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 9.20! First of all, we have to highlight that this is a very small patch. In fact, it might be the smallest patch of the year and that’s not a coincidence. Seeing how the 2019 World Championship is being played on 9.19, Riot didn’t have a valid enough reason to ship any monumental changes.

Instead, they opted for a smaller set of adjustments that won’t heavily affect the current status quo, and that includes both casual as well as competitive play. The whole season, in fact, is coming to a close, so expect smaller and smaller changes over the coming months as everyone’s preparing for the impending off-season.

Despite this, there are more than just a couple of interesting changes shipping in League of Legends patch 9.20. They might not be seismic in nature, but they’re interesting nonetheless.

So let’s dive a bit deeper!

Champion Adjustments

Blitzcrank

The old hunk of metal is getting two simple nerfs. His base armor is going down (from 44 to 40) along with his base armor growth (from 4 to 3.5). Not a huge change overall but it should be noticeable in the early game.

Garen

This is somewhat of an unexpected series of changes arriving in League of Legends patch 9.20. Riot is changing many aspects that are inherent to Garen and his identity, which is pretty much a positive thing. In many ways this can be considered as a buff.

First of all, his base attack speed growth is going up (from 2.9% to 3.65%) along with his health (from 616.28 to 620) and base health growth (from 84.25 to 84).

His passive “Perseverance” is also getting changed. It will now regenerate 1.5-10.1% of his maximum HP per 5 seconds (changed from 2/8%). So a small nerf early on but a buff in the mid and later stages of the game. His HP regeneration will also kick in after 7 seconds when hit by epic monsters, champions or towers instead of 9.

His Q “Decisive Strike” will now scale with his attack speed, which will make it behave more like a basic attack.

There’s a noticeable change with his W “Courage” as well. It will now grant 0.25 bonus armor and magic resistance (up to a maximum of 30 at 150 unit kills instead of a maximum of 50), and the active shield component will grant 10% of his maximum HP and 60% Tenacity for the first 0.75 seconds upon activation — instead of 30% extra damage reduction.

His E “Judgment” will now make Garen spin for 7 times (instead of 5-10 based on level) and will grant him an additional spin per 20% attack speed from items and levels. A huge change that will surely usher a different kind of Garen build, one that is a mix of damage and attack speed. But that’s not all. The ability will now deal less bonus damage (from 33% to a single enemy to 25% to the nearest enemy) and will require more spin before shredding (from 4 to 6). On the positive side, his E will now grant a stack of Conqueror on each spin. That’s huge, on all levels.

As for his ultimate “Demacian Justice,” it will no longer mark opponents with the most kills as villains.” Instead, it will grant vision of the target for a one-second duration which will prevent his ultimate from cancelling if the opposing target goes out of vision.

The damage numbers on his ultimate are also getting adjusted. It will no longer deal 175/350/525 +0.286/0.333/0.4 of the target’s missing HP (as magic damage), but will instead deal 150/300/450 + 0.2/0.25/0.3 of the target’s missing HP as true damage. The fact that Riot is shifting it towards true damage is definitely a huge buff. Maybe that’s even an understatement.

How these changes will pan out still remains to be seen, but it feels like he’ll become an even bigger menace (in lower ELO, that is).

Ivern

His basic attack range is going up from 125 to 475. In other words, Ivern is now a ranged champion, which is definitely a plus. Finally, his W “Brushmaker” will no longer increase his range. Will this simple (but effective) change make Ivern viable? Probably not, but it is a change in the right direction.

Lissandra

Riot wants to empower Lissandra’s “brusty, engage mage” playstyle, so they’re shipping a series of simple buffs. Her base armor is going up from 20.216 to 22, the damage ratio on her passive “Iceborn Subjugation” is going up from 0.3 AP to 0.5 AP, and the same goes for her W “Ring of Frost” — from 0.5 AP to 0.7 AP.

Pantheon

Riot is decreasing some of his early game prowess by nerfing his Q “Comet Spear.” Going forward, it’ll deal 75/110/145/180/215 damage instead of 75/115/155/195/235.

Qiyana

Much like with Pantheon, Qiyana’s early game power is going down ever so slightly. Her Q “Edge of Ixtal” will now deal 60/85/110/135/160 damage instead of 80/100/120/140/160.

