League of Legends patch 13.5 recap

We are a quarter through the new season with patch 13,5 going live on servers. Some neglected champions are getting some love. On the other hand, those terrorizing professional play are subjected to the nerf broom. And Riot still can’t balance the jungle role.

Champion buffs on patch 13.5

The change to Infinity Edge and Navori Quickblades on patch 13,3 turned the ADC meta on its head. Overnight, champions like Draven, Samira, and Tristana received a major boost. Any bot laner that needed more damage and not attack speed to pop off, was a beneficiary of this change. But that meant that champions that do need more items to scale up were often left in the dust. 

Samira was on the receiving end of patch 13,4 and it seems Riot overdid it a bit. They are now readjusting how her passive ability scales with the movement speed bonus. Previously all 6 stacks granted 3,5% more movement speed, equaling 21%. The change on the previous patch gave her a much more linear growth, going to 1/2/3/4% per stack (maxed out at 6-24%). This proved to be a massive nerf early game, so now they are adjusting it again. With each stack giving 2/2.5/3/3.5% movement speed and maxing out at 12-21%, this should be the perfect middle ground.

Get ready for a Jinx meta in 2023

Unfortunately for hyper scaling picks like Jinx and Aphelios, they don’t rely on amplifier items as much. We saw Aphelios get buffed on patch 13,4 and now it’s time for Jinx to receive more attack speed. Her Attack Speed Growth has increased from 1% to 1.36%. This means that for every percent of attack speed Jinx gains, she will benefit 36% more from it.  Maybe Berserker Greaves, Lethal Tempo, Kraken Slayer and using Jinx’s passive will be enough attack speed at 2 items to compete with the best ADCs in the meta. But what will happen when Jinx gets to 4 or 5 items?

The mana cost on her W ability is being reduced by 10 at all ranks. It used to cost 50-70 mana and it will now cost 40 to 60. The slow on it has also been increased by 10%. It scaled from 30 to 70%, but now it will slow by 40 to 80% depending on rank. It seems Riot is fine with pushing Jinx back into the pro play meta. They are increasing the damage cap against monsters on her ultimate ability from 800 to 1200. That’s as much as a fully upgraded tier 3 smite, so fire those rockets at every neutral objective.

Mid lane Champion buffs on patch 13.5

 Qiyana has solid AOE (area of effect) damage, making her wave and jungle clear fairly troubleless. But after the durability update, she too has been struggling to nuke her opponents. That’s why Riot is giving her a 5 to 20 flat damage increase on her Q ability as well as lowering the cooldown on her E ability by 1 second at all ranks.

Ability power assassins suffering

The durability update was a death sentence for many assassin champions, and Fizz hasn’t been immune. While he has been alright against immobile mages, his AD opponents just blow him out of the water. He has to balance his wave clear with his kill threat, and having high mana costs isn’t doing him any favors. That’s why Riot is making his W ability restore the entire mana cost if he gets the last hit when fully maxed. It went from  20 to 52 mana restored to 30 to 70. That equals 100% of the mana the ability costs. His E ability also received 10 more damage at every rank, while having its mana cost lowered by a flat 15 at every rank.

Another AP assassin that has endured this struggle for the longest is LeBlanc. Give LB waveclear and she takes over the entire game killing everyone. Right now she more often than not kills a few people early on and loses the game once everyone gets items and she can’t clear waves. This has been the case for most of her existence, mostly due to that Faker guy being pretty good at her. Riot is still trying to help her, by buffing her Q ability. Killing a minion with either part of Sigil of Malice will now restore 100% of the Mana Cost and 30% of the spell’s remaining cooldown. The ability will now also deal 10-146 (levels 1-18) more damage to minions. This damage can be used twice consecutively if you use her ultimate ability.

Top lane Champion buffs on patch 13.5

If you still have nightmares of Aatrox healing his entire health bar while building lethality, we are in the same boat. But now Eclipse doesn’t give omnivamp and Goredrinker has been receiving nerfs since it was introduced. As a result, Aatrox has been struggling and Riot is back to buff him. They are lowering the cooldown on his W ability by 0,5 to 2 seconds depending on rank. They are also making the slow on it scale, going from 25% at all ranks to 25 to 35%. His ultimate ability is also receiving a small buff, amplifying his AD by 45% instead of 40% at level 16. 

Riot has been buffing armor items for quite a while now, and Tryndamere has suffered because of it. That’s why they are adjusting his base stats, increasing his Health Growth from 112 to 115 health points per level. His Attack Damage Growth has also been increased from  3.7 to 4. These changes should help Tryndamere fight the beefy boys in the top lane while scaling up to do the only thing he can do.

Rumble now has Void Staff on his E ability

Rumble has also been struggling to melt the tanks in the top lane. The durability update and the easy access to magic resist made his level 3 all-in playstyle obsolete. Riot is backing him up by increasing the magic resistance shred on his E ability by a significant margin. It will now scale from 12 to 20% for each harpoon hit. This means you can chip off 40% of your target’s magic resistance if you land both harpoons. Once your E ability is maxed that is. This is a major upgrade from the 10% on each harpoon we had previously.

Champion nerfs on patch 13.5

Aurelion Sol has been quite successful after his recent rework. It seems that a large number of you have been reading our season 13 complete Aurelion Sol guide, because Riot has placed him on the nerf list. His base stats are taking a hit, which should slow down his scaling to a certain extent. Health Growth has been lowered from 100 to 95 health points per level. 

Armor Growth has also taken a hit, being lowered by 0,3 at every level. This should make his counters feel a bit more oppressive. The explosion damage once his Q ability has been channeled for more than a second is also receiving a nerf. A 5% ability power ratio reduction should be a solid nerf at all points of the game and a general reduction of power.

