With League of Legends’ 2023 season venturing beyond its game-changing midseason, Riot Games is slowing down the major changes it’s making to the game’s various champions and systems—though not forgetting a few outliers that need an extra boost.
In a preview today of the changes set to accompany Patch 13.13 on June 28, Riot Phroxzon, lead designer on League’s balance team, teased players with buffs that will be pushed to testing for two of the game’s oldest and most recognizable junglers: Lee Sin and Nidalee. These buffs are expected to be available for testing on League’s PBE in the coming days, with full details regarding the changes set to be announced tomorrow.
Since the massive item overhaul that accompanied Patch 13.10 in May, the jungle meta in League has only shifted slightly, seeing previously-underused picks like Kindred and Rek’Sai have their win rates skyrocket while former meta picks fell out of style. In the case of both Nidalee and Lee Sin, their pick and win rates have not fluctuated much heading into the next patch, according to stats site OP.GG, though it’s likely Riot wants to buff their clear time to bring them up to par with more aggressive jungle picks.
The recently-changed Rell remains on Riot’s radar and is listed as receiving several adjustments in this patch, specifically with nerfs aimed at her in the support role and buffs to her jungle potential. Riot will also be implementing the long-awaited change to the interaction of both Katarina and Samira with Duskblade of Draktharr, where they cannot have their ultimates stopped upon getting a kill by any means.
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Outside of champions, adjustments are coming to Essence Reaver and Stormrazor. The latter item has become a must-buy for nearly every ADC as their first purchase, which has resulted in a nice break away from a Mythic rush but demonstrates how overpowered the item is with the recent changes to its stats and effect.
This set of changes, complete with buffs for Lee Sin and Nidalee, is expected to be pushed to testing on League’s PBE within the next few days. All of these adjustments listed are subject to be changed further during the testing period before their expected release on the live servers on June 28.
