Patch 5.16 Notes

Posted on at 11:43 AM by Moobeat
Continue reading for the complete notes, including six new skins, gameplay reworks for Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, and Skarner, two new items, a large set of defensive itemization changes, & more!

Here's the full 5.16 patch notes with an introduction by Scarizard:

Greetings, summoners.

Welcome to patch 5.16, the one where juggernauts exist, defensive items get a pass and Zed actually gets buffed. Before we dive in, let’s clear some things up for all the esports fans out there - 5.14 (the one with crazy Elise, #bigsorry) will be the one that the rest of playoffs including the gauntlet will be played on. Worlds will be played on 5.18, which means while we totally hear you about these changes being pretty huge before worlds, we’ve set aside the next two to react and tune as necessary (read: lighter touches) before these changes hit the big stage.

With that out of the way, on to the main event: Juggernauts.

If you haven’t heard that phrase, brace yourselves: searching at the time of this post says we mention the word 13 times; So what are they? When we think juggernaut, we think of champions like Nasus - hulking, durable melee threats that rip teams to shreds if left unattended, but short-ranged and slow enough to be kited for days. They’re workhorses, but they need a bit of work to get going. So if you start seeing crystals in the jungle and ghost-dragons in your midlane, consider yourself warned - the juggernauts are here to stay.

As for the rest of 5.16, we’ve got our usual host of item and champion changes (albeit a little bigger) to keep things balanced and diverse as we turn our focus towards the World Championship. We’re not looking to shake the game too much after this, but we’re touching up some old pro-play faithfuls (Kassadin, Leblanc, Zed) and tuning down some top-tier titans (Rumble, Viktor, Alistar) as players enter the final leg of the race for the Summoner’s Cup (or for the other 99.9% of us, those sweet end-of-season rewards).

So strap in, queue up, and enjoy the ride. There’s a lot to explore and discover in a post-5.16 landscape, and there’s tons of LP up for grabs.

We even buffed Lee Sin. What a time to be alive.
 Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough


Garen, Darius, Skarner and Mordekaiser have received gameplay updates. We’re calling them juggernauts.
Any time we make an update, we’re aiming for two targets: that every game of League feels meaningfully different based on the champions in it, and that each champion in League feel distincts. That might sound like an enormous goal (probably because it is), but our plan is to break them down into groups that share roughly the same strategic or tactical niche and start solving from there. By hitting a handful of champs at a time we can address a few groups struggling in one go; the first of which are the lumbering giants of melee-ranged obliteration heretofore (affectionately) referred to as juggernauts.

Tanky melee carries walk the line between power and peelability, but in order to find distinct playstyles for each of these four champions, we looked to add a little more uniqueness where we could. When two champs play the same way, you just end up picking the one that’s better. We’re working to change that - shifting each champion’s power so that their highs and lows are both deeper and more differentiated from others in the same role.

Let’s meet the team.


Kicking off our dive into the juggernaut update is the dunkmaster himself, Dario Chopman. Notorious for his blood-fueled multi-kill potential, Darius’ fantasy was just that - a fantasy. In reality, he’d build damage and die before posing a huge threat (often trading his life for a low-priority target), or stack defenses and become the Wet Noodle of Noxus. Tack on the juggernaut’s plight of ‘why pick me over other fighters?’ and Darius is in a pretty rough spot.

Enter Bloodrage.

While not the cure for everything that ails him (It won’t magically give him dashes or a cool haircut), Bloodrage is all about letting Darius realize his ‘pentakill-in-a-china-shop’ fantasy, letting loose on enemies after maxing out his passive. In other words, he’s going to try his hardest to mosh with his opponents (alongside new tools like Decimate’s heal and Apprehend’s slow for staying power), and it’s on them to keep his rampage to a dull roar. We’ve taken down some of his damage before he hits Bloodrage, but once he gets going things start to get pretty crazy.
That’s the gist of Darius’ update. Check below for the nitty-gritty details, and we’ll see you at after you’re done. Technically you could just skip to the next section, but we’d be disappointed. Not mad, just disappointed.


Attack Range up. AD, Health and Armor per level up. Base AS% and AS per level down.

Passive - Hemorrhage

In addition to its current function, Reaching 5 stacks or killing an enemy champion with R - Noxian Guillotine puts Darius into a Bloodrage. During Bloodrage, Darius gains 40-200 bonus Attack Damage and applies max Hemorrhage stacks to enemies with basic attacks or Decimate's Blade.
DURATION5 seconds
BLEED DAMAGE12~36 (9 + 3 every other champion level)  10~27 (9 + 1 per champion level)
BLEED DAMAGE TYPEMagic damage  Physical damage
REMOVEDADRENALINE RUSHNo longer grants Movement Speed per champion affected

Q - Decimate

Now has a brief delay on cast. Hitting with Decimate's Blade now heals Darius.
COST40 mana  30 mana
NEWCAST TIMEInstant cast  0.75 second delay
NEWDECIMATE THE MEEKDarius now heals for 10% of his missing Health for each enemy champion hit by Decimate's Blade, up to a maximum of 30%.
BLADE DAMAGE105/157.5/210/262.5/315  20/40/60/80/100
BLADE RATIO1.05 bonus Attack Damage  1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 totalAttack Damage
HANDLE DAMAGE66% of Decimate's Blade  50% of Decimate's Blade
CLEAN HANDLESEnemies hit by Decimate's Handle no longer receive a stack of Hemorrhage

W - Crippling Strike

Slow heavily increased. No longer slows Attack Speed.
COST30/35/40/45/50 mana  30 mana at all ranks
COOLDOWN8 seconds at all ranks  9/8/7/6/5 seconds
DAMAGE120/140/160/180/200% total Attack Damage  140% total Attack Damage at all ranks
SLOW20/25/30/35/40%  90% at all ranks
SLOW DURATION2 seconds  1 second
REMOVEDATTACK SPEED SLOW20/25/30/35/40%  No longer slows attack speed
REMOVEDCRIPPLED COOLDOWNNo longer reduces Crippling Strike's base cooldown per Hemorrhage stack on the target

