The 2023 League of Legends season has seen so many buffs, nerfs, and key system changes that it’s almost becoming a little hard to keep up with, especially if you’re a newer jungler or regularly play either of the two roles in the bot lane.
And, with the pre-update League Patch 13.11 announcements on May 22, shared by the title’s development team on Twitter, things aren’t getting any simpler either.
In the next League update, the five champions who will be nerfed include Aurelion Sol, Jinx, Aphelios, Kog’Maw, and Amumu—four of which are ADC bot laners.
Of these nerfs, the most surprising to see is Aphelios because, unlike the other soon-to-be-changed champions, he has a less-than-stellar win rate of 48.59 percent in League queues right now. So, if anything, he actually needs to be buffed.
On top of this, the items that are in the pipeline to get nerfed—some of which even got new adjustments as recently as League Patch 13.10—include Ardent Censer, Echoes of Helia, Galeforce, Stormrazor, and Youmuu’s Blade. As you can see, there’s a trend; four of these five items are core build picks used in the bot lane.
Since Patch 13.10, Jhin has become the “must-have” AD carry pick for any bot lane duo, as he has phenomenal win rates alongside support characters like Sona, Xerath, Janna, and Zyra. But with Riot’s newly plotted items nerfs, we may see this begin to change.
Even for the supports are thriving with the items Echoes of Helia, like Sona and Janna, and Ardent Censor for Milio, Janna, Sona, and Yuumi, these nerfs could mean yet another shift in the support meta, which has been tank focused.
Although we won’t know the extent of these nerfs until the full League patch details are unveiled, it’s safe to say the bot lane is in for more change.
As always, keep in mind these League nerfs are tentative until they ship live.
