League of Legends update 9.20 patch notes: Garen, Shaco & Viktor overhauls

The latest update for League of Legends, Patch 9.20, introduces some major changes for Garen, Shaco, and Viktor.

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The update is due to go live on October 9. For fans watching the ongoing League of Legends World Championship this patch won’t make a difference, as the entire tournament will be played on the same version of the game, Patch 9.19. For players on the live game, however, the update brings some significant changes.

The major focus of the update is the extensive changes to Garen, Shaco, and Viktor, whose abilities are being adjusted across the board. While not quite significant enough to be considered a full-blown rework, these updates should make the champions feel distinctly refreshed.

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The biggest difference for Garen is the removal of the “Villain” mechanic, which allowed Garen to deal additional damage to the enemy champion with the most recent kills. The feature was frustrating both for Garen players, who were pushed towards particular targets by something out of their control, and the targets themselves, who could feel punished for succeeding.

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Meanwhile, Shaco is getting broad adjustments to give him a more consistent impact throughout the game, and make him less reliant on his late-game one-shot potential. Viktor’s changes are the least significant of the three, but should power up his W and R abilities, while making him a little less mana dependant.

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Beyond those three champions, the patch is actually fairly limited compared to many League of Legends updates, with Riot this time choosing to focus largely on those major overhauls rather than making smaller changes to a greater number of champions.

The full patch notes can be read below.

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LoL Patch 9.20 notes

Champions

Blitzcrank

Base armor and armor growth decreased.

We like the extra range from 9.19 but think he’s a little too strong right now.

Base Stats

ARMOR 44 ⇒ 40

ARMOR GROWTH 4 ⇒ 3.5

Garen

Passive regen more reliable. W now grants a shield instead of extra damage reduction in the first 0.75 seconds. E spins now scale with AS. R now always deals true damage; Villain passive removed.

Making big changes to our resident good guy, namely removing the Villain mechanic on his ultimate. Disliked by both Garen players and their opponents, the mechanic wasn’t making his gameplay healthier and took control from Garen when choosing his targets, frequently setting him up for failure.

We’re also cleaning up his passive and allowing him to gain Conqueror stacks, a Rune other juggernauts get. Garen should now feel more intuitive to play too and not so linear due to more options when considering items.

Base Stats

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH 2.9% ⇒ 3.65%

HEALTH 616.28 ⇒ 620

HEALTH GROWTH 84.25 ⇒ 84

Passive – Perseverance

REGENERATION 2/8% (based on level) of his maximum health per 5 seconds ⇒ 1.5-10.1% (levels 1-18) of his maximum health per 5 seconds

REMOVED: EMPOWERED REGENERATION Garen no longer passively doubly regenerates health while below 25/50% (based on level) of his maximum health

UPDATED: REGENERATION INTERRUPTION 9 seconds when hit by non-minions before level 11; 4 seconds when hit by epic monsters, towers, or champions after level 11 ⇒ 7 seconds when hit by epic monsters, towers, or champions

Q – Decisive Strike

NEW: CAST TIME Now scales with Garen’s attack speed, behaving more similarly to a basic attack

BUGFIX: Fixed a bug where when Garen is slowed, his Q’s lockout time dramatically increased

W – Courage

RESISTANCES PER KILL 0.33 bonus armor and magic resistance (max of 50 at 150 unit kills) ⇒ 0.25 bonus armor and magic resistance (max of 30 at 150 unit kills)

UPDATED: SHIELD ME Grants 30% extra damage reduction and Tenacity for the first 0.75 seconds ⇒ Grants a shield for 10% of his maximum health and 60% Tenacity for the first 0.75 seconds

E – Judgment

SPINS 5-10 (levels 1-16) ⇒ 7 (+1 per 20% attack speed from items and levels)

DAMAGE PER SPIN 14/18/22/26/30 (+0.36-0.4 attack damage) ⇒ 8/12/16/20/24 (+0-8 based on level) (+0.32-0.4 attack damage)

BONUS DAMAGE 33% to a single enemy ⇒ 25% to the nearest enemy

SPINS BEFORE SHRED 4 ⇒ 6

NEW: ALEXANDER THE GREAT Now grants stacks of Conqueror on each spin

R – Demacian Justice

REMOVED: PASSIVE Garen no longer marks enemies with the most kills in the last 5 minutes as the Villain

NEW: LASIK Grants vision of the target for 1 second, preventing it from cancelling if the target breaks line of sight

DAMAGE 175/350/525 (+0.286 /0.333 /0.4 of the target’s missing health) as magic damage ⇒ 150/300/450 (+0.2/0.25/0.3 of the target’s missing health) as true damage

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Ivern

Now a ranged champion. W no longer increases attack range.