E - Apprehend

Apprehend no longer pulls champions that escape the area, but briefly slows enemies hit.
REMOVEDGET OVER HEREFixed a bug where enemies would be pulled in if they successfully escaped the area during the cast time
NEWAND STAY DOWNEnemies pulled by Apprehend are slowed by 90% for 1 second
CAST TIME0.32 seconds  0.25 seconds

R - Noxian Guillotine

Re-casting R is free.
DAMAGE160/250/340  100/200/300
COST100 at all ranks  100/100/0 (yes, that's a 0)
REMOVEDATHENE'S UNHOLY DUNKNo longer refunds mana on kill
NEWKILL ONE GET ONE FREESubsequent casts of Noxian Guillotine have no cost
NEWSCURRY, WEAKLINGSUpon executing an enemy champion, all nearby lesser creatures (non-champions) become terrified


Perhaps the least changed of the juggernauts overall, Garen’s always been the iconic ‘white knight’ for League of Legends and not much else. An effective damage dealer and off-tank in his own right, the G-man’s struggled to find a home as anything more than a makeshift assassin, diving backlines in hope of delivering swift justice to anyone holding an Infinity Edge. We really dug that ‘justice’ part, which led us to discovering Garen’s identity - he leads the charge against the most vile scoundrels and makes them pay (and boy, does he never stop talking about it).

Garen’s purpose in-game now matches his job description; protecting the weak both in game and out. His effectiveness as an ‘anti-carry’ extends the whole game long, adapting to your opponent's individual wrongdoings and throwing the rule-book at anyone branded a Villain. Though solo queue may be dark and full of terrors, Garen’s ability to flip the script on hypercarries-gone-godlike means that victory is only ever one ‘DEMACIA!!’ away, no matter how dire the situation.


Lower health per level, but higher Attack Damage and Armor. Attack range increased.
WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER SWORDRecommended items updated

Q - Decisive Strike

Normalized Silence duration. Movement speed duration lowered.
SILENCE DURATION1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds  1.5 seconds at all ranks
MOVEMENT SPEED DURATION1.5/2.25/3/3.75/4.5 seconds 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds

W - Courage

Everything old is new again.
REMOVEDTENACIOUS CNo longer actively provides Tenacity
REMOVEDVIVA LA RESISTANCESNo longer passively increases Garen's bonus Armor and Magic Resistance
NEWSTACK ATTACKPassively, Killing units permanently grants 0.2 Armor and Magic Resist (1 for kills on Champions, Large Monsters and Epic Monsters), to a maximum of 30 at all ranks

E - Judgment

Judgment's damage and tick-rate increases over game-time.
COOLDOWN13/12/11/10/9 seconds  9 seconds at all ranks
BASE DAMAGE PER TICK10/22.5/35/47.5/60  14/18/22/26/30
RATIO PER TICK.35/.40/.45/.50/.55  .34/.35/.36/.37/.38
NEWMOMENTUM CANCELINGCancelling Judgment early refunds the cooldown equal to the remaining duration of the spin
NEW1V1 MEJudgment deals 33% increased damage when striking a single target

R - Demacian Justice

Enemies with the most recent kills is branded a Villain. Garen hates those.
NEWACCURSED VILLAINSJudgment ticks and basic attacks against theVillain deal an additional 1% of their maximum health as true damage
NEWFOR THE CAUSEDemacian Justice deals true damage to the Villain instead of magic damage


Skarner Impaling enemies and dragging them away from their comfort zone is a unique and powerful moment that definitely sets him apart from the cast; the issue is figuring out what he does when kidnapping carries isn’t an option. Seeing how Skarner’s always missing his kind, we went for the 2-for-1 of curing his homesickness and giving him a unique identity by dragging some big ol’ spires from the Crystal Scar and droppin’ em on Summoner’s Rift.

They’re not just for show, however - true to his nature as a diamond-encrusted energy scorpion (what a sentence), Skarner becomes infused with a boatload of combat stats when he’s near them, making him thescorpion to go when it comes to map control. Capturing and controlling these spires becomes a game within itself, denying Skarner’s rampage or letting him gleefully wreck through the jungle like a kid in a crystal store. No matter what position he’s played, Skarner’s dominance over these choke points make him an experience that’s clearly differentiated from other fighters, especially if your team’s goal is snatching all of the neutral objectives you can carry.


Lowering Movement Speed and Health per level in favor of Attack Damage scaling.
CRYSTAL CLEAVERRecommended items updated

NEWPassive - Crystal Spires

Skarner's presence causes crystals to spawn in set locations around the map.Crystals can be captured by either team by standing on top of them. Capturing acrystal prevents them from being captured by the opposing team for 15 seconds.
I MISS MY KINDWhile near active crystals, Skarner gains 100 Movement Speed, 48~150% (42 + 6% per champion level) Attack Speed, and restores 3% of his maximum Mana per second.

Q - Crystal Slash

Both charged and uncharged Q have traded base damage for a scaling ratio. Costs less Mana and can be cast more.
COOLDOWN3.50 seconds  3.50/3.25/3.00/2.75/2.50 seconds
COST16/17/18/19/20 mana  10/11/12/13/14 mana
DAMAGE20/30/40/50/60 physical damage 0.33/0.36/0.39/0.42/0.45 total Attack Damage
REMOVEDDAMAGE RATIO0.4 bonus Attack Damage  Removed
CHARGED DAMAGE20/30/40/50/60 magic damage 0.33/0.36/0.39/0.42/0.45 total Attack Damage
CHARGED DURATION5 seconds  4 seconds
COOLDOWN REDUCTION ON NON-CHAMPIONS0.5 seconds per attack 0.25 seconds per attack [Cooldown reduction vs. champions is still 1 second]
REMOVEDFEAR MY STINGNo longer increases Movement Speed or Attack Speed

