCK Basic attacks and abilities deal 2.5% max mana as bonus damage against champions ⇒ Basic attacks deal 1.5% max mana as bonus damage. Melee abilities deal 3.5% max mana as bonus damage and ranged abilities deal 2.7% max mana as bonus damage; all abilities also deal +6% total AD as bonus damage against champions (on-hit attacks that trigger spell effects count as abilities for this purpose)
• SHOCK BUGFIX Fixed a bug where damaging abilities would proc Shock’s bonus damage once per ability, and should now only proc once per champion per ability

Muramana has been in an interesting position since its rework. Many of its previous loyal customers opted out of the item early in the season. Champions like Ezreal opted into Essence Reaver into Duskblade builds. Now, the item is too good to ignore for AD Casters.

While the item did lose 1 percent max mana as bonus damage on auto attacks, it has been beefed up everywhere else. Bonus damage on abilities is up by a bit for ranged champs and a sizable amount for melees. Additionally, the new 6 percent total AD as bonus damage will pack a punch, especially on Ezreal and Senna who utilize on-hits in most of their kit.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade

• Convert every 1% critical strike chance into 2 bonus physical damage on-hit, with a maximum of 100% critical strike chance. Wrath’s on-hit damage conversion is now affected by critical strike damage modifiers.

Senna deterrent. Within this change is a note that says Senna’s passive can no longer give above 100 percent crit chance. Coupled with this change, her extra on-hit damage with Guinsoo’s is very limited. The new extra on-hit damage conversion by crit strike damage modifiers also incentivizes building Infinity Edge with it, something Senna won’t do.

Serpent’s Fang

• Dealing damage to an enemy champion reduces any shields they gain by 50% for melee champions and 25% for ranged champions for the next three seconds. When you damage an enemy who is unaffected by Shield Reaver, reduce all shields on them by 50% for melee champions and 25% for ranged champions.
• Fixed a bug where Serpent’s Fang’s Shield Reaver passive would not reduce an enemy’s shields if the user had any on-hit items equipped

Previously, Serpent’s Fang was a niche item that was out-statted by more general ones if the team comp you bought the item into didn’t have multiple sources of shields. Now, the item is almost a must-buy against certain heavy shielders. While buying it against Enchanters is decent, the 50 percent shield reduction against melee champs could be much more impactful.

You must now think about the consequences of picking self-shielders like Sion, Riven, Tahm Kench, etc if your team comp incentivizes Serpent’s Fang purchases. Additionally, shielding items such as Locket of the Iron Solari, Sterak’s Gage, and Gargoyle’s Stoneplate will see their effectiveness greatly reduced when a Fang is on the field.

Black Cleaver

• TOTAL COST 3300 gold ⇒ 3100 gold
• HEALTH 300 ⇒ 400
• Black Cleaver no longer deals bonus physical damage
• Dealing physical damage to a champion grants 5 movement speed per stack of Carve on them for 2 seconds

Black Cleaver has been given a bevy of buffs that make it better for many of the champions that want to use it. The stat buffs make it a more desirable purchase overall, but the return of the movement speed-focused passive should help big brawlers like Darius and Urgot stick to their targets.

Stridebreaker

• HALTING SLASH DASH RANGE 200 ⇒ 300
• DASH SPEED Slightly increased
• SLASH SLOW DECAY 60% over 2 seconds ⇒ 40% over 2 seconds
• DAMAGE 100% AD ⇒ 75% AD

Speaking of brawlers, Stridebreaker has been given a supposed power neutral change that makes the dash more prominent but the damage worse. For those juggernauts who have trouble getting to targets in the first place, this change is a direct buff.

And those are the most important changes of Patch 11.5. The item changes will be very interesting to keep track of moving forward. Many items that have either been in a weak state or overshadowed by better ones are continually being changed. If the Everfrost changes from a patch ago are anything to go off of, even just one of these changes can drastically affect the League of Legends landscape.