League of Legends Patch 11.6 Highlights

Champions

Akali

Base Stats

• HEALTH 575 ⇒ 500
• HEALTH GROWTH 95 ⇒ 105

Passive – Assassin’s Mark

• Assassin’s Mark no longer restores 10/15/20 energy

Q – Five Point Strike

• COST 120/115/110/105/100 energy ⇒ 130/115/100/85/70 energy
• Five Point Strike no longer deals 25% bonus magic damage to minions and monsters.

W – Twilight Shroud

• Twilight Shroud now increases Akali’s maximum energy by 80 (and still restores 80 energy)

E – Shuriken Flip

• TOTAL DAMAGE 100/170/240/310/380 (+70% AD) (+100% AP) ⇒ 100/187.5/275/362.5/450 (+85% AD) (+120% AP)
• DAMAGE SPLIT BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND HIT: 50% of the total damage, 50% of the total damage ⇒ 30% of the total damage, 70% of the total damage

R – Perfect Execution

• FIRST DASH DAMAGE TYPE Physical ⇒ Magic
• FIRST DASH DAMAGE 125/225/325 (+50% bonus AD) ⇒ 80/220/360 (+50% bonus AD) (+30% AP)

Akali has received a ton of adjustments to her entire kit. Riot states that the goal is to make her early laning phase more vulnerable in exchange for power later into the game. First off, losing 75 base HP will definitely hurt, especially into ranged matchups. A nerf to Fleet Footwork this patch will also make it harder for Akali to sustain in lane. Her Q now costs more energy at ranks 1 and 2 but will have a much lower cost when maxed. The removal of bonus damage to minions also makes it harder for her to shove the wave and last hit early.

The removal of Energy Restoration from Akali’s passive has been made up for by giving her 80 maximum energy in Twilight Shroud, meaning she will have more spells to work with while in stealth. Shuriken Flip’s notoriously high base damage has been increased, albeit only when the ability has points in it. An additional increase in scaling power will make that ability very dangerous in the late game. The only downside is that now the majority of damage requires Akali to take the E into the fray.

Finally, her R’s first dash has been changed from Physical to Magic damage. The early base damage has once again been lowered in exchange for higher base at ranks 2 and 3 plus a new AP ratio. Now that the ability gets more power late and benefits from built Magic Penetration, it will pack more of a punch.

Hecarim

Q – Rampage

• BASE DAMAGE 60/102/144/186/228 ⇒ 60/97/134/171/208

Hecarim has been at the top of the jungle food chain in both solo queue and pro play. Recently, a tank build featuring Turbo Chemtank rose in popularity, making him even more effective. A simple reduction to his spammable Q’s base damage should help dissuade people from building him strictly tank. Losing 20 damage at max rank on a spell he uses a dozen times per team fight will certainly make him less threatening.

Lillia

R – Lilting Lullaby

• COOLDOWN 130/110/90 seconds ⇒ 150/130/110 seconds

While not a dominant force in solo queue anymore, Lillia is still a very high priority pick in the pro scene. A 20-second increase to the cooldown of her powerful ultimate should make it easier for her opponents to find windows of power. Interestingly, this is the first adjustment to Lillia, buff or nerf, since her release.

Renekton

R – Dominus

• BONUS HEALTH 250/500/750 ⇒ 250/400/550

The old adage of Renekton being a laning monster who doesn’t scale well has recently had an asterisk put by it. By building items that give him utility and tankiness, his value as a massive, distracting wall of meat with backline diving capabilities has been brought out. Losing 100 HP at rank two ultimate and 200 at rank 3 should help his enemies cut him down to size as they get more items.

