League of Legends: Patch 9.7 Breakdown

Garen

"W – Courage Passive Resistances: 0.25 per stack, up to 40 -> 0.33 per stack, up to 50 Cooldown: 24/23/22/21/20 seconds -> 23/21/19/17/15 seconds Duration: 2/3/4/5/6 seconds -> 2/2.75/3.5/4.25/5 seconds"

Similarly, Garen suffers from circumstances akin to Cho’Gath and Dr. Mundo – not fitting in a meta filled with bruisers. Nonetheless, these small buffs will definitely push the Might of Demacia in the right direction.

Increasing his W – Courage passive armor and magic resistance, while also increasing the uptime on his damage reduction, will no doubt make Garen a bit more troublesome to deal with. However, as he currently sits at a 3.4% pick rate and 48.78% win rate, it’s hard to see these changes pushing him all the way up the tier list, and instead will probably just act as a welcome change to the few Garen one tricks that remain on Summoner’s Rift.

Leona

"E – Zenith Blade Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9 seconds -> 12/10.5/9/7.5/6 seconds"

While this won’t impact Leona’s early game too much, having her secondary engage tool on a 6 second cooldown at level 13 onwards (as she maxes E – Zenith Blade second) will provide excellent utility in both peeling for her carries and chasing down escaping enemies.

The tank support has been on the cusp of the top tiers for months now, often seeing play but never really establishing herself as “meta”. Maybe now is the time for Leona to finally become a highly contested pick. While currently she sits at a 48.98% win rate, this small change could propel her towards the top tiers, joining the likes of Alistar, Braum, Galio, and Thresh as the high utility, tank supports of the current meta.

Lissandra

"Q – Ice Shard Cooldown: 6/5.25/4.5/3.75/3 seconds -> 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds"

The Ice Witch has been a mainstay in both competitive and solo queue metas since the season began, offering immense teamfight utility, roam capabilities, and wave clear. These changes are aimed towards the latter of the three, reducing Lissandra’s ability to pump out Ice Shard after Ice Shard, clearing the mid lane waves before her opponents can take down a row of caster minions.

Reducing the cooldown also hurts her trading in lane, as previously she’d use two Qs in a 5 second window, but this will now be reduced to a single usage.

Overall, this doesn’t really touch Lissandra’s teamfight utility, but it heavily punishes her laning phase. We may well see Liss drop out of extremely high contention as a result but expect her to still remain around the top tiers due to her crowd control in skirmishes, as well as her powerful use of Aftershock.

Morgana

"Base Stats Health Regen Growth: 0.6 -> 0.4 W – Tormented Shadow Minimum Total Damage Ratio: 0.8 ability power -> 0.7 ability power (still at 0% target missing health) Maximum Total Damage Ratio: 2.16 ability power -> 1.89 ability power (still at 100% target missing health)"

Riot have stated that these changes are targeted towards mid lane Morgana, who currently sits at an alarming 54.24% win rate. Decreasing the AP ratios on her W – Tormented Shadow will no doubt see a drop in the strength of Morg mid, and on top of that support Morg will also feel some of the nerfs. It’s a win-win!

Pyke

"Q – Bone Skewer Cooldown: 16/14/12/10/8 seconds  -> 14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds E – Phantom Undertow Stun Duration: 1.1 seconds -> 1.25 seconds"

Who thought Pyke needed buffs? By our measurements, the Bloodharbor Ripper was doing just fine in his current state.

Now, he has his hook up more often and he’ll be able to use that E to set up hooks and other chain cc easier. Both of these changes could easily vault Pyke back towards the higher tiers in the support role.

Rumble

"W – Scrap Shield Movement Speed: 10/15/20/25/30% -> 20/25/30/35/40% R – The Equalizer Cooldown: 110/100/90 seconds -> 100/85/70 seconds"

While Rumble may have shown his face in competitive play every so often, he definitely needed some love and these buffs provide the perfect amount. Reducing the cooldown to his game-changing ultimate R – The Equalizer, as well as some nice changes to his W – Scrap Shield movement speed, provides top lane mains with another option in champion select.

He may struggle against some of the current crop, but the Mechanized Menace’s ability to turn a teamfight around with a single ability is enough to keep him in the back of everyone’s minds. Rumble’s weakest phase is still pre-6 when he is vulnerable to ganks, however the increased movement speed on his W certainly helps escaping potential 1v2 situations. Ultimately, we won’t see Rumble skyrocket as a result of these changes, but he’ll definitely see more play in Patch 9.7.

Sylas

"Base Stats Health Regen: 9.5 -> 7.5 W – Kingslayer Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 -> 50/75/100/125/150 Empowered Damage: 90/135/180/225/270 -> 75/112.5/150/187.5/225 E – Abscond / Abduct Cooldown: 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds -> 18/16/14/12/10 seconds"

Sylas has become a monster in solo queue recently, while also maintaining a 100% presence in competitive play, so it’s definitely the right call to peg him down a notch. The 6 second increased cooldown at rank 1 on his E – Abscond / Abduct  is huge and will be felt all the way until the late game, as he maxes this last. On top of that, the reduced damage on his W – Kingslayer  will be felt at all stages of the game, particularly when it’s empowered.

It’s about time we saw some significant nerfs aimed at Sylas, the Unshackled has been running riot on Summoner’s Rift for too long now and we’re finally seeing some changes that will bring him to a more balanced state. This definitely won’t be the last we see of him, but at least you can think twice about instantly banning him in solo queue now.