League of Legends Patch 10.6 has arrived, with the long-awaited Wukong rework finally being shipped to live servers, as well as a host of balance changes, and an update to ranked queues.
League’s latest update is a pretty big one as Riot looks to shake things up in the top, jungle, and bot lanes.
With the first rework of 2020 in Wukong being pushed to live servers, alongside a host of role-specific balance changes, the meta should start to swing in another direction.
Aphelios has once again been nerfed, receiving pretty major changes on Patch 10.6.Shaking up the meta
Looking at top lane, Teleport and Death’s Dance have changed to benefit the neglected role. Teleport will now have a scaling cooldown which nerfs laners trying to get back to lane early, but helps split pushers make it to fights late game.
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Death’s Dance will now grant armor and magic resist, making it a strong bruiser item in the top lane. It opens up build paths away from just stacking health and attack damage, and gives the role some variety in what they can choose to craft.
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In the jungle, six more champions have been added into Riot’s jungle diversity test. Brand, Morgana, Shen, Teemo, Yorick, and Zyra have all been adapted for the role, with all champions receiving buffs to their damage to jungle monsters.
Lastly, in the bot lane, new Aphelios and Senna changes look to put an end to their hold on the meta. The two new champions have dominated the lane since they joined the Rift, but they might now find themselves on the fringe.
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The monkey king is back
After months of tinkering in-house and on the PBE, Wukong’s new-look kit is finally being pushed to all summoners in Patch 10.6.
Among changes to his general balance, his W clone now mimics all of his abilities for reduced damage, and he can use it as a dash, although it can’t go over walls.
- Read more: Wukong rework hits PBE in Patch 10.6
His ultimate can now be cast twice within eight seconds of its first use, with both charges together doing more damage than the previous version.
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Across the board balance-wise, Draven, Hecarim, Kayn, Kindred, Morgana, Ryze, Soraka, Twisted Fate, Urgot, Veigar, and Xerath are all being buffed. Darius, Garen, and Shaco are also being nerfed.
Related:
League of Legends patch 14.6 early notes: Karma nerfs, item changes, more
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Ranked queues are receiving a small update in Patch 10.6, with autofill and duo parity being introduced across solo-duo and flex queues. Teams will have balanced numbers of autofilled players — in the same roles — as well as premades.
The Galaxies event is also coming to League in the latest patch, with five themed skins incorporated into the event. Players will be able to pick up Dark Star Mordekaiser, Malphite, and Xerath, as well as Cosmic and Dark Cosmic Lux soon.
Malphite also received a Prestige skin in the event, which players can earn by grinding out missions starting in the coming days.
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The patch will be shipped live across all regions in the coming hours on March 17 and 18.
You can read the full patch notes below.
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League of Legends Patch 10.6 notes
Autofill balance in ranked
The Solo/Duo queue matchmaking system will now be less likely to create games where teams do not have the same number of autofilled players.
It’s no secret that having an autofilled player (or two) on your team while your opponents are all on their primary position feels rough. With this change, we’re letting matches wait a little longer to try and put an autofilled player on both sides of the match (or, when possible, not autofill anyone). While we can’t just get rid of autofill without making queue times skyrocket, this change should help make games with an autofilled player feel as fair as possible.
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We’re also looking at a similar change that aims to make the number of premades on each team equal. In our first tests, the change worked pretty well in isolation. However, it ended up combining with the Autofill Parity changes in a really bad way that led to matches being made with more uneven MMR than we wanted. So we’re tuning the Premade Balance system and hope to get it out to you in the near future.
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For right now, we’re only making this change to Solo/Duo matchmaking because it can affect different queues in different ways. But if things continue going well, we’ll look to expand the change to other queues soon.
