League of Legends Patch 13.6 Recap

Milio has officially arrived. Patch 13.6 might not be as extensive as previous ones. But the scale of the changes could affect how the meta shapes up moving forward. The bot lane role suffered multiple nerfs with this update, so maybe now is the time for top laners to shine.

League of Legends Patch 13.6 Champion Buffs

Patch 13,5 saw a bevy of changes hitting Summoners Rift. Ashe was one of the champions to receive some serious attention. Her support build has been dominating competitive play since 2023 arrived. Riot Games tried adjusting her 2 weeks ago, by nerfing her W ability and buffing her Q ability. Now they are back with another buff to ADC Ashe, with her passive ability receiving a 5% damage increase. It will now do 115% damage against frosted enemies instead of the previous 110%.

Galio has been on a downward spiral both as a mid laner and support. With the durability update on patch 12.10, Galio is neither tanky enough against ADCs nor does he do enough damage. That’s why Riot is buffing his signature W ability, which gives him resistances and taunts the enemies inside it. The magic damage reduction has been increased by 5% at every level, with the scaling resistance going from 8% per 100 bonus Magic Resistance to 12%. The physical damage reduction has been increased by 2,5% at every rank, with the scaling resistance going from 4% per 100 bonus Magic Resistance to 6%. His E ability is also losing 1 second of its cooldown at every level. This enables Galio to survive long enough to cast multiple spell rotations and get more value out of them.

Vayne and Talon buffs on Patch 13.6

Vayne might be the embodiment of timeless design but her passive hasn’t stood the test of time against the more mobile champions released recently. She has also struggled with AD heavy build since the crit on her Q ability was removed. This forced all Vayne players into the on-hit playstyle, which needs a few items to ramp up. That’s why Riot is increasing the Bonus Movement Speed her passive ability gives from 30 to 45. Her signature Q ability named Tumble is receiving a major buff, having its Bonus Physical Damage scaling increased by 15 to 35% at all ranks respectively. To balance this, the empowered auto attack will now only last 3 seconds instead of 7, and her iconic W ability will now do 2% less of target’s maximum health at all ranks.

Even before the durability update, AD assassins were struggling to fight the new toys mages received in the preseason. Many items received health and with Rod of Ages and Seraph’s changes, assassins can’t compete anymore.  Talon is one of them, so Riot is helping him out. His base mana is getting increased to 400 from the previous 377 and his W ability will now use 5 mana less at every level. His passive is also in line for some buffs. Blades End will now do 5 to 25 more damage per level and it will scale 10% more of attack damage. 

League of Legends Patch 13.6 Champion Nerfs

The Aurelio Sol rework has been a major success so far. The rise in play rates in competitive and ranked play confirms this. Riot resorted to a hotfix nerf almost immediately after it hit live servers. But that wasn’t enough so now they are back at it again. His E ability will now have a flat cooldown of 12 seconds. Both versions of his ultimate ability will now stun and displace for 1 second, instead of the previous 1,25. His signature Q ability however is taking the biggest hit. It will lose 10 flat damage at max level. The same nerf will apply to the burst proc that happens after it has been channeled for more than 1 second. Considering how much of his power budget is focused on that ability and how often he uses it, this is a major blow to Aurelion Sol.

Veigar is another beneficiary of Riot’s recent changes. For some reason the Dev Team gave him 100 more range on his Q and W abilities on patch 13,4. This led to Veigar becoming a nuisance in the bot lane. To combat this, Riot is lowering his base health and armor by 25 and 3 respectively. His W ability also lost 15 to 5 flat damage at early levels, to make up for his stacking mechanic. It looks like Veigar is undergoing even more changes in the following patch so make sure you stick around for patch 13,7.

Yuumi nerfs on patch 13.6 

Similarly to the Aurelion Sol, the Yuumi rework was a major success. The dev team at Riot Games nerfed the cat almost immediately. But now, two weeks later, the data is in. Yuumi is one of the best support champions in the game. And that’s mostly due to the bonus resistances she gave with her ultimate ability.  Those are now being completely removed and the shield duration is halved, from 3 to 1,5 seconds. 

Her Q ability now functions completely differently from the previous version. But according to Riot, this one is overpowered as well. That’s why they are shaving off 5% of her ability power scaling, giving a fixed cooldown of 6,5 seconds at all ranks, and increasing the mana costs on it from 5 to 25 per level. The missile speed of the ability has also been lowered by 150 and 250 depending if Yuumi is unattached or attached. This is all on top of the maximum range of the ability being reduced from 2000 to 1725. A lot of heavy hits to Yuumi which continues to be a problem. 

League of Legends Patch 13.6 Item Changes

Patch 13,1 made the lives of all ADC mains a lot easier. The Navori Quickblades change and the Bloodthirster buff caused a significant change in the meta. With the role dominating competitive and ranked play, it’s now time for some scaling back. Bloodthirster is now losing 80 health points of the shield it used to give before level 8. Later on, the shield is nerfed by 50, going from a maximum of 450 to 400. Navori is outperforming Infinity Edge in cases where it should not, so Riot is lowering the cooldown reduction on autos the item gives from 15% of the remaining cooldown to 12% of the remaining cooldown. 

Nashor’s Tooth is the only mage item that gives attack speed, and it will now give cooldown reduction. Riot is reverting the item to its season 10 build path, price and stats. The item was changed when mythic items were introduced but from this patch moving forward the item will cost 3200 gold instead of the previous 3000. The item will now give 15 ability haste instead of the previous zero, and a Fiendish Codex has been included in the build path to compensate for this change. 

League of Legends Patch 13.6 Rune Changes

ADCs have used the Legend: Bloodline rune for sustain since its inception. With Bloodthirster being over the top, it’s time for the other sustain options to take a seat back. The Life Steal it gives per stack has been lowered from 0.4% to 0.35%. The health increase it gives at 15 is also being lowered by 15 health points.

Lethal Tempo is another rune ADCs have been abusing to obtain their position of power in the meta. So the Dev Team is trying to make other options enticing by nerfing the scaling of the rune. It will now give 24 instead of the 30% attack speed at level 1 and it will now max out at 54% at level 18, not level 12. This should make ADC scale more linearly than exponentially, and take away some power from the role across the board. 

League of Legends Patch 13.6 Drake Nerfs

Another reason bot laners have enjoyed this much success has been the power of the elemental drakes. The Hextech Soul has been especially unpleasant to play against so Riot Games is taking action. The bonus Ability Haste and Attack Speed each Hextech Drake gives has been lowered from 9/18/27/36% to 7.5/15/22.5/30%. The slow the Hextech Soul inflicts has also been lowered from 45% (35% for ranged) which decays over 2 seconds to 40% (30% for ranged) decaying over 2 seconds.

The bonus ability power and attack damage each Infernal Drake gives has also been lowered, going from 6/12/18/24% to 5/10/15/20%. Each Mountain Drake now gives 8/16/24/32% bonus Armor and Magic Resistance instead of the previous 9/18/27/36%. The Ocean Soul has also taken a hit, having its Missing Health Regeneration lowered from  3/6/9/12% to 2.5/5/7.5/10%. No changes have been made to the Cloud and Chemtech Drakes, which means these 4 have been overperforming.