Making Ivern more approachable (and stronger!) by not forcing him to get accustomed to multiple basic attack ranges.

Base Stats

BASIC ATTACK RANGE 125 ⇒ 475 (Ivern is now classified as a ranged champion for all runes, items, etc.)

W – Brushmaker

REMOVED: LONG ARMS No longer increases Ivern’s range

Lissandra

Passive and W damage ratios increased.

We’re sharpening her niche as a bursty, engage mage while trying not to impact her pro-leaning power.

Base Stats

Round and round we go!

ARMOR 20.216 ⇒ 22

Passive – Iceborn Subjugation

DAMAGE RATIO 0.3 ability power ⇒ 0.5 ability power

W – Ring of Frost

DAMAGE RATIO 0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.7 ability power

Pantheon

Q base damage decreased later.

Pantheon remains a top-tier pick in more skilled games. We’ve decreased some of his early-game damage as it’s more impactful in higher-skill ranked games. Also, a bugfix!

General

BUGFIX: Pantheon’s Q – Comet Spear and W – Shield Vault now properly work when taking Thresh’s W – Dark Passage within 0.2 seconds or less

Q – Comet Spear

BASE DAMAGE 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 75/110/145/180/215

Qiyana

Q base damage decreased early.

We’re hitting Qiyana’s trade damage, especially after she hits level 3, since it is deceptively high and is making her oppressive in the early game.

Q – Edge of Ixtal

BASE DAMAGE 80/100/120/140/160 ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160

Shaco

W boxes are now AoE. More early game damage, less late game damage.

Shaco’s playstyle and identity have both changed considerably post-rework, and the gameplay gains have been dubious at best. He should feel empowered to interact with enemies, especially in the early game, but struggles to do so. With these changes, we’re aiming to round out the amount of damage he deals throughout the game instead of having his damage centered around his late-game one-shot potential.

Additionally, we want to support both the more common AD and the more niche AP Shaco builds as meaningfully different playstyles. So, we’ve changed E’s damage type and moved some ratios around to encourage each build to play differently around their abilities.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE 66 ⇒ 63

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH 3.5 ⇒ 3

Passive – Backstab

NEW: BASIC ATTACK DAMAGE Basic attacking an enemy now deals an additional 10-25 (levels 1-18) (+0.15 bonus attack damage) damage from behind (this damage can critically strike)

NEW: TWO-SHIV POISON DAMAGE Two-Shiv Poison now deals an additional 15-50 (levels 1-18) (+0.1 ability power) damage from behind

Q – Deceive

STEALTH DURATION 1.5/2.25/3/3.75/4.5 seconds ⇒ 2.5/2.75/3/3.25/3.5 seconds

COOLDOWN 16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

REMOVED: T-TIME IS TICKING AWAY Deceive’s cooldown no longer reduces when exiting invisibility and dealing his next basic attack

DAMAGE 10/20/30/40/50 (+0.4 bonus attack damage)(+0.3 ability power) ⇒ 25/35/45/55/65 (+0.25 bonus attack damage) When striking from behind, Deceive is guaranteed to critically strike for 130% damage.

W – Jack In The Box

UPDATED: YOU ALL GET A BOX When triggered, the boxes can now attack multiple enemies in an AoE range

NEW: AOE DAMAGE 15/20/25/30/35 (+0.1 ability power) (single target damage unchanged)

NEW: NON-CHAMPION FEAR DURATION 2 seconds on all non-champions

FEARED MOVEMENT SPEED 100 movement speed for all enemies ⇒ 60 movement speed for minions and monsters, 100 movement speed on champions

E – Two-Shiv Poison

DAMAGE TYPE Physical damage ⇒ Magic damage

DAMAGE 55/80/105/130/155 (+0.6/0.75/0.9/1.05/1.2 bonus attack damage)(+0.75 ability power) ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170 (+0.8 bonus attack damage) (+0.6 ability power)

EXECUTE DAMAGE 0-50% increased damage based on missing health ⇒ 50% increased damage on targets below 30% health

R – Hallucinate

BOX TRIGGER TIME Boxes trigger after 2 seconds ⇒ Boxes trigger immediately

DAMAGE 200/300/400 (+1.0 ability power) ⇒ 150/225/300 (+0.7 ability power)

NEW: BOX AOE DAMAGE 10/20/30 (+0.1 ability power) (single target damage unchanged)

FEAR DURATION 0.75/1/1.25 seconds ⇒ 1 seconds

Sona

QoL change for the baby girl so it’s easier to know when her empowered basic attack is coming up.

