League of Legends patch 9.22 notes – Senna and Rise of the Elements

Wide-ranging gameplay tweaks and Elemental Dragons descend for Preseason 2020 in League of Legends 9.22

Another second Wednesday, another LoL patch cycle, as your world-weary flat-capped Yorkshire games writer granddad used to say down t’pub. LoL patch 9.21 is now live, 9.22 is getting underway on t’PBE, and it’s a big one.

Big changes are afoot for Preseason 2020, with some wide-ranging rebalances across the whole of the game and a brand new gameplay mechanic that can literally reshape Summoner’s Rift: Rise of the Elements. Those gameplay changes include a refresh of support choices in the shop and some tweaks to Lethality items – notably, you can expect much less gold from the latter for farming minions.

Plus, it looks like we have a new champion on the horizon – Senna, ‘The Redeemer.’ Armed with a huge relic cannon, and described as “League’s first support marksman” and a “complicated woman” in a Champion Insights post, Senna was cursed by the Black Mist during her childhood and is looking to put an end to it. You can get a first look at her below.

Rise of the Elements, meanwhile, unleashes the primal magic of the Elemental Drakes. Four such drakes representing the classical elements can now be found in Summoner’s Rift, with the element of the third drake killed reshaping the map in interesting ways. When the fourth is killed, the team that brought it down gets a powerful buff called a Dragon Soul. Read on for all the very latest changes, piping hot from the PBE, and remember as always that everything below is subject to change so check back often for updates.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS PATCH 9.22 RELEASE DATE AND DOWNTIME

League of Legends patch 9.22 is live, and League of Legends patch 9.23 is ready for testing on the PBE.

Rise of the Elements

LEaGue of legends patch 9.22 rise of the elements

This patch introduces some pretty major changes to Summoner’s Rift for Preseason 2020. The primal magic of the Elemental Drakes is running wild, changing the landscape in every game. The third drake will transform the Rift – in different ways, depending on its element – before it spawns, and after that, its element will be the only one to spawn for the rest of the game.

Killing the Elemental Drakes themselves still grant different flavours of permanent, stacking buffs to your team when killed, but some are a bit different. When you kill your fourth drake, instead of stacking the elemental buff, you get a powerful Dragon Soul from the dominant dragon. These persist through death and last for the rest of the game. Here’s what happens to the Rift when the third drake is each element, and what your team gets both from their buffs and their Dragon Soul.

infernal drake

The Infernal Drake sunders the Rift, creating new pathways through buff camps and burning away their brush. These create new opportunities for flanking and jungling. The dragon pit itself becomes the Infernal Drake’s molten domain, crumbling the walls at the mouth of the pit. The Infernal Might buff grants a percentage increase of AD and AP. Every three seconds, the Infernal Dragon Soul will cause your next attack or damaging spell to create a small AoE explosion, dealing adaptive damage that scales with bonus AD, AP, and bonus health.

ocean drake

The Ocean Drake brings new life to the Rift, causing existing brush to expand, fresh patches of brush to grow around the dragon pit, and the environment to flood with pools of water. Honeyfruit plants sprout up in each jungle quadrant. The Oceanic Will buff regenerates a percentage of missing health every second. The Ocean Dragon Soul triggers strong health and resource regeneration for three seconds whenever you deal any damage, but you get less regeneration from damaging minions.

cloud drake

The Cloud Drake’s power spawns air currents flowing through the jungle and dragon pit, speeding up champions in the vicinity. Dodge skillshots or make a swift collapse on your enemies trying to sneak a distant objective. The Cloudbringer’s Grace buff grants cooldown reduction for your Ults. The Cloud Dragon Soul lowers the cooldown of your base abilities when hitting enemies with abilities or attacks.

mountain drake

The Mountain Drake triggers a seismic shift throughout the Rift. Bluffs of rock erupt from the earth, making for some scary new choke points and ambush locations, most notably across the mouth of the dragon pit itself. Tight spaces give opportunities for big AOE wombos and create new hiding spots with fog of war. The Mountainous Vigour buff grants a percentage increase of Armour and MR. After not taking damage for five seconds, the Mountain Dragon Soul will grant a shield that lasts until it’s destroyed. Its magnitude scales with bonus AD, AP, and bonus health.

elder dragon

Once a team has claimed a Dragon Soul, it’s the Elder Dragon’s turn to defend the pit – meaning only one team can have a Dragon Soul. The Elder Dragon still grants a powerful, short-term combat buff, but it’s getting retooled to offer teams who failed to claim a Dragon Soul a teamfight-focused hope of getting back into the game. Thus, Riot is removing Elder Dragon’s scaling with Elemental Drake buffs (which favors the team that’s ahead) and replacing it with a new execution component. If Elder’s burn damage affects a low-health enemy champion, they’ll be consumed by a searing Elder Immolation, killing them instantly.