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Champions
Anivia
R — Glacial Storm
- Iced Duration: 2 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds (now the same as Q – Flash Frost’s Iced duration)
Aphelios
Severum, the Scythe Pistol
- Innate — Resurgent Heal: 8-25% (levels 1-18) of damage dealt ⇒ 3-20% (levels 1-18) of damage dealt
Infernum, the Flamethrower
- Innate — Incendiary AoE damage to minions: 45% (level 9) of the AoE damage ⇒ 30% (level 9) of the AoE damage
Crescendum, the Chakram
- Chakram basic attack empowered damage: 30-173% total attack damage ⇒ 24-164% total attack damage
Darius
W — Crippling Strike
- Bonus physical damage: 50/55/60/65/70% total attack damage ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60% total attack damage
- Cost: 30 mana ⇒ 40 mana
E — Apprehend
- Cost: 45 mana ⇒ 70/60/50/40/30 mana
Draven
W — Blood Rush
- Decaying movement speed: 40/45/50/55/60% ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70%
Garen
Magic Resist Growth: 1.25 ⇒ 0.75
E — Judgment
- Critical strike ratio: 50% ⇒ 33%
Hecarim
R — Onslaught of Shadows
- Fear duration: 0.75-1.5 (based on distance traveled) seconds ⇒ 0.75-2 (based on distance traveled) seconds
Kayn
Passive — The Darkin Scythe
- Orb gain speed: At 10-13 minutes into the game, Kayn will increase his orb gain speed by 15%, rising throughout the duration.
Kindred
Attack damage growth: 2.26 ⇒ 2.5
Mana regen: 6.972 ⇒ 7
W — Wolf’s Frenzy
- Health restore: 32-100 (levels 1-18) based on her missing health ⇒ 49-100 (levels 1-18) based on her missing health
R — Lamb’s Respite
- Heal: 200/250/300 ⇒ 250/325/400
Morgana
Movement speed: 330 ⇒ 335
E — Black Shield
- Shield: 60/120/180/240/300 ⇒ 80/135/190/245/300
Ryze
Mana regen growth: 0.8 ⇒ 1
W — Rune Prison
- Damage: 80/100/120/140/160 ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200
Senna
Passive — Absolution
- Attack damage per soul: 1 ⇒ 0.75
- Innate — Weakened soul cooldown: 4 seconds ⇒ 6/5/4 (levels 1/6/11) seconds
Shaco
R — Hallucinate
- Clone basic attack damage: 75% total attack damage ⇒ 60% total attack damage
Soraka
Q — Starcall
- Total rejuvenation heal: 40/50/60/70/80 (+0.3 ability power) ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90 (+0.3 ability power)
- Movement speed bonus: 10-20% ⇒ 15-25%
Twisted Fate
W — Pick a Card
- Blue card AP ratio: 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.9 ability power
- Red card AP ratio: 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power
Urgot
Q — Corrosive Charge
- Slow duration: 1 seconds ⇒ 1.25 seconds
E — Disdain
- Stun duration: 0.75 seconds ⇒ 1 second
Veigar
Attack damage: 50.71 ⇒ 52
Attack damage growth: 2.625 ⇒ 2.7
Armor: 22.55 ⇒ 23
Q — Baleful Strike
- Base damage: 70/110/150/190/230 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240
Wukong
Magic Resist: 32.1 ⇒ 28
Health: 577.8 ⇒ 540
Mana: 265 ⇒ 300
Mana growth: 38 ⇒ 45
Passive — Stone Skin
- Armor: 4/6/8 (levels 1/7/13) per nearby champion ⇒ 5-11 (level 1-18) per nearby champion
- [Removed] Magic resist: Wukong no longer gains 4/6/8 (levels 1/7/13) bonus magic resist per nearby champion
- [New] Health regen: Now grants 0.5% maximum health regen per 5 seconds
- [New] Man in the Mirror: Bonuses are increased by 62.5% for 5 seconds every time Wukong or his decoy hit an enemy champion or monster (stacking up to 8 times for a total bonus of 500%)
Q — Crushing Blow
- Bonus basic attack damage: 10/40/70/100/130 (+0/0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4 total attack damage) ⇒ 30/55/80/105/130 (+0.5 bonus attack damage)
- Bonus range: 125 ⇒ 75/100/125/150/175
- [New] Hit fast: Cast time now scales with Wukong’s attack speed
- QOL: Added a timer to the ability icon to show how much time is left to use the empowered attack
- [New] Decoy CDR: Whenever Wukong or his decoy deal damage with basic attacks or abilities, Q – Crushing Blow’s cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds
- Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds ⇒ 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 seconds
W — Warrior Trickster
- [New] Kind of Pure of Heart: Added a 300 range dash that can’t go over walls
