The biggest winners and losers of League of Legends patch 10.18

After a short patch 10.17 and an employee break, Riot is back with a more beefy patch 10.18 that’s highlighted by tweaks to Ahri’s kit.

As expected, many of the nerfs are due to these champions’ dominance in solo queue and pro play.

Here are the biggest winners and losers of patch 10.18:

Winner: Ahri

The biggest winners and losers of League of Legends patch 10.18 — Credit: Riot Games

Base stats

Health regen decreased from 6.5 to 5.5

Passive – Vasatayan Grace

(New) Essence Theft: Ahri gains an Essence Theft stack for each enemy hit by her abilities, up to a maximum of 3 per cast, and storing up to 9 at once. Upon reaching 9 stacks of Essence Theft, Ahri’s next spell consumes the stacks to heal Ahri for 3/5/9/18 (levels 1/6/11/16) (+0.09 ability power) for each enemy hit.
(Removed) Ahri no longer gains 20% bonus movement speed for 3 seconds when she lands 2 ability hits against a champion within 1.5 seconds

Q – Orb of Deception

(Removed) Essence Theft is now her Passive

W – Fox-fire

(New) Foxier Feet: Now grants a burst of 40% movement speed decaying over 1.5 seconds at cast
(New) Minion-fire: Now deals 200% damage to minions below 20% health
(Updated) Improved minion targeting: Targeting now better prioritizes low health minions that can be killed by Fox-Fire after champions (Charmed champions are still the flames’ first priority)
Cooldown increased from 9/8/7/6/5 to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
Cost increased from 40 to 55 mana

Riot’s intention for Ahri is to “reinforce an identity of a flighty mage who can weave in and out of fights”. Previously, she relied on Orb of Deception to trigger a heal effect. Now, she’s able to gain Essence Theft stacks that consume a heal which scales off her level, ability power, and number of enemies hit.

This means that to maximize her heal, the player can expect to be rewarded for going in at the right place at the right time into a team fight. To balance these changes, Riot nerfed her base health regen slightly.

Lastly, the bonus movement speed she received from her passive will now only apply to her W. It also helps to last hit minions, so that’s a plus too!

Winner: Kayle

Q – Radiant Blast

Mana restore: No longer restores 50% of the mana cost for each enemy champion hit

W – Celestial Being

Cost increased from 70/80/90/100/110 to 90/100/110/120/130 mana

E – Starfire Spellblade

Cost reduced from 50/55/60/65/70 to no cost
Missile speed increased from 2000 to 5000

The scaling top laner has been given a really good boost. Even though Radiant Blast doesn’t restore mana anymore, and Celestial Being’s cost was increased by 20 at all levels, the fact the E is free means that overall, she is much less mana reliant than before.

Freely using Starfire Spellblade has to feel good, and will help her clear minions faster in lane as it will be gated solely by its cooldown. She’ll still need items though, and we expect late game Kayle to be even scarier than before with a no cost and constantly available Starfire Spellblade.

Loser: Sett

Passive – Pit Grit

Right punch bonus damage ratio increased from 0.15 to 0.5 bonus attack damage

Q – Knuckle Down

Bonus damage adjusted from 10/20/30/40/50 (+1/2/3/4/5% of target’s maximum health) (+0.01 per 100 total attack damage) to 10/20/30/40/50 (+0.01 of target’s maximum health) (+1/1.5/2/2.5/3% per 100 total attack damage)

And the punches keep on coming. Sett got nerfed again, but in a different way. It looks like Riot wants to steer him away from building pure tank items while still being able to deal decent damage in teamfights.

The changes favor him building attack damage, and therefore a less tanky item build, which is tough for fighters in the current meta (think Vi, Xin Zhao). Altogether, the nerfs are pushing Sett to be played mainly in the support role.

Loser: Guardian rune

Shield ratio decreased from 0.25 ability power (+0.12 bonus health) to 0.15 ability power (+0.09 bonus health)

Buffed substantially back in patch 10.12 that caused ranged and melee supports to favor Guardian over Summon Aery, it’s no surprise that Riot reported that this rune has been over performing.

Are the nerfs to AP ratio and bonus health enough to tone it down?

For the full patch 10.18 notes, click here.