YouTube Thumbnail

Enemies affected by the Elder burn have a small marker on their health bar, indicating the execution threshold. The execution has a brief wind-up, so with quick reactions, Immolation victims can avoid imminent execution with the usual suite of clutch save abilities or spells (Zhonya’s Hourglass, Kindred’s Ultimate, etc). The threat of Immolation will still be there when they become vulnerable again, so if the Elder buff burn is applied a second time, it’s back to the fountain.


League of Legends patch 9.22 balance changes

Senna, The Redeemer

Stats:

  • Base HP: 520
  • HP Per Level: 85
  • HP Regen: 0.7
  • HP Regen Per Level: 0.11
  • Magic Resist: 30
  • MR Per Level: 0.5
  • Base AD: 63
  • AD Per Level: 0 (see passive ability)
  • Base Armour: 28
  • Armour Per Level: 3.5
  • Base Mana: 350
  • Mana Per Level: 45
  • Attack Speed Per Level: 2.5
  • Movespeed: 330
  • Attack Range: 600

Abilities:

  • Absolution (P):
    • Senna is able to attack souls spawned from dead foes and absorb their Mist, and take Mist from enemy Champions struck twice. This deals 1-16% their current health as bnus physical damage, with a 4 second cooldown per target.
    • Each Mist stack grants 1 Attack Damage, and every 20 stacks grant 25 Attack Range plus a 15% chance of Critical Strike. 35% of excess Critical Strike chance gets converted to Lifesteal.
    • Senna has a Relic Cannon. Her attacks take extra time to fire, but hand out 20% AD bonus physical damage upon impact, and grant her 10-20% of targets’ movement speed for a brief period.
    • Senna will gain Adaptive Force rather than Ability Power from the Thief’s Edge spell and the items it builds into.
    • Souls will be less likely to spawn from the enemies Senna kills, but will always spawn from monsters, large minions, and champions.
    • She doesn’t gain Attack Damage upon levelling up, and her critical strikes deal 35% less damage.
    • Percentage scaling on damage is 1/2/3/4/5/6/8/10/12/14/16 – caps at 16% at level 12.
    • Relic cannon speed is 10% at level 1, 15% at level 6, and 20% at level 10.
    • Stats from Mist are shown as buff on Senna.
  • Piercing Darkness (Q):
    • 70/80/90/100/110 Mana
    • 15 second Cooldown
    • Senna shoots a bolt through an ally or enemy of piercing shadow. Enemies struck with this take 50/80/110/140/170 (+50% bAD) physical damage, while champion allies get healed for 40/60/80/100/120 (+25% AP)(+40% bAD) health.
    • Basic attacks reduce this ability’s cooldown by 1 second.
    • Its cast range matches her attack range, with its cast time improved by Attack Speed.
  • Last Embrace (W):
    • 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
    • 11 second Cooldown
    • Senna deploys the Black Mist, which deals 70/115/160/205/250 (+70% bAD) physical damage to the first enemy hit.
    • Her target and other nearby enemies are rooted for 1.45/1.65/1.85/2.05/2.25 seconds after a 1 second delay.
  • Curse of the Black Mist (E):
    • Senna can dissolve into a cloud of Mist for 6/6.5/7/7.5/8 seconds, which turns her into a wraith.
    • Champion allies who enter the Mist become camouflaged and turn into wraiths upon leaving it, appearing as unselectable with identities hidden, until enemies attack or approach closely.
    • Wraiths gain 20% movement speed.
  • Dawning Shadow (R):
    • 100 Mana
    • 160/140/120 seconds Cooldown
    • Senna can fire a global beam that shields allies within it for 3 seconds, absorbing 120/160/200 (+40% AP)(+ 1.5 per mist) damage, and deals 250/375/500 (+ 40% AP)(+100% bAD) physical damage to enemy champions hit by it.
    • The shield’s power scales with the amount of Mist Senna has collected.

Senna’s release skin is the True Damage Senna skin:

YouTube Thumbnail

Here’s her splash:

Here’s Senna’s Classic skin:

YouTube Thumbnail

Here’s Senna’s VO:

YouTube Thumbnail

And here are Senna’s interactions:

YouTube Thumbnail

True Damage skins

 Akali, Ekko, Senna, Yasuo, and Qiyana will get True Damage skins, tying into the League of Legends Worlds 2019. Plus, Qiyana gets a Prestige edition skin, designed by Louis Vuitton – you can check them out here.