PASSIVE QOL Added a resource bar so that it’s easier for Sona to track her own passive (only visible to Sona)

Varus

Base AD increased; rounding out other stats.

Giving Varus some general, reliable power.

Base Stats

ATTACK DAMAGE 59 ⇒ 61

MANA REGEN 7.34 ⇒ 8

MANA 360.5 ⇒ 360

HEALTH 499 ⇒ 500

Viktor

Q no longer scales with Viktor’s mana. W Augment now grants slow to other spells. R now ticks faster and moves quicker.

Giving Viktor some love by offering him more exciting Augments for his W and R, two abilities that are generally underpowered, and decreasing some of his mana dependency.

General

BUGFIX: Hex Core stats now update upon purchase instead of when Viktor next levels up

BUGFIX: Augmented: Aftershock Death Ray missiles are now the same width as the initial missile

Q – Siphon Power

SHIELD 8% of his maximum mana (+0.15 ability power) ⇒ 30-115 (levels 1-18) (+0.15 ability power)

W – Gravity Field

UPDATED: AUGMENT: MAGNETIZE Enemies stunned by Gravity Field are dragged into the center ⇒ Direct hits slow enemies by 20% for 1 second (does not proc on R ticks)

R – Chaos Storm

NEW: DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN? Chaos Storm will continue chasing champions even after Viktor dies

NEW: KRACKO Chaos Storm can now move over terrain

TICK CADENCE 2 seconds ⇒ 1 second

TICKS 3 ⇒ 6

DAMAGE PER TICK 130/210/290 (+0.85 ability power) ⇒ 65/105/145 (+0.45 ability power)

AUGMENT: PERFECT STORM MOVEMENT SPEED Chaos Storm moves 20% faster ⇒ 25% faster (minimum movement speed is now 200 ⇒ 250; maximum movement speed is now 300 ⇒ 375)

Items

Locket of the Iron Solari

Active shield strength increased.

Looking to broaden the uses of the Locket, especially in a meta where there are less AoE burst champions. The change will also apply to Circlet of the Iron Solari!

SHIELD STRENGTH 30 (+15 per level) ⇒ 120 (+10 per level)

Adding Friends via Social

As of 9.20, players will no longer be able to find and add friends through social media. When clicking on the “Add Friends” icon, there will no longer be an option to click on “By Social Network” and connect to your Facebook account to find friends.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where after the ally Yuumi is attached to dies while she’s in Stasis (via Zhonya’s Hourglass or Stopwatch), she will lose the ability to gain turret aggro for the remainder of the game
• Fixed a bug where casting R – Featherstorm with the cursor exactly below Xayah would cause the ability’s rotation lock to be removed
• Nunu’s E – Snowball Barrage is no longer able to slow enemies more than once within the same cast of snowballs
• When casting Wukong’s R – Cyclone as Vi’s Q – Vault Breaker hits and kills Wukong, Wukong’s R – Cyclone no longer loses its functionality
• Diana’s R – Lunar Rush‘s cooldown now successfully refresh even if the ability hits an enemy at the edge of an explosion from her Q – Crescent Strike
• Diana’s Q – Crescent Strike explosion VFX no longer can be seen in Fog of War
• Winter Wonder Neeko will no longer lose a significant amount of base stats and the ability to basic attack when Lulu uses W – Whimsy on her as Neeko is using R – Pop Blossom while disguised
• When Lulu polymorphs Gnar with W – Whimsy just before he transforms back from Mega to base form, Gnar will no longer acquire extra buffs and have Mega Gnar’s attack and crit animations and particles
• Cho’Gath’s R – Feast execute indicator now properly appears on clones’ health bars
• Lux’s Passive – Illumination is now properly tagged as a single target ability