Anima (6) is back on the buff list, this time with a small, but focused buff to ensure you’re able to spike faster with your initial rewards.We’ve also got a few Arbiter buffs for the combos that are feeling a bit Arbitrary.One of the biggest winners of last patch was reroll Gnar, which didn’t actually stay at Level 6 to slow roll for long. Instead, Gnar enjoyers opted to play for Levels after collecting enough Gnars, and then print the rest with Meeple (7). We don’t think Gnar is that far off in terms of balance, but the consistency of this comp is held together by its access to Level 9 through Meeple’s econ rewards. We’re shipping a small and targeted econ nerf here for Meeple (7), and going light on the Gnar nerf in an effort to keep the comp viable without the consistent dominance.N.O.V.A. has a few fun fantasies with the Striker Selector, but too few of them haven’t been viable. We’re shipping buffs to the least selected, so keep your eyes out for new N.O.V.A. carries that’ll change the acronym to Nerf Overdue Very Appealing. Okay, not likely to take them into a “need nerf now” situation, but you try making an acronym out of N.O.V.A.With our Shepherd AP nerf in our mid-patch update for 17.5 we’re able to move more power into the Summon itself and a few of the carries found in Shepherd comps. This should result in a much stronger summon, especially at Shepherd (7).

As our only champion that rolls dice and deals cards, Twisted Fate has found himself low-rolling and drawing bricks—which should hit hard, no? We’re giving him some much-needed buffs that’ll hopefully return him to a board, card table, or gambler’s den near you.

With a targeted Meeple (7) nerf for the Gnar reroll comp, we’re able to go light with our nerf here.Mordekaiser and a Heat Death (Champion Augment) buff in one patch!?

Our 3-costs are all very close in terms of balance, but Viktor’s Psionic Storm is just a tad under the weather.

With Shepherd’s AP share in check, we’re able to buff Karma and LeBlanc in hopes they can find homes in their AP Shepherd flex lines and others alike.As a Threat-like tank, if Morgana can’t do the tanking, she’s just a nice passive trait for your team. With more HP gain and ally healing, this Dark Lady should now bring more light to your boards.

Shen’s Attack Speed will no longer decay over the course of his ability, but he’s still mana locked so he won’t chain cast with absurdly high amounts of Attack Speed. Expect him to be more exciting as he now consistently hits faster and always buffs himself with his ability.

The bulk of our balance focus for this patch is Augments, so expect a very long list with a few highlights here.With this pass, one of our goals is to make Augments more general and less specific to lobby shapes/builds. Things like Best Friends I/II—which previously only granted Armor—now gets both Armor and Magic Resist, while Blood Offering will also grant AP in addition to AD, making it a solid take for AP comps.We’re also buffing many of our Augments that just haven’t been hitting the mark in terms of power. You’ll notice quite a few buffs for Augments that provide Thief’s Gloves.On the nerf list, we’ve got some overdue nerfs for Birthday Reunion, Expedition, and Self Destruct (Gragas). We’ve also got nerfs to Restart Mission that remove its powerful interaction with open fort-style (not playing a full board to lose streak + econ) Augments that took away the tradeoff for the Augment.We’ve opted to disable Critical Success, which in most cases was very weak and sometimes never cashed out. But in situations where you could build a bunch of crit items early, it could provide a fast and powerful spike. Overall, the Augment required too specific of a set up to be worth rebalancing.We moved Loot Singularity’s (Dark Star) cashouts around to grant components earlier and keep it on pace with other Gold Augments. We also reworked the final cashout and removed the impossible-to-achieve ones, but Cashout 16 will be VERY hard to hit.

Demacia, Honeymancy, and Storyweaver Kayle have all been partying a little too hard this anniversary, so as to avoid them not getting an invite for Pengu’s next party, we’re going to nerf them here and keep the sustainable (and balanced) party vibes going. We've also got some buffs to some underperforming Anniversary traits that haven't quite been able to get into the party spirit!We also have a few bugfixes for Pengu’s Party. Notably one for the 920 and 1000 Ixtal cashouts that should now provide their promised powerful rewards.