5 things to know about League of Legends patch 8.22

League of Legends season 8 is winding down, and thanks to that, the changes have slowed to a crawl. But, in case you want to see exactly where the game will be at before Riot sweeps in for some preseason changes, patch 8.22 is here to answer all your questions.

The most notable changes here are just a few balance changes made here and there to champions that fell a little to far outside the norm — like Jhin, who wasn’t getting his damage applied properly in a few cases, or Akali, who was absolutely dominating early games are getting a few changes this time around. Also champions like Nunu & Willump, who are still too new to be quite balanced already, are getting some tweaks. There’s also a change to Time Warp Tonic in this patch, which some top laners may want to take note of.

As always, if you want a more detailed breakdown of everything that changed in the patch you can check out our full change list.

Image: Riot Games

It’s the last patch before preseason!

Yep, that’s the biggest news this time around. Unlike previous preseasons where we have had a pretty good idea, or any idea at all, about what was coming during the preseason, Riot has pretty much left us all in the dark with this one. So, when this patch releases, there’s likely going to be a deluge of PBE changes coming over the next week or so.

Time Warp Tonic was a little too strong

As some top laners, and maybe even a few mids, will know Time Warp Tonic was just a little too strong. Between the extra movement speed it granted and the extra healing it allowed potions and biscuits to give it was basically a must-have for solo laners. Thankfully, it’s getting tuned down a little bit, without being taken out completely. Now potions will give 50 percent of their effect on initial use but won’t last any longer. Also important: elixirs will no longer be eligible for the rune’s five percent speed boost.

Riot Games

Pyke got quite a few changes

Pyke is a funny champion — not that kind of funny, obviously. If he’s over-tuned, he’s in almost every game, taking kills left and right. If he’s under-tuned you might as well just stand in a bush and be a ward rather than trying to fight. Right now, he’s leaning a little more toward the ward side of things — considering his best items right now are tank items instead of damage. So, Riot is leaning harder into Pyke’s “kill stuff” theme by making him scale more off of AD, even on his survivability.

The ranked season ends this patch

The end of ranked is almost always compete chaos, so you have that to look forward to as well on patch 8.22. The ranked season’s end will be early next week on Nov. 12, and everyone is sure to be vying for a last second jump in tiers to earn those extra rewards. And this season’s are most certain worth having. For example ...

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This season’s Victorious skin is here

That’s right, it’s time again for the year end skin reward, which belongs to Orianna this time. This skin is available to any player, in good standing, that makes it to Gold in ranked this year. This time around there are also a couple of chromas for players as well.