All the nerfs in patch 10.15 were targeted at S-tier champions used in pro play, while new buffs to champions outside the meta signal the start of a shift.

Unsurprisingly, Aphelios, Lee Sin, Ornn, Fiddlesticks and Twisted Fate, who have high pick rates in competitive games, received nerfs.

The buffs on the other hand, are quite random, but are definitely welcomed considering the stagnant state of the game.

New jungle champion Lillia will also be released with this patch.

Here’s the entire list of winners and losers of patch 10.15:


Winner: Gragas

Credit: Riot Games

W – Drunken Rage

  • Damage ratio increased from 0.5 to 0.6 ability power

R – Explosive Cask

  • Damage ratio increased from 0.7 to 0.8 ability power

Gragas sobered up a little more this patch, after receiving an added punch to Drunken Rage and his ultimate. These increased ratios not only help him late game, but will also increase his damage from early to mid game.

Expect to see the return of jungle and support Gragas. (And therefore, Yasuo)


Winner: Caitlyn

Credit: Riot Games

Base stats

  • Attack damage increased from 62 to 64
  • Movement speed increased from 325 to 330

Caitlyn as an AD carry needs time to scale. Even with these buffs, she still can’t compare to the added utility and crowd control that Ashe brings.

As a champion who likes to run Fleet Footwork, the additional movement speed will be felt, while the increased base damage will certainly help in the early game.

Riot’s intention is for her “to be a reasonable fit with and against certain meta compositions” and we’ll have to see if these buffs are enough for pro teams to pick her against certain types of drafts.

For now, ADC mains in solo queue can start reaping the benefits.


Winner: Swain

Credit: Riot Games

Base stats

  • Movement speed decreased from 335 to 325

Passive – Ravenous Flock

  • Cooldown decreased from 12/9/6 seconds (levels 1/7/13) to 10 seconds (now scales with cooldown reduction)
  • (Removed) Flock mana restore: Swain’s ravens no longer restore mana
  • (Bugfix) Swain can no longer pull enemies launched by Blast Cones triggered by themselves or their teammates

Q – Death’s Hand

  • Cooldown decreased from 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 to 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds
  • Bolt angle decreased from 10 degrees to 8 degrees
  • (New) Hand it over: Death’s Hand’s bolts now pass through champions

W – Vision of Empire

  • Range increased from 3500 to 5500/6000/6500/7000/7500
  • Damage decreased from 100/150/200/250/300 to 80/120/160/200/240
  • Cost reduced from 70/85/100/115/130 to 70/80/90/100/110 mana

E – Nevermove

  • Cooldown decreased from 13/12/11/10/9 to 10 seconds
  • Cost reduced from 60/65/70/75/80 to flat 50 mana

Vision of Empire’s range has been massively increased! On top of that, his hard crowd-control root spell, Nevermove, now has a flat ten second cooldown and flat mana cost.

Support mains, if you haven’t picked up Swain yet, now is the time.

To keep Swain in check, his movement speed, mana restore and base damage of Vision of Empire were decreased. As much as Riot wanted to “fire up his power” in both the mid lane and support roles, the huge utility buffs means that support Swain got the longer end of the stick.


Winner: Shen

Credit: Riot Games

Passive – Ki Barrier

  • Shield value increased from 50-101 (levels 1-18) to 70-121 (levels 1-18) (bonus health ratio unchanged)

The changes for Gragas, Shen, and Swain all help more than one role, giving more flexibility to players. The overall winner? Support mains.

Shen now has extra effective HP from his passive’s shield, which was buffed for no apparent reason. For solo queue, this could also mean seeing a little more jungle Shen as well.



Winner: Yuumi

Credit: Riot Games

Passive – Bop ‘N’ Block

  • Mana restore increased from 50-160 (levels 1-18) to 25-100 (+8% maximum mana) (levels 1-18)
  • Cooldown decreased from 20-8 seconds (levels 1-18) to 18-6 seconds (levels 1-18)

Yuumi was put to rest after the gigantic mana cost increase to Zoomies in patch 10.13. To give her some life back, Riot made her passive more rewarding, in which players will need to detach, auto attack and put themselves at risk more frequently.

We don’t think this is enough to bring Yuumi back into the meta, but it does give incentive for Yuumi mains to start playing her again.


Winner: Spellthief’s Edge

Credit: Riot Games

Spellthielf’s Edge

  • Base mana regen increased from 25% to 50%

Frostfang

  • Base mana regen increased from 50% to 75%

Shard of True Ice

  • Damage increased from 45 to 50 ability power

After the buffs to Guardian, many ranged supports ended up opting for Relic Shield. The increased 25% mana regen on Spellthief is a solid incentive for ranged/poke supports to return to the offense.


Loser: Twisted Fate

Credit: Riot Games

W – Pick a Card

  • Cooldown increased from 6 to 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds

Pick a card is now limited to one per skirmish, especially from the early to mid game.

From a flat CD to a scaling one, the nerf to TF’s bread and butter spell will severely hinder his performance. The immobile mid laner will be even more vulnerable than before, as the window for opponents to punish him after the first card is thrown is larger.


Loser: Aphelios

Credit: Riot Games

Q – Crescendum, the Chakram

  • Sentry activation radius decreased from 575 to 500
  • Sentry activation time increased from 0.25 to 0.35 seconds to attack target in range

Q – Infernum, the Flamethrower

  • (Removed) Runaan’s bolt pass through: Runaan’s Hurricane bolts no longer deal damage to all enemies they pass through (splash missiles and normal Infernum firebolts still do)
  • Critical AoE splash missiles count reduced from 8 to 6 splash missiles
  • Runaan’s splash missiles count reduced from 4 to 3 splash missiles
  • Critical Runaan’s splash missiles count reduced from 8 to 5 splash missiles
  • (Updated) Runaan’s AoE splash missiles size: Hurricane splash missile AoE lengths are now reduced by ~100 range

Aphelios has appeared in almost every patch since his release. Of late, he’s been receiving small nerfs every two weeks as Riot continues their conservative approach in lowering his dominance.

If you dislike playing against “200 years”, the good news is that Aphelios’ two best guns finally received a nerf this patch. Flamethrower’s synergy with Runaan’s Hurricane has been reduced, which gives opponents more leeway to work around its decreased crit and range.

Crescendum’s bouncing Chakrams remain the same however, so we still expect Aphelios to be a top tier ADC.


Loser: Fiddlesticks

Credit: Riot Games

W – Bountiful Harvest

  • Healing reduced from 25% against minions to 15% against minions

What a relief. Tank Fiddlesticks mid was oppressive, especially if you’re against him without Ignite. The reduced healing gained from Bountiful Harvest will even out lane trades a bit more.

Credit: Riot Games

For the full 10.15 patch notes, click here.

READ MORE: League of Legends patch 10.14: The return of mid lane and jungle Karthus