League of Legends 11.13 Patch Update

            It’s time to talk about every League of Legends player’s favorite part of the game: the patches. Update 11.13 isn’t a huge one, with less than 10 characters total being affected. But as any LoL player knows, it’s the small changes that can really ruin your day and your game. But maybe we are going into this being too pessimistic. We will just get the nerfs out of the way and then it will be smooth sailing from that point on.

            Starting with the nerf on Kayn, and to be frank it is a bit of a weird one. Technically none of his stats of been reduced. Instead, his Blade’s Reach VFX is now revealed when cast within the terrain. This was a choice made by the dev team in response to Kayn’s relationship with terrain so this is a unique nerf for specific or him. Is it fair for this character to be singled out in this way? Irrelevant. What is important is if it is balanced. And with that, only time will tell.

            The next up to get nerfed is Lee Sin. He has been seeing a lot of domination in play so the devs thought just a small tweak would be good. His E ability power increase has been tapped down a tad so it isn’t strong at later levels. Not the worst nerf I’ve heard of, but I’m sure Lee Sin mains won’t be happy to hear it.

            Rumble is getting nerfed again because the dev team just can’t seem to stop this champion from leveling the playing field fast and hard. Thus, Rumbles W ability will have its cooldown slightly increased and will provide less bonus movement speed. They really want to slow Rumble down. Will it be enough this time? I doubt it.

            Valor is the last to be specifically nerfed in the 11.13 update. The Devs thought people playing here were allowed to be too reckless when it came to charging at other champions. A decent-sized nerf to the amount of shields she can generate will make her mains think a bit more carefully about how they play. That’s what the Devs are hoping, at least.

            Next, you love and I love them, the buffs. Who is going to be blessed during this patch? Three different champions were lucky enough this time around. First, we have Aphelios who had his passive damage bonus ability buffed, which is always nice. I guess the Devs just want to see their boy get the play they think he deserves.

            Olaf is built to be unstoppable, but for some reason, he was getting stopped a lot. The Devs took a look and decided the simplest answer was best, just make the Viking harder to kill. Olaf got a flat buff to his health and mana growth. Not as flashy as some buffs, but certainly healthy. Like the whole-grain cereal of LoL.

            Last up in buffs we have Xayah. Here is another champion the Devs thought was just performing too poorly overall. They did up buffing the damage of her Q ability but also Xayah received an overall damage buff to make it so any variety of build her players prefer is accessible. I guess they just want to see Xayah reach new heights.

            Lastly, in terms of champion changes, we have two adjustments. The first is everyone’s favorite undead king. The adjustment, in our opinion, is pretty drastic. Viego will be receiving half the health he originally received from slaying minions but to even it out, Harrowed Path is seeing a sizable buff. We are a bit surprised at just how drastic this shift is, but players who have been watching Viego mains sitting comfy and harvesting health might think this is exactly what this champion needed to even the playing field.

            The second adjustment is actually a heavy rework of Tahm Kench. There is a lot of little changes, but essentially Kench has been refitted to work better with teammates and be better suited for more proactive play. Less power, more technicality, and precision. I couldn’t say for sure just yet but it looks like this version of Kench would be a heck of a lot more fun to play.

            On a non-Champion related note, but a note of importance none the less, Smite has also seen a bit of a rework. While its damage to monsters remains the same, the damage to pets and minions has been drastically reduced. If you were getting comfy one-shotting someones ultimate pet, you aren’t going to be doing that anymore.

            Also very exciting is the introduction of two new powerful items. The Devs are always really excited to see our reactions to our new toys so we try to keep it positive, but honestly this is some good stuff. Anathema’s chains letting you pick an opposing champion to declare a vendetta against, how great is that. We are always big fans of spite-based mechanics. The second item, The Skullbreaker, is a funny little tropey piece of equipment that, when you are unaided by allied champions buffs you and the larger minions. Like seriously, what’s not to love about that?

            We know you all don’t expect us to gloss over the cosmetics do you? I know some people aren’t as invested, but come on, looking good is at least a quarter of the fun of League of Legends. This patch sees the release of astronaut versions of Maokai, Rammus, Veiger, and Corki. Each of those astronaut skins will also get a slue of different chromas to accentuate whatever look your are feeling for that match.

            Those are the significant and noteworthy changes coming to your League of Legends game with patch 11.13. About the same as all these patches are, isn’t it? Some good, some bad, and always a reason to come back to the game I love.  While many players may quit the game because their favorite champion got nerfed, many others will return to the game and even buy LOL accounts to get a head start on the season.  Sometimes it is to see if the patch crashes and burns, but the cynical in me deserves to have fun sometimes too, you know?