It looks like Riot Games is making some changes to a few big names in the current competitive League of Legends meta with adjustments being brought to some champions who have all taken their place at the top of many teams’ priority lists.
Riot’s lead game designer Jeevun Sidhu has outlined that champions like Akali, Karma, Nocturne, and Xin Zhao will be getting nerfed next patch, as well as Malzahar, Shaco, and Ziggs. Some big bruiser top laners, on the other hand, will be on the receiving end of buffs, including Darius, Garen, and Illaoi. Taric and Seraphine will also be getting some boosts, on top of some changes for junglers like Graves, Rek’Sai, and Ivern, according to the Patch 11.14 preview.
Dr. Mundo is getting some adjustments to his flexibility toward the top and jungle, while Tahm Kench’s flexibility toward support and top will be calibrated. Both champions have received kit reworks and might need some tweaking to ensure that they’re balanced in whichever role they choose. Irelia and Lillia are also getting some adjustments but more in terms of how they fit into pro play compositions.
Akali, Karma, Xin Zhao, and Nocturne have all had a huge impact on the pro meta, especially in Europe and North America, with each champion having risen in pick and ban frequency across the world. Akali, for example, is being nerfed after becoming one of the strongest picks in the mid lane, sitting at the top with 153 bans across the four major regions but also boasting a 69-percent win rate through 71 played games, according to Games of Legends.
On the other side of Summoner’s Rift, players will need to wait for specific numbers before completely reacting to the buffs coming in Patch 11.14. Riot has had to be careful with how strong these specific champions get, but buffs were expected for certain bruiser champions after Stridebreaker was given extensive changes with its dash removal. It’s unclear how Riot will balance these characters moving forward now that they might need to build differently.
Additionally, Sidhu mentioned that the developer team took a look at the numbers for League‘s newest champion, Gwen, and how she’s been performing. For anyone who thinks the Hallowed Seamstress needs a nerf, you’ll be disappointed to find out that “her solo queue metrics are quite reasonable in terms of both win rate and ban rate.” In fact, she’s only performing in the Western competitive regions, whereas the Eastern regions don’t think she’s OP just yet.
Patch 11.14 is set to hit the live servers on Thursday, July 8.
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