Patch 10.6 addresses imbalances in solo queue and professional play. The most significant change is to Wukong, who received adjustments to his kit.


1. Wukong update

Base stats

  • Magic resist decreased, health decreased, mana and mana growth increased

Passive – Stone Skin

  • Bonus armor: 5-11 based on level (level 1-18)
  • (NEW) Health Regen: Now grants 0.5% maximum health regen per 5 seconds
  • (NEW) Man in the mirror: Bonuses are increased by 62.5% for 5 seconds every time Wukong or his decoy hit an enemy champion or monster (stacking up to 8 times for a total bonus of 500%)
  • Magic resist removed

Q – Crushing Blow

  • Bonus attack damage increased from 10/40/70/100/130 (+0/0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4 total attack damage) to 30/55/80/105/130 (+0.5 bonus attack damage)
  • Bonus range adjusted from 125 to 75/100/125/150/175
  • (NEW) Hit Fast: Cast time now scales with Wukong’s attack speed
  • (NEW) Decoy CDR: Whenever Wukong or his decoy deal damage with basic attacks or abilities, this spell’s cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds
  • Base cooldown increased from 9/8/7/6/5 seconds to 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 seconds

W – Warrior Trickster

  • Wukong’s decoy no longer deals AoE magic damage before disappearing
  • (NEW) Kind of Pure of Heart: Added a 300 range dash that can’t go over walls
  • Stealth duration decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1 second
  • Cooldown increased from 18/16/14/12/10 to 20/19/18/17/16 seconds
  • Mana cost adjusted from 50/55/60/65/70 to 60
  • (NEW) Decoy damage reduction: Wukong’s decoy now mimics his attacks and ultimate, but deals 50/55/60/65/70% damage
    • (NEW) Decoy basic attacks: The decoy will attempt to attack enemies Wukong has recently attacked
    • (NEW) Decoy Q – Crushing Blow: The decoy’s next attack is empowered
    • (NEW) Decoy E – Nimbus Strike: The decoy gains bonus attack speed
    • (NEW) Decoy R – Cyclone: The decoy will start spinning and knock-up enemies that haven’t been knocked-up already from the initial ultimate cast
Credit: Riot Games

E – Nimbus Strike

  • Damage changed from AD to AP from 65/100/135/170/205 (+0.8 bonus attack damage) physical to 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.8 ability power) magic
  • Bonus attack speed increased from 30/35/40/45/50% to 40/45/50/55/60%
  • Attack speed buff duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Cooldown adjusted from 8 to 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds
  • Mana cost decreased from 45/50/55/60/65 to 30/35/40/45/50 mana
  • Distance to target post-dash increased from 0 to 75

R – Cyclone

  • (NEW) Make it double : Wukong can now cast his ultimate a second time within 8 seconds. The second cast can knock-up enemies a second time.
  • Knock-up duration decreased from 1 to 0.75 seconds
  • Spin duration decreased from 4 to 2 seconds
  • Damage per second changed from 20-200 (+1.1 total attack damage) to 4-8% maximum health (+1.1 total attack damage)
  • Spinning movement speed adjusted from 5-40% (based on spin duration) to 20%
  • Damage tick rate decreased from 0.5 to 0.25 seconds (each tick of damage now applies Conqueror)
  • Distance to target while spinning decreased from 175 to 50 (this will make Wukong get closer to his target)
  • (NEW) Wukong can now cast other abilities to cancel his ultimate, stopping its spin
  • Keep on spinning: Wukong’s bonus attack speed duration from E – Nimbus Strike is refreshed while spinning

Wukong was intended to be a bruiser, but turned into an AD assassin. When ahead, he was effective at one-shotting defenseless champions in the backline.

His old kit made him a point-and-click champion who relied on good positioning. The only real skill shot he needed to aim was his ultimate.

With these new changes, he should now be the bruiser that Riot Games intended him to be. His combos will revolve around Crushing Blow (Q), which reduces in cooldown by 0.5 seconds each time he deals damage.

