League of Legends: Patch 9.7 Breakdown
Riot just hit us with the League of Legends Patch 9.7. Here’s a breakdown of all the major changes in the patch notes!
Every two weeks we’re blessed with Riot’s wonderful list of changes and we’ll see how they affect Summoner’s Rift over the next two weeks. Here are all the changes that we’ll be breaking down for you below in preparation for when Patch 9.7 hits the Rift on April 3rd.
Champions
Kayle
"Base Stats Health Regen: 6 -> 5 Armor Growth: 3.5 -> 3 Q – Radiant Blast Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana -> 70/75/80/85/90 mana W – Celestial Blessing Bonus Movement Speed: 26/32/38/44/50% -> 24/28/32/36/40% Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana -> 60/70/80/90/100 mana E – Starfire Spellblade Bonus Magic Damage: 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% target’s missing health -> 8/10/12/14/16% (+1% per 100 ability power) target’s missing health"
Kayle has slowly become a menace in the top lane following her introduction in Patch 9.5 and subsequent buffs in Patch 9.6. Her ability to single-handedly win games after reaching level 16 has resulted in a pretty scary 55.54% win rate, forcing Riot’s hand to make changes in the upcoming patch.
While the rest of the changes are fairly insignificant, the nerfs targeted towards Kayle’s E – Starfire Spellblade could have the desired effect on the Judicator’s top lane dominance as it is her main source of damage. Enemies take a bit longer to cut down as a result of the 4% reduction in missing health damage, however the additional ratio helps recover most of this damage later in the game.
Ultimately while these nerfs will be felt by Kayle’s constantly growing playerbase, they won’t be enough to knock her off her perch at the top of the tier list. It’s possible that we’ll see a small drop in her monstrous win rate, but it shouldn’t be enough to bring a stop to the late game machine.
Urgot
"Passive – Echoing Flames Damage: 2/3/4/6/8% target’s max health -> 2/3/4/5/6% target’s max health (still at levels 1/6/9/11/13) E – Disdain Cooldown: 14 seconds -> 16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 mana -> 60/70/80/90/100 mana R – Fear Beyond Death Damage: 125/150/375 -> 100/125/350"
The “Urgod” has returned to the top lane with a vengeance. We thought we’d finally seen the last of Urgot following his hefty nerfs in Patch 9.4, but alas he merely refused to die. Currently he’s sitting pretty at a 52.31% win rate despite players having less than two weeks to adjust to his recent buffs.
As a result, Riot have decided to pull back on some of the Patch 9.6 changes Urgot was gifted a fortnight ago, reducing his passive and ultimate damage while also increasing the cost of using his E – Disdain.
Previously, combining his Passive – Echoing Flames with a Black Cleaver was sufficient to cut down both squishies and tanks, particularly in the later stages of the game. However, reducing that maximum health damage on the Passive by 2% will aid in weakening the Dreadnought’s late game damage output. On top of that, increasing both the cooldown and mana cost on Urgot’s only defensive tool (his E – Disdain) will serve to increase some of his early game vulnerability, as his dash and shield are available less often.
These changes will undoubtedly do some damage to Urgot’s sharp rise back to the peak of the top lane tier list. While they may not be enough to leave him for dead, the nerfs will certainly cause a drop in win rate and make him a much less scary prospect on Patch 9.7.
Azir
"Base Stats Health Regen Growth: 0.55 -> 0.75 Q – Conquering Sands Damage: 60/80/100/120/140 -> 70/90/110/130/150"
The Emperor of the Sands is not seeing much play at all at the moment; sitting at a miniscule 2.1% pick rate, perhaps it is time Azir is given some small buffs to put him back into contention. Despite only being slight changes to his health regen and Q – Conquering Sands damage, these buffs will have mid lane solo queue players picking up Azir in certain match-ups in order to test the new changes.
It’s unlikely that these changes will propel the Shuriman Emperor back up to the As and Bs of the mid lane tier list, but they could increase his popularity on Patch 9.7 and maybe see him thrive as a counter pick to a few champions. We’ve already seen the likes of Faker, Humanoid and Pirean pick up Azir in pro play on Patch 9.6, so maybe it’s about time for the Rise of Shurima and the return of the Emperor.
Cho’Gath
"Q – Rupture Cooldown: 9 seconds -> 7 seconds"
Cho’Gath currently struggles to fit into a top lane meta filled with bruisers, Conqueror users, and Kayle abusers. Nevertheless, this small buff to his Q – Rupture will feel nice in both the laning phase and later game teamfights.
The crowd control can be used as both an engage and escape tool in lane, so reducing the cooldown will open up more opportunities for the Terror of the Void to start fights against his lane opponent – provided the player can land an easily-dodged ability.
Dr. Mundo
"Q – Infected Cleaver Damage: 15/17.5/20/22.5/25% target’s current health -> 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% target’s current health E – Masochism Minimum Bonus Attack Damage: 30/45/60/75/90 -> 40/55/70/85/100 Maximum Bonus Attack Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 -> 80/110/140/170/200"
The diagnosis is in – Dr. Mundo does not fit inside the current competitive meta. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to throw a few helpful buffs in his direction. It will hurt if you’re on the receiving end of his thrown Infected Cleavers on the other hand, as they’ll see a 5% current health damage increase at all ranks which aids his duelling power in the top lane and will continue to be powerful when chasing down enemy squishies.
Combining the buffs to Q – Infected Cleaver with small bonuses to Mundo’s E – Masochism, along with the changes he received on Patch 9.5, and the Madman of Zaun is slowly moving towards a healthy state. While at present we’re unlikely to see him rise in popularity, he could start to be considered if the top lane meta shifts away from its current crop of picks.