5 things to know about League of Legends patch 8.24b

The holidays are almost here and that means that things are winding down for the year. But, before we say goodbye to 2018, Riot has one more League of Legends patch for us, with a few balance changes to keep us warm through the next several patch-less weeks.

This is one of the smallest patches of the year — in fact, it doesn’t even have its own name, it’s just called patch 8.24b — so things are mostly focused on specific balance updates for champions that really needed it with a couple of bug fixes thrown in. Because of that, this edition of the patch notes is focused on simple buffs and nerfs with no real meaningful changes for anyone. While champion balance is the main focus of this patch, there’s also an item change coming in with Forbidden Idol that could shake up the support role just a little bit.

As always, for a more detailed look at all the changes coming in this patch, you can check out our full patch notes.

Akali’s Twilight Shroud isn’t going to conceal her quite as well

Akali’s Twilight Shroud is unlike any other ability in the game. It allows her to jump in and out of fights, completely invisible and even drop tower aggro when it’s necessary. However, Riot has determined that all this is a little too good for Akali, and a little too bad for the people playing against her. So, after this patch, Akali will now reveal her outline every time she enters her Twilight Shroud, before going fully invisible. This should allow players a good idea of where she is and maybe even hit her with some skill shots before she disappears completely.

Image: Riot Games

Mid Pyke is getting a much needed nerf

Pyke is probably always going to be a weird champion. After all, because he’s designed to be a support assassin, his whole goal is to provide lots of damage for relatively little gold, making him a tempting choice to take to mid lane. In order to help stop his migration out of the duo lane, Riot is taking down his Q damage to minions and giving his ultimate a slightly higher execute threshold at later levels. As for whether or not this will actually keep him out of solo lanes, we’ll probably have to wait a few weeks to find out for sure.

Forbidden Idol is getting buffed

Yep, Forbidden Idol is getting some buffs to its cooldown reduction and the items that it builds into are getting buffs on their healing and shielding powers. So, Ardent Censer, Mikael’s Crucible and Redemption will all heal a little more come 8.24b. Let’s hope these buffs aren’t too severe and that things don’t get out of hand. After all, no one wants another Ardent Censer meta.

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A few champions that needed them are getting small nerfs

As you probably know if you’ve been playing much solo queue recently, a few champions are pretty dominant. Thankfully, before it goes on its long vacation, Riot is taking aim at some of these champions and trying to bring them back into line. Alistar is getting a bit of his Trample damage taken down, Cassiopeia is getting a damage decrease on her Q, Kassadin is going to have less base health and Neeko is losing a bit of damage on her Q as well. With these changes, those few outlying champions should be a little closer to their peers during the holidays.

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Turrets are going to be a little harder to kill after armor plating goes away

This change is exactly what it says on the box. After armor plating falls away, turrets are now going to have 40 armor and magic resist instead of zero. This should go a long way toward helping laning phases feel like they matter a little more and make towers feels a little less like cardboard once their extra armor is gone.