It looks like Rammus doesn’t care how many times Riot shakes up the jungle. He will still find a way to dominate. That’s why his Attack Damage Growth is being lowered from 3.5 to  2.75 per level. His Q ability is also losing 5 to 20 damage depending on rank, which should be a slap on the wrist for him.

Bot lane Champion nerfs on patch 13.5

AP Twitch is one of the most broken and oppressive builds in the game. That is, if you know how to play it. It looks like Riot Games has been tunning in RatIRL’s Twitch streams, as they have decided to nerf the rat with a hat. His E ability will now do 5% of his ability power less per stack, going from 35% AP to 30% AP. Similarly to Samira, this means that at 6 stacks, AP Twitch will lose about 30% of his former damage numbers. 

Xayah has been directly and indirectly buffed for the last 15 months. Rekkles might be one of the first ADC players in Europe to realize her potential. But we can expect to see a lot more from her. It won’t be long before we see Xayah and Jinx in professional play on a daily basis. So Riot is rightfully taking precautionary steps. They are lowering the cooldown on her signature E ability by 1 second at every rank, while reducing the damage on it by 5 flat at every rank.

In the meantime, Caitlyn and Lucian have been dominating the 2023 LEC Winter Split. Nami suffered nerfs that pushed her out of the support meta tier lists, but Caitlyn doesn’t depend on anyone. That’s why Riot is reducing her Base Armor by 1, going from 28 to 27, and her Base Attack Damage by 2, going from  62 to 60. This should make laning against the sniper lady feel more tolerable at all levels of play.

Top lane Champion nerfs on patch 13.5

Gangplank has been tearing up the competition ever since the Essence Reaver and Navori Quicklblades buffs a few patches ago. Even new and inexperienced players are finding success with him. This is despite him being labeled as one of the hardest champions to master. As it stands , Gangplank is currently doing too much damage at every stage of the game and with every build. His passive will now deal 5 to 60 less true damage depending on his level. With so much cooldown reduction and no mana problems with his two core items, his barrels have to take a hit. The recharge time is being set to 18 seconds flat. Previously it used to scale down from 18 to 14 seconds . As a test, Riot is also implementing a QoL change on it, allowing enemy players to see the numbers of his barrels similarly to Irelia passive stacks. 

Yorick, Zed and Pantheon changes on patch 13.5

Lethality Yorick has been dominating the few opponents that get to see it, and Riot is removing some of its power. His Ghouls will now do 30 instead of the previous 40% bonus damage. Riot is reverting the Zed nerf on patch 12,23, lowering the cooldown on his E ability by 1 second at max rank. As compensation, they are also reducing his base magic resist from 32 to 29.

Pantheon has been struggling in the top lane and he’s been horrible in the mid lane. At the same time, every item he builds has cooldown reduction, resulting in him blocking damage way too often with his E ability. That’s why his Base Health Regeneration per 5 Seconds has been lowered from 7.5 to 6, but his base Attack Speed has been increased from 0.644 to 0.658. His E ability is having its cooldown increased by 0,5 to 2 seconds as he ranks it up. To compensate, his Q ability will have a lower cooldown in the early levels, will cost 5 less mana and will cast faster by 0,05 seconds.

Ashe and Azir Pro Play adjustments 

Azir is back to dominating the competitive scene and nobody is surprised. Good luck to the people keeping track of how many times this champion has ‌ undergone massive changes.  The game plan for this update is to weaken his early game. Most notably his poke with soldiers, which has been causing issues in competitive play. They also want to make him playable for the rest of 99,999% of the player base, by making his late-game damage easier to dish out.  His base stats are also undergoing changes, as well as his passive.

Looking at the numbers, Ashe is completely balanced in both the support and ADC role. But pro players have taken advantage of her utility and Riot has to punish that. Her W ability is losing 10 damage at every rank and her ultimate ability is having its cooldown increased by 20 seconds at rank 1 and 10 seconds at rank 2. As compensation, her Q ability will now last 6 seconds instead of 4 and it will cost 30 mana instead of the previous 50.

System adjustments on patch 13.5

We have a separate article covering the jungle and ARAM changes on patch 13,5. We also broke down the Yuumi rework a few days ago. Every time we call something, Riot goes on to nerf it in a few patches. This time around it’s time for Seraph’s Embrace to be nerfed. The item is losing 10 ability power and 50 health, which is only a minor slap on the wrist. We are calling it now, Plated Steelcaps will become the new boot of choice for many tanks, and we went over their changes in this article. 

Riot currently has a few mage items that overlap in terms of purpose, build path and price. Cosmic Drive is going from 65 to 90 ability power, losing all of the 200 health it used to give while having its build path changed. The Ruby Cristal that gave the health is being replaced by an Amplifying tome to make up for the AP buffs.

Top lane rune changes on patch 13.5

Triumph and Grasp of the Undying are some of the runes contributing to the massive amounts of healing in the game. Riot removed Ravenous Hunter for that exact reason, and now these bad boys are up for updates. Triumph has been leading to some extreme and toxic gameplay patterns, such as an Aatrox healing his entire health bar with one Q. These changes are made to lower the heal amount when the user is low on health and increase the heal amount when the user has most of his health. This might seem counterintuitive but it also removes a toxic aspect of gameplay. The heal on takedowns used to be 10% of missing health but will now be 2.5% of maximum health +5% of missing health.

Grasp of the Undying won’t heal anymore when activated, but the bonus health it gives has been buffed. It used to give 5 health points to melee champions and 3 to ranged champions, but now those numbers will be 7 and 4 respectively.