Patch 8.24 breakdown: a bad Dark Harvest and colossal Galio changes

League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games.

Skillshot targeting and flash

"Skillshot fires toward target position (direction changes) Ezreal’s Q – Mystic Shot (same as pre-update behavior) Ezreal’s W – Essence Flux Kai’Sa’s W – Void Seeker Skillshot fires in target direction (position changes) Irelia’s R – Vanguard’s Edge Aatrox’s W – Infernal Chains"

A few notes from Riot to remember as far as where skillshots will fly when used as the champion flashes. The first three will be aimed towards the position of the flash, while the last two will be in the direction of the flash (meaning you will “gain” extra range by flashing forward and using them).

Clone debuffs

"WHICH ONE DID I IGNITE: If a champion is affected with a debuff when they create a clone, the clone will now also have that debuff"

This adjustment is being made with the release of Neeko, but it’s actually a fairly big buff to champions with clones (Shaco, Leblanc, Wukong) as you won’t be able to ignite the champion and then track their location after they’ve split into two. The clone will also show that they are debuffed.

Items

Death’s Dance

"HEALING: 15% of physical damage dealt (5% per target for area-effect abilities) ⇒ 15% of all damage dealt (5% per target for area-effect abilities)"

Death’s Dance has always been an underutilized item, but now it becomes better on champions who want AD and healing, but will be dealing mixed damage. Although the patch specifically mentions Jax, other sneaky good champions for this could be Kayle (her E and Q scale with AD), AD Kennen, Akali, Gangplank, Garen (both his and GP’s ults do magic damage), Udyr, and Renekton. Certainly, it won’t be great on all of those listed, but it opens up a lot more interesting builds for mixed damage champions.

Eye of Herald

"I BLINKED: Eye of the Herald now goes on a 3-second cooldown during combat with non-minions"

For all those of you Lee Sins who tried to ward hop > flash > kick not realizing that you had the Eye of Herald and not a totem. Now, you won’t be stuck in the channel as you get beat on by the enemies.

Poacher’s Dirk

"Removed"

No one bought this item. No one will miss you. Bring back Sword of the Occult.

Runes

Dark Harvest

"BASE DAMAGE: 40-80 (lv 1-18) ⇒ 20-60 (lv 1-18) PROC MODEL: Can no longer proc off other procs (ex. Scorch, Liandry’s Torment) aside from Luden’s Echo, whose effect is built to behave like a separate ability"

After its rework in Patch 8.23, Harvest became one of the most over-tuned runes in the game, requiring nerfs in the mid-patch balance update. Now, it’s getting nerfed further and becoming significantly weaker on mages (particularly DoT mages).

Overall, it’s going to be way worse than Electrocute, which does higher base damage at all levels (30-180). At max rank (level 18) you would need to have harvested 24 souls in the game to equal Electrocute’s damage. In short, this rune is probably not worth taking when you have the guaranteed increased damage on Electrocute.

Jungle Camp Spawns

"FIRST MURKWOLF SPAWN: 1:29 ⇒ 1:30 FIRST RAPTOR SPAWN: 1:28 ⇒ 1:30"

Riot says this is meant to hurt the mid lane jungle steal strategy discussed above, but this is also a sneaky nerf to junglers like Amumu, Eve, Kayn, Shyvana, and a few others who could start raptors without a leash. Now, those champions lose two seconds off their clear pace, which is devastating particularly for Amumu and Shyvana, as they need the most help keeping pace with other meta junglers’ clears.

What do you think about these changes? What new champions will become stronger or weaker and what do you think needs to be changed before we enter Season 9?