Here are the early LoL Patch 13.9 patch notes

With the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational update in the rearview mirror, Riot Games is now turning its focus to League of Legends ranked play balance and the champions and items that have seen spiking win rates in season 13’s early months.

The League pro scene may be taking a deep breath before MSI 2023, but battles across Summoner’s Rift certainly don’t stop for anyone or anything. The next update cycle, 13.9, began properly on Monday, April 23. While the development boss Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison is normally the one unveiling all the planned buffs, nerfs, and changes coming in the first May patch, the preview was released by the League of Legends Dev Team account.

The headlining gameplay change comes in the form of a rework: Neeko, the Curious Chameleon is getting a new lease on life after a week of heavy testing on the League PBEand the results are already looking very fun.

And, on the skin front, players will finally be able to get their hands on new releases in the Dawnbringer and Nightbringer skin lines.

Here’s everything you need to know about League Patch 13.9.

League Patch 13.9 release date

The next update of 2023 will roll out on Wednesday, May 3, according to Riot’s patch schedule. As per usual, the patch will roll out worldwide across the day, starting in Australia at around 10am (AEDT). Here are the key patch rollout times for some of the major League servers:

• 3am PT (NA)
• 5am GMT (EU West)
• 3am CET (EU North East)
• 8am KR (Korea)

There will be several hours of downtime once the patch begins. Matchmaking and competitive queues will be disabled across all League servers three hours before the update is officially deployed and set live.

Image via Riot Games

What’s coming in League Patch 13.9?

Rift trickery inbound with Neeko rework

Neeko is set to become one of the trickiest champions in League with her mid-scope update, with her passive now allowing her to become characters, plants, minions, and more.

The Curious Chameleon was released in 2018 and has struggled to find a strong spot in the metagame ever sincethough these solid changes to her Q, W, E, and ultimate, as well as the new tricky upgrades in her passive, should turn her into a fighting force on the Rift toward the backend of the 2023 League season.

Related: Neeko’s huge mid-scope League update gives her more tools to fool

Image via Riot Games

Patch changes

The changes set to roll out in Patch 13.9 are pretty small compared to previous updates since the League dev team is preparing for Patch 13.10. The devs said 13.10 will be the most significant patch since the start of the season.

The focus for this patch has mainly been to make certain champions, like Neeko, feel relevant, useful, and viable in the meta. With these changes, Neeko, among other champions, may find a spot in the meta.

The Riot devs are also working on several Kayle changes that they loaded onto the League PBE early, including Divine Ascent (passive) and Starfire Spellblade (E) tweaks and a variety of changes for her Divine Judgment ultimate.

Image via Riot Games

Here are all the early patch notes for the May 3 update. Remember, until Riot releases the official notes, any of these buffs, nerfs, and changes are still tentative and could be pulled for a later League update at any time.

League Patch 13.9 early patch notes

Champions

Buffs

• Aatrox
• Volibear
• Amumu
• Swain
• Trundle

Nerfs

• Sion
• Jinx

Adjustments

• Bel’Veth
• Taliyah (Quality-of-Life Changes)

Neeko

• Passive has new ability:
  • While within 300 units of a non-epic monster, minion, trap, ward, pet, or plant, Neeko stores their Sho’Ma over two seconds. Only one of these units can be stored at a time and she can clear out the Sho’Ma of the current unit to change the disguise to a different one. Afterward, Neeko can transform into that new chosen unit or an allied champion through an interface.
• Passive abilities removed:
  • Disguise no longer breaks upon taking damage.
  • Disguise no longer modifies her attack speed or movement speed if the unit’s values are higher than hers.
• Passive cooldown reduced from 25-10 (based on level) to six seconds.
• Q bloom base damage reduced from 40-140 to 35-135, ability power ratio increased from 20 to 25 percent ability power.
• Q has new effect:
  • Now deals 30-70 bonus damage against monsters per bloom.
• W has new effects:
  • Can now recast the ability in order to send her clone to the target location.
  • Clone now plays her Q, E, dance, joke, taunt, recall, and laugh animations and sounds.
  • On-hit now deals 50 bonus damage against monsters.
• E base damage reduced from 80-220 to 70-210, ability power ratio reduced from 60 to 65 percent ability power.
• R has new effect:
  • Now knocks up enemies for 0.6 seconds after channeling.
• R effect removed:
  • No longer shields her for 75-125 (plus 75 percent ability power), increased from 40-80 (plus 40 percent ability power) per champion for two seconds.
• R cooldown increased from 90 seconds at all ranks to 120-90 seconds, base damage reduced from 200-650 to 150-550, damage ability power ratio reduced from 130 percent ability power to 100 percent ability power.

Kayle

• Passive Aflame base damage increased from 15-35 (based on Starfire Spellblade’s Rank) to 20-41 (based on level).
• E passive ability power ratio reduced from 25 to 20 percent ability power.
• R cast time reduced from 1.5 to 0.5 seconds, area of effect delay increased from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds, duration changed from 2.5 seconds at all ranks to 2-3 seconds, effect radius increased from 500 at all ranks to 675-775, base damage reduced from 200-500 to 200-400, ability power ratio reduced from 80 to 70 percent ability power.
• R ability removed: No longer reduces attack range to 400 on self-casts.

Items

• Coming Soon

Runes

• Coming Soon

Systems

• Lich Bane

General

• Coming soon

Skins

• Coming soon