It’s all about adjustments in the Riot Games offices, with the flavor of League of Legends Patch 13.16 trending toward that topic: more Caitlyn buffs, a shock Naafiri backflip, and a move to strike down Duskblade of Draktharr after its power slowly began bleeding into unexpected places.
This League update, which marks three until the Worlds patch, includes 10 buffs and five nerfs for characters, as well as another half-dozen item changes.
As I mentioned before, there’s one distinct flavor I’m keeping my eye on: reversions. Riot balance boss Matt Leung-Harrison admitted the team “overnerfed” a few specific champions in the last patches and several of those mishit picks will now be getting a doling of strength back. Alongside those reversals, the devs are heaping more nerfs on new champ Naafiri after saying otherwise.
Outside balance changes, Riot is also bringing back the famed Immortal Journey universe with six more skins, but that isn’t all roses either—I, among many, have been shocked by the devs’ choice to drop the unique titles there.
Before we get to those details, though, we have to date our calendars.
What’s in League Patch 13.16?
More Naafiri nerfs despite Riot promise
Last cycle, the Riot developers suggested Naafiri had suffered enough nerfs for the time being after being whacked a fair few times post-release. That turned out to be not quite true, however, with League’s newest hound getting blasted with more reductions in this August update.
“We’ll be nerfing her for both mid and top,” Riot Raptorr said. “We’re looking at her ability to win extended trades once she’s gone in and used her abilities. In lane she should be looking to poke down and only go in when the kill is assured.”
To do this, Riot has reduced her armor, attack damage, and attack speed, though only slightly for all three of those base stats.
Extra headshot power for Caitlyn
It may not look like much, but one change for Caitlyn this update is going to have big ripples on the AD carry meta; the Sheriff of Piltover will now only need to hit five auto attacks to proc her passive headshot ability. She’s also had her critical strike formula changed slightly, and while math isn’t my strong suit so I won’t do all the calculations here for you (they are down below), it basically means she’ll dish out more damage.
Duskblade makes power picks way too strong
Riot has also ripped some strength out of the Duskblade of Draktharr to indirectly nerf non-assassins like Illaoi, Aatrox, and Yorick, all of whom have been helping themselves to the AD item’s power recently.
“We’re bringing down its power and bringing up some of the other weaker items in the assassin system [to make up for it],” Leung-Harrison said.
Related: League Arena tier list: Best champs for 2v2v2v2 mode
The items getting buffed because of Duskblade’s nerfs include Axiom Arc, Serpent’s Fang, Prowler’s Claw, and Umbral Glaive.
Riot battles surrender toxicity
Outside all the balance changes, the League developers are also trying to lessen how toxic surrender voting has become in recent years. To do this, they’re hiding voter names, delaying repetitive vote calls from individual players, and will set split votes that are clearly going to fail to automatically resolve. The vote UI has also changed slightly.
Immortal Journey skins become uniform
Riot has returned to another of League’s parallel universes this update, adding another seven skins to the old Immortal Journey skin line, including variants for Kayle, Shyvana, Sona (who is also getting a fancy Prestige skin version in the Mythic Shop this update), Soraka, Zeri, and Zed.
I bet you remember that, before these skins, the Immortal line had unique titles like God Fist, Majestic Empress, and Valiant Sword, though the devs haven’t done that this time—a pretty disappointing choice, I think.
Here are all the skins in this patch:
- Immortal Journey Kayle (1,350 RP)
- Immortal Journey Shyvana (1,350 RP)
- Immortal Journey Sona (1,350 RP)
- Prestige Immortal Journey Sona (125 Mythic Essence)
- Immortal Journey Soraka (1,820 RP)
- Immortal Journey Zed (1,350 RP)
- Immortal Journey Zeri (1,350 RP)
These skins will go live during the Patch 13.16 cycle.
Here are the official League Patch 13.16 notes for the Aug. 16 update.
League Patch 13.16 patch notes
Champions
Akali
- W damage increased from 40-140 to 45-145, energy cost reduced from 130-70 to 110-70.
Brand
- Passive mana restore increased from 20-40 to 30-50 (based on levels 1-18).
- Q ability power ratio increased from 55 to 65 percent.
- E ability power ratio increased from 45 to 55 percent.
Caitlyn
- Number of stacks needed to Headshot reduced from seven to six.
- Critical strike ratio formula changed from (1.25 x (0.875 plus 50 percent bonus crit damage) x 130 percent crit chance) to (62.5 percent total crit damage x 130 percent total crit chance).
Ekko
- Q outgoing damage increased from 60-120 to 70-130, slow increased from 32-60 to 40-60 percent.
- W shield increased from 70-150 to 100-180.
Karma
- Q ability power increased from 40 to 50 percent.
- R-Q explosion ability power ratio increased from 60 to 70 percent.
- R cooldown reduced from 40-34 to 40-31 seconds.
Lucian
- Passive bonus magic damage increased from 10 to 15.
Lulu
- Health per level increased from 88 to 92.
- Q ability power ratio increased from 40 to 50 percent.
- E ability power ratio increased from 40 to 50 percent.
Malzahar
- E damage tick rate decreased from 0.5 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
- E minion execute threshold decreased from 15-45 based on level to 10-30.
Milio
- Q base damage changed from 90-270 to 80-340, damage ability power ratio increased from 90 to 120 percent ability power.
- E base shield increased from 60-140 to 60-160.
