League of Legends – Patch 9.1 breakdown

Jungle Items

"MONSTER HUNTER: Hunter’s Machete, Hunter’s Talisman, unenchanted Stalker’s Blade, and unenchanted Skirmisher’s Sabre now reduce minion gold earned by 10 per minion if their owner’s gold from minions is greater than half their gold from monsters"

The return of “funnel” (in quotes because it’s not the same as running Taric/Yi in every game like in Season 8) has prompted this nerf to junglers taxing lanes. This is actually a really smart nerf, because it’s unlikely a jungler would (or should) have more than half their CS score from lane creeps in the early game unless they’re being funnelled. And late game this doesn’t affect split pushers like Master Yi because at that point they’ll likely have the enchanted smite items.

Runes

Hail of Blades

"ATTACK SPEED BONUS: 75-125% (levels 1-18) ⇒ 110% at all levels NEWHAILSTORM: Attacks that benefit from an attack reset (ex. Jax’s W – Empower) no longer consume a Hail of Blades stack"

In his Patch 9.1 breakdown, LS aptly summarizes why this buff doesn’t really help Hail of Blades users. Namely, people who take this keystone don’t want it for additional late scaling use, they want it for helped burst early. Indeed, with all the talk of damage creep, a harder-scaling rune will likely be pushed to the side.

Celerity

"MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS MULTIPLIER: 8% ⇒ 10%"

A decent buff, I suppose, but this is still a niche rune for champions that can consistently use it. Among those listed, Hecarim, Sivir, Aurelion Sol, but juggernauts like Volibear and Garen might also want it if they spec into the sorcery tree.

Shield Bash

"DAMAGE: 4-21 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 5-30 (levels 1-18)"

Hey, remember that damage creep that I talked about earlier? Would you be interested in some damage creep to tanks? Patch 9.1 has you covered if you do.

"ATTACK SPEED RUNE STAT: 9% ⇒ 10%"

AD Carries and tank junglers everywhere rejoice. Will a 1% increase make this the go-to offensive rune shard?

Turrets

"[NEW] ASSIST RADIUS: Champions within 2500 range who assisted in a turret takedown now also count toward local turret gold distribution (including first turret bonus) PROXIMITY RADIUS: Champions within 1000 ⇒ 1200 range of a turret are counted toward local turret gold distribution whether they assisted in the takedown or not FUN FACT: Turret plating already worked like this! REMINDER: Unlike champion takedowns, there’s no “assist gold” pool created when a turret falls. Local gold is split evenly among eligible allies regardless of who got the takedown."

This undoubtedly will help junglers and roaming mids/supports in Patch 9.1 who are no longer forced to stick around to make sure they’re getting the local gold. Also, this hurts pro teams trying to funnel that local gold onto their carries, as the range is so long they might not be able to donate all that gold or have to leave so early they might risk not taking the turret or plate.

Ability Ping Improvements

"Galio’s R – Hero’s Entrance Nocturne’s R – Paranoia Pantheon’s R – Grand Skyfall Yasuo’s R – Last Breath Caitlyn’s R – Ace in the Hole Lux’s R – Final Spark Twisted Fate’s R2 – Gate Jhin’s W – Deadly Flourish and R – Curtain Call Ziggs’ R – Mega Inferno Bomb Xerath’s R – Rite of the Arcane"

Rejoice, for now, I can ping that I wasn’t able to follow up on that engage as Nocturne because I wasn’t in range to ult in. However, I can see people spam “?” pinging while letting their Galio know he was in range to ult and try to save them.

Abilities with Detailed Information

"Draven’s Passive – Adoration: Current stacks Heimerdinger’s Q – H-28G Evolution Turret: Number of turrets available or time until next turret if none are available Kassadin’s R – Riftwalk: Time until stacks expire if Kassadin is unable to cast Riftwalk due to having too many stacks Kayn’s Passive – The Darkin Scythe: Time until other form is available if Kayn’s already unlocked a form Kog’Maw’s R – Living Artillery: Time until stacks expire if Kog’Maw is unable to cast Living Artillery due to having too many stacks Mordekaiser’s R – Children of the Grave: Remaining ghost duration Nasus’s Q – Siphoning Strike: Current stacks Soraka’s W – Astral Infusion: Now indicates when Soraka is unable to cast Astral Infusion due to having too little health Veigar’s Passive – Phenomenal Evil Power: Current stacks Smite, Challenging Smite & Chilling Smite: Amount of damage dealt to monsters"

So you can spam ping your jungler that the Nasus he hasn’t ganked is getting up to 250 stacks or that your smite did 700 damage and you saw the dragon got to 650 health for a split second.

What do you think of the changes coming in this patch? Let us know with a comment below!