W - Crystalline Exoskeleton

Now scales with maximum health instead of having a base amount of shield value.
SHIELD AMOUNT80/135/190/245/300 (+0.8 ability power) 12/13/14/15/16% of Skarner's maximum Health (+0.8 ability power)

E - Fracture

Fracture now marks enemy champions and causes Skarner's next attack to damage and stun them.
COST50/55/60/65/70 mana  55 mana at all ranks
COOLDOWN12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds  13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds
SLOW DURATION2.5 seconds  2 seconds
NEWSLOW-MOFracture's missile speed decreases for each champion hit
NEWCRYSTAL VENOMAfflicts targets with Crystal Venom for 5 seconds, causing Skarner's next basic attack against them to deal 25/50/75/100/125 additional physical damage and stun for 1 second.
NEWENERGIZER SCORPIONCrystallizing enemies with Fracture and Impale grants Skarner Crystal Charge (the buff for being near an active crystal) for the duration of the disable and reduces the cooldown of Fracture by the same amount.

R - Impale

R costs less. Magic damage significantly lowered, but now deals bonus physical damage.
COST100/125/150 mana  100 mana at all ranks
COOLDOWN110/100/90 seconds  120/100/80 seconds
MAGIC DAMAGE100/150/200  20/60/100
NEWPHYSICAL DAMAGEDeals an additional 100% of Skarner's total Attack Damage at the beginning and end of the spell
REMOVEDCRYSTAL PURGENo longer deals extra damage to units affected by Crystal Venom


Afraid of divers and assassins? Is your team stacked to the brim with physical damage? Have a penchant for going all-in with your support? Look no further - Mordekaiser’s one of our oldest champions, yet in that time he’s never firmly latched onto a particular role or position that fits him best. He’s just sort of always there, whacking dudes with his mace and stealing their souls. We think that part’s pretty cool, so we’re cranking his damage potential to the skies while optimizing him as the farming half in a duo-lane. We’ll give you a sec to re-read that last bit.

While still serviceable in a solo lane, Mordekaiser’s potential is truly unlocked when he has a buddy to smack folks around with. This doesn’t mean you’ll be building like a traditional marksman would (though feel free to follow your dreams, we’re not here to judge) - thanks to his experience bonus killing minions and Mace of Spades’ earth-shattering damage output, Mord has to worry far less about itemizing traditionally; opting to think less of the item system as ‘which of these give me the most damage’ and instead ‘If i’m guaranteed to wreck anyone i get close to, what items help me get the speed and stickiness to reach them?’

Mordekaiser’s update may not be for everyone, but his ability to shake up a game is undeniable. Toss in the fact that he can now steal the Dragon’s soul as a sieging tool, and bottom-lane Mord sounds more like A Real Thing and less like a Siv HD video. We’ll let y’all feel out how he plays in a duo lane, but don’t be afraid if you never want to go back to traditional lanes again.

P.S. Try double Relic Shield with your support grabbing one too. It’s pretty spicy.


Losing a lot of base stats in favor of scaling. Attack Range increased.
HEAVY AND METALRecommended items updated

Passive - Iron Man

Iron Man's shield can no longer decay below a certain point, and it now scales with maximum Health.
SHIELD DECAY3% per second  1.5% Base Health per second
NEWSTAY OF DECAYIron Man's shield no longer decays below 25%
MAXIMUM SHIELD120~630 (90 + 30 per champion level)  25% of Mordekaiser's maximum Health
SHIELD GENERATION35% of damage dealt  25% of damage dealt

Q - Mace of Spades

Reworked. Mordekaiser’s next three hits are empowered. Each deals 2-3x the last by spell rank, up to a billion damage.
COST20/23/26/29/32 health
COOLDOWN10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds
NEW3-HIT ACTIVENow empowers Mordekaiser's next 3 attacks. Each attack deals 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 times the previous attack's damage (so if your first attack does 100 damage, the second deals 300, and the third deals 900 damage).
RATIOS(+0.25/0.2625/0.275/0.2875/0.3 total attack damage) (+0.2 ability power)
MAXIMUM DAMAGE180 (+2.7 total attack damage) (+1.8 ability power)

NEWW - Harvesters of Sorrow

Mordekaiser and Target allied champion gain 75 Movement Speed while moving toward one another. When close to one another, both deal magic damage to nearby enemies over 4 seconds. Mordekaiser no longer splits experience for any lane minions he kills.
NEWI DON'T HAVE A JOKE FOR THISMordekaiser now receives full experience from any lane minion he kills
COSTNo cost
COOLDOWN12/11/10/9/8 seconds
DAMAGE140/180/220/260/300 over 4 seconds.
AFFLICTION FOREVERAt the end of Harvester’s duration (or when Mordekaiser reactivates it), he deals 50/70/90/110/130 damage to all nearby enemies, healing both Mord and his ally for the damage dealt.
METALLIC MASTERYBoth Harvesters of Sorrow’s DoT and its detonation can overlap, dealing damage twice to enemies hit by Mordekaiser and his ally
SOUL SAVANTMordekaiser can cast Harvesters of Sorrow on his enslaved soul

E - Siphon of Destruction

Deals much less damage and scales with total Attack Damage in addition to Ability Power. Now grants a bunch of shield on champion hits.
DAMAGE70/115/160/205/250  35/65/95/125/155
RATIO0.6 ability power  0.6 ability power + 0.6 total attack damage
COOLDOWN6 seconds  6/5.75/5.5/5.25/5 seconds
NEWYOUR SICKNESS SUSTAINS MENow grants 15% of Iron Man's maximum shield when hitting champions

R - Children of the Grave

Mordekaiser can steal the Dragon's soul. That's not a typo.
GHOST STATS20/50/100 attack damage  10/25/50 attack damage
NEWDRAGON FORCEDealing damage to the Dragon curses it. If Mordekaiser's team slays it, the Dragon's soul is enslaved and follows him around. This removes any champion ghosts Mordekaiser has active.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGONWhile commanding the Dragonforce, Mordekaiser cannot case Children of the Grave.

