Riot Games has released Patch 9.8 for League of Legends. Known as the Mid-Season Invitational patch or MSI 2019 patch, the update is seen to make adjustments to the top lane meta, traditionally the lane reserved for tanks and bruisers.
For the heroes, Kayle was nerfed back in patch 9.7 with health regen and armor growth lowered, among the different changes. The goal was to make Kayle have a weak and risky early game, considering how strong she becomes in the late game. However according to Riot, she continues to succeed early and too often. Thus she gets nerfed again to make her even weaker in the early game.
Her base stats have been changed in 9.8. Attack damage is now 50 instead of 52 while Armor has been lowered from 20 to 26. In addition, her Attack Speed Ratio has been lowered to 0.667. Note that this refers to the number bonus attack speed used to calculate its effectiveness and not the actual attack speed of the hero. Her Passive - Divine Ascent has also been changed. Ascensions are now based on Kayle's level and skill points
Another hero that has been nerfed is Zed, whose Razor Shuriken's base damage has been reduced to 80/115/150/185/220. Living Shadow cooldown, meanwhile, has been increased to 22/20/18/16/14.
Other notable hero changes include:
New Nerfs in 9.8
- Alistar +5% damage taken
- Galio +5% damage taken
- Illaoi -5% damage dealt
- Kai'Sa -3% damage dealt
- Nautilus +5% damage taken
- Sion -8% damage dealt
- Yorick -5% damage dealt
New Buffs to 9.8
- Elise +5% damage dealt
- Fiddlesticks +1% damage dealt & -6% damage taken
- Fizz +5% damage dealt
- Karthus +2% damage dealt
- Lucian +5% damage dealt
- Maokai +2% damage dealt & -2% damage taken
- Nunu & Willump -5% damage taken
- Pantheon +5% damage dealt
- Riven +5% damage dealt
- Vi +5% damage dealt
- Xin Zhao -5% damage taken
- Zed +5% damage dealt
The latest patch also signals the end of the ARAM - Back to Bilgewater event. There is some good news for players, as some of the experimental changes have been retained. Bans, for example, will no longer be a permanent feature when it comes to ARAM.
The complete patch notes can be viewed here.
