There’s a ton of hype around League of Legends right now, especially with the high-tier play at the Mid-Season Invitational kicking off yesterday. 

We’re also on the cusp of the latest champion being released into the wild, but not just yet. Before then, we’ve got the League of Legends patch 9.9 which is the largest game patches of the year so far. 

Here are the three keys to Patch 9.9.

Is Tahm Kench Fish Food?

One of the most played support champions in pro play finally caught the eye of the balance team, but was is necessary? The large nerfs to nearly every single one of Tahm Kench’s abilities feels like overkill at almost every turn. That’s because Kench hasn’t ever been an overpowered champion. Rather, the standard and useful Tahm Kench has been used to much success by many pro players for the past few months. 

Some folks are asking if this set of nerfs takes Tahm Kench out of the champion pool for pro play, and all signs point to no. Despite some changes to Tahm Kench at the front-end of the game, there’s some scaling height that helps keep him as a viable choice if there are sights set on late-game. 

The largest change to the Tahm Kench’s toolkit is the size and distance of his ultimate. Tahm Kench’s Abyssal Voyage is one of the best support ultimates in the game. The champion dives underwater and can appear anywhere on the map within range in just a few seconds. Better yet, coupling this offensive or defensive maneuver with his ability to hold an ally in his mouth, makes for a crazy useful move. 

In Patch 9.9 Tahm Kench’s Abyssal Voyage is extremely nerfed at level 1, dropping from a range of 4500 to just 2500. The middle level of the ability stays the same at 5500 range. The late-game is where this new-look Tahm Kench truly shines because of his ultimate range changes from 6500 to 8500. The only draw-back is that you have to make it to late game before Tahm Kench comes online. 

Seeing Stars

It has been a great few months to be a Soraka player, no matter which lane you play her in. Soraka has been fairly overpowered in terms of a support champion for a month or more, and surprisingly, instead of nerfing her strengths, Riot Games is buffing Soraka. Almost all the way across the board Soraka is a stronger champion in Path 9.9 with updates and growth to every ability. 

With the intention of buffing Soraka in order to move her towards the utility in lane with their ad-carry, and away from being the crazy-strong ability power bully that Soraka morphed in to. 

“We're taking this opportunity to make her Q > W combo more impactful and appreciable for her carry, so players consider utilizing her more supportive nature instead of always playing her as an aggressive goat.” writes Riot Aether in the Patch Notes. 

Regardless of all the buffs and updates, one of the best changes to Soraka is that both her ‘W’ ability Astral Infusion and her “R” ability Wish will now show the player exactly how much health the abilities will restore to allied champions. It sounds like a small tweak, but it’s actually extremely useful. 

FX Updates

Riot Games has been hard at work with retouching of some of the older champions in the League of Legends line-up. It can’t be an easy task all the while trying to develop new champions to add to the game. One thing Riot added in Patch 9.9 is the next best thing to a rework for a handful of older champions. 

The visual and sound FX updates for some of the original League of Legends champions have been long overdue and much deserved. Plenty of League of Legends has seen drastic upgrades in the visual department. Looking back at footage from just a few years ago of the Rift is extremely drastic in difference. 

With this said, there were still a ton of champions still being played today that have old visuals and sound in their file folders. 

Champions updated with new Sound FX and Visual FX in Patch 9.9 are:

• Ashe

• Caitlyn

• Jax

• Renekton

Patch 9.9 is currently live on the public servers, and you can play on it now. 

As a reminder, the currently running Mid-Season Invitational is playing on League of Legends Patch 9.8 for the duration of the entire tournament. We’re heading fast towards Patch 9.10 (the post-MSI patch) which will introduce new support champion Yuumi the Magical Cat. 

What do you think is the most important change in Patch 9.9?