'League of Legends' Hotfix Buffs Sylas

Riot Games released a mid-patch League of Legends update that buffed Sylas, the game's newest champion who wasn't performing as well as expected.

The update which was centered around Sylas was released Monday night to conservatively buff the champion's base stats as well as one of his abilities. Sylas players should find that they have a slightly easier time last-hitting minions and surviving duels with AP champions and will also deal more damage with the champion's Abscond/Abduct ability.

Riot Games shared the update notes below which are now listed among the patch notes for Patch 9.2:

Sylas

• ATTACK DAMAGE: 55.04 ⇒ 58
• MAGIC RESIST GROWTH: 0.5 ⇒25
• E - ABDUCT DAMAGE: 50/65/80/95/110 ⇒ 70/85/100/115/130

Commenting on the hotfix, League of Legends game designer Riot AzuBK said Sylas isn't climbing as well as the Summoner's Rift team would've hoped and referred to the changes as "safe hotfix buffs." The Rioter elaborated on the changes by saying Sylas' gameplay was "mostly in line with expectations" which is why the base stats were targeted for the buffs.

His gameplay seems mostly in line with expectations, which is why we're changing primarily base stats here (as opposed to cooldowns, bigger swings on specific spells, etc). Sorry, Garen—the fight just got this much harder.

— AzuBK (@RiotAzuBK) January 29, 2019

Sylas players will have already found that weaving his passive between abilities by using auto attacks is essential to maximizing his damage, so the attack damage buff will give them slightly more damage while doing so. It'll also help Sylas last-hit enemy minions, something that he had (and perhaps still will have) a difficult time with due to his low attack damage, though the fact that a Doran's Ring is a common starting item for him does help secure the minions. Combine that buff with the Abscond/Abduct change and Sylas can deal some decent extra damage in the early game, assuming players utilizes his passive correctly between the ability's separate casts.

While Sylas was the focus of the mid-patch update, Yorick also made a small appearance following his larger set of changes included in the patch. Yorick's Maiden was changed so that it more faithfully follows the champion around, but he can also set her free for good to push a nearby lane. The hotfix resolved an issue where the Maiden would die immediately after being set free.

League of Legends' mid-patch update is now live as of Monday.