The Tournament of Souls is well underway across Runeterra and League of Legends Patch 13.15 is continuing all the action with five more stunning skins, as well as all the usual buffs, nerfs, and changes as the Riot Games developers continue to work on the seasonal metagame.
This League update, which kicks off the August cycle, includes six buffs and seven nerfs for champions, as well as big adjustments for four more.
Matt Leung-Harrison, who presides over the many League changes, says the focus in 13.15 is helping struggling characters while knocking overly-powerful picks like Aatrox and Kai’Sa down. The Rift’s newest debutant, Naafiri, was also deemed “a bit too strong” before Riot reversed their plans.
And, of course, all our eyes are turning to the Worlds patch (I’ve got it circled in my calendar—Patch 13.19) and that’s no different in Riot’s offices; Leung-Harrison says the team has started work on that meta specifically.
The Soul Fighter skin line is also expanding with five more mouthwatering entries, including one incredible Jhin skin I’ve already put a few dollars aside to buy.
What’s in League Patch 13.15?
17 champion changes coming, Naafiri nerfs shelved
Oh, you thought just because League’s newest champion Naafiri debuted with a cataclysmically low 40.60 percent win rate that she was going to escape Riot’s ever-brutal nerf hammer? Yeah, look, so did I, but the devs are obviously seeing something under these stats that we haven’t yet.
Update July 25 10:23pm CT: So I think Riot may read my League patch notes because the devs have since removed Naafiri from the changelist. I think that’s fair enough considering the new champion’s struggling win rate. Stay tuned for 13.16 to see if the devs reverse their plans or if they leave League’s new pup alone.
In other changes that did make it, through, Aatrox, Ivern, and Kai’Sa—a major target this week, as I understand it—are up for nerfs, as are Maokai, Sejuani, and Shyvana.
On the other side, Patch 13.15 buffed Caitlyn, Camille, Gwen, Nami, Taliyah, and blade brothers Yasuo and Yone. Annie, Heimerdinger, and Yorick (more on that just below) got several adjustments too.
Regarding Yorick, I actually flagged these changes recently, but Riot ended up delaying them for more testing.
Iconic summons get changes
So, more on the above for Annie, Heimerdinger, and Yorick: The League devs are focusing in on their summons—that would be Tibbers, the H-28Q Apex Turrets, and the Maiden respectively—and tweaking their stats.
All three summons have now had their armor, magic resistances, and base health massaged to adjust the power of their attached champions ever so slightly.
The Maiden also got some new health regeneration.
Riot starts work on 2023 Worlds meta
OK, OK, so I know this isn’t exactly relevant to the next League patch, but any time the Riot developers say “Worlds” in relation to changes on the Rift, that’s a very hot topic we can’t really ignore, can we?
This week, Leung-Harrison confirmed the Aug. 2 update will be the first in a five-patch sprint to the MOBA’s annual premier tournament with the best characters in pro play already starting to get a look-in from the balance team.
Related: League Worlds 2023: Dates, location, tickets
That includes K’Sante, though I expect the Pride of Nazumah may be tweaked behind the scenes for the time being. Riot may go early with its plans, but it’s pretty unlikely.
Popular Soul Fighter skin line doubles
With the Tournament of Souls still raging in the League world, it’s no surprise Riot’s development team has a few more skins in the chamber. In this update, Evelynn, Gwen, Jhin, Shaco, and Viego are all getting new Soul Fighter variants. There will also be a Prestige edition for Shaco.
As I mentioned earlier, that Jhin cosmetic has already been bookmarked as a must-buy for me, though I may have to dig out some change for Gwen’s too.
Here are all the skins in this patch:
- Soul Fighter Evelynn (1,350 RP)
- Soul Fighter Gwen (1,350 RP)
- Soul Fighter Jhin (1,350 RP)
- Soul Fighter Shaco (1,350 RP)
- Prestige Soul Fighter Shaco (2,000 Soul Fighter Tokens)
- Soul Fighter Viego (1,820 RP)
These skins have gone live during the Patch 13.15 cycle.