Base Statistic Compensation

All of the following champions have had their armor or health per level increased.
As part of patch 5.16's item changes, the efficiency of some popular defensive items have been decreased. However, many 'low-income' tanks and team-disruptors relied pretty heavily on the strength of these items to maintain the right level of bulk for their gold stream - you can read more on the why further down, but each of the below champions are picking up some stat adjustments so they'll hit similar breakpoints when it comes to being unbreakable.








ARMOR GROWTH3.25  3.75







Tahm Kench










Passive heals less at all levels.
Since her return to the kitier, mage-ier (still a word) side of things, Ahri's benefitted from a pretty safe laning phase… which then translates to a 'pretty safe' mid and late-game, putting her dangerously close to 'good-in-all-situations.' We don't want to remove Ahri’s flighty spell-casting and all the skill that goes along with her bait-and-assassinate back-and-forth (teasing is kind of her thing), but limiting the amount of free sustain she's able to get - just for shoving minions waves - feels appropriate when maintaining her balance of risk vs. reward.

Passive - Essence Theft

HEALING3~20 (2 + 1 per champion level) per unit hit  3/5/9/18 per unit hit (at levels 1/6/11/16)


Headbutt has a slower travel time.
Alistar’s been a must-pick in the professional scene for good while thanks to his ability to shine as a primary initiator with his signature Headbutt - > Pulverize combo, which is as time-sensitive to execute as it is to evade. To help even out the playing field for Alistar’s opponents, we’re giving more time to react with any flashes, dashes or other methods of disrupting his Ali-Oop slam-dunk into your entire team.

W - Headbutt

TRAVEL SPEED1500  1200


IT'S REFACTORIN' TIME! Begone, spaghetti code.
For a while now, we've been working behind the scenes on a lot of our code-base to find cleaner ways to implement our champion code and improve behaviour for some of our more… complicated (read: buggy) champions. Our first pass at this was our script review for Syndra's E->Q combo back in 5.13. This patch contains the first batches of fixes to Azir, improving the AI for his soldiers. As we move forward, you can expect more updates like these - script refactoring that result in fewer bugs, but not a ton of power shift one way or the other.

Back to Azir. Being one of our more complex champions, the emperor demands a lot of attention - however, balancing him can be costly due to the scripting issues we just talked about. Our intention with the fixes below is to make Azir flow more naturally, thereby removing some unintentional barriers to learning the Emperor.


JUST SPOOKY ENOUGHFixed a bug where Mordekaiser and Yorick were unable to issue movement commands to Azir ghosts/revenants
AIN’T AFRAID OF NO GHOSTSAzir can no longer spawn Sun Discs on top of active turrets after being turned into a ghost by Mordekaiser’s or Yorick’s ults

Q - Conquering Sands

BATTLE STATIONSAll Sand Soldiers now move to the closest available position, prioritizing rows closest to Azir
COPY, GOLD LEADERThe Sand Soldier targeted by E - Shifting Sands will always be centered in the formation

W - Arise!

SORRY, WRONG NUMBERFixed a bug where Sand Soldiers would sometimes spawn when Arise! was cast on a turret and vice-versa
KEEP YOUR SOLDIERS TO YOURSELFFixed a bug where Arise! could target turrets from a much further range than intended

E - Shifting Sands

WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHTCan no longer be cast unless within range of a Sand Soldier
IS THAT INSECAzir now collides with enemies at a distance of 200  150

R - Emperor's Divide

YOU DON'T KNOW ME LIKE THATFixed a bug where enemy champions sometimes wouldn't be knocked back
CLONE PARITYFixed a bug where Emperor’s Divide was ignoring champion clones


Q's current health damage lowered.
Well, we did it. Elise is back, and she’s making her presence known through the muffled screams of monsters and junglers alike caught in her web (for about 1.6 seconds, usually). We’re happy with what she’s bringing to teams as a dominant early champion focused on catching out mispositioned prey, only now she’s killing them too quickly; especially the ones that are actually building defensively to try and stop her. We’re specifically targeting Elise’s more target-agnostic damage meaning she’ll need to rely more on her early strengths to transition into closing out games effectively.

Q - Neurotoxin

DAMAGE40/75/110/145/180 + 8% of target's current health 40/75/110/145/180 +4% of target's current health


Riftwalk now has an AP ratio. This ratio scales as you stack Riftwalk.
Kassadin hasn’t been terrorizing games much since he took up Rift-stepping, so we figured it was time to show him some love in the form of supporting his new hobby. While still potent as blinking damage-dealer, Kassadin often falls short due to the somewhat lacking rewards for closing into melee range. We’re liking how a shorter-Ritfwalk’s plays out while skirmishing, so we’re boosting his effectiveness for getting up close and personal.

R - Riftwalk

NEWRATIONow additionally scales with 0.2 ability power
NEWSTACK IT UPExtra stacks of Riftwalk add 0.1 ability power per stack


5 AD
While Kayle's changes in 5.13 were to help her laning and ability to jungle, the introduction of Sated Devourer in the same patch had the effect of cranking Kayle's already-great clear speed all the way up to 11, thanks to the extra chunk of damage she gets between casts of Righteous Fury. We don't want to disproportionately hit solo lane Kayle, so we're taking off… 5 AD.



Lee Sin

Flurry's energy return is front-loaded. Kicking champions into other champions will deal more damage based on their bonus health.
Lee Sin buffs. This is not a drill.

For professionals, Lee Sin is a perfect champion; a strong contributor at each stage of the game, flexible in item builds and adaptable to almost any scenario. For the average player however, he’s that champion you wish you didn’t see on your team due to the sheer number of games required to reach a certain level of competency.

Because of this, these changes are aimed at raising Lee’s floor (that is to say his ‘basic effectiveness’) rather than his maximum potential and give an edge to those players taking their first steps on the road of Blind-Monasticism. While those same top players will find these useful in certain scenarios, Average Joe Lee Sin should enjoy more fluidity as they climb the ranks.

