Patch Note Rundown: 5.4

By Helmight

Hey everyone! It's time for another patch note rundown. As always, I'll be tl;dr-ing the changes that came up this patch, giving brief insight as to why they happened, and picking out the highlights. Like the previous patch, 5.4 is relatively light on balance changes. However, we do have the long-awaited compensation buffs for Veigar and Mordekaiser, as well as the Zilean kit update. Keep reading for the details!




Big Changes

Janna
The Storm's Fury was always intended to be the premier disengage support, but her passive made her way too good at enabling aggression as well. Tailwind has therefore been changed accordingly and will only grant movespeed to champions moving towards Janna. However, it also now has a larger range and a bigger MS bump. Janna also gained increased movespeed on her W to compensate.

• Tailwind (Passive)
• Tailwind no longer grants Janna additional movement speed.
• Tailwind now only grants movement speed to allies that are moving towards Janna.
• Movement speed increased from 5% to 8%.
• Range increased from 1000 to 1250.
• Zephyr (W)
• Base passive movement speed bonus increased from 4/6/8/10/12% to 9/11/13/15/17%.

 Mordekaiser
The Huehuekaiser was one of the champions most affected by the removal of Deathfire Grasp and was therefore in line for compensatory buffs. While he was originally slated to become more of a tanky fighter champion on the PBE, Riot decided that the direction change wasn't very interesting for Morde and since removed it. He still got a few buffs though, including bonus attack range when his Q is active and a unique "magnet" effect on his W.

•  General
• Base health regeneration decreased from 8.37 to 3.37.
• Mace of Spades (Q)
• Mace of Spades now grants Mordekaiser +75 range for the attack.
• Cost decreased from 25/32/39/46/53 health to 20/25/30/35/40 health.
• Creeping Death (W)
• Mordekaiser now also gains the effects of Creeping Death when he casts it on an ally
•  Mordekaiser and any ally with Creeping Death gain 60 bonus movement speed when running towards each other.
• Cost decreased from 26/32/38/44/50 health to 20/25/30/35/40 health.
• Damage decreased from24/38/52/66/80 (0.2 ability power) magic damage per second to
  20/32/44/56/68 (0.15 ability power) magic damage per second (Note that enemies cannot take damage from both Creeping Deaths if standing near Mordekaiser and his ally).
• Children of the Grave (R)
•  Enslaved champions now give Mordekaiser +25% of their bonus health and +30% of their ability power instead of +20% of their attack damage and ability power.
• Enslaved champions no longer gain +75% of Mordekaiser's ability power.
• Enslaved champions gain 25/50/100 attack damage as a bonus instead of +75% of Mordekaiser's attack damage.

 

Veigar
The Tiny Master of Evil is probably the best known champion for 100-0ing people and the removal of DFG certainly was expected to hurt him. However, adding raw power to his kit to compensate just would have made him feel unfair. Instead, Veigar's been changed in different ways. His Q is now a pass-through skillshot that stops on the second target hit, while his E now has a brief delay before it appears. Time will tell if these changes hurt or helped out our favorite insane yordle.

• Baleful Strike (Q)
• Baleful Strike is now a skillshot that passes through the first target that's hit and stops on the second target hit. 
• Range increased from 650 to 850.
• Cooldown reduced from 8/7/6/5/4 seconds to 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds.
• Dark Matter (W)
• Cost decreased from 70/80/90/100/110 mana to 70/75/80/85/90 mana.
• Cooldown changed from 10 at all ranks to 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds.
• Event Horizon (E)
• Now has a .75 second delay before appearing. Warning particles show opponents where it will appear.
• Cost decreased from 80/90/100/110/120 mana to 80/85/90/95/100 mana.
• Cooldown decreased from 20/19/18/17/16 seconds to 18/17/16/15/14 seconds. 
• Range increased from 650 to 700.
• Primordial Burst (R)
• Ability power ratio decreased from 1.2 ability power to 1.0 ability power.
• Cost changed from 125/175/225 mana to 125 mana at all ranks. 
• Cooldown reduced from 130/110/90 seconds to 120/100/80 seconds.

Zilean
While you still can't killean the Zilean, our favorite old man has been in desperate need of changes for a while now. However, his old playstyle could be absolutely oppressive in lane due to his click-to-damage abilities. Riot's since changed his Q to a skillshot sticky bomb to give him more counterplay and adjusted the rest of his kit accordingly. Time for the Chronomancer to rise again.

• General
• Base armor increased from 17 to 19
• Attack range decreased from 600 to 550
• Zilean's basic attacks have new particle effects
• Zilean's ability icons have been updated.
• Time Bomb (Q)
• Time Bomb is now a lobbed skillshot with a fixed travel time. Bombs stick to allies and enemies near them when they land or when units move into its range. If nothing comes nearby, it detonates normally.
• When Zilean gets two bombs on a unit, the first detonates immediately and stuns everything in the blast radius for 1.5 seconds.
• Time Bomb delay decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Damage reduced from 90/145/200/260/320 (0.9 ability power) magic damage to
  75/115/165/230/300 (0.8 ability power) magic damage. 
• Range increased from 700 to 900.
• Cooldown changed from 12 seconds at all ranks to 12/11/10/9/8 seconds.
• Cost decreased from 70/85/100/115/130 mana to 60/70/80/90/100 mana.
• Rewind (W)
• Rewind no longer reduces the cooldown of Chronoshift.
• Timewarp (E)
• Duration reduced from 2.5/3.25/4/4.75/5.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds at all ranks.
• Slow amount increased from 55% at all ranks to 40/55/70/85/99%.
• Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Cost reduced from 80 mana at all ranks to 50/55/60/65/70 mana.
• Range reduced by about 75 (changed from center-to-center targeting to edge-to-edge).
• Chronoshift (R)
• Duration reduced from 7 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Cooldown reduced from 180 seconds at all ranks to 120/90/60 seconds.

Small Changes
Jarvan IV

• General
• Base armor increased from 24 to 27.
•  Dragon Strike (Q)
• Fixed a bug where enemy champions would get knocked up if they walked into Jarvan after he completed his dash.
• Demacian Standard (E)
• No longer grants passive armor to Jarvan IV.

Kalista

• Martial Prowess (Passive)
• Kalista's basic attack windup speeds up at 66% of her attack speed instead of 100%.

 Kassadin

• Riftwalk (R)
• Range reduced from 700 to 450.
• Base cost decreased from 75 mana to 60 mana.

Katarina

• Voracity (Passive)
• Changed to reduce Katarina's cooldowns by 15 seconds if an enemy champion dies within 3 seconds of her dealing damage to them.

Xerath

• Shocking Orb (E)
• Maximum stun duration decreased from 2.25 seconds to 1.75 seconds.

Other Changes

• Katarina and Tristana have received updated splash art!
• Warrior Enchantment's AD lowered from 45 to 40.
• Smite range reduced by about 175 (changed from center-to-center targeting to edge-to-edge).
• Revive removed as a Summoner spell :(
• Semi-locked camera added to the options menu.

Skins
The following skins will be released throughout patch 5.4:

DJ Sona (3250 RP Discounted to 2450 RP for the first four days following her release).