With less than a month to MSI, the LoL patch 13.7 is focusing on pro meta.
After four or five heavy patches in a row, we once again have a patch mainly focused on champion balancing. No more systemic jungle changes or heavy-handed attempts to change powers of roles or classes, and more of a focus on finding a stable meta for the eventual MSI patch, which will be 13.9.
As a result, the main part of patch 13.7 is about pro meta. The stale jungle meta is the first thing getting looked at, especially with recent patches resulting in more variety in the bot lane.
There are also some small, but still important, system changes. The biggest one is the unanimous surrender option before 20 minutes is now gone. Players will be able to surrender their games if 70% of the team, or four out of five players, agrees to pass the vote. Also, off-screen pings will be introduced in this patch. Pings like Enemy Missing, Assist Me or Caution will now appear on the edge of players’ screens in order to help them react faster to teammates’ communication attempts.
Pro play jungle might see some new champions
Pro play fans have been complaining about the same picks in the bot lane for a while now, but jungle hasn’t been better either. The same four or five champions have dominated the meta during 2023, but it looks like more variety might be on the way.
The changes in the LoL patch 13.7 start with Vi and Wukong, two of the most prized AD junglers. Most Vi’s in pro play tend to build Black Cleaver first and then go for a tanky build with Radiant Virtue or a Guardian Angel. So Riot is nerfing the base damage values on her Vault Breaker (Q) and Relentless Force (E), and buffing her AD ratios. This is a somewhat decent nerf for pros as both the early clear and the damage will be less than current, but it can be a buff for solo queue players who play her Lethality or with Divine Sunderer. Wukong nerfs are more straightforward. He got the usual 2 AD treatment from Riot, along with losing some attack speed from his Nimbus Strike (E). While these nerfs affect solo queue Wukongs as well, they shouldn’t be enough to make him a bad pick.
Sejuani and Lee Sin also found themselves on the nerf list in 13.7. Neither of them is hit as hard as the previous duo. Both lost some power from their early clear, but it shouldn’t change their power levels in solo queue as much as it might for pro players.
Riot is determined to change Azir’s ability max order
Azir got some big changes in patches 13.4 and 13.5 trying to make him more viable in solo queue while decreasing his pick/ban rate in professional leagues. The latter goal was more successful, Azir prio dropped heavily in leagues using patch 13.5 or 13.6. But he is still not the best champion in solo queue, especially since players are still maxing Conquering Sands (Q). In the Azir section of 13.7 patch notes, it says “please max W now” four different times, which is as unheard of as it is funny.
It is a piece of good advice though. Azir has more than 2% more win rate if Arise! (W) is maxed first, which is doubly significant for a champion with Azir’s win rate. Will these changes make Azir a good solo queue champion? Probably not. But it’s becoming more and more punishing to max Q with nerf after nerf. Not to mention W is a lot more valuable with the recent Nashor’s Tooth changes.
Also, the game itself will now recommend maxing W first.
Will Zeri still be meta during the MSI?
Ever since she was released last year, Zeri has been the premiere ADC in pro play. Through various nerfs and buffs, she always found herself a viable place in the meta, with the only significant exception being the Worlds 2022 where Riot handed her some heavy nerfs. And with the MSI 2023 rapidly approaching, and with the community already complaining about Zeri, it seems like Riot is thinking about doing the same.
The nerfs in this patch for Zeri won’t break her legs or drop her out of the meta. She’ll lose some damage on her ultimate and some of her passive shield absorption, latter is mostly forgotten even by Zeri players. But the most significant change is to her Health Growth. Zeri is currently one of the tankiest ADCs, and with a Shieldbow/Bloodthirster build combined with her mobility, she can be impossible to kill. These changes should give her opponents more chance of counterplay, but they aren’t significant enough that we won’t see her at MSI without more.
Grievous wounds items get a quality-of-life change
In the current 13.6 patch, grievous wounds do not apply if a player damages a champion who has a shield. With grievous items already feeling weak compared to a lot of champions’ usual build paths, it makes it harder to justify buying these items. Especially when enchanters are still strong in solo queue, or when a lot of sustain champions have access to shields through their kits, like Olaf, or through items like Sterak’s Gage. Thanks to the change in LoL patch 13.7, grievous wounds will now apply to a target even if they are shielded, making items like Mortal Reminder or Morellonomicon more viable.
The other two small item changes in the patch are Death Dance’s Ability Haste nerfs from a couple of patches ago getting reverted and Catalyst of Aeons’ total cost getting increased to 1300 gold total.
When does LoL patch 13.7 go live?
Patch 13.7 will go live on April 5.
The first region that the patch will drop is the Oceania servers at 10 AM AEDT. The rest of the servers will follow suit in the morning hours of their respective regions. Here are the timings for most servers:
- 3 AM PT (NA)
- 5 AM GMT (EUW)
- 3 AM CET (EUNE)
- 8 AM KST (Korea)
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