Here are all of the League patch notes for the Aug. 2 update.
League Patch 13.15 patch notes
Champions
Aatrox
- Q first cast AD ratio decreased from 60-100 percent AD to 60-90 percent AD
Annie
- Tibbers armor and magic resist changed from 30-90 (plus five percent ability power) to 30-90 armor and magic resist (level 6-18).
- Tibbers health changed from 1300-3100 (plus 75 percent ability power) to 1150-3500 (plus 50 percent ability power)(nonlinear level 6-18).
Caitlyn
- Passive critical hit chance ratio increased from 1.2 to 1.3.
- R crit ratio increased from 2.5 percent damage per 10 percent crit to 3.5 percent damage per 10 percent crit.
Camille
- Attack damage growth increased from 3.5 to 3.8.
- R on-hit base damage increased from 5-15 to 20-40.
Gwen
- Health regeneration increased from 8.5 to nine.
- W resists increased from 17-25 plus seven percent ability power to 22-30 plus seven percent ability power.
Heimerdinger
- H-28Q Apex Turret health changed from 850-1450 (plus 25-200 percent ability power) to 725-1525 (plus 50 percent ability power).
- Turret armor increased from 10-80 to 30-90.
- Turret magic resist increased from 25-65 to 30-90.
Ivern
- Base magic resistance decreased from 32 plus 2.05 per level to 30 plus 1.3 per level.
- W ally on-hit damage increased from 5-15 plus 10 percent of Ivern’s AP to 10-30 plus 10 percent of Ivern’s AP.
- E shield strength increased from 80-220 plus 75 percent AP to 85-245 plus 50 percent AP.
- R duration decreased from 60 seconds to 45.
- Daisy’s armor and magic resist decreased from 20-100 plus five percent AP to 30-90 from levels six to 18.
- Daisy’s health decreased from 1300-3900 plus 50 percent AP to 1000-4400 plus 50 percent AP from levels 6-18.
- Daisy’s attack damage decreased from 70-130 plus 30 percent AP to 70-130 plus 15 percent AP.
Kai’Sa
- Base health reduced from 670 to 640.
- Q damage per missile reduced from 40-100 (plus 50 percent bonus attack damage)(plus 30 percent ability power) to 40-100 (plus 50 percent bonus attack damage)(plus 20 percent ability power).
- W cooldown reduction after evolution reduced from 77 to 75 percent.
Maokai
- Q bonus monster damage reduced from 100-180 to 80-160.
Nami
- Q damage increased from 75-295 to 90-310.
- Passive move speed increased from 90-100.
- Passive ability power ratio increased from 20 to 25 percent ability power.
Sejuani
- W total damage reduced from 50-230 to 30-210.
Shyvana
- Attack damage per level reduced from 3.4 to three.
- Health per level reduced from 109 to 104.
Taliyah
- Q damage increased from 45-125 to 50-130.
- E cooldown reduced from 18-14 to 16-14.
- E damage to monsters increased from 150 to 175 percent.
Yasuo
- Shield still 125-600 (plus 30 at level three, plus 75 at level six, plus 125 at level nine, plus 79 at level 16).
Yone
- W shield increased from 45-65 plus 65 percent bonus AD to 60-80 plus 75 percent bonus AD.
Yorick
- Maiden health has new effect: 2.5 health regen per second.
- Maiden armor and magic resist changed from zero to 10-50 Armor/MR (nonlinear level 6-18).
- Maiden health changed from 350-3300 (plus 75 percent Yorick max health) to 400-1950 (nonlinear level 6-18).
Items
Night Harvester
- Now only triggers on auto attacks, direct spells, and pets (no longer indirect effects).
Runes
Glacial Augment
- Zone slow reduced from 30 percent (plus three percent per 100 ability power)(plus four percent per 100 bonus attack damage)(plus nine percent per 10 percent heal and shield power) to 20 percent (plus six percent per 100 ability power)(plus seven percent per 100 bonus attack damage)(plus nine percent per 10 percent heal and shield power)
Systems
Smite
- Damage to non-lane minions reduced from 600-1200 to 20-160 (matches champion damage).
