A few days ago, Riot teased some card changes coming to Legends of Runeterra. That previous article stated we'd see 44 cards updated, but the latest notes clarify that two more have made it onto the list: a nerf and a buff. In total, we have 32 buffs and 14 nerfs, making this the biggest balance patch we've had in a while. Let's see what's in store!

Note: This patch contains changes to dual-region cards. For clarity's sake, those will appear in the sections for both regions.

Bandle City

Bandle Tellstones Card Image Swole Scout Card Image

Buffs

Bilgewater

Reaver's Row Card Image Ibaaros Card Image

Buffs:

Demacia

Vayne Card Image Golden Aegis Card Image

Buffs

Nerfs

  • Vayne - Tumble now costs 4 (up from 3), while her Level-Up reduces the cost of the Tumble in your hand to 0 (changed from "by 3").
  • Golden Aegis - Costs 5 (up from 4).
  • Relentless Pursuit - No longer grants +1/+1.

Freljord

Bone Club Card Image Spirits Unleashed Card Image

Buffs

Ionia

Lee Sin Card Image Sai'nen Thousand-Tailed Card Image

Buffs

Nerfs

Noxus

Swain Card Image The Darkin Ballista Card Image

Buffs

Nerfs

Piltover & Zaun

Jinx Card Image Seraphine Card Image

Buffs

Nerfs

Shadow Isles

Gwen Card Image Cursed Keeper Card Image

Buffs

Shurima

Akshan Card Image Void Seeker Card Image

Nerfs

Targon

Celestial Impact Card Image Saga Seeker Card Image

Buffs

Nerfs

Runeterran Champions

Jax Card Image Varus Card Image

Buffs

  • Jax - Now equipped Allies need to deal 12 damage (down from 15).
  • Varus - Now needs to target 7 Allies (down from 8).

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed visual bugs where AI names were being cut off in The Path of Champions.
  • Evelynn will now correctly play her VFX when leveling up after the first time.
  • Fixed a visual bug where the Keyword icons would become misaligned on card frames after a hard disconnect.
  • Fixed an issue where mana gems were not updating during the round after disconnecting at round start.
  • Fixed an issue where non-created choice cards were being given incorrect discounts from Viktor in The Path of Champions.
  • Fixed an issue where Senna’s Aura effect was incorrectly accelerating or cost reducing several choice cards.
  • Fixed an issue where Wraith of Echoes’ Everywhere buff was only applying to one version of Scaled Snapper or Jayce.
  • Fixed an issue where The Darkin Bow’s stats were visually reset after a Double Strike.
  • Fixed some VO and SFX issues that were either missing or playing incorrectly.

Patch Notes

Quote From Riot Games

Card Updates
Here’s a look at each of the card updates coming in this patch:


Editor’s Note: A small peek behind the curtains! Our designers are working until the last wire tuning things to ensure we hit the meta with the strongest swing possible, as such, sometimes they don’t make it on the image in time! TLDR: Ibaaros snuck his way onto the buff list, and Ionian Hookmaster onto the nerf list.

Champions & Related Card Buffs

Varus (Level 1)

CHANGE: Target 8+ Allies → Target 7+ Allies

We’re lowering Varus’s level up requirements to give him more opportunities to shoot his shot.

Jinx (Level 2)

CHANGE: Now creates her first Super Mega Death Rocket on Level Up (Cannot create another that turn.)

Jinx has struggled to be competitive for some time– turns out emptying your hand is a hefty price to pay! We’re giving leveled Jinx a S.M.D.R. (Super. Mega. Death. Rocket. SMDR, get it?) upfront to reward her gambit even if she doesn’t stick around to see the explosion.

Editor's note: Vriss, stop trying to make SMDR happen, smh.

Jax (Level 1)

CHANGE: Equipped allies have dealt 15+ damage → 12+ damage

Jax has found some footing alongside Vayne and her support cards, but he still doesn’t feel like the star of the show (or his Origin). We’re lowering Jax’s level up requirements to give the Grandmaster at Arms a chance to continue to shine once Tumbling gets a little tougher.

Snip Snip Snip! (Gwen 2 Ability)

NEW: Drains 2 minimum

We don’t want leveling up your champion to feel like a downside when we can avoid it. With that in mind, we’re giving leveled up Gwen’s snip a minimum damage of 2 to make sure she’ll always take at least a little off the top (even when being stunned).

Seraphine

CHANGE: You’ve played 6+ New Spells → 9+ New Spells

Seraphine’s debut went viral before we knew it. We’re increasing her quest to slow down her leveled up combos and lean into the need to stretch for new spells to get Sera to truly popstar off.

Fanclub President

CHANGE: 4c → 5c

If Seraphine is getting nerfed, it MUST be the cool thing to do! We’re looking to soften the more ‘random’ driven aspects of Seraphine’s package to make playing against her less frustrating. While Fanclub President stood out as the loudest offender, we will be keeping an eye on this package as a whole over time.

