League of Legends Patch 9.24 preview: Is Conqueror still broken

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League of Legends is a brand new experience in preseason but is receiving some much-needed fine-tuning before the Christmas period with a bunch of changes in Patch 9.24.

The final patch of 2019 is here, and it contains all the fixes required to make League of Legends a much more enjoyable experience over the Christmas period. OP champions have been nerfed, Rift Herald has received some buffs, and most importantly, Conqueror has finally been knocked off its pedestal as the most broken keystone on the game.

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Unfortunately, there’s still a few days before Patch 9.24 hits live servers, but it’s set to be an impactful one with so many big issues being addressed. Although they’re subject to changes between now and next week, the patch notes have been teased by Riot members on Twitter for the community to react to and prepare for in the lead up to the final patch of the year.

Here are all the big updates headed to League of Legends on Patch 9.24:

Conqueror

"Ranged Champions Heal: 15% -> 8% of all damage dealt. Buff Duration: 8 seconds -> 6 seconds."

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last three weeks, you will be well aware of the impact the new Conqueror is having on solo queue at the moment. Melee champions are benefitting from a keystone that received a few generous buffs on Patch 9.23, but worryingly so are mages.

Aurelion Sol, Azir, and Cassiopeia are just a few of the many long-range champions that are taking advantage of the bruiser-focused rune in its current state and thus the balance team have targeted that area of Conqueror to stamp out the interaction. More specifically, ranged champions will now receive just 8% healing from all damage dealt on Patch 9.24, down from 15% on the previous patch.

While this doesn’t kill Conqueror completely on ranged champions, it is highly likely that we’ll see plenty of mages switching to the likes of Electrocute and Phase Rush in the coming weeks and months. As a result, these champions will probably see themselves drop back down the tier list back to their pre-Patch 9.23 state.

Another change targeted at Conqueror is a buff duration nerf from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. This change affects every champion and isn’t just aimed at the ranged characters currently abusing the rune. Once again, this doesn’t kill the keystone, but the melee champions that make use of it will feel its effects for 2 seconds less on Patch 9.24, which is probably deserved considering it’s current “broken” state.

The question is this: Is Conqueror still a broken rune? And the answer: Probably not.

The ranged nerf is enough to force ranged champions to select other keystone options in future, and the buff duration nerf makes the rune slightly weaker on melee champions.

Rift Herald

"Charge Base Damage: 1500 -> 2000. Charge Damage per Herald Level: 175 -> 125."

Despite receiving buffs on Patch 9.23 targeted at drawing winning top laners towards taking down Rift Heralds early, Shelly’s become an often ignored and overlooked monster on the Rift. This is mainly due to her extremely low tower damage early not reflecting the length of time required to take her down.

This is set to be addressed on Patch 9.24 with early tower damage being increased by 500 at Level 1, compensated by reducing the amount of damage gained as she levels up. This should go some way to encouraging top laners and jungles to pick up an early Herald if they have an advantage on the top side of the map that can be used to push down a tower.

Nevertheless, with it still taking just as long to kill Rift Herald as on the previous patch, it would come as no surprise if the priority remains around Elemental Dragons and lane experience for the time being.

Prototype: Omnistone

Prototype: Omnistone is the latest addition to the rune tree and has been interesting to watch over the last few weeks. While it’s certainly not the most useful rune in the game, it definitely is fun to use, and can lead to some exciting outplays.

That being said, there are situations where the rune is basically useless, which is why it’s receiving a whole host of small buffs on Patch 9.24. The entire list of changes can be found here, but long story short, the likelihood of you receiving certain runes in situations where they would be strongest has increased to make Omnistone more “fair”.

However, it’s unlikely that this will make the keystone a better option than any of the other 15 choices, and you’d be better off picking a different rune in almost every scenario.

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