Attention all summoners! Patch 13.6 is here, and boy oh boy, there are more changes in here than a Kardashian’s wardrobe. So, grab your tea and let’s dive in!
Item Changes:
Nashor’s Tooth
Attack Speed Mages Rejoice!
Nashor’s Tooth just got a makeover! It’s no longer a Mythic Item, so now Attack Speed Mages can rejoice and have it as their first item purchase again. It’ll cost you an extra 200 gold, but it comes with an additional Fiendish Codex and 15 Ability Haste.
Navori Quickblades
ADC’s Rejoice a Little Less
ADCs, you might not be so happy about this one. Navori Quickblades, the top-performing ADC capstone, has been nerfed. It’s out-DPSing Infinity Edge due to resetting auto attack self-buffs, so Riot has lowered that reset to make the comparison a bit more fair. The cooldown reduction on autos is now 12% of remaining cooldown, down from 15%.
Rune Changes:
Legend: Bloodline
ADCs, You’re a Little Less Tanky Now
Bloodline, the most-picked ADC rune in the Legend slot, has been nerfed. It’s making ADCs too tanky, and that’s not what it’s meant for. The life steal per stack has been reduced from 0.4% to 0.35%, and the max health on 15 stacks is now 85 instead of 100.
Lethal Tempo
Slow and Steady Wins the Race…Sort Of
Lethal Tempo, the most-picked rune for ADCs, has also been nerfed. It’s still a viable keystone, but Riot wanted to remove some of the power from the role at large. The attack speed for ranged users is now 24-54% (maxed at level 18), down from 30-54% (maxed at level 12).
Dragon Changes:
Drake Changes Less Importance on the Bottom Half of the Map
In patch 12.14, Riot buffed the rewards for killing drakes to encourage early game action after the Durability Update. It worked, but it put more importance on the bottom half of the map, especially during laning phase. With the recent changes to bot lane, it’s almost always correct to only focus attention on the dragon and bot lane. So, Riot is moving the dragon rewards of the stronger buffs (namely Hextech) back to a value between 12.13 and the last patch. It’s not a massive shift in the power of the objective, but it combines with general bot lane nerfs to make the game feel less decided based on the state of the bottom half of the map.
Hextech Drake
Attack Speed and Ability Haste…Slightly Less of It
Hextech Drake is getting a nerf. The bonus ability haste and attack speed is now 7.5/15/22.5/30%, down from 9/18/27/36%. The Hextech Soul base slow is also reduced to 40% (30% for ranged) decaying over 2 seconds.
Infernal Drake
AD and AP Bonus Reduced
Infernal Drake’s bonus AD and AP is getting reduced
But don’t get too excited yet, fellow summoners, for there are some changes that are not so fun. Bloodline and Lethal Tempo, the most picked runes for ADCs, are getting nerfed, making it less of a no-brainer to pick them. Riot is trying to encourage diversity in the keystone choices, but we all know how stubborn some players can be when it comes to changing their ways.
And let’s not forget about the behavioral system, which will now notify players who were exposed to disruptive behavior in a game, even if they didn’t report it. It’s a good move from Riot to encourage more reporting of bad behavior, but it also means you’ll now have to face the music for your occasional outbursts. So, it’s time to start taking some deep breaths and counting to ten before typing that angry message in chat.
Overall, it looks like Patch 13.6 is going to bring a lot of changes to the game, some of which are exciting and some of which are, well, less exciting. But that’s the nature of the beast, and as long as we keep an open mind and a willingness to adapt, we’ll continue to enjoy the ever-changing landscape of League of Legends.