On the 24th (KST), the 10.13 patch was finally implemented to League of Legends. Summer’s officially here, so with the introduction to the Pool Party skins, many balance changes were introduced to champions, runes, and the item, Death’s Dance. The nerfs on this patch seemingly focused on balance changes in competitive play, based on how champions that are widely used in pro play, such as Ornn, Yuumi, Syndra and Aphelios were met with nerfs.
The champions that received the biggest nerf bats were Yuumi, Ornn, and Apheliios. The biggest nerf in this patch was to Yuumi’s E, Zoomies, where it was changed from costing 100/115/130/145/150 mana to 40/45/50/55/60 (+15% max mana). Ornn’s passive, Living Forge, received changes where health and mana items built in the field now retain its previous health and mana percentage. Aphelios’ Q, Crescendum, the Chakram, no longer retains its stacks when auto-attacking Epic Monsters, and the follow up attack crit after casting Moonlight Vigil (R) was lowered from 50% bonus AD to 20% AD. Syndra had her mana cost increased on her Q, Dark Sphere by 20 at all ranks, while Kalista and Cassiopeia had her base stats adjusted.
While the nerf bat wasn’t friendly to many of the champions widely used in competitive play, other champions were compensated with buffs in the hopes of seeing more play in both solo queue and competitive. Gnar’s E attack speed has now been increased at earlier, with its duration lasting longer. Kog'Maw and Nunu all had AP ratios increased. For Kog'Maw, it’s on his Q and R, while for Nunu, it’s on his Q (both damage and healing) and his R shield, where it now also has a 1.5 AP ratio.
Lucian also received a small buff through the increased range on his Q, Piercing Light, where it has been increased from 900 to 1,000. Jungle Nocturne now clears jungle camps faster, where basic attacks against monsters also reduce the cooldown of his passive, Umbra Blades, by 2 seconds.Rakan’s W, Grand Entrance, now packs a little bit more punch from rank 2 of the ability, while Ryze’s base stat has been slightly buffed. Oh, and the Maiden of the Mist (Yorick’s ultimate, Eulogy of the Isles) now sticks closer to Yorick, where it’s been changed from 900 range to 600 range at which the Maiden returns to Yorick.
There were two changes to the runes: Conqueror and Guardian. Many players rejoiced as Conqueror saw nerfs, as the maximum number of Conqueror stacks went from 10 to 12, and the Adaptive Force per stack went from 2-5 to 1.7-4.2 (lvls 1-18). Guardian was recently changed in patch 10,12, but because it was overperforming, the shield value was nerfed from 80-200 to 70-150.
There was only one item that was hit with balance changes, but it was the only item that needed one at the moment. Death’s Dance post-mitigation damage storing for ranged champions was reduced from 20% to 10%.
A noteworthy feature that was added with this patch was the introduction of reporting and muting players during champ select. Players are now able to mute and report players while in the lobby, in which the mute carries over in-game. This function is only experimental, as it’s a tool to gather data and implement a penalty system that is effective in the near future.
To give everyone a brief introduction of who I am, my name is Quest, and I'm a journalist at Inven Global (and also the author of this piece). Prior to joining Inven, I was the former head coach for a Korean professional League of Legends team called bbq Olivers. Here are my thoughts on the 10.13 patch.
In terms of nerfs, I feel that the biggest nerf in this patch was Yuumi. Riot decided to execute her by increasing her mana costs substantially, thus disabling her ability to spam heal her allies. The changes to Ornn hurts Ornn in the jungle, but since Ornn’s mostly used in the top lane, I feel that although it may affect his sustain in the top lane, it won’t hurt Ornn too much.
Riot’s approach to nerfing Aphelios on the 10.13 patch definitely missed the mark, as his overloaded kit is what makes him strong, and failed to further exploit his weakness, the biggest one being immobility and being outranged. I feel that the nerf to the mana cost of Syndra’s Dark Sphere is a good change, as it will separate the seasoned players from the bad ones.
In terms of buffs, the Gnar buffs are the biggest in this patch for me, as the 20% AS increase and the duration increase will greatly help him (especially when the ability is ranked up last). The increase in the AP ratios for Kog'Maw are very nice as well, as we’ve seen pros like DAMWON Gaming’s ShowMaker practice AP Kog'Maw in solo queue. This buff may potentially bring back AP Kog'Maw into competitive play. Nunu’s AP ratio buffs are very nice as well, and I feel that the addition of the 1.5 AP ratio to his Ult shield is absolutely huge. Other than these, other buffs to champions are just QoL buffs, or won’t change the champion’s overall performance in the game.
Finally, the balance changes to Death’s Dance, Conqueror and Guardian were all something that was anticipated, but nevertheless, will remain strong. I feel that the strengths of Death’s Dance came from offering too many resistance stats, but the nerfs to the item is a good start. While Guardian’s balance changes seem fair, changes to Conqueror are something that Riot stated that the reason why they’re nerfing Conqueror was because it made other runes such as Electrocute pale in comparison. If that’s the case, then why not buff those other runes in question?
For all official patch notes, read the official blog post by Riot Games.
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