League of Legends Patch Notes: Patch 10.9 Breakdown
The Patch Notes for Patch 10.9 have been released! Here’s a breakdown of how the changes will affect your League of Legends games!
League of Legends Patch 10.9 is here! The official patch notes contain 11 champion changes and 1 item change that look to address the most potent and least impactful aspects of the current solo queue meta to bring more balance to Summoner’s Rift.
Here’s a full breakdown of all the changes:
Champions
Bard
"W – Caretaker’s ShrineBonus Movement Speed: 50%, decaying over 1.5 seconds -> 30%, decaying over 1.5 secondsCooldown: 12 seconds -> 14 secondsE – Magical JourneyCooldown: 18/17/16/15/14 seconds -> 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 seconds"
Somewhat surprisingly, Bard currently boasts an incredible 53.22% win rate in solo queue from the often overlooked support role. The Wandering Caretaker’s early game damage and roaming make him the perfect choice for support mains that want to snowball from the laning phase.
To limit Bard’s impact on the bot lane and meta as a whole, the balance team have opted to nerf two key abilities.
First of all, W – Caretaker’s Shrine will now offer less movement speed and have a longer cooldown. This means that Bard’s escape tool and gap closer is available less often and no longer as powerful reducing its reliability during the laning phase.
Secondly, E – Magical Journey‘s cooldown has been increased from 18-14 seconds to 22-16 seconds, reducing lowering the level of mobility and roaming potential Bard offers through all stages of the game.
Cho’Gath
"E – Vorpal SpikesBase Damage: 22/34/46/58/70 -> 22/37/52/67/82"
In a meta of niche picks and a vast ocean of champions viable in every role, it is almost shocking that the always reliable Cho’Gath fails to see regular play in solo queue. The Terror of the Void has a 1.9% pick rate and 48.83% win rate on Patch 10.8, which may be set to change after this buff.
E – Vorpal Spikes will see its base damage increase by up to 12 per auto-attack on Patch 10.9 which will improve Cho’Gath’s trading damage against the stronger meta top laners, such as Darius, Fiora, and Wukong.
Fiddlesticks
"E – ReapBase Damage: 70/100/130/160/190 -> 70/105/140/175/210"
The new Fiddlesticks has already notched up an impressive 51.78% win rate since his rework, but the balance team feel the need to buff the Ancient Fear further on Patch 10.9.
Now, E – Reap will deal up to 20 greater base damage depending on its rank. Due to the fact that Fiddlesticks players level up Reap last of all abilities, this buff doesn’t come into play until Level 14 at the earliest, at which point it is barely noticeable anyway.
Gnar
"Q – Boulder TossCooldown Refund: 60% -> 70%E – CrunchBase Damage: 50/85/120/155/190 -> 80/115/150/185/220"
Unfortunately, Gnar could be back to wreak havoc on the top lane after these Patch 10.9 buffs come into play.
Despite his poor 48.49% win rate, a small increase in Mega Gnar’s overall damage output could be all the Missing Link needs to return to the top lane meta.
Karthus
"Base StatsMovement Speed: 335 -> 325"
Movement speed is one of the most important underlying stats in League of Legends and, while a -10 decrease may look small, could have a huge impact on a champion, particularly in the early game.
That being said, Karthus isn’t massively reliant on his movement speed to clear the jungle and press R. So, while this nerf may have a small impact on the Deathsinger on future patches, it won’t be enough to drop him from the jungle S tier.
Kayn
"Q – Reaping SlashCooldown: 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds -> 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 seconds[New] Both instances of Reaping Slash deal 40 bonus damage against minions.W – Blade’s ReachSlow: 70%, decaying over 1.5 seconds -> 90%, decaying over 1.5 seconds"
Lissandra
"Q – Ice ShardCooldown: 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds -> 8/7/6/5/4 seconds"
Another buff for Lissandra as the balance team look determined to squeeze the Ice Queen into the mid lane champion pool ahead of Split 2.
Q – Ice Shard will see its cooldown reduced by 2 seconds at rank 1 on Patch 10.9, improving Liss’ wave clear and trading throughout the laning phase.
Obviously, this buff loses its effectiveness post-Level 9 as this is when Ice Shard reaches max rank, but before that Lissandra will benefit from more opportunities to poke her lane opponent with her Q.
Nami
"Base StatsHealth: 489.32 -> 475Mana: 377.24 -> 365Passive – Surging TideMovement Speed: 60 -> 45"
Similar to Bard, Nami has somehow climbed from support irrelevancy to the S+ tier with an excellent 52.65% win rate on Patch 10.8. No more though.
The Tidecaller’s base stats are taking a small hit, weakening her early game, while her P – Surging Tide movement speed buff on allies is also being decreased.
These nerfs aren’t huge, so don’t expect to see Nami disappear from the bot lane meta any time soon.
Quinn
"Q – Blinding AssaultNearsight Duration: 1.5 seconds -> 1.75 seconds"
Ranged top laners are all the rage in this week’s patch notes as Quinn is the second to receive significant buffs on Patch 10.9.
One of the most annoying abilities in the game, Q – Blinding Assault, will see its nearsight duration increased by 0.25 seconds, allowing Quinn a greater window to outplay her opponents and weave in extra auto-attacks.
Trundle
"R – SubjugateCooldown: 100/80/60 seconds -> 120/100/80 seconds"
Trundle has climbed to a 52.15% win rate on Patch 10.8 and needs correcting. Now his ganks and 1v1s will be limited in the early game as the Troll King is forced to wait an extra 20 seconds for R Subjugate to come off cooldown.
Wukong
"Base StatsArmor: 34 -> 31Q – Crushing BlowBase Damage: 30/55/80/105/130 -> 20/45/70/95/120W – Warrior TricksterClone Damage: 40/45/50/55/60% -> 35/40/45/50/55%"
The mini-rework Wukong received may have gone a tad too far as the Monkey King boasts the highest win rate in both the top lane (53.72%) and jungle (53.28%) roles. Hopefully, that’s going to change with these Patch 10.9 nerfs.
A reduction in armor will impact both iterations of Wukong as he faces off against physical damage dealing top laners and jungle monsters throughout the early game, harming his sustain during the early levels.
On top of this, decreasing the base damage of Q – Crushing Blow and W – Warrior Trickster reduces Wukong’s 1v1 trading damage and jungle clear, further damaging his early game power.
Overall, these three nerfs combined make for quite a significant change to the Monkey King on Patch 10.9 and beyond. Expect to see his win rate fall from 53%+ to 50-51% over the next few weeks.
Items
Sanguine Blade
"Recipe Cost: 1100 gold -> 1000 goldAttack Damage: 50 -> 55"
Sanguine Blade’s Passive is one of the worst among lethality items and is the core reason why it isn’t as popular as its alternatives. Increasing its AD and reducing its recipe cost is not the solution.
dark. Next. The 5 Best Champions to Main in Each Role
Are you happy with the changes on Patch 10.9? Which champions would you like to see buffed/nerfed on Patch 10.10?