Tumble

CHANGE: 3c → 4c

With Domination’s release, Vayne has Tumbled her way into multiple tier one decks. Her ability to supply free attacks and Rake in rallies with Scout has proven to be a bit too potent so we’re upping Tumble’s cost. As part of this change, we’re tweaking level 2 Vayne’s cost reduction to ensure a leveled Vayne still packs a punch.

Vayne (Level 2)

CHANGE: Reduce the cost of Tumble by 3 → Reduce the cost to 0

Lee Sin

CHANGE: Cast 8 spells → Cast 10 spells

With the introduction of Equipment and tools like Tellstones and Cultist spells, targeting allies and spamming spells has become easier than ever. We’re increasing the numbers on some of the biggest benefactors to compensate for their new toys.

Warlord’s Hoard

CHANGE: Countdown 8 → Countdown 9

Warlord’s Palace

CHANGE: Countdown 8 → Countdown 9

Swain (Level 1)

CHANGE: 4|6 → 3|6

While we’re happy with Swain’s new Overwhelming gameplay brought by his patch 3.16 buff, we want to tap back his Power to make blocking him (or not) a little less painful.

Swain (Level 2)

CHANGE: 5|7→ 4|7

Ionian Tellstones

CHANGE: Healing Potion, Homecoming → Gruesome Theater, Ritual of Renewal

While Tellstones are meant to be versatile tools for their regions, Ionia’s version has been covering too many bases too well. With this change, we’re looking to maintain the core of the Tellstone while cutting back the raw power.

Shimon Wind

CHANGE: Burst → Focus

Vastayan Disciple has been whooshing into all kinds of decks as an extremely versatile card. While we are happy with the presence of the Shimon Wind, we’re moving his spell from Burst to Focus to make playing against this monkey less tricky.

Relentless Pursuit

CHANGE: Grant an ally +1|+1. Rally. → Just Rally.

Demacia’s two premier rally spells have been meta forces since before Garen learned how to use a sword. With a wider card pool getting extra attacks is acting as a strong force multiplier, occasionally ending games in a way that feels premature. Alongside the Tumble change, we’re looking to tone back the efficacy of free attacks as a whole.

Editor’s Note: Sorry Taric!

Golden Aegis

CHANGE: 4c → 5c

Curse of the Tomb

CHANGE: 2c → 3c

Players have been able to combine Curse of the Tomb (sometimes more than one) with Overwhelm to produce huge nexus damage. While it hasn’t crushed win rates yet, we want to preemptively increase the cost for long term game health.

Saga Seeker

CHANGE: 1|2 → 1|1

Pantheon and his Fated friends have been strong for a while, and the introduction of Equipment has only helped their cause. Saga Seeker could often come down turn 1 and create a threat that simply ran away with the game, so we’re making it a little easier to kill him off before he becomes a huge problem.

Ionian Hookmaster

CHANGE: 1|1 → 0|1

While Ionia's finest fisher has done a great job of enabling different equipment synergies, her presence across most Noxian and Ionian decks has o-fish-ally gone too far. We are lowering her Power to decrease her.

Paparo the Great

CHANGE:
Create a Yordle → Summon a Yordle
Grant other Allied Yordles → Grant all Yordles

As Bandle City has undergone live balance tuning, it has struggled to find its footing and identity as a region. With these changes we are looking to take a few cards that never really found a home and regear them towards a common goal: YORDLE DOMINATION UNITY.

Swole Scout

REDESIGN:

3c 2|2

When I’m summoned, grant me +1|+1 for each Yordle ally.

Yordle Newbie

REDESIGN:

1c 0|2

When you summon another Yordle, give me +2|+0 this round.

Shatter

CHANGE: 2c → 1c

We want to cement Freljord into the region that does what it does best. With these changes we are looking to position Frostbite as a more desirable tool for the region as a whole. It’s also been a little while since we buffed Frostbite, and we couldn’t keep giving it the cold shoulder.

Rimefang Wolf

CHANGE: 3|2 → 2|3

Troll Scavenger

CHANGE: 1|3 → 0|4

Historically, big mana ramp has been one of Freljord’s successful archetypes, but it has struggled as LoR has sped up overall. Giving Troll Scavenger a more defensive stat line should help dedicated big Freljord decks keep pace into the late game.

Hexbliterator

CHANGE: 5 damage → 6 damage

While cheap spells have been prevalent in the metagame, some more expensive spells have struggled to find their mark. We’re adding some potency to these single target removal options to make sure you’re getting the right bang for your buck.

Celestial Impact

NEW: Also Heals your Nexus 3

Ravenbloom Conservatory

CHANGE: Countdown 12 → Countdown 11

Although Annie has found success as an aggressive champion, some of her slower support cards have fallen out of the new meta. We’re partially reverting patch 3.13’s nerf to Conservatory and beefing up Broadmane to help bring them up to snuff.