Sylas

Passive – Petricite Burst

• UNSHACKLED BONUS ATTACK SPEED 80% ⇒ 125%

W – Kingslayer

• COOLDOWN 13/11.5/10/8.5/7 seconds ⇒ 13/11.25/9.5/7.75/6 seconds
• COST 70/80/90/100/110 mana ⇒ 60/70/80/90/100 mana
• HEAL RATIO 50% AP ⇒ 45% AP

Sylas has recently been on the rise in organized play, but his kit is still just naturally dependent on the opponents having good ultimates for him to steal. These buffs are an attempt to give him a push towards being viable in more situations.

The 45% attack speed increase on his passive means that Sylas will be able to get his three burst damage auto attacks off much more reliably. A one-second cooldown reduction and 10 flat mana cost buff will help Sylas spam his most important spell for survivability. The 5% AP ratio nerf on the heal is there to balance this out, but Sylas should still be able to slide into presence easier.

Xin Zhao

AD Fighter Adjustments

Passive – Determination

• HEAL 10-112 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 7-92 (levels 1-18)
• Xin Zhao now correctly consumes his Passive – Determination stacks after basic attacking an enemy shortly after casting W – Wind Becomes Lightning

Q – Three Talon Strike

• BONUS BASE DAMAGE 20/28/36/44/52 ⇒ 16/25/34/43/52

W – Wind Becomes Lightning

• COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 12/10.5/9/7.5/6 seconds
• COST 45 mana ⇒ 60 mana
• REDUCED DAMAGE AGAINST MINIONS 50% ⇒ 50%-0% (levels 1-16)
• SLASH CAST TIME 0.5-0.4 seconds (based on attack speed) ⇒5 seconds
• Thrust’s damage now increases by up to 33% based on critical strike chance
• THRUST RANGE 900 ⇒ 1000
• MISSILE SPEED 5000 ⇒ 6250
• Thrust now Challenges enemy champions and monsters and reveals them for 3 seconds
• Hitbox now extends slightly behind Xin Zhao for visual clarity

E – Audacious Charge

• Audacious Charge’s cast range increases to 1100 on Challenged enemies

AP Adjustments

Passive – Determination

• HEAL AP RATIO 40% ⇒ 55% AP

W – Wind Becomes Lightning

• THRUST DAMAGE RATIO 50% AP

R – Crescent Guard

• DAMAGE RATIO 100% AD ⇒ 100% AD, 110% AP

Riot’s pass at Xin Zhao has resulted in a wide variety of changes, including the addition of AP ratios to try and bring back his magic damage builds. For AD Xin, his passive will be giving him less sustain as the AP ratio has been increased. Additionally, both Xin’s will be missing some base damage on Q until maxed. This is made up for by Xin’s W now having a lower cooldown and losing the damage penalty to minions as he levels up. AP Xin Zhao now has a 50% ratio to work with on said W and a whopping 110% AP ratio on ultimate.

The biggest gameplay change to Xin Zhao comes in the form of his W adjustment plus his E–Audatious Charge. Xin’s W now has 1000 range, moves 1250 units faster, and Challenges enemy champions plus revealing them. Xin Zhao can now use his E to dash onto Challenged targets from 1100 range. This means that Xin Zhao will be able to get on targets much more easily. It is unknown what build most Xin Zhao players will try and make work, but hopefully he turns into a Shaco-esque case where both AD and AP are viable.

Healing Items

Immortal Shieldbow

• LIFESTEAL 12% ⇒ 10%
• Immortal Shieldbow no longer grants 15% lifesteal for 8 seconds
• Immortal Shieldbow now grants 13-35 AD when triggered
• SHIELD 250-700 ⇒ 300-800

Blade of the Ruined King

• LIFESTEAL 12% ⇒ 10%
• SIPHON DAMAGE 40-120 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 40-150 (levels 1-18)

Healing in League of Legends is being toned down across the board. As a result, Immortal Shieldbow and BotRK are being targeted. Shieldbow is losing two-percent life steal permanently plus the 15% extra on Lifeline activation. Instead, Lifeline now gives some bonus AD. As a compensation, Shieldbow has been granted 50-100 more shielding based on level. In the long run, this hurts champions who relied on the item to stick it out in dangerous situations using the life steal such as Samira.

