Since its preliminary announcement on Twitter, patch 10.9 has faced strong opposition from the League of Legends community due to changes that Riot has implemented which seem to have little to no impact on the meta and at times feel pointless. However, Riot Games disagrees and continues to stand by its decisions, detailing the “little changes that make no difference” in patch 10.9:
Bard
W – Cosmic Binding: The movement speed buff for allied champions decreases over 1.5s from 50% to 30%, cooldown increases from 12s to 14s.
E – Magical Journey: Cooldown increases from 18/17/16/15/14s to 22/20.5/19/17.5/16s.
Cho’Gath
E – Rupture: Damage increases from 22/34/46/58/70 to 22/37/52/67/82.
Fiddlesticks
E – Harvest: Damage increases from 70/100/130/160/190 to 70/105/140/175/210.
Gnar
Q – Boulder Toss (Gnar Mega): Cooldown reduction when Gnar picks up a boulder increases from 60% to 70%.
E – Crunch (Gnar Mega): Damage increases from 50/85/120/155/190 to 80/115/150/185/220.
Karthus
Base movement speed decreases from 335 to 325.
Kayn
Q – Reaping: Cooldown decreases from 7/6.5/6/5.5/5s to 6/5.5/5/4.5/4s, bonus damage also applies to minions in lane.
W – Blade’s Reach: Slow increases from 70% to 90%.
Lissandra
Q – Ice Shard: Cooldown decreases from 10/8.5/7/5.5/4s to 8/7/6/5/4s.
Nami
Base health decreases from 489.32 to 475.
Base energy decreases from 277.24 to 265.
Bonus movement speed from passive decreases from 60 to 45.
Quinn
Vision reduction time increases from 1.5s to 1.75s.
Trundle
R – Subjugate: Cooldown increases by 20s per level.
Wukong
Base armor decreases from 34 to 31.
Q – Crushing Blow: Base damage decreases from 30/55/80/105/130 to 20/45/70/95/120.
W – Decoy: Damage of the clone decreases from 40/45/50/55/60% to 35/40/45/50/55%.
Items – Bloodthirster: Recipe cost decreases by 100 gold, bonus AD increases by 5.
Initially, this update targets many champions that are not very popular in the meta, and only Wukong is among the top bans/picks, so any changes do not significantly affect the game. In the top lane, we still see an abundance of Maokai, Mordekaiser, Sett, Aatrox… and the same goes for other lanes, simply because the strongest champions were not affected.
Furthermore, these changes do not represent a breakthrough to increase the power of a few champions and make them stronger, most are just slight damage increases, reducing cooldowns by 1-2 seconds at early levels. Champions that need to be nerfed are barely adjusted, while those needing buffs are addressed in a minimal manner. It is no wonder that the League of Legends community is more interested in new dialogues, new lore, or skins and chromas rather than in-game updates.
“Add voice lines for the Ascended form for Azir, Cassiopeia, Renekton, Sivir, and Xerath. The biggest buff of this season, guys.”
“Can’t wait for it to break the game in the next two patches.”
“They can add dialogues but not a game mode, smh.”
“I wonder which chroma will be sold this time.”
“An underwhelming version that doesn’t bring any necessary changes at all.”
“They still release patches as if MSI is about to happen. We need a significant change worthy of a major mid-season update.”