Passive - Flurry

ENERGY RETURN15 energy per hit  20 energy on the first attack, 10 energy on the second

R - Dragon's Rage

NEWTHE BIGGER THEY AREEnemy champions that collide with the target take 15/18/21% of the target's bonus health as physical damage


Distortion's missile speed increased.
We still believe that a slower Distortion makes for better counterplay (and a better League overall), but it’s clear we took it too far. So now we’re taking it back. By half. Context.

W - Distortion


R - Mimic: Distortion



Self-casting R now heals Lissandra.
Self-casting Lissandra's ultimate is a great option for surviving until another round of cooldowns, but can feel underwhelming in a desperate situation. While some players prefer to delete their enemies inside Frozen Tomb's stun duration, we're adding more nuance to the decision so Liss can feel better about pulling off her 'cooler' ice-block baits.

R - Frozen Tomb

NEWTHE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAYSelf-casting Frozen Tomb now heals Lissandra for 100/150/200 + (0.3 ability power + 1% per 1% of your missing health)


Passive scales better lategame and does full damage to minions. W costs less, gives more movement speed, but has a shorter duration. Lucian's teammates can give him movement speed via W's mark.
Sleek and stylish, Lucian’s another ex-pro pick fallen on hard times. Lightslinger’s ‘spell-weaving’ paradigm gives him a unique flair among marksmen, but hinges upon each spell being innately worth casting. Ever since lopping off Ardent Blaze’s AD ratio, the ability’s felt lackluster, so we’re pumping up its utility alongside some tuning to Lucian’s passive to make his ‘attack-cast-attack’ loop feel even more satisfying.

Passive - Lightslinger

SOME JUST NEED A LITTLE HELPLightslinger's second shot now always does 100% to minions
RATIO0.3/0.4/0.5 attack damage at levels 1/7/13  0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6 attack damage at levels 1/6/11/16

W - Ardent Blaze

MOVEMENT SPEED40/45/50/55/60  60/65/70/75/80
DURATION2 seconds  1 second
COST60 mana  50 mana
NEW༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ LUCIAN TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つLucian's teammates can also trigger Ardent Blaze's movement speed bonus for him.


Q range up.

Q - Siphoning Strike

RANGE125  150 (this range does not stack with R - Fury of the Sandsrange increase)


Passive gives more speed and has a higher AP ratio. Allies within Nami's Tidal Wave receive double the passive bonus.
Between slinging bubbles, chain-heals and squirt-guns, Nami's identity has always been tide to empowering allies with cool water-magic. Surging Tides stood out as her least-appreciable form of enchanting, so we're boosting its super-effectiveness (particularly with AP) when surfing into a teamfight.

Passive - Surging Tides

RATIO0.1 ability power  0.2 ability power

R - Tidal Wave

NEWWAVE RACESurging Tides' movement speed bonus is doubled to allies within Tidal Wave.


W damage up.
Primarily a gank-focused jungler, Rammus powerballs into big trouble if he can't convert an advantage off of his first gank or so. We speak a lot about 'fall-back patterns' - a champion's back-up plan if their primary form of expression isn't panning out - and that's what we're buffing here. Translation: while Strong Rammus will most certainly make good use of this buff, it's really Sad Rammus that needs every bit of clear speed to waddle back into a game if things don't work out OK. And that's just OK.

W - Defensive Ball Curl

DAMAGE15/25/35/45/55  25/35/45/55/65


R's cooldown increased. Equalizer's origin point starts closer to your cursor.
When it comes to game-changers, there are few out there as impactful as The Equalizer - assuming you’re not just using it on a minion wave, knowing it’ll be off cooldown for a big fight anyways. We’re really focusing on separating the good from the great (hey morello) Equalizers with this change, making every ‘zoning’ ult a call-to-action for the enemy team. Good placement will still win fights singlehandedly, but elongating Rumble’s reload-time should keep players asking ‘Is this ult worth it?’ before really committing to the cast.

Important note about the cursor change - while this is a very slight nerf to the ultra-max-range use-case, the adjustment makes it almost impossible to over-shoot someone your cursor was on, as the Equalizer used to always start further ahead of where you intended it to go. This should help players that historically have trouble landing Rumble’s ult (read: everyone) lining it up correctly for the big play.

R - The Equalizer

COOLDOWN105/90/75 seconds  120/110/100 seconds
DRAG AND DROPNow starts 150 units closer to your cursor

Tahm Kench

Devour stuns very briefly and prioritizes champions. R warns enemies 1 second later.
Ol' Tahmmy Two-Coats is still hungry for attention as players continue to adapt to his charms (and appetite), so we're tossing him a few quality-of-life scraps from the kitchen table. These changes are focused on making some of his abilities more forgiving to use - especially when trying to swallow the correct living thing whole.

W - Devour

PICKY EATERNow prioritizes Champions over Minions
SIMMER DOWNEnemies regurgitated are now stunned for 0.25 seconds

R - Abyssal Voyage

ONE RIVEREnemy warning particle spawns 1 second later (previously spawned for enemies before Tahm's 'On My Way!' ping)


R slow no longer decays, but enemies poisoned by traps are revealed.
We're still evaluating exactly how 5.15's update to our lord and savior is panning out, but we were already able to identify some places for improvement. It's been cool to see players utilize Noxious Trap's range flexibly for both teamfighting and minefields, but it's clear that Teemo’s traps have lost a lot of peeling power. Given that traps are now half their original duration, we think that there is room to return this safety so that even though Teemo's nest of ‘shrooms is smaller, each one is still an effective tool to be used for planning escape routes.

Passive - Camouflage

FIND THE TEEMOFixed a bug where displacing Teemo while in brush wouldn’t reveal him

R - Noxious Trap

REMOVEDTHAT DIDN'T LAST LONGNoxious Trap’s slow no longer decays
NEWVENOMOUS VISIONEnemies poisoned by Noxious Trap are revealed for its duration
TOSSIN TUNE-UPTeemo's visual effects for tossing and bouncing traps have been upgraded


Q mana cost down. R damage up at later ranks.
We're not aiming to raise the rat's power level massively this patch (as we tend to believe he's not incredibly far-off), but with marksmen as a class feeling unloved as of late, we're continuing to look at playing up the unique aspects of each. Loosening the restriction on Twitch's ability to ambush should force respect from opponents while letting him embrace his stealthy side more often.