- Stealth duration: 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second
- [Removed] Poof!: Wukong’s decoy no longer deals AoE magic damage before disappearing
- Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 20/19/18/17/16 seconds
- Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 mana ⇒ 60 mana
- [New] Decoy damage reduction: Wukong’s decoy now mimics his attacks and ultimate, but deals 50/55/60/65/70% damage
- [New] Decoy basic attacks: The decoy will attempt to attack enemies Wukong has recently attacked
- [New] Decoy Q — Crushing Blow: The decoy’s next attack is empowered
- [New] Decoy E — Nimbus Strike: The decoy gains bonus attack speed
- [New] Decoy R — Cyclone: The decoy will start spinning and knock-up enemies that haven’t been knocked-up already from the initial ultimate cast
E — Nimbus Strike
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- Damage: 65/100/135/170/205 (+0.8 bonus attack damage) physical ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.8 ability power) magic
- Bonus attack speed: 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60%
- Attack speed duration: 4 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds
- Cooldown: 8 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds
- Cost: 45/50/55/60/65 mana ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50 mana
- Distance to target post-dash: 0 ⇒ 75
R — Cyclone
- [New] Make it double: Wukong can now cast his ultimate a second time within 8 seconds. The second cast can knock-up enemies a second time.
- Knock-up duration: 1 seconds ⇒ 0.75 seconds
- Spin duration: 4 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds
- Damage per second: 20-200 (+1.1 total attack damage) ⇒ 4-8% maximum health (+1.1 total attack damage)
- Spinning movement speed: 5-40% (based on spin duration) ⇒ 20%
Spin cancellation: After 1 second ⇒ After 0.5 seconds - Damage tick rate: 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds (each tick of damage now applies Conqueror)
- Distance to target while spinning: 175 ⇒ 50 (this will make Wukong get closer to his target)
- [New] Doesn’t move her body like A: Wukong can now cast other abilities to cancel his ultimate, stopping its spin
- Keep on spinning: Wukong’s bonus attack speed duration from E — Nimbus Strike is refreshed while spinning
- QOL: Added a timer to the ability icon to show how much spin time is left and how much time he has left to recast the ability before it goes on cooldown
Xerath
W — Eye of Destruction
- Center damage amp: 50% increase ⇒ 66.7% increase
R — Rite of the Arcane
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- Damage per shot: 200/240/280 (+0.43 ability power) ⇒ 200/250/300 (+0.45 ability power)
Jungle Champions
Continuing with a third round of changes to diversify and widen the jungle champion pool. You’ll notice that Morgana is getting a specific change to have her be viable in the jungle along buffs to her main roles. We’re monitoring the effect of these changes to assure that they’re not overwhelmingly affecting anything at the higher rungs of the skill ladder while also confirming that they are in fact fostering more diverse picks.
Brand
- Passive — Blaze monster damage: Ablaze now deals 120% damage to monsters
Morgana
- W — Tormented Shadow monster damage: Now does 150% damage to monsters
Shen
- Q — Twilight Assault Maximum monster damage: 75/100/125/150/175 ⇒ 120/140/160/180/200
Teemo
- Q — Blinding Dart blind duration: Now lasts 100% longer vs. monsters
- E — Toxic Shot poison damage: Now does 150% damage to monsters
Yorick
- Passive — Sheppard of Souls final service: Yorick now raises graves on large monster deaths and Mist Walkers take 50% reduced damage from monsters
Zyra
- Plants damage to monsters: Zyra’s plants now deal 150% damage to monsters
Funnel mechanics
Funneling continues to be present in solo queue at all parts of the ladder. We’re going harder on the restrictions so that laners are more motivated to keep their gold and XP. Those who are playing the lane as is and not funneling an ally will essentially never run into this condition.