Credit: Riot Games

Decoy will no longer be stagnant and disappear like an after-thought. By mimicking his attacks and ultimate, Wukong players will have chances to trick opponents with Cyclone.

Even though his ultimate’s spin and knock-up duration have been reduced, Cyclone can now be cast twice within 8 seconds, knocking-up enemies a second time.

One thing to note is his lowered magic resist and removal of magic resist from his passive. This means that he cannot be blind picked in mid lane, which is typically occupied by AP mages. Instead, he could be a response pick to certain AD mid and top laners, and excel in the jungle.



2. Teleport adjustments

  • Cooldown adjusted from 360 to 420-240 (levels 1-18) seconds
  • (NEW) Can’t catch me: Grants 3 seconds of 30-50% movement speed upon teleport completion based on character level (increased by 10% at levels 6 and 11)

Teleport’s cooldown at level one has gone up by one minute, and is reduced by ten seconds at every level. For those who enjoy typing enemy summoner spell timings in chat (i.e. support mains), you’ll need to work a little harder at math.

The tradeoff for longer cooldowns is the new movement speed burst upon teleport completion. Players who time teleports well to get advantages for their team across the map will be rewarded further.


3. Aphelios and Senna nerfs

Aphelios

Severum’s innate heal and Infernum’s innate damage to minions decreased. Crescendum’s empowered damage decreased.

Severum, The Scythe Pistol

  • Innate – Resurgent Heal: Decreased from 8-25% (levels 1-18) to 3-20% (levels 1-18) of damage dealt

Infernum, The Flamethrower

  • Innate – Incendiary AoE damage to minions: Decreased from 45% (level 9) to 30% (level 9) of the AoE damage

Crescendum, The Chakram

  • Chakram basic attack empowered damage decreased from 30-173% to 24-164% total attack damage
Screenshot by: Kristine Tuting/ONE Esports

Senna

Passive AD per soul decreased; Mist cooldown now scales.

Passive – Absolution

  • Attack damage per soul reduced from 1 to 0.75
  • Innate – weakened soul cooldown increased from 4 to 6/5/4 (levels 1/6/11) seconds
Credit: Riot Games

In season ten, Aphelios and Senna have been staples at bot lane for very different reasons. With ever-changing guns, Aphelios has both laning and team fighting prowess.

Since patch 10.1, Aphelios has received a series of minor nerfs that did not truly affect his power. The nerfs in 10.6 are the largest ones yet, and while it wouldn’t take Aphelios out of the meta, we could see more ADCs reappear.

Senna on the other hand, was picked as an ADC to passively scale in bot lane. Her support would pick up the farm while she collects stats from souls.

With Absolution nerfs, her scaling is now even more delayed, and it is likely she will be played more as a support.


4. Death’s Dance changes

  • Item build modified from Caulfield’s Warhammer + Pickaxe + Vampiric Scepter + 625g to Caulfield’s Warhammer + Aegis of the Legion + Vampiric Scepter + 500g
  • Stats reduced from 80 attack damage, 10% cooldown reduction to 50 attack damage, 30 armor, 30 magic resist, 10% cooldown reduction
  • Unique passive adjusted: Stores 30% of all post-mitigation damage received for melee champions (20% for ranged champions) and takes it as damage over time true damage

The key change here is in Death’s Dance recipe – Aegis of Legion replaces Pickaxe, giving bruisers like Aatrox and even Graves more defensive stats in long-drawn trades.


5. New junglers (again)

Credit: Riot Games

Brand, Morgana, Shen, Teemo, Yorick and Zyra have all been given buffs that allow them to deal more damage to monsters.

They add to the previous list of buffed junglers comprising Darius, Diana, Garen, Gnar, Mordekaiser, Talon, and Zed.

The growing list of champions with jungle capabilities gives players more options in solo queue. Not to mention, Morgana received additional buffs this patch with increased movement speed and Black Shield numbers, so it really might not be a bad idea to start playing her in the woods.

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