BotRK similarly lost that two-percent base life steal and lost 30 siphon damage when max scaled. While it will still be core on the champions that utilize it the best, it should feel slightly weaker overall.

Mage Items

Liandry’s Anguish

• No longer grants 5% magic penetration per second against burning targets
• Now grants up to 12% bonus magic damage to champions based on their bonus health (maximum 1250 bonus health)

Luden’s Tempest

• Dealing ability damage to an enemy champion now also reduces Echo’s cooldown by 0.5 seconds (up to 3 seconds per ability)

Everfrost has taken the lead as the best Mage Mythic item. Instead of nerfing it, Riot have decided to buff the other two options, Liandry’s Anguish and Luden’s Tempest. Liandry’s has had the five-percent magic penetration on burning targets replaced with a 12% bonus magic damage amplification to champions with more bonus health. This cements the item as a go-to against tankier team compositions.

Luden’s Echo cooldown now gets reduced when damaging enemy champions up to three seconds per ability. This means that champions with spammable AOE spells will have access to the Echo burst much more often.

Rabadon’s Deathcap

• TOTAL COST 3800 gold ⇒ 3600 gold

Void Staff

• ABILITY POWER 65 ⇒ 70
• COMBINE COST 400 gold ⇒ 600 gold

Deathcap has been horribly gold inefficient since the item rework, so much so that most champions don’t even end up building it until fifth or sixth as a hyper late game boost. In contrast, Void Staff has become a viable item built as early as second regardless of Magic Resistance stacking being present or not. These changes are an attempt to make the decision a bit more interesting.

Seeker’s Armguard

• BONUS ARMOR PER KILL 1 ⇒ 0.5
• MAX ARMOR 30 ⇒ 15

Verdant Barrier

• MAGIC RESIST PER KILL 0.5 ⇒ 3
• MAX MAGIC RESIST 15 ⇒ 9
• ABILITY POWER 25 ⇒ 20

Seeker’s and Verdant were too effective at neutralizing the early game weaknesses of the champions that built them. By cutting their resistances, there should be more windows where aggressive champions can take over before that Banshee’s Veil or Zhonya’s Hourglass gets completed.

Summoner Spells

Teleport

• HOME(START) ALONE Teleport now removes Homestart and respawn Homeguard
• BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 30/40/50% (levels 1/6/11) ⇒ 50%
• COOLDOWN 420-240 seconds (levels 1-18) ⇒ 420-210 seconds (levels 1-18)

Teleport has been adjusted so it gives less speed out of the base. By removing the 66.7% Homeguard speed bonus and replacing it with a 50% speed bonus at the end of every TP, champions will be slower when using it to get back to lane after a death. Additionally, recalling, purchasing an item, and then Teleporting to fights will share that same disadvantage. As compensation, Teleport now comes off cooldown 30 seconds faster at level 18.

Runes

Fleet Footwork

• HEAL RATIO 30% AP ⇒ 20% AP

The aforementioned Fleet Footwork nerf. This change only targets the AP champions that used it to sustain in lane, which is partly why Akali and Sylas were buffed in compensation.

Ravenous Hunter

• BASE OMNIVAMP Ravenous Hunter no longer has a base of 1% omnivamp
• OMNIVAMP PER STACK 1.7% ⇒ 1.5%

Ravenous Hunter has now received its second nerf of Season 11. In Patch 11.2, the max omnivamp was reduced from 11% to 9.5%. Now, champions who take it will not get any benefit just for having it and will max out at 7.5% omnivamp. This change should encourage more use of the other three Hunter runes in the Domination tree.

…And those are the biggest changes of League of Legends Patch 11.6! There was a ton to unpack, since many different aspects of the game received attention. Additionally, the massive list of Akali and Xin Zhao changes could push those two into prominence soon.