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Unique — Monster Hunter
- Minion gold penalty: 13 less gold from lane minions if more than half of your farm gold is from minions; removed at 14 minutes ⇒ 13 less gold and 50% less XP from lane minions if more than half of your farm is from minions; removed at 14 minutes
Top lane significance follow-up
We’re following up with our top lane changes from 10.5 with an additional set of changes for Death’s Dance and Teleport. This combination should continue reinforcing our initial goals of helping top laners that are coming out of laning phase build carry items to be a threat throughout the game. The Teleport change should also shift some of its power as an excellent lane sustain tool to a more late-game splitting-and-flanking tool.
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Death’s Dance
- Item build: Caulfield’s Warhammer + Pickaxe + Vampiric Scepter + 625g ⇒ Caulfield’s Warhammer + Aegis of the Legion + Vampiric Scepter + 500g
- Stats: 80 attack damage, 10% cooldown reduction ⇒ 50 attack damage, 30 armor, 30 magic resist, 10% cooldown reduction
- Unique passive: Stores 30% of all post-mitigation damage received and takes it as damage over time true damage ⇒ Stores 20% of all post-mitigation damage received for melee champions (30% for ranged champions) and takes it as damage over time true damage
Teleport
- Cooldown: 360 seconds ⇒ 420-240 (levels 1-18) seconds
- [New] Can’t catch me: Grants 3 seconds of 30-50% movement speed upon teleport completion based on character level (increased by 10% at levels 6 and 11)
Bugfixes
- Modals in the LCU will now allow you to click outside of the modal in order to close it (instead of always having to click on the X-button)
- Rek’Sai no longer gains CC immunity after R — Void Rush’s leap on clones for 3 seconds
- When attempting to cast Miss Fortune’s E — Make It Rain, Syndra’s Q — Dark Sphere, or Varus’ E — Hail of Arrows outside of their max range immediately after Flashing, the ability’s position will now properly update and cast at its post-Flash max range
- Using a Summoner Spell to trigger Nimbus Cloak will no longer reset any ongoing basic attack animation
- When suppressed by Sett’s R – The Show Stopper, LeBlanc will not return to her W – Distortion marker, and it will last the appropriate amount of time
- Gangplank will now properly gain bonus gold or Silver Serpents from Q – Parrrley if the energized lightning from Statikk Shiv kills a target
- Mordekaiser’s R – Realm of Death no longer deals an additional 10% of the target’s maximum health in damage when cast on a target at full health
- Omnivamp and Spellvamp effects now properly provide healing even if the targets are shielded
- Manaflow Band now consistently procs when an enemy champion is hit by an ability
- Graves now deals the proper amount of damage when attacking a target with a max range Energized basic attack (Energized from Rapid Fire Cannon)
- Mastery Emote Upgrades from completing Eternals sets (hitting 15 milestones) should now be properly granted
- Gangplank’s “Eternal Plunder” Eternal will now properly track gold earned from non-direct Q – Parrrley damage (e.g. chained barrel blasts)
- Eternals milestone callouts will no longer immediately disappear if the player enters combat right as a milestone callout appears
- Enemy Eternals milestone callouts should no longer display when “Self + Allies Only” is selected in the Milestone Display settings
- Eternals Milestone Display settings should now persist between client sessions
- Eternals Milestones will now properly display after the player exits combat if the action that increments the Eternal puts the player into combat
- Eternals milestone progress made in-game should now be accurately reflected in the client
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