League Patch 10.18 to feature major Ahri overhaul, PsyOps skins, more

League of Legends (LoL) Patch 10.18 is officially on its way, and it’s a key one; Worlds is finally on the horizon, and Riot Games want to make sure they get the balancing “just right” for the huge international event.

Last fortnight, Riot Games took a short break and delivered one of the smallest League of Legends patches of the season. In League Patch 10.18, they’re staying on that same tune, mainly making changes for pro play.

Worlds 2020 is on the horizon. That means Riot has to get the competitive scene in as good an order as they can. The year-end tournament is played across two months, on 10.19, which means it’s a pretty crucial update.

Patch 10.18 is basically the deep breath before the plunge. Riot has been trying to “diversify” the meta in the last few updates, and now it’s fine-tuning ⁠— Ahri is expected to be a winner in the September 2 update, while Ryze won’t get an update to avoid over-tuning him.

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Here’s everything we know about League Patch 10.18 so far, including all the big buffs and nerfs coming in the planned Wednesday, September 2 update.

Riot Games

Meta marksman Ashe is in the firing line for LoL Patch 10.18.

Ahri set for overhaul before Worlds

Perhaps the biggest planned change in LoL Patch 10.18 is the hefty Ahri overhaul Riot has planned. The Nine-Tailed Fox has fallen out of favor in recent updates, despite being one of the title’s poster stars, and Riot wants to fix that.

The plan is to “create better gameplay” for the character, via a few buffs that should make her kit less clunky to use. Riot also wants to open up her key windows to punish enemies.

Everything from her base health regen (down to 5.5, from 6.5) to her powerful abilities have come under the microscope this patch. The vastayan’s passive, previously called “Essence Theft,” has now been changed to “Vastayan Grace.”

Riot Games

League of Legends darling Ahri is getting a big boost this update.

Ahri’s passive now has a new effect. Whenever Ahri hits an enemy with one of her abilities, she gains a charge of “Essence Theft” (max three per cast). After hitting nine stacks, Ahri’s next spell restores a slice of health.

This passive ability used to be on her Q, Orb of Deception, but has been shifted to give her W, E, and R access to the same healing powers. It has obviously also been removed from her Q.

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Finally, her W, Fox-Fire, now grants “a burst of decaying movement speed that lasts for 1.5 seconds”. It also now deals 200% damage to minions with less than 20% health. The ability’s cooldown and mana cost have been increased accordingly.

Riot Games

Riot want to solve Kayle’s weak laning phase.

Patch 10.18 to fix weak Kayle laning

Ahri isn’t the only champ getting some much-needed love in LoL Patch 10.18 either. Late-game powerhouse Kayle is getting some tweaks; her W and E mana costs have been changed and her E speed is up massively. Her E cooldown has also been swapped.

“[Our goals with Kayle are to give her] more active laning where trading with the enemy laner is a more available option over pure passive play,” Yetter added.

To do this, they are unlocking her E’s power early. Its cooldown will now scale down with ranks, and the mana cost is being totally removed. The missile speed is also being increased to give her some instant power.

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Because of the removal of her E mana costs, the mana refund on Q ⁠— which helped Kayle keep her resources up ⁠— is also disappearing. The mana cost on her W is also increasing, which should increase the punish window if Kayle misplays.

Shyvana getting minor ‘W’ tweak

Riot are also planning to “improve clarity and consistency” for Shyvana in the next patch update. These changes will be mainly focused around her W, and shouldn’t “buff or nerf her directly,” Yetter said. Instead, they should give a “long term improvement” for the character.

Part of this change will also see Shyvana’s E area of effect move from a champion hitbox to a champion center point check. This is the new normal for spells in Riot development, and should give a “more consistent play/counterplay experience.”

Jarvan IV, Rumble, Miss Fortune, Twitch, and Xin Zhao are also set to be buffed in the next League of Legends update. Heading the other way with a handful of nerfs will be Sett, Ashe, Shen, Galio, and mid lane Kog’Maw.

Finally, the new LoL patch will be adding a brand-new skin line. Surrender@20 has revealed “PsyOps” cosmetics were added to the PBE this week. Master Yi, Ezreal, Shen, Sona, and Vi will all get skins. Ezreal will also get a special Prestige version.

Riot Games

Ezreal is in line for a PsyOps Prestige skin in LoL Patch 10.18.

League Patch 10.18 will be released on Wednesday, September 2. Dexerto expects to have full details on all upcoming changes once Riot reveals specific numbers on the buffs and nerfs, and will update when they’re released.

League of Legends Patch 10.18: all expected changes

Champions

Ashe

• Base attack damage 61 ⇒ 59.

Galio

• Q gust base damage 80-220 ⇒ 70-210.

Jarvan IV

• Q base damage 80-240 ⇒ 90-250.

Kayle

• Q no longer refunds mana on champion hit.
• W mana cost 70-110 ⇒ 90-130.
• E cooldown 8 ⇒ 8-6; mana cost 50-70 ⇒ 0; missile speed up 2000 ⇒ 5000.

Kog’Maw

• Health per level 90 ⇒ 85.

• Armor per level 3.5 ⇒ 3.25.

Miss Fortune

• Attack speed per level 2.25 ⇒ 3%.
• Strut max movement speed 50-90 ⇒ 55-95.

Rumble

• Q total damage 175-315 ⇒ 180-340.

Sett

• Passive second attack bonus damage 5-90 (+15% total attack damage) ⇒ 5-90 (+50% base attack damage).
• Q damage 10-50 (+15% max health) (+1% per 100 total attack damage) ⇒ 10-50 (+2-3.6% per 100 total attack damage).

Shen

• Passive shield 70-121 ⇒ 60-111.

Twitch

• E ability power ratio per stack 20% ⇒ 33.3%.
• R damage falloff per unit hit -10% down to minimum of 40% damage ⇒ -5% down to a minimum of 70% damage.

Xin Zhao

• W slash base damage 30-70 ⇒ 40-80; thrust damage 30-170 (+75% attack damage) ⇒ 40-180 (+80% attack damage).

Runes

Guardian

• Shield amount 90-250 (+25% ability power) (+12% bonus health) ⇒ 90-250 (+15% ability power) (+9% bonus health).

Ahri “overhaul”

• Passive [removed] “Whenever Ahri lands 2 ability hits against a champion within 1.5 seconds, she gains 20% bonus movement speed for three seconds.”; [new] name changed from Vastayan Grace to Essence Theft; [new] Whenever Ahri hits an enemy with one of her abilities, she gains a charge of Essence Theft, and can gain up to three charges per ability cast. Upon reaching nine charges, her next ability that hits an enemy champion heals her for 30/60/90/180 (based on level) (+27% AP).
• Q [removed] “Ahri gains an Essence Theft stack for each enemy hit by her abilites, up to a maximum of 3 per cast, and storing up to 9 at once. While Ahri has 9 stacks of Essence Theft, Orb of Deception consumes the stacks to Heal power heal Ahri for 3/5/9/18 (based on level) (+9% AP) for each enemy hit instead of generating more stacks.”
• W [new] now grants a burst of 40% Movement Speed decaying over 1.5 seconds; [new] deals 200% damage to minions below 20%; cooldown 9/8/7/6/5 ⇒ 10/9/8/7/6; mana cost 40 ⇒ 55 at all ranks.