- 20 percent move speed slow for two seconds unlocks at Tier Two Smite.
Skins
Soul Fighter Evelynn
Soul Fighter Gwen
Soul Fighter Jhin
Soul Fighter Shaco
Prestige Soul Fighter Shaco
Soul Fighter Viego
Quality of Life changes
- Event Passes are now giftable from the Gifting Center! They can be found under “Send a Hextech Crafting gift to a friend.”
- Event Pass Mission progress for Arena has been adjusted from six points per minute for wins and four points per minute for losses to a placement-based system: six points for first, four points for second, three points for third, and two points for fourth place.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where pets/summons like Tibbers and Shaco’s clone would not be able to attack inhibitors and the nexus.
- Fixed a bug where Singed’s Q poison trail would not be able to damage Baron.
- Fixed a bug where Font of Life would proc Echoes of Helia’s passive.
- Fixed a bug where Trinity Force’s mythic bonus was not giving the correct amount of movement speed under certain conditions.
- Fixed a bug where Naafiri’s W could incorrectly collide with spells/traps past her target.
- Fixed a bug where Naafiri’s packmates would not follow the target of her W if the target became untargetable.
- Fixed a bug where Naafiri’s animations wouldn’t play fluidly when using several abilities.
- Fixed a bug where Rell’s W2 would sometimes miss when attacking Scuttle Crab.
- Fixed a bug where Rell’s W2 empowered attacks would not do damage to Epic monsters.
- Fixed a bug where Rell’s E would ignore one stack of her passive when calculating damage applied to target.
- Fixed a bug where Battle Principal and Heartseeker Yuumi’s Q and R VFX were not correctly adjusting to the size of Yuumi’s host.
- Fixed a bug where Axiom Arc’s description would display zero percent of the cooldown refunded from the player’s ultimate.
- Fixed a bug where Ivern’s ability VFX were not appearing correctly.
- Fixed a bug where Xerath’s R Arcane Perfection buff would persist in the buff bar if the ability ended before all recasts were consumed.
- Fixed a bug where Akshan’s Passive second shot would not occur against Voidlings or Ghouls.
- Fixed a bug where Katarina would dissipate Duskblade of Draktharr’s Nightstalker passive upon using her E.
- Fixed a bug where Naafiri’s packmates would not teleport with her when using the Practice Tool teleport.
- Fixed a bug where Rengar’s ultimate was missing warning on-screen effects for enemies.
- Fixed a bug where Soul Fighter Naafiri’s chroma packmates did not have on-hit VFX.
- Fixed a bug where Cleanse’s Tenacity buff was lasting for longer than intended.
- Fixed a bug where buying additional Elixirs would visually reset the cooldown timer of an existing Elixir (note: this was only a visual bug).
- Fixed a bug where Aurelion Sol’s R being used when upgraded would not change the ultimate status indicator to on cooldown.
- Fixed a bug where Ryze’s ultimate VFX overlay was not showing up correctly.
- Fixed a bug where Ryze’s E VFX overlay was not showing up correctly.
- Fixed a bug where Mecha Kingdom Jax’s E VFX ring would remain after dodging multiple hits with his E.
- Fixed a bug where Shaco’s R clone would copy his Q walking animation if used in the middle of Q stealth.
- Fixed a bug where Ivern’s E would not apply Imperial Mandate, Font of Life, and other effects that are triggered by slows.
- Fixed a bug where Nocturne’s R near-sighted debuff would appear on Neeko when she was disguised as a minion using her Passive.
- Fixed a bug where Evelynn would have a VFX issue occur after exiting the stealth provided by her Passive or R.
- Fixed a bug where Vayne’s Q while in her ultimate would not immediately give her invisibility.
Update August 1, 6:04am CT: Added Riot’s full notes.
Update July 30, 7:15pm CT: Added all skin videos.
Update July 25, 11:51pm CT: Added all buff and nerf details.
Update July 25, 10:23pm CT: Riot pulled Naafiri changes from patch.