We're also cleaning up the numbers on his ultimate, because 36 attack damage is weird to look at. #cleannumbers

Q - Ambush

COST60 mana  40 mana

R - Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat

BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE20/28/36  20/30/40


Hex Core gives less AP when purchased, but more at level 18. All mana has been shifted from flat to per-level.
Viktor’s rise to prominence this season has ushered in a new era as the voice of evolution, terrorizing late-games and assisting many a wombo-combo. However, Viktor’s games have turned into an arms-race with few opposing mid-laners able to compete with the raw efficiency and wave-clear that his signature Hex Core brings to the Rift. Without downgrading Viktor too much, we’re refactoring his Hex-assisted power curve to better fit his ideals of evolution and provide opportunities for enemies to halt his rise to glory.

Prototype Hex Core

ABILITY POWER3 per level (54 at lv 18)  1 per level (18 at lv 18)
NEWMANA10 per level (180 at lv 18)

The Hex Core mk-1

ABILITY POWER20 + 4 per level (92 at lv 18)  3 per level (54 at lv 18)
MANA150  15 per level (270 at lv 18)

The Hex Core mk-2

ABILITY POWER40 + 5 per level (130 at lv 18)  6 per level (108 at lv 18)
MANA300  20 per level (360 at lv 18)

Perfect Hex Core

ABILITY POWER60 + 6 per level (168 at lv 18)  10 per level (180 at lv 18)
MANA500  25 per level (450 at lv 18)


Q's split has a shorter delay and longer range.

Q - Plasma Fission

REACTIVATION TIME0.3 seconds  0.25 seconds


Volibear explodes in lightning upon casting R.
Invoking the legendary Ursine 'Thunder-Claws' technique should be a powerful moment for Volibear, but leaves much to be desired as enemies can just bearly escape when channeling. Rather than ditching the cast-time and removing the tradeoff for Voli entirely, we're making it better for him to use in combat (as well as feeling pretty epic) in all situations.

R - Thunder Claws

NEWFLEECED LIGHTNINGUpon activation, lightning will chain outward from Volibear once and deal damage


It’s not an exaggeration when we say that Zac has the longest non-ultimate initiation range in the game - something we’re stretching to the limit this patch. Boosting Zac’s unique aspects opens up new gank-paths to ambush from while also playing to his nature as the ever-present ‘teamfight-in-a-blob’ he was made to be.

E - Elastic Slingshot

RANGE1150/1250/1350/1450/1550  1200/1350/1500/1650/1800


Balance is a fool's master.

R - Death Mark

REACTIVATION TIME1 second at all ranks  0.5 seconds at all ranks

Juggernaut Itemization


Dead Man's Plate

'New' item from Black Market Brawlers - grants armor, health, and ramping movement speed while moving. Basic attack drains your bonus movement speed to deal damage and slow.
By the time you’re reading this, Dead Man’s Plate has already been available in-game for a bit (not to mention its tenure as a Black Market pickup), so we’ll make this short. Originally concepted as a juggernaut item before being shipped off to Bilgewater, DMP is a sort of ‘get-out-of-immobility-jail-free’ card for the more sluggish champions out there. It’ll only work once (as you lose all of your momentum upon attacking the target), but for those that care about getting into the fray and don’t worry about getting out, this item is for you.

Singed. That’s basically what we’re saying. Buy this on Singed.
TOTAL COST2750 gold
BUILD PATHChain Vest + Giant's Belt + 1000 gold
ALL I WANNA DO IS GO FASTUNIQUE Passive - Dreadnought: You buildMomentum stacks while moving up to 100, granting up to 60 bonus Movement Speed. Momentum rapidly decays while under immobilizing crowd control effects, and decays slowly while slowed.
DAMAGE BOOSTUNIQUE Passive - Crushing Blow: Basic attacks discharge all Momentum, dealing 1 bonus physical damage for every 2 Momentum. If 100 stacks are discharged, the damage is doubled; if this attack is Melee, the target will also be slowed for 75% (decaying over 1 second).

Sterak's Gage

Increases health and base attack damage. Upon taking a certain amount of damage you hulk out, gaining size, base attack damage and a shield.
Tired of being told that you’re a ‘melee damage-dealer’ while being blown up at the beginning of a teamfight? Look no further - Sterak’s is here for all your berserking needs. In testing the juggernaut update and identifying problems with the class, we found that there’s a lot of ambient damage in big brawls, and no one catches more of it that they do. While a 5-man Command: Shockwave into committed AoE stacking will still probably wreck your body (and your entire team), buying Sterak’s poses an interesting dilemma for opponents; focus you down or contain you just long enough to deal with your team. You’ll still need to gage how much damage you can take (the thing’s not gonna make you invincible), but Sterak’s is a strong anti-aoe purchase to turn you into the raid boss you always knew you could be.

Before we’re done, important distinction - Sterak’s gives base attack damage, so the attack damage before items. This means it’ll work wonders for total attack damage ratios and things like Sheen and Trinity Force, but won’t snowball your bonus AD ratios (looking at you, Jarvan).
TOTAL COST2550 gold
BUILD PATHLong Sword + Giant's Belt + 1190 gold
JUST A FLESH WOUNDUNIQUE Passive - Taking at least 400-1800 (based on level) damage within 5 seconds grants Primal Rage for 8 seconds. (45 second cooldown)
THAT'S MY SECRET, CAPTAINPrimal Rage causes your champion to gain increased Size, +25% additional Base Attack Damage, and a rapidly decaying shield for 30% of your maximum Health.

