Two weeks have passed, which means we have yet another set of balance changes to go over — this time it’s League of Legends patch 9.18! Overall, this isn’t exactly a mind-blowing patch, nor will it usher in a completely different meta. Instead, Riot shipped a few surprising buffs along with a couple of expected (one could argue long overdue) nerfs. These changes should make a couple of competitive mainstays feel a bit more balanced, while also empowering a couple of picks we haven’t seen in quite a long time.

With the World Championship on the horizon, Riot doesn’t want to create absolute balance-wise, and that’s for the best. They’ve made that mistake in the past, so they’re toning things down quite a bit this time around. This one, however, isn’t the Worlds patch, as the biggest international tournament is slated to be played on 9.19.

Regardless, there are more than enough changes to go over this week. So without any further ado, let’s start our League of Legends patch 9.18 breakdown!

Champion Buffs

There are many interesting buffs shipping with this patch, and they’re aimed at champions we haven’t seen in a while. By buffing these specific heroes, Riot is looking to make the upcoming Worlds meta as diverse and flexible as possible.

Aurelion Sol

Aurelion Sol’s base health is going up from 510 to 575. This should be quite a noticeable buff in the early laning phase.

Caitlyn

Much like Sol, Riot is shipping a simple buff to Caitlyn — her attack damage is going up from 60 to 62.

Ekko

Ekko’s W “Parallel Convergence” will now cost less mana (from 50/55/60/65/70 mana to 30/35/40/45/50 mana) and it’ll also stun for longer (from 1.75 to 2.25). So activating the ability will require less mana and will also carry a much bigger reward if you manage to land it fully.

Low risk, high reward.

Evelynn

Evelynn isn’t exactly weak at this point, but she’s far from a consistent, viable pick. To nudge her back into the spotlight (at least ever so slightly), Riot is increasing the empowered damage amplifier on her ultimate “Last Caress” from 100% against enemies below 30% of their maximum HP to 140%.

Furthermore, the empowered damage numbers are also going up — from 250/500/750 + 1.5 AP to 300/600/900 + 1.8 AP.

Jhin

Jhin’s base attack damage is going up from 57 to 59.

Kayle

The nerfs Riot shipped with patch 9.17 left Kayle in a somewhat weaker state. To counteract this, they’re buffing the base passive damage on her E “Starfire Spellblade” from 10/15/20/25/30 to 15/20/25/30/35. This isn’t the biggest of buffs, and we certainly hope it doesn’t push her closer to her former overpowered state.

Lee Sin

Seeing how we’re getting closer to the World Championship, a Lee Sin buff was almost a given. Going forward, he’ll have more base health (from 570.8 to 575), more base attack damage (from 69.2 to 70), and his ultimate “Dragon’s Rage” will deal more damage (from 150/375/600 to 175/400/625).

Overall, these changes should push him into the spotlight and make him more of a priority pick. And that’s great, seeing how many Lee Sin masters will be competing in Europe come October.

Miss Fortune

Rios is increasing the slow on Miss Fortune’s E “Make it Rain” — from 28/36/44/52/60% to 40/45/50/55/60%.

Teemo

Riot is shipping multiple changes to Teemo, albeit most of them are of the quality-of-life variety.

Going forward, blinded enemy targets will see a green light around their monitor when they’re hit with Teemo’s Q “Blinding Dart.” His W “Move Quick” will now display a bar above it to show its active duration.

His mushrooms will now trigger more accurately, especially when a dashing enemy happens to activate them. An out-of-combat Rift Scuttler will no longer activate them, and they’ll also bounce off an infinite amount (theoretically speaking) if you happen to throw one on top of another.

Finally, Teemo will be able to store 3/4/5 mushrooms at once instead of just three at all ranks.

Zoe

We haven’t seen Zoe in quite a while, but no one complained because of the fact. Riot wants to make her a bit more viable, so they’re increasing the damage on her passive “More Sparkles!” from 10/12/16/20/24/28/34/40/46/52/60/68/76/84/94/104/114/124 to 16/20/24/28/32/36/42/48/54/60/66/74/82/90/100/110/120/130.

Champion Nerfs

The nerfs that are shipping with League of Legends patch 9.18 are mostly targeted at a handful of champions that are running rampant in competitive and casual play.

Aatrox

Aatrox nerfs, take one thousand and five. Action! Riot continues to struggle with balancing The Darkin Blade, and things are slowly starting to spiral into a complete farce. Going forward, his passive “Deathbringer Stance” will no longer heal Aatrox for bonus physical damage dealt to any target, but will instead heal for 25% of damage dealt when attacking a minion. His healing on other targets will remain unchanged.

Finally, his Q “The Darkin Blade” will deal less damage to minions — from 50-100% (levels 1-18) to 40% at all levels.

Akali

Speaking of champions that are seemingly impossible to balance because of their inherent flaws, we have yet another nerf to Akali. Riot is increasing the cooldown of her ultimate “Perfect Execution” from 120/110/100 seconds to 160/130/100 seconds.

The first activation of her ultimate will no longer stun enemies for 0.5 seconds, and the second activation will deal less maximum damage — from 255/450/645 + 0.9 AP to 195/420/645 + 0.9 AP.

Annie

This is a strange one, primarily because no one saw it coming. Going forward, Annie’s E “Molten Shield” will grant her 25% + 1.5% per level of decaying movement speed over a relatively short duration (1.5 seconds). So that’s a buff.

That said, the ability will provide a lot less damage reduction (from 16/22/28/34/40% to 10/13/16/19/22%), and will have a noticeably longer cooldown (from 10 seconds at all ranks to 15). It’s still too early to tell whether these changes will pan out as a buff or a nerf (although the consensus leans towards the former), but fortunately, we won’t have to wait for long to find out.

Kai’Sa

Riot is reducing the bonus attack speed Kai’ sa’s E “Supercharge” provides — from 40/50/60/70/80% to 40/45/50/55/60%.

Will this be enough to bring her down to earth? Time will tell.

Nunu & Willump

Nunu’s win rates quietly spiked recently, so Riot’s shipping multiple nerfs to keep things under control. Their base health growth is going down (from 90 to 82), and the same goes for their arnir growth (from 3.5 to 3), mana (from 283.56 to 280), and mana regen (from 7.44 to 7).

Finally, their E “Snowball Barrage” will slow for less early on — from 50% at all levels to 30/35/40/45/50%.

Xayah

Much like Kai’ sa, Xayah’s consistency and damage output in coordinated play is second to none. To counteract this, Riot is nerfing her base armor (from 28 to 25), and they’re also increasing the cooldown on her ultimate “Featherstorm” — from 140/125/110 seconds to 160/145/130 seconds.

Video Accessibility Options

You’ll now be able to disable an option called “Screen Shake” (which is on by default). This option causes the screen to shake by abilities like Ezreal’s “Pulsefire” or Ornn’s “Call of the Forge God.”

Also, you can now adjust Gamma, Brightness, Contrast as well as Color Level. These options can heavily change the way things look, but they won’t affect the in-game user interface.

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

As with every new patch, Riot is releasing multiple new skins — this time we’re getting Star Guardian Neeko (along with a Prestige variant), Star Guardian Zoe, Star Guardian Xayah, and Star Guardian Rakan! The last three will be released with accompanying chromas as well.

Star Guardian Neeko

Star Guardian Neeko Prestige Edition

Star Guardian Xayah & Rakan

Star Guardian Zoe

That’s it for our League of Legends patch 9.18 breakdown! If you want to over the patch in a more official manner, you can click here to go to Riot’s official website.