Naafiri
- Base attack damage reduced from 57 to 55.
- Base armor reduced from 32 to 30.
- Base attack speed reduced from 0.688 to 0.663.
Nidalee
- E given 40 percent AD scaling.
Nunu
- Fixed: On release of the Snowball, no longer incorrectly checks for collision at a stored location from a previous cast if the previous cast’s channel was canceled by either being rooted or rolling the snowball into terrain with an enemy target nearby, leading to the effect disappearing in Nunu’s field of view and affecting targets in a very different location.
Rek’Sai
- Q attack damage ratio changed from 50 percent bonus attack damage at all ranks to 34-50 percent total attack damage.
- Removed: Q no longer has a base damage of 21-45.
Shaco
- Base mana regeneration reduced from 7.15 to 6.
- W mana cost increased to static 70 at all ranks.
Shyvana
- W base damage per tick reduced from 20-70 to 20-60, bonus attack damage ratio per tick reduced from 30 to 20 percent bonus attack damage, on-hit damage reduced from 5-17.5 (plus 7.5 percent bonus attack damage) to 5-13 (plus five percent bonus attack damage).
Sylas
- Base mana increased from 310 to 400.
Tristana
- Base health reduced from 670 to 640.
- Base armor increased from 26 to 30.
- Armor growth increased from 4.2 to 4.5
- Base magic resistance reduced from 30 to 28.
Wukong
- Mana per level increased from 0.65 to 0.8.
- Q mana cost reduced from 40 to 20.
- W mana cost reduced from 80-40 to 60-40.
Items
Axiom Arc
- Base ultimate cooldown refund increased from five to 10 percent.
Duskblade of Draktharr
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 30 seconds.
- Nightstalker bonus damage reduced from 0-20 to 0-18 percent (based on target’s missing health).
Serpent’s Fang
- Lethality increased from 12 to 15.
Prowler’s Claw
- Cooldown reduced from 10 to five seconds.
- Bonus attack damage ratio increased from 45/30 percent (melee/ranged) to 55/35 percent (melee/ranged).
Umbral Glaive
- Lethality increased from 10 to 13.
Runes
- No changes in this update.
Systems
Surrender Voting
Skins
Immortal Journey Kayle
Immortal Journey Shyvana
Immortal Journey Sona
Immortal Journey Soraka
Immortal Journey Zed
Immortal Journey Zeri
Prestige Immortal Journey Sona
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that was stopping the screen from flashing purple as a warning that Rift Herald was about to expire.
- Fixed a bug that was causing AoE damage dealt by Dragons to deal increased damage if there were multiple champions standing behind the aggroed champion.
- Fixed several bugs that were causing Nidalee’s VO’s to not play properly.
- Fixed several bugs that were causing Varus’s VO’s to not play properly.
- Fixed several bugs that were causing Jax’s VO’s to not play properly.
- Fixed a bug that was Causing Kindred’s E – Mounting Dread VFX to not properly render above impassable terrain.
- Fixed a bug that was causing champions to slide while Grounded.
- Fixed a bug that was cursing Taliyah’s Q – Threaded Volly AoE VFX to not appear.
- Fixed a bug where Viego would only copy the base skin and not the chroma of a champion he had possessed.
- Fixed a bug where Night Harvester’s item effect was not granted upon a champion using a spell shield to block the ability.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Dr. Mundo’s Q – Infected Bonesaw hitbox to be misleading.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Syndra’s orb VFX to not properly appear depending on graphic settings.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Leona’s sword and shield to appear pixelated.
- Fixed a bug that was resulting in Mikael’s Blessing being listed as a Magic Resist item in the shop.
- Fixed a bug where revives like Guardian Angel and Zilean’s ultimate would cause Infernal Dragon Soul’s effect to become unavailable.
- Fixed a bug where Ryze R was not properly teleporting all non-champion units.
- Fixed a bug where all players with jungle items would receive treats for contributing to take down an Epic monster when only the team that slayed the Epic monster should receive a treat.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Naafiri’s packmates to not receive movement speed buffs when they were trying to catch up to her.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Naafiri’s backflip animation to play on her W – Hound’s Pursuit when cast at point blank range.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Naafiri’s packmates to only attack once when fixated onto enemies after being Feared or Charmed.
- Fixed a bug that caused Naafiri’s Q – Darkin Daggers’ bleed VFX to now show if the second dagger hit a different opponent.
- Fixed a bug that was causing Naafiri’s packmates to not follow her after using certain movement methods like Hexgates, Bard’s Magical Journey, or being displaced.
- Fixed a bug that caused Naafiri’s Q to fire backwards after her W was completed if she buffered her Q during a W cast.
Skin Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where Cosmic Varus’s Piercing Arrow (Q) sound still plays regardless if Q was fired or not.
- Fixed a bug where Star Guardian Sona’s feet would bend backwards during death animation.
- Fixed a bug that was making Infernal Kennen’s VFX hard to distinguish against the character model.
Update Aug. 16, 11:31pm CT: Added official League patch notes.
Update Aug. 10 10:07pm CT: Added all skin previews.
Update Aug. 10 9:25pm CT: Added details on Surrender Vote changes.
Update Aug. 9 7:24pm CT: Rounded out all confirmed changes from League PBE testing realm (excluding Lucian changes).
Update Aug. 9 1:31am CT: Added leaks from League PBE.