Titanic Hydra

It's like Ravenous Hydra. Except instead of lifesteal, it's got health.
While the Black Cleaver fits its own archetype of spell-casting melee champions rather well, fighters seeking to just bludgeon the hell out of their opponents the old-fashioned way sometimes had issues getting the job done. Replacing lifesteal for health, Titanic Hydra provides a synergistic area-of-effect option for more basic-attack centric brawlers like Trundle and Shyvana to get to clobberin’ when the situation calls for a more defensive build.
TOTAL COST3300 gold
BUILD PATHTiamat + Giant’s Belt + 400 gold
CLEAVE OF THE TITANSUNIQUE Passive - Cleave: Basic attacks deal 5 + 1% of your maximum health to your primary target and 40 +2.5% of your maximum health as physical damage to enemies in a cone on-hit (your primary target does not take this damage).
ATTACK WITH TITANUNIQUE Active - Crescent: Cleave’s damage to all targets is increased to 40 + 10% of your maximum health as bonus physical damage in a larger cone for your next basic attack (20 second cooldown).

Warmog's Armor

Costs slightly more. No longer gives health regen equal to your max HP. Now grants insane health regen out of combat once your champion has more than3000 health.
At present, Warmog’s is a serviceable option for anti-sieging in the mid-late game, but if there’s a theme with our item changes this patch, it’s sharpening their identities even further. While it’s losing its current passive in exchange, we’ve tripled-down on it’s application as an anti-siege tool by effectively replacing the need to recall and heal for those who invest heavily enough to trigger the health requirement. Warmog’s won’t make you immune to focus fire (Vayne exists), but itdoes allow you to tank javelins, artillery fire, and all manner of poke thrown your way without a scratch on it provided you take a break between beatings. Just don’t forget to flex.
COST2500 gold  2750 gold
REMOVEDLIFEBLOODNo longer passively gains 1% of your max health (tripled if you haven't taken damage within 8 seconds) as health regeneration
NEWTHE STRONGEST MUSCLEUNIQUE Passive - Warmog's Heart: Restores 3% of maximum health per second if damage hasn't been taken within 8 seconds. You only have Warmog's Heart if you have at least 3000 maximum health.

Defensive Itemization

Null-Magic Mantle

Costs less.
Discounts on fighting mages, one step at a time.
TOTAL COST500 gold  450 gold

Negatron Cloak

Costs less.
We’re practically giving this stuff away.
TOTAL COST850  800

Abyssal Scepter

TOTAL COST2430  2450

Spectre's Cowl

Magic Resist increased.

Spirit Visage

that’s the spirit
TOTAL COST2750 gold  2700 gold

Banshee's Veil

brace yourselves
Crystalline Bracer’s a neat but underused component, so we’re stickin’ it into more items.
TOTAL COST2750 gold  2700 gold
BUILD PATHSpectre’s Cowl + Ruby Crystal + 1150 gold  Spectre's Cowl + Crystalline Bracer + 1050 gold

Aegis of the Legion

Costs less. Now has health regen for the buyer, but loses its health regen aura and part of its magic resist.
As it is now, Aegis of the Legion (and Locket, which we’ll get to in a moment) are mandatory against teams with even the slightest penchant for magic damage, due to the ambiguous but powerful nature of it’s health regen aura. Changin’ up the build path and stat-lines to be more attractive to low-income supports, but less generically powerful.
TOTAL COST1900 gold  1600 gold
BUILD PATHNull-Magic Mantle + Crystalline Bracer + 550 gold
MAGIC RESIST AURA20 to all nearby units  15 to all nearby units
HEALTH REGEN AURA75% health regen to all nearby units  0

Locket of the Iron Solari

Costs less. Now has health regen for the buyer, but loses its health regen aura and part of its magic resist. Additionally, shields for more but has a significantly lowered duration.
Like we said directly above, we’re sharpening the auras so you’ll still want them when they seem good (vs magic damage teams) but not so powerful as to be ‘good-all-the-time.’ In Locket’s case, we’re taking that sharpening a step further by amping the Solari Shield significantly, but making it much more timing-intensive; perfect at taking the edge off of a Flash + Tibbers, but much less useful against devourers gnawing your face off. Locket’s still an amazing pickup vs double AP and the like, but requires a bit more thought in the moment.
TOTAL COST2800 gold  2750 gold
MAGIC RESIST AURA20 to all nearby units  15 to all nearby units
HEALTH REGEN AURA75% health regen to all nearby units  0
SHIELD AMOUNT60~230 (50 + 10 per champion level)  90~345 (75 + 15 per champion level)
SHIELD DURATION5 seconds  2 seconds

Banner of Command

someone’s gotta keep those baron minions in business
TOTAL COST3000 gold  2750 gold

Raptor Cloak

Costs more, but now with more health regen. Movement speed lowered but now drops off gradually instead of instantly.
An underrated item, we’re cleaning up the passive to make the play around turrets smoother.
TOTAL COST1000 gold  1100 gold
RAPTOR BOOSTSlow now decays instead of dropping off immediately

Zz'rot Portal

More health regen and point runner decays over time. Voidspawn are tankier and go further, but deal less damage.
While an incredibly stat-efficient item already, Zz’rot is often seen more as a ‘gimmick’ and less of the neat strategic pushing tool it should be. A boatload of extra range (is distance measured in boats?) and increased survivability will grant teams seeking alternate forms of pressure a ticking-void-bomb’s worth of siege potential (given that you can protect that gate in the first place).

