League of Legends Patch 9.2 breakdown – champion changes

The 2019 ranked season officially begins tomorrow as Patch 9.2 goes live. This brings us a new champion, some big champion changes, and another change to the jungle.

Who’s ready to get on the grind? Well if you’re not, you’d better begin to get in the zone. Patch 9.2 drops tomorrow, bringing the preseason to an end and the start of a new ranked season.

Although this season will have a totally new ranked system with three splits, new tiers, and positional ranks, all of that was well-known. Now, we get into the nitty-gritty of the last updates to the meta as this new season starts. Lucky for you, we have all the analysis of the notes for Patch 9.2 you can possibly need to get through your placements undefeated!

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Champions

Sylas will be released during Patch 9.2. Check out our breakdown of this new champion here.

Aatrox

"Q – The Darkin Blade BASE DAMAGE: 10/25/40/55/70 (unchanged)) RATIO: 0.64/0.68/0.72/0.76/0.80 total attack damage ⇒0.55/0.60/0.65/0.70/0.75 total attack damage FULL COMBO BASE DAMAGE: 56.25/140.63/225/309.38/393.75 (unchanged) FULL COMBO RATIO: 3.6/3.825/4.05/4.275/4.5 total attack damage ⇒3.09/3.38/3.66/3.94/4.22 total attack damage (numbers rounded because they’re gross) E – Umbral Dash RECHARGE TIME: 24/20/16/12/8 seconds ⇒ 26/22/18/14/10 seconds"

The Q nerf to his total AD ratio will certainly be felt, but it’s not going to knock Aatrox out of the A-tier in the top lane, considering at max rank he’s only losing 0.28 total AD ratio (and he will max Q first). Losing two seconds off his dash recharge, though, could be big by taking away some of his mobility, especially in the early game when he lacks levels and CDR.

Aurelion Sol

"Q – Starsurge MINIMUM RECAST TIME: 0.65 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds (can be buffered by double-tapping Q on cast) STUN DURATION: 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 seconds ⇒0.55/0.6/0.65/0.7/0.75 seconds, scaling to 1.65/1.8/1.95/2.1/2.25 seconds after traveling for 5 seconds STUN SCALING: Previous stun duration reached after 0.75 seconds (when Q reaches Aurelion Sol’s outer limit if he stands still)"

A nice buff to our favorite star dragon, that will likely improve his ability to roam around the map and make plays. Unfortunately, since he’ll still get easily out-shoved by contemporaries at the top of the tier list like Lissandra, Galio, and Ahri, he won’t have much ability to make use of these buffs.

Brand

"Passive – Blaze DAMAGE PER STACK: 4% target’s max health over 4 seconds ⇒ 3% target’s max health over 4 seconds"

A simple, but needed, nerf to Brand, who’s been S or A tier in support for a few patches now.

Cassiopeia

"W – Miasma COOLDOWN: 18/17/16/15/14 seconds ⇒ 18/17.5/17/16.5/16 seconds DAMAGE PER SECOND: 20/35/50/65/80 ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 MAX DAMAGE: 100/175/250/325/400 ⇒ 100/150/200/250/300"

Miasma is almost always being used for the CC, not the damage. While it may be maxed second more often than third, decreasing the damage over time by 20 and max by 100 doesn’t affect why she’ll be picked.

Galio

"Q – Winds of War COST: 70/75/80/85/90 mana ⇒ 80/90/100/110/120 mana WINDBLAST DAMAGE: 70/110/150/190/230 ⇒ 70/105/140/175/210 WINDBLAST RATIO: 0.9 ability power ⇒ 0.75 ability power TORNADO RATIO: 4% target’s max health per 100 ability power ⇒ 2% target’s max health per 100 ability power (base 6% max health damage unchanged) E – Justice Punch DAMAGE: 100/130/160/190/220 ⇒ 80/115/150/185/220"

Rubs hands together. Now we’re talking Riot. This was the sort of change that Patch 9.2 desperately needed.

A nerf to the Colossus’s Q was desperately needed, and honestly, I don’t fault Riot for maybe going overboard on this one. Losing both base, scaling, and max health ratio is a big hit, but Galio punched his way up to the number one slot in our mid laner rankings, so this was needed.

The nerf to his E hurts somewhat, but given it’s his mobility spell taking damage off of it is a fair change.

