'League of Legends' Hotfix Nerfs Dark Harvest Rune

Riot Games released a hotfix that nerfed the Dark Harvest rune following the most recent League of Legends update.

After the preseason patch notes were revealed to show that the Domination Keystone Rune had been adjusted to change the way it dealt damage to targets, Riot Games returned with another small update that lowered the base damage of the rune and the damage that's accumulated for every soul its wielders have. Saying "This season's harvest was too bountiful," Riot Games has now updated the patch notes with the mid-patch update found below.

Dark Harvest

• BASE DAMAGE 50-80 (lv 1-18) ⇒ 40-80 (lv 1-18)
• DAMAGE PER SOUL 8 ⇒ 5

The mid-patch update followed a larger series of changes made to the rune that made it so that it would only proc on low-health targets, but it no longer requires a soul to have recently been acquired. It also no longer stacks off of minions in monsters, all of these changes being implemented to better fulfil the idea of the rune becoming an option that's focused on executing foes.

"We like Dark Harvest's infinite-scaling fantasy, but haven't been thrilled with how often it leads to a single, super-loaded basic attack deciding fights before they even begin," Riot Games' patch notes for the initial update said. "We're reworking it to be an execute-focused keystone that only stacks via champion combat, with a reset system to make all-out brawls even more rewarding and a broader proc model to widen the pool of potential users."

While the stat values are now partially outdated following the release of the mid-patch update, the changes made to the Dark Harvest rune when the patch went live can be found below to detail how the rune now works. There's also a note for ARAM players to explain how the rune will function in the quicker game mode that gives more opportunities to proc the rune.

• PROC THRESHOLD: Dark Harvest procs against enemy champions below 50% health
• PROCS ON: Basic attacks ⇒ Any damage
• DAMAGE: 50-80 (lv 1-18) (+0.25 bonus attack damage)(+0.15 ability power) + 8 damage per harvested soul
• ARAM: Souls increase Dark Harvest's damage by 4 on ARAM, rather than 8
• COOLDOWN: 45 seconds, reset to 1.5 seconds on champion takedown
• REMOVEDMINION & MONSTER SOULS: Minions and monsters no longer grant souls

League of Legends' Patch 8.23 is now live along with the mid-patch update that nerfed the Dark Harvest rune.