5 things to know in League of Legends patch 8.17

League of Legends’ small but important patches continue to roll in as Riot finally starts to give season 8 a little bit of stability.

This week, in patch 8.17, the changes are mostly related to a few select champions, who were mostly given some nice number buffs, rather than nerfs. This should give a little bit more room for players to give new champions a try and might even shake up the meta just a little bit. But thankfully, there will be no new systems or prices for players to learn in this patch.

There will be a new champion however! Or, almost new that is. The champion we once knew as Nunu is gone, replaced with Nunu & Willump, a more agreeable looking duo with a brand new kit to boot. This patch also comes with some brand new skins for a line that hasn’t gotten much attention over the last several years, High Noon.

For a full look at all of the changes in patch 8.17, you can check out our patch notes.

Nunu & Willump are rolling onto the Rift

The Boy and His Yeti have finally gotten their makeover and are headed to the live servers. Along with looking a whole lot better, Nunu & Willlump — the champion that used to just be called Nunu — has an all new kit. These new abilities double down on the strengths that Nunu already had, including a quick clear time and the ability to Consume champions as well now, instead of just minions and monsters. In hope of leaving his kit in a better place than they found it, Riot has also added a few more active mechanics like a big rolling snowball that can knock up enemies.

A handful of champions got tiny buffs

Seriously. 12 champions got changes in this patch that could reasonably be called buffs, but almost every single one was just a slight increase in numbers. Overall, none of these should be massive changes, but they may help move a champion from bottom of the barrel to a slightly better place. As for Irelia, the most popular of the champions that got changed, she’s getting some minion damage put back on her Q in hopes of giving back some of the power that was taken away from her since her release.

Riot Games

Stormrazor and Duskblade both got some tuning changes

Stormrazor has never quite been comfortable. It hasn’t necessarily been over powered, but it’s also never really had an identity of its own. In order to help correct that, Riot is giving Stormrazor a little less damage and a little more attack speed, in hopes of making it the go to item for LoL’s fastest ADCs. Duskblade, on the other hand, has definitely been OP, and Riot is trying to get the item into a healthier spot by reducing the damage of its proc and increasing its basic damage.

Garen got nerfed

One whole section of the post just about Garen? Yep, it’s a small patch and Garen is always strong, so we’re gonna talk about his nerf. According to u.gg, Garen is currently the second highest win rate champion in top lane and is seen in almost 30 percent of games. Garen’s the type of champion where neither of those things should be true.

With his current design, Garen is largely simple character that fills a very specific role: do well without skill shots. That’s a very good thing to have in the game, but when the best players start playing fairly simple champions because they are too strong to ignore, then you have a problem. Thankfully, Riot is addressing these issues by handing out some pretty meaningful nerfs to Garen, which should hopefully keep him out of Challenger games.

Riot Games

High Noon and Immortal Journey skins are releasing

The old West meets the far East with this week’s skin collection. Lucian, Urgot and Thresh are all getting High Noon skins, joining Twisted Fate, Jhin and Yasuo, while Irelia and Talon will get new Immortal Journey skins. While these new High Noon skins will look familiar to most players they’ve definitely got a more Ghost Rider, straight out of hell feel to them than the past skins in this line. The Immortal Journey skins aren’t necessarily part of the Sword skin line up from last year but they are pretty close and include the same Chinese inspired art.