With the start of summer and professional League of Legends scenes resuming across the world, players have something else to keep them occupied while grinding matches as well as waiting for the next summer event. But after 2 weeks, Riot Games is ready to introduce another update that adjusts even more champions than Patch 10.12. Although the scope of these changes won't significantly change the meta overnight, it is bound to effect both solo queue and the esports scene.
In Patch 10.13, there are a total of 15 champions getting changes with 9 struggling picks being buffed and 6Â viable choices receiving some kind of nerf. Players considering Gnar, Kog'Maw, Lucian, Nocturne, Nunu, Rakan, Ryze, Vi, or Yorick will find them stronger picks with tomorrow's update. On the other hand, anyone locking in Aphelios, Cassiopeia, Kalista, Ornn, Syndra, or Yuumi needs to adjust their playstyle slightly.
From the list of changes, the biggest nerfs that stand out are Aphelios and Yuumi, 2 champions that have been repeatedly targeted in previous patches but still managed to overpower their competition in bot lane. Aphelios' base AD growth is getting reduced, he will no longer be able to refresh his Crescendum weapon's Chakram bonus on epic monsters, and his ultimate's follow-up attack bonus if it crits is being cut significantly. Furthermore, Yuumi's E now has a mana cost that scales with her max mana instead of a static amount.
With these nerfs, Aphelios' surprise burst is taking a massive hit. Aphelios creates chakrams if Crescendum is his off-hand weapon when firing that add bonus damage to his basic attacks for a few seconds, but now only attacking other champions will refresh the duration which makes it harder to retain the cap of 20 chakrams. This combined with his AD and ultimate nerf mean that other players shouldn't see their health instantly exploding as often anymore. Likewise, Yuumi's E is her bread and butter skill in the mid and late game which allows her to heal and keep important teammates alive by essentially spamming it off cooldown after getting several mana items, so the nerf means that Yuumi won't be able to cast E anymore if skirmishes or fights last long enough.
While Aphelios and Yuumi mains will be annoyed at the latest League of Legends nerfs, this doesn't change the core playstyle of both champions and they can still be played in bot lane. However, this could be enough to ensure the rise of other ADCs with burst damage or enchanter supports in the meta. Patch 10.13 also has ranged nerfs for Death's Dance and adjustments to Conqueror since the keystone was being used outside of its extended fight role. While these changes could make ADCs and assassins reconsider taking the item or rune for survivability, outliers such as Urgot who normally use both will continue to be affected as a consequence.
Although the patch is going live on June 24th, it will take some time to see the effects of these changes in ranked and several weeks until the pro teams catch up. In the meantime, new Pool Party skins are coming on July 2nd, and this hopefully means the summer event will be arriving shortly after.
League of Legends is available on PC.
Source: League of Legends