The AD carry meta in League of Legends may be spearheaded by Kai’Sa and Ashe right now, but a simple yet effective change coming to one of the stars of the animated series Arcane is more than likely to buff her back to the top.
The previously-teased buffs to Caitlyn—expected to release among a range of buffs in Patch 13.16 on Aug. 16—has finally made its way onto the League PBE, and while it’s small, it’s actually very substantial.
Instead of needing six auto attacks to proc her passive headshot normally, Caitlyn will now only need five, which greatly increases her in lane poke power.
Caitlyn’s headshots, which act as one of the most efficient ways of dealing damage throughout all phases of any League match, have increased damage amplifiers over her normal attacks and scale with her critical strike chance. Then, on top of that, the Sheriff of Piltover gets a free headshot on targets hit by her W or E. While these buffs will increase how often Caitlyn can shoot headshots, the damage remains unchanged.
Related: Here are the early League Patch 13.16 patch notes
Notably, the part of Caitlyn’s passive that provides her with two charges to her headshot while sitting in brush remains unaffected, as it was already set at five. Traversing in and out of brush to charge her passive may become an even more important tactic after this buff in order to deal constant barrages of damage in lane.
Though she possesses the longest basic attack range of any champion in League and has been a staple part of multiple metas over the past several years, Caitlyn has struggled immensely in the current state of the ADC role following an overhaul to various items.
She currently sits at a 48-percent win rate in high elo according to League stats tracking page OP.GG, though her pick rate remains relatively stable thanks to her popularity as a character and easy-to-learn kit.
League Patch 13.16 will also include a decent pile of buffs to other champions that haven’t been faring too well in their respective lanes, including Brand and Wukong.