Failing that, you can always leave it in a lane while fighting your opponents in the jungle - often netting you two objectives at once. Now you’re thinking with portals.
TOTAL COST2800 gold  2750 gold
PORTAL RUNNERSlow now decays instead of dropping off immediately
VOIDSPAWN HEALTH DECAYDecays current health instead of maximum health
VOIDSPAWN SCALING100% of total armor + magic resist as bonus damage 15% of total health as bonus damage


More health regen and point runner decays over time.
See: Raptor's Cloak.
TOTAL COST2600 (unchanged)
GONNA WRECK ITSlow now decays instead of dropping off immediately

Glacial Shroud

Also costs less.
Shaving off some of the cost to make it an easier lane pick-up. Lookin' great, shroud.
TOTAL COST950 gold  900 gold
THAT’S HOW ITEMS WORKIceborn Gauntlet and Zeke’s Harbinger are also 50 gold cheaper

Warden's Mail

Costs more. Changin' it up.
By contrast, Warden's has been bulking up. We'll still buy you, even if you cost more.
TOTAL COST1050 gold  1100 gold

Frozen Heart

Frozen Heart’s been a statistical outlier for a pretty long time, so we’re lowering its raw cost / power efficiency. You might call us heartless, but we’re pretty sure the item’s still great.
TOTAL COST2450 gold  2600 gold
ARMOR100  90


Costs more. Reflects less damage back to attackers, but scales with armor.
Another major outlier in terms of effectiveness, Thornmail is at its strongest when you can comfortably stack health. While we aren’t rocking that particular boat today (armor + health is kind of always good), we’re tossing in a hook to make the item also scale with armor-stacking, but in a different way. This also creates neat synergies for champions with on-demand armor buffs (like Leona or Rammus) which is pretty OK by us.

Important to note - if for any reason you experience a decrease in armor % (say, a stray black cleaver to the face), Thornmail will ignore that when calculating its damage. Way to be, Thornmail.
TOTAL COST2100 gold  2300 gold
REFLECT DAMAGE30% of the attack  15% of the attack
NEWREFLECT RATIOAdditionally deals .25 of your bonus armor as damage to the target.

Randuin's Omen

Costs less, but has less health and armor. Slow duration normalized, now reduces all critical strike damage.
Rounding out the ‘ubiquitous armor item’ trio, Randuin’s (much like Frozen Heart and Thornmail) lacks any sort of real focus when deciding why you’d want it over other items. While the stat adjustments should represent a moderate nerf to the item overall, we’re expanding its anti-basic attack theme from just slowing attack speed to ‘Oh God I’m Dying From Crits Please Help.’
TOTAL COST2850 gold  2700 gold
HEALTH500  400
ARMOR70  60
SLOW DURATION2 (+0.5% bonus armor + 0.5% bonus magic resist) seconds  4 seconds
NEWCRITICAL BLOCKReduces incoming critical strike damage by 10%

Enchantment - Cinderhulk

Higher up-front health, but lower multiplier.
While no longer the dominant pickup it once was, Cinderhulk is a late-game focused item for a class of champions that already flourish at the end of the game. While this nerfs the 6-item health pools of Cinderhulk users, the boost upon completion represents a stronger mid-game to keep from being totally eclipsed by their Devourer and Runeglaive brethren on the way to full-build.
HEALTH300  400

Righteous Glory

Costs less, but loses the catalyst passive on upgrade.
Further differentiating between Catalyst’s different build paths while introducing a trade-off for upgrading Righteous Glory as a first item. The lowered cost should make it easier to upgrade when you want it (and supports don’t mind it getting cheaper), but as a first item Righteous Glory be a tough choice between wanting the initiation power or continued laning safety.
TOTAL COST2500 gold  2400 gold
REMOVEDFOR GLORYLoses 'Valor's Reward' (catalyst's level-up passive) upon upgrading

HUD Updates

Still improving based on feedback! Here's what we've got this time around:

Readability improvements

  • Remaining cooldown is now prioritized over all other ability states (ex. CC’d, out of mana) so you can plan your next move while Zhonya’s-ing
  • Grayed out icons (ex. locked-in Pick A Card, Health Potions while at full health) are less gray
  • Further darkened level-up icons for abilities which can't currently be leveled up
  • Brightened the minimap
  • The scoreboard now displays a large "?" next to enemy champions you don't have vision of (in addition to the previous dimmed out portraits)

Positional optimization

  • Reduced empty space between the minimap and its frame
  • The scoreboard no longer overlaps with the chat window
  • The surrender box no longer overlaps with ally/enemy team frames

Instant Feedback System

We've released another update to the Instant Feedback System. Our focus this time is on improving how the system assesses the toxicity of short chat logs and messages sent by players who are already chat restricted.


  • Updated Fiora’s tooltips based on last patch’s update
  • Shaco and Lulu can no longer create a wolf pack with Enchantment - Devourer
  • Restored Riot Blitzcrank's custom sound and visual effects for E - Power Fist
  • Restored Bad Santa Veigar's custom visual effects for R - Primordial Burst

Upcoming Skins

The following skins will be released at various times during patch 5.16:

Points of Interest from the 5.16 PBE

Here's a brief look at a few of the new things included in patch 5.16 including things mentioned above in the patch notes and things discovered during the last PBE cycle! Most of this coverage includes preview screen shots and video taken during the 5.16 PBE cycle and may vary from what is pushed to live.

Upcoming Champion Skins

Patch 5.15 is set to include SIX new champion skins - Arcade Riven, Battle Boss Blitzcrank, and Academy Ahri, Darius, Ekko, & Vladimir! As usual, no release dates yet for this upcoming skin but we'll have complete preview post ready when it launches!

Arcade Riven

1350 RP

Battle Boss Blitzcrank

1350 RP

We also have four new Academy skins!

Academy Ahri

750 RP

Academy  Darius

750 RP

Academy Ekko

Academy Vladimir

750 RP

Juggernaut Champion Updates

As mentioned above, Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, and Skarner have all received gameplay updates in 5.16!

As each update includes vfx changes and kit changes, here's a set of updated video previews for each champion and all of there skins! 



New Summoner Icon

We also have several new summoner icons included in 5.16, although no release details yet.


  • With Arcade Riven and Battle Boss Blitzcrank coming in 5.16, we also have an Arcade login theme!

  • Instead of only dimming the portrait, there is now also a on the scoreboard beside the name of anyone who is currently not visible. 
  • As mentioned above, this patch includes new STERAK'S GAGE and TITANIC HYDRA items. Here's brief videos of their VFX:

  • A animation for Blitzcrank being chased by Baron was added to the client. No details yet on what this is for!

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