Something quite unusual happened within the balancing environment of League Legends. The first patch after League of Legends’ durability updates will be another big one, as patch 12.11 will introduce a significant number of champion and item changes.
With 12.11, Riot Games’ balancing team will be looking to iron out some of the inconsistencies that surfaced by patch 12.10. Thus, the patch will focus on balancing some of the forgotten champions and items, mainly assassins and burst champions.
One of the biggest talking points will be the huge adjustments that Zeri will most likely receive within her kit. The League of Legends developers have had a hard time balancing the new AD carry ,ever since launch earlier in January, as Zeri definitely came out “overpowered” to most of the community. In the latest update, the development team will focus once again to make changes with movement speed and damage updates.
Additionally, there will be a significant number of item buffs. Riot Games will look to put some power back to champions who have been struggling and quite obscured after the durability updates went live.
Champions to be buffed:
Xin Zhao/Nunu/Ryze/Taric/Rakan/Samira/Caitlyn/Aphelios/Tahm Kench/Irelia/Gragas/Lee Sin/Tryndamere/Sylas
Champions to be nerf or adjusted:
Lillia (Top lane focus)/Wukong/Master Yi/Swain/Taliyah/Gwen/Slayer Kayn/Brand/Kog’Maw/Rengar/Veigar/Senna/Olaf (Top lane focus)
Do keep in mind these changes are definitely subject to change before the application of the patch within the game. Mainly after testing within the PBE environment, where players as well as developers are able to play with these changes before implementing them in the live servers.
As seen above, some overly talked champions such as Wukong, Olaf, Senna, and Swain most likely will receive nerfs or adjustment to their kits. Within the meta the previous champions have completely demolished either lane matchups or fights within the game, thanks to the durability changes plus specific changes within their kits. The community agrees it is time for them to be toned down a little bit.
As for the possible champion buffs, mainly champions that relied on critical strike chance are looking to be back in the map for possible picks. Durability changes plus the possible “Randuin Omen” item makes life for critical based champions quite hard. As such the likes of Tryndamere, Samira, and Caitlyn will most likely receive buffs.
These are the possible items adjustments in hand:
Everfrost/Crown: Rebalancing AP Mythic Items/Rocketbelt /Night Harvester/Goredrinker: Overnerfed (some assassins don’t have a better option and are buying)/Duskblade/Eclipse: Assassins are weak across the board/Prowler’s Claw: Being careful to not return too much burst and also reduce incentives for fighter builds on Assassins/Axiom Arc/Serpent’s Fang/Sterak’s Gage: Item has been weak after fighter item changes, buffing towards juggernauts/BORK: Overnerfed/Bami’s Cinder/Frostfire Gauntlet/Turbo Chemtank/Sunfire Aegis/Randuin’s Omen: Tanks became weaker than 12.9 with a few exceptions, bringing them back up/Spirit Visage/Abyssal Mask/Zeke’s Convergence/Knight’s Vow
Most changes ramificate from the prevalence of tanking options or the lack of tools to kill tanks in a faster manner.
Hopefully these changes will bring peace to the community after the durability changes. We will see what of the previously mentioned notes will make it to actual live servers.