Shaco

Riot wants to make Shaco less of a late-game oriented champion, and more of a well-rounded one; a champion that can compete in all stages of the game. They also want to support both AD and AP builds. To do this, they’re shifting some ratios around in an attempt to balance things out.

To start things off, they decreased his base AD (from 66 to 63) along with his AD growth (from 3.5 to 3).

His passive “Backstab” will now deal an additional 10-25 (based on level + 0.15 bonus AD) damage from behind; this attack can also critically strike. His “Two-Shiv Poison” damage will also deal an additional 15-50 (based on level + 0.1 AP) when activated from behind.

His Q”Deceive” will have a shorter stealth duration — from 1.5/2.25/3/3.75/4.5 seconds to 2.5/2.75/3/3.25/3.5 seconds but will have a shorter cooldown — from 16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds to 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds. Its cooldown is no longer reduced when exiting stealth.

Finally, the damage numbers are getting adjusted. It will now deal 25/35/45/55/65 (+0.25 bonus AD) (with a guaranteed 130% damage critical hit when attacking from behind), instead of 10/20/30/40/50 (+0.4 bonus AD; +0.3 bonus AP).

Shaco’s W “Jack In The Box” will now deal AoE damage once triggered (15/20/25/30/35 + 0.1 AP)(the single target damage numbers remain unchanged), and will proc a 2 second non-champion fear when activated. While feared, minions will have 60 movement speed whereas champions will have 100 movement speed.

His E “Two-Shiv Poison” will now be a Magic Damage ability (instead of Physical), it’ll deal more damage — from 55/80/105/130/155 (+0.6/0.75/0.9/1.05/1.2 bonus AD and 0.75 AP) to 70/95/120/145/170 (+0.8 bonus AD and 0.6 AP). The execute damage numbers are also getting adjusted — from 0-50% increased damage based on enemy champion missing health to 50% increased damage on any target below 30%.

Lastly, his ultimate “Hallucinate” will trigger boxes immediately (instead of after a two-second delay), and it’ll deal less damage (from 200/300/400 + 0.1 AP to 150/225/300 + 0.7 AP). Seeing how the boxes can now deal AoE damage, Riot added ultimate-specific damage numbers: 10/20/30 (+0.1 AP) with the single target damage output being unchanged. Also, enemy champions will be feared for a fixed one-second duration instead of 0.75/1/1.25 seconds.

Sona

Sona players will now see a resource bar in order to track her passive more easily. Basically a quality-of-life change that only affects Sona mains.

Varus

Riot is shipping a slew of simple buffs to Varus. His base attack damage is going up from 59 to 61, along with his base mana regen (7.34 to 8), mana (360.5 to 360) and health (from 499 to 500). Not much, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Viktor

There are many changes shipping to Viktor this time around, and they’re mostly buffs. His Q “Siphon Power” will now shield for 30/115 (based on level) + 0.15 AP, instead od 8% of his maximum mana.

His W “Gravity Field” will no longer drag stunned enemies into the center but will instead slow them by 20% (for 1 second) for every direct hit (and no, it doesn’t proc on his ultimate tics). Speaking of his ultimate, “Chaos Storm” will now continue chasing enemy champions after Viktor dies, it can now move over terrain, the tick cadence is going down from 2 seconds to 1, it’ll have more ticks (from 3 to 6), and will deal less damage per tick (to balance things out) — from 130/210/290 (+0.85 AP) to 65/105/145 (+0.45 AP). Finally, the “Chaos Storm” will move 25% faster (up from 20%) with its minimum speed now being 250 (instead of 200) and maximum being 375 (up from 300).

Item Changes

Locket of the Iron Solari

The item’s shield strength is going up from 30 + 15 per level to 120 + 10 per level. A huge buff overall, and it should definitely broaden its use-case scenarios.

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

As with every new patch, Riot is releasing multiple new skins — this time we’re getting High Noon Ashe, High Noon Hecarim, and High Noon Darius. To say that all three skins look spectacular would be an understatement. Finally, all three of them will ship with accompanying chromas, if that’s your thing.

High Noon Ashe

High Noon Hecarim

High Noon Darius

That’s it for our League of Legends patch 9.20 breakdown! If you want to go over the patch in a more official manner, you can click here and go over to Riot’s official website. Finally, we’ll have a lot more information to go over in just a couple of days because of League’s tenth anniversary! Riot will surely reveal many upcoming projects along with a first look at the upcoming preseason changes, so stay tuned!