League of Legends season 13 started a few weeks ago, but Riot Games is already bringing massive balance changes to both champions and items. Despite a social engineering attack, Riot introduced most of the tentative changes to live servers on Jan. 26 with Patch 13.1B, potentially shifting the entire meta once again. But which updates are going to be the most impactful and which champions will rise in popularity?
Riot released the fighter and ADC items changes to the live servers, which should help give better mid-game power to marksmen while nerfing the bruiser class. With Riot announcing major support and jungle changes in the upcoming Patch 13.3, we might see an even greater meta shift in the following weeks.
Predicting exactly what will happen is a tough job. But by taking a look at the individual changes and connecting them all together, we might get an answer. These are our predictions on the League meta changes after Patch 13.1B.
ADC and crit item changes in Patch 13.1B
ADC players are looking forward to this upcoming patch after former shout caster and current game designer David “Phreak” Turley revealed mana buffs to several champions on his YouTube channel. Additionally, shields on Overheal and Bloodthirster will be bigger going forward. But the major change and the highlight of this upcoming patch will be the required crit chance for Infinity Edge and Navori Quickblades to activate their passive, lowered to 40 percent from 60 percent.
This means ADC champions will be able to build these items as second items, right after the Mythic item. It significantly increases their mid-game spike, allowing them to be relevant early on and deal much more damage. With the meta revolving around the bot lane and mid-game skirmishes, champions like Jinx might make a potential return, especially if bully laners like Caitlyn and Draven will be banned.
Be careful around blade brothers Yasuo and Yone. Considering their damage revolves around their crit chance, they might skip the Mythic to get increased damage as a rush item.
Grievous Wounds changes
The anti-heal changes aren’t as big as they seem. While it’s nice to have a higher healing reduction at all times, it shouldn’t make them overpowered. That said, those champions who consistently rely on sustain to fight will get hit the most. For example, champions like Irelia or Aatrox or enchanters like Soraka will be impacted more negatively compared to others.
Fighter item changes
Riot also revealed changes to some of the fighter items, with the main goal of nerfing their ability to fight continuously at all stages of the game. As a result, Omnivamp will be removed on Eclipse and Ravenous Hydra, while specific core items like Death Dance and Maw of Malmortius will have their ability removed.
We went over bruiser item changes in detail already, so let’s consider the main consequences. First, bruisers should be weaker in the mid-game, as they get less access to ability haste. Also, since lifesteal can only be applied to auto attacks, bruisers who rely on spells to deal damage will have much lower healing. To compensate for that, though, these champions will be tankier, harder to take down, and deal more damage.
In particular, Black Cleaver is receiving more stats without cost increases. There are champions like Vi that might rush this item first, even before the Mythic purchase.
While it’s hard to pinpoint which champions will get hit the most by these changes, bruisers are surely going to have more counterplay since their cooldown will be higher. It should be an overall healthy change that should give less room to one-vs-two or one-vs-three situations, but still preserve the qualities that make bruisers unique.
Control mages are here to stay
One thing that was certain from the start of the season is that control mages are back. The crowd control as well as the damage they provide is essential in the current meta where it’s all about picking off and one-shotting carries.
Aside from the likes of Viktor, Syndra, and Ryze, there is also Orianna who received a major buff in this patch. She will deal more damage overall and she might also be among those that can build Rod of Ages, making her item builds more diverse.
Now that ADCs should have even more impact early on, mages are going to be the ones with the highest potential of shutting them down.
How will all the changes shift the meta?
Patch 13.1B is seen as the first big meta-shift of the new 2023 season. The preseason changes did change the importance of neutral objectives, as well as how games should be played, but it didn’t change the champions played. In this case, however, we might see a lot of new champions rising in popularity, starting with the ADC role.
The champions that will benefit the most from the crit change are going to be those who usually had to wait until the third item in order to be a strong carry. While Caitlyn is already part of the current meta, other marksmen like Xayah and Tristana might rise in priority. That said, the main winner of such changes should be Draven: not only is he a bully laner that can snowball hard, but he will have the best mid-game spike out of all the ADCs. Only a few players can hard-carry on this champion, but he’s someone to watch out for in the next patches.
Given that playing for your bot lane can lead to heavier snowball, junglers should be expected to play even more for this lane, potentially transforming this into a bot-centric meta and further increasing the value of dragons. There is the risk that top lane will become “an island” once again where laners will have less in-game agency.
Accelerated and better mid-game spikes could potentially lead to much faster games, so there is also a high chance we might see lower average game duration. That said, this will likely impact solo queue a lot more compared to professional play.
It’s definitely looking like a major meta shift coming, where ADCs and marksmen are likely going to be the main highlights of the patch. Expect to see protect-the-carry team comps thrive in the new meta, as well as more front-to-back comps going forward.