Irelia

"Passive – Ionian Fervor [REMOVED] SHIELD BREAKER: Irelia no longer deals bonus damage to shields at max stacks Q – Bladesurge BONUS DAMAGE VS MINIONS: Double damage ⇒ Flat bonus NUMBERS: 5/25/45/65/85 (+0.6 total attack damage) ⇒45/60/75/90/105 R – Vanguard’s Edge DURATION: 2.5/3/3.5 seconds ⇒ 2.5 seconds at all ranks [REMOVED] DISARM: Enemies who pass through the wall are no longer disarmed WALL SLOW: 60% ⇒ 90% WALL DAMAGE: 75/125/175 ⇒ 125/200/275"

The change to Irelia’s passive is going to be noticeable in niche cases, mainly against tanks with shields (looking at Sion as a main beneficiary), because it requires her having the passive stack. The Q change is a bit awkward, but it looks like her overall damage on Bladesurge will decrease.

As for Irelia’s ultimate, this is a fairly big change. Taking away the disarm in exchange for making the wall do a 90% slow and 50 to 100 extra damage is probably not worth it, especially into heavy auto-attack matchups like Jax or Yasuo. Overall, Irelia’s early game definitely got weaker after the Patch 9.2 changes, but late game she’ll have more damage on those all-ins.

Jarvan IV

"E – Demacian Standard BONUS ATTACK SPEED: 15/17.5/20/22.5/25% ⇒ 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% (reminder: Jarvan has this bonus at all times and gains it a second time while near his flag)"

Simple buff to Jarvan’s clear speed. We’ll see if it moves him up out of the B tier for junglers.

Jax

"Base Stats ATTACK DAMAGE: 69.97 ⇒ 68 Q – Leap Strike DAMAGE: 80/120/160/200/240 (+1.0 bonus attack damage) (+0.6 ability power) ⇒ 65/105/145/185/225 (+1.0 bonus attack damage) (+0.6 ability power)"

For someone who autos as much as Jax in trades, taking off two base AD could – though likely won’t – swing trades. The damage reduction to his Q (15 across the board) is not very significant either, as he uses it more to gap-close than damage. Expect the Grandmaster to remain at the top of the pile in the jungle and top lane in Patch 9.2.

Kassadin

"Base Stats BASE ARMOR: 23.376 ⇒ 19 ARMOR GROWTH: 3.2 ⇒ 2.8"

In his Patch 9.2 breakdown, LS said that these changes are likely to knock Kassadin further out of the meta, as he will still be taking plenty of damage vs auto-heavy bruisers (Aatrox) and mages (Lissandra). However, Kassadin has been S tier in the mid lane for a while in soloQ, so I don’t think making him a bit weaker to physical damage and autos is unwarranted.

Kayn

"Passive – The Darkin Scythe TRANSFORMATION PROGRESS: Darkin and Shadow Assassin unlock progress are separate ⇒ Darkin and Shadow Assassin share unlock progress. When transformation becomes available, the form that unlocks is chosen based on which champion type Kayn dealt more damage to. TRANSFORMATION THRESHOLD: 400 points per champion type ⇒ 500 points from any champion type (offsetting the rate increase from combining transformation progress) CLOSE CALL: If Kayn unlocks his transformation when the two forms are near-even, Kayn unlocks the form of the champion type he damaged last TIME WEIGHTING: Damage dealt later in the game is still worth more transformation progress but doesn’t count for more in terms of which form Kayn unlocks [NEW] FASTER OTHER FORM: Once Kayn’s first form is unlocked, he can continue collecting orbs of the other form’s type to reduce the timer until his second form unlocks Transformation Clarity [NEW] COLORING: Kayn’s transformation bar now changes color based on which champion type Kayn has dealt more damage to PINGING: Kayn can now ping various aspects of his passive to his team: Pinging the transformation bar tells allies roughly how close Kayn is to transformation (early in the transformation process, midway to transformation, or very near transformation) Pinging the “Form available” button tells allies Kayn can transform into that form Pinging the “Form unavailable” button tells allies the time remaining before that form unlocks E – Shadow Step LET ME GO HOME: Kayn can now recall before Shadow Step expires as long as he isn’t still in terrain R – Umbral Trespass Giving Shadow Assassin Kayn a better shot at escaping sticky situations. SHADOW ASSASSIN EXIT DASH: 300 range ⇒ 300-500 range based on Shadow Assassin Kayn’s cursor position"

Whew, that’s a lot of text to explain a fairly simple change to Kayn’s passive: he can more easily choose which form he wants to take. Basically, he’ll unlock his transformation from doing all types of damage, and have earlier access to the one he got more orbs from. After that he’ll quickly be able to unlock the other form by doing damage (aka, he doesn’t have to wait the minimum time to pick the other form).

The other big change is to his Shadow Assassin ultimate. Giving him more range on his escape after ulting could actually be huge for him, given that it was already a good tool to avoid damage/CC and escape.