League of Legends receives patch 9.8 before Mid-Season Invitational

The last set of changes before League of Legends’ 2019 Mid-Season Invitational has arrived.

Patch 9.8 has launched, bringing adjustments to 16 different heroes and a number of items. It also adds a number of new skins, including a set commemorating Invictus Gaming’s victory at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship.

While version 9.8 has a long list of heroes that have been changed, none have received an extensive overhaul on par with those seen in 9.7.

The majority of changes to heroes this patch are buffs, with most being minor tweaks.

A few received bigger changes, with biggest arguably being a substantial reduction in the cooldown of Gnar’s R skill, which has been slashed from 120/100/80 seconds to 90/60/30. Nautilus received the some extensive changes of his own, with Staggering Blow’s root duration being lengthened early and Dredge Line’s damage being rescaled from 80-240 to 100-270.

Singed also received some buffs to make up for recent hits dealt to his go-to items, with Fling’s mana cost being dropped, Mega Adhesive’s slow being boosted, and his health regeneration being increased.

Not all heroes got help in 9.8, however. After getting hammered in both of the last two patches, Kayle was once again walloped with reductions to her damage, attack speed, and armor. Zed’s skills also took a hit, with Razor Shuriken’s damage being reduced and Living Shadow’s cooldown being increased in the early game.

The generally positive nature of the changes to heroes was also applied to the game’s items.

Hextech Gunblade has had its cost reduced and Thornmail’s active effect was boosted, while the Cinderhulk changes from 9.7 were enabled after being unintentionally left out by developers at Riot Games. Stormrazor got the biggest boost, with its Energized passive ability improved in multiple ways. The only item that was adversely impacted was the Bilgewater Cutlass, which had its cost increased by 100.

The only rune changed was Coup De Grace, which lost its Adaptive Force effect but received an extra boost to its amp for damage dealt to wounded targets.

On the cosmetics front, Invictus Gaming skins for a number of champions have dropped. Additionally, a prestige skin for K/DA Evelynn was included alongside a “Galaxy Slayer” skin for Zed to help cushion the blow felt from his new nerfs.

The full patch notes for 9.8 can be found on the official website.