Champion Changes

Ashe – nerfed

Volley (W):
Mana cost increased to 70 from 50.

Blitzcrank – nerfed

Rocket Grab (Q):
Damage decreased to 70/120/170/220/270 from 80/135/190/245/300.

Kai’Sa – nerfed

Icathian Rain (Q):
Multi-hit damage decreased to 25% from 30% per missile.

Kalista – buffed

Sentinel (W):
Mark damage increased to 10/12/14/16/18% max HP from 5/7.5/10/12.5/15%.
Mark duration increased to 4 seconds from 3 seconds.

Kayle – nerfed

Radiant Blast (Q):
Base damage decreased to 60/100/140/180/220 from 70/115/160/205/250.
Celestial Blessing (W):
Mana cost increased to 70/80/90/100/110 from 60/70/80/90/100.

Malphite – nerfed

Unstoppable Force (R):
AP ratio decreased to 80% from 100%.

Nautilus – nerfed

Depth Charge (R):
Base damage decreased to 150/275/400 from 200/325/450.

Pantheon – changed

Comet Spear (Q):
Minion damage reduction increased to 30% from 20%.
Shield Vault (W):
No longer gains dash speed with boots.

Sejuani – buffed

Stats:
HP regeneration per level increased to 1 from .85
Base AD increased to 66 from 64.
Attack speed per level increased to 3.5 from 3
Arctic Assault (Q):
Damage increased to (80/130/180/230/280 (+60% AP)] from [80/120/160/200/240 (+40% AP)]

Sylas – changed

Stats:
Base HP regen increased to 9 from 7.
HP regen per level decreased to .9 from 1.
Base MR increased to 39 from 36.1.
Kingslayer (W):
Mana cost decreased to 40/45/50/55/60 from 50/55/60/65/70.

Xayah – nerfed

Deadly Plumage (W):
Attack speed decreased to 35/40/45/50/55% from 40/7.5/55/62.5/70%.

Item changes

Removed items

  • Spear of Shojin
  • Zz’Rot Portal
  • Ohmwrecker
  • Raptor Cloak

Energized Effect

  • All Energized Effects now stack

Doran’s Shield

Unique passive – changed
Regenerate up to 40 health over 8 seconds after taking basic attack or single target spell damage from an enemy champion, based on percent missing health (75% effective for Ranged).

Duskblade of Draktharr – nerfed

New recipe
[Serrated Dirk + Pickaxe + 925g]
Nerfs
Removed CDR
Lethality decreased to 16 (from 21)
Lethality no longer unique passive
Slow decreased to 97% (from 97%)

Edge of Night – changed

Nerfs
Cost increased to 3,200g (from 3000g)
Combine cost increased to 825g (from 625g)
Health decreased to 200 (from 250)
Lethality decreased to 10 (from 18)
Lethality no longer unique passive.
[Changed] Unique Passive
Grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds.

Rapid Firecannon – changed

Effect
Attack Speed increased to 35% from 30%
Range max increased to 200 from 150
Energized damage changed to 50 from 60-140
No longer increases energize charge speed

Relic Shield

Effect
400g
+30 Health
+5 Ability Power
+2 Gold per 10 seconds
Unique Passive
Spoils of War: Basic attacks execute minions below 50% of their max health (30% for ranged). Recharges every 45 seconds. Max 3 charges.
Quest
Earning gold through using this item will transform the item, granting Sightstone. (Receive diminishing gold from excessive minion kills. Limited to 1 Gold Income Item or Jungle item.)

Runesteel Shoulderguard

Effect
400g
+30 Health
+3 Attack Damage
+2 Gold per 10 seconds
Unique Passive
Spoils of War: Basic attacks execute minions below 50% health (30% for ranged attacks). Recharges every 45 seconds. Max 3 charges.
Quest
Earning gold through using this item will transform the item, granting Sightstone. (Receive diminishing gold from excessive minion kills. Limited to 1 Gold Income Item or Jungle item.)

Sanguine Blade

Effect
3000g +45 Attack Damage +12% Life Steal +13 Lethality
Unique Passive
Unquenched: While near one or fewer visible enemy champions gain 40%-100% Attack Speed (based on level), decaying over 3 seconds if other enemy champions get too close.
Recipe
[Serrated Dirk + Vampiric Scepter + 1000g]

Serrated Dirk – nerfed

Nerfs
Removed Headhunter passive

Shurelya’s Reverie

Cost and Recipe
2300g
[Forbidden Idol + Crystalline Bracer + 850g]
Effect
+300 Health
+10% CDR
+100% Health Regen
+100% Mana Regen
Unique Passive
+10% Heal and Shield power.
Unique Active
Grant yourself and nearby allies +40% movement speed for 3s. (90s cooldown).