Lord Broadmane

CHANGE: 2|4 → 3|5

Sai'nen

CHANGE: 3|3 → 3|5

We feel like Sai’nen is a healthy option for Ionia decks and its nerf in patch 3.16 hit harder than we had hoped. It turns out that the extra tails were really important. With other Ionia nerfs in this patch, we have decided to revert this change. When asked for comment, RiotIAmWalrus said “my bad.”

Laurent Duelist

REDESIGN:

2c 2|2

Play: Grant an ally in hand Challenger.

With the nerfs to Demacia’s rally cards, we want to make sure the region still maintains its appeal. We are buffing Duelist to give a little back by leaning into some of Demacia’s other strengths and will be keeping an eye on the region’s health over time.

Ibaaros

CHANGE: 0|0 → 1|1

While silence should be an effective tool against a card like Ibaaros, killing the darkin outright was too harsh. With a 1|1 base, Ibaaros will at least be left (barely) standing post silence. Plus, we think making him a 30|30 instead of a 29|29 is just what he needs to push him over the top.

Safety Inspector

CHANGE: 6c 6|6 → 5c 5|5

After the changes to the landmark destruction in the last patch, we thought it was safe to shift a little extra power to this underutilized inspector.

Escaped Abomination

CHANGE: 4|2 → 3|3

With Hate Spike’s revert, we wanted to give a little more reason for Shadow Isles Slay decks to return to this card. After all, she does love visitors.

Editor’s Note: Shantay, you stay.

Bone Club

CHANGE: +4|+4 → +5|+5

BONE CLUB BIG CLUB. ME MAKES CLUB BIGGER. BIGGER CLUB HIT, HURT MORE. HURT MORE… GOOD.

Editor’s Note: …

Shadowblade Fanatic

CHANGE: 3|2 → 3|3

While the rest of the Cultists have been getting in on the Darkin fun, Shadowblade Fanatic has struggled to make it into the light… or dark? Idk anymore.

Wrathful Rider

CHANGE: 7|3 → 8|3

This rider’s probably wrathful that they’ve been almost unused since Call of the Mountain, so we think we can juice their numbers a bit without them running over the meta.

Gorlith

CHANGE: 0|10 → 0|12

Gorlith’s grandeur hasn’t scaled as well with the modern power level of the game, so we’re giving him a bit more ability to have an impact when he lands.

Duskrider

CHANGE: 5c 3|5 → 4c 3|4

Duskrider should be a cool finisher for Nightfall decks, but its high cost has put people to sleep.

Reaver's Row

CHANGE: 5c → 4c

When you’re building a deck around 1 drops, dropping 1 turn earlier can be pretty critical.

Editor’s Note: BY GEORGE! I think we’re onto something.

Spirits Unleashed

CHANGE: +1|+1 now granted to allies Everywhere

Udyr’s champ spell has left a lot to be desired, so we wanted to give you a long term incentive to get those spirits off their leashes.

Wrought Colossus

CHANGE: Created copy now costs 4c

This Colossus was feeling more like the Wrong Colossus considering how little use it was seeing, so we sent it back to Ornn’s Forge for a bit of a tune-up.

Darkin Ballista

CHANGE: No self damage on equip

While the health cost on this Darkin was a unique mechanic (and thematically awesome!) it was also not really justified by the strength of the card. Now that we understand better how Equipment plays, we feel like the Ballista can come without a drawback.

Pathless Ancient

CHANGE: Costs 2 less for EACH unit recalled this round

The Ancient was struggling to find any paths into the back row, so we wanted to give recall decks a way to really feel like they’re cheating him into play.

Void Seeker

CHANGE: Can now hit champions after you’ve Evolved

While Kai’Sa has seen a good deal of play since her release, Void Seeker never found its way into any of the Evolve decks because of its restrictive nature. Now, it can develop into a serious removal spell once your keywords are online.

Bandle Tellstones

CHANGE: Keeper’s Verdict → Electro Harpoon

The Bandle Tellstones were playing too slowly for a region that prefers to stay aggressive and low to the ground, so we’re switching out their slow removal spell for a more aggressive one.

Competitive
The World’s Regional Qualifier Points have been released in this article. If you’re one of those lucky players who qualified make sure to keep an eye on your Email!

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed visual bugs where AI names were being cut off in The Path of Champions.
  • Evelynn will now correctly play her VFX when leveling up after the first time.
  • Fixed a visual bug where the Keyword icons would become misaligned on card frames after a hard disconnect.
  • Fixed an issue where mana gems were not updating during the round after disconnecting at round start.
  • Fixed an issue where non-created choice cards were being given incorrect discounts from Viktor in The Path of Champions.
  • Fixed an issue where Senna’s Aura effect was incorrectly accelerating or cost reducing several choice cards.
  • Fixed an issue where Wraith of Echoes’ Everywhere buff was only applying to one version of Scaled Snapper or Jayce.
  • Fixed an issue where The Darkin Bow’s stats were visually reset after a Double Strike.
  • Fixed some VO and SFX issues that were either missing or playing incorrectly.

What do you think of these changes? Any of them got you excited? Let us know in the comments below!