Spectral Sickle

Effect
400g
+5 Attack Damage
+10 Health
+2 Gold per 10 seconds
Unique Passive
Tribute: Damaging spells and attacks against champions or buildings grant 15 gold. This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds.
Quest
Earning gold through using this item will transform the item, granting Sightstone. (Receive diminishing gold from excessive minion kills. Limited to 1 Gold Income Item or Jungle item.)

Spellthief’s Edge

Effect
400g
+8 Ability Power
+10 Health
+2 Gold per 10 seconds
Unique Passive
Tribute: damaging spells and attacks against champions or buildings grant 15 gold. This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds.
Quest
Earning gold through using this item will transform the item, granting Sightstone. (Receive diminishing gold from excessive minion kills. Limited to 1 Gold Income Item or Jungle item.)

Statikk Shiv

Effect
Energized damage changed to 140 from 60-140.
All Energized attacks chain to lights targets.

Stormrazor

Cost and recipe
Cost increased to 3200g from 3100g [BF Sword + Cloak of Agility + Kircheis Shard + 500g]
Effect
AD decreased to 50 from 60
Now has +25% Crit Chance
Energized effects changed to [charges Energize 35% faster] from [increased by 35%]

Youmuu’s Ghostblade – nerfed

New Recipe
[Long Sword + Long Sword + Serrated Dirk + 1100g]
Nerfs
Removed CDR, Lethality decreased to 13 (from 18)
Lethality no longer unique passive

Rune changes

Aftershock (Resolve Keystone) – changed

Effect
Armor and MR changed to [35 + 80% of your Bonus Resists] from [70 + 50% of your Bonus Resists].
Damage changed to [25 – 120 (+8% of your bonus health)] from [10 – 120 (+4% of your maximum health)].
Cooldown lowered from 35s to 20s.

Conqueror (Precision Keystone) – changed

New Effect
Basic attacks or spells that deal damage to an enemy champion grant 2 stacks of Conqueror for 8s, gaining ?X? Attack Damage per stack.
Stacks up to 10 times. Ranged champions gain only 1 stack per basic attack.
When fully stacked, heal for 15% of the damage you deal to champions.

Omnistone (Inspiration Keystone) – changed

Replaces Kleptomancy
Renamed from Kaleidostone
New Effect
Periodically grants a single use of another random keystone. 6-second cooldown between using a keystone and gaining the next (8 seconds for ranged users).
Cooldown between use and gaining next keystone increased to 9 from 6 (increased to 12 from 8 for ranged users).
After 30 seconds (decreased from 120) of not using a given keystone, Master Key will re-roll. Does not re-roll if you are in combat.
Non-use re-roll time increased to 40 seconds from 30 seconds.

Nimbus Cloak (S2) – changed

Effect changed
Casting a Summoner Spell gains you a movement speed increase that lasts for 2.5s and allows you to pass through units. Increase is 15% – 35% Movement Speed, based on the Summoner Spell’s cooldown. Summoner Spells with higher cooldown grant more Movement Speed.
Movement speed changed to 15% – 35% from 100.

Presence of Mind (P2) – changed

Effect changed
Takedowns restore 20% of your maximum mana or energy and increase your maximum mana by 35 (up to 350), or your maximum energy by 10 (up to 100).
Maximum energy increase decreased to 5 (up to 50) from 10 (up to 100).

league of legends patch 9.22 max cast range changes

Riot is experimenting with a potential change to the way a handful of area-based spells work. Taking Miss Fortune’s ‘E’ as an example, Riot’s ‘Lutzberg’ says: “In the live game, casting E outside of its maximum cast range will cause Miss Fortune to move towards the desired target area, then automatically cast the spell. On PBE, this spell (and the others listed below) will be ‘constrained to cast range.’ This means that, if cast outside of max cast range, the spell will instantly be cast at max cast range instead.”

The goals of this experiment are to create a more intuitive aiming experience, a higher percentage of ‘success cases’ when these spells are cast, and preserve mastery opportunities and skill-based aiming for players. The following spells will be affected on the PBE in patch 9.22:

  • Heimerdinger E and RE
  • Miss Fortune E
  • Singed W
  • Twitch W
  • Varus E
  • Ziggs E
  • Gangplank E
  • Viktor W
  • Syndra Q

The last three spells are italicised because according to Riot, they are the riskiest of what is a risky experiment. You’ll need to ‘relearn’ how these spells work, and if you don’t like the changes, you can as always let Riot know and if feedback is overwhelming they won’t make it to live. That’s what the PBE is for, after all.