Riot Games shared details of changes coming to League of Legends in Patch 11.18, an update with a relatively disproportionate number of champions being altered to bring some spice to the Worlds meta.
Lead game designer Jeevun “Jag” Sidhu had said in the lead-up to the upcoming patches the team wanted to carefully but intentionally change things up when it came to the biggest tournament of the year. This meant a lot more buffs than nerfs, and dividing the changes for Worlds into two patches in 11.18 and 11.19, or a “Worlds-A” and “Worlds-B” patch.
Changes to Zed, Talon, Dr. Mundo, Qiyana, Taliyah, and others are jungle-centric buffs, but many other champions, even those that haven’t seen notable play this year, are also on the docket.
Riot has wanted to address Grievous Wounds and healing, in general, more extensively, but it will do so tangentially for now by buffing Dr. Mundo, Soraka, and Singed. The Madman of Zaun is getting some help in the jungle and elsewhere by making his ultimate, Maximum Dosage, now grant bonus HP instead of healing for maximum HP, and at a higher percentage (25 percent) at max rank. Soraka’s ultimate, Wish, now removes Grievous Wounds before healing, and Singed’s ultimate, Insanity Potion, now makes all of his damage apply Grievous Wounds.
One of the more thematic changes comes to Draven, who already has a spot in the meta as an early-game ADC pocket pick. Riot is adding a clause to his ultimate, Whirling Death, that would make it so that any instance of damage from it would execute enemies if their health fell below the number of stacks of Adoration he had accrued via his passive, League of Draven.
In the game’s most recent patch, 11.17, Gangplank’s power curve was pushed even more in the “weak early but incredibly strong late” direction, and these changes will likely accentuate that while also giving him some help in laning trades with an additional 30 base HP, as well as his health increase per level going from 82 to 90.
The AD carry meta has progressively gotten less stale in 2021, but Riot wants to give scaling carries even more options. Xayah had received three buffs in as many patches until 11.18, and potentially joining her on the list of viable ADCs are Kog’Maw, Twitch, and Miss Fortune. Twitch’s ultimate, Spray and Pray, will give 10 additional bonus AD during its duration, and Miss Fortune’s ultimate, Bullet Time, will fire two additional waves of bullets at all ranks, topping out at 18. Kog’Maw is just seeing his semi-viable AP build get a buff with the AP scaling of Void Ooze (E) going from 50 percent to 70 percent.
Urgot had a brief moment in the sun in pro play and now is getting a nudge with a buff to Corrosive Charge (Q) that will see its cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 early, and its mana cost reduced from 80 to 70 at all ranks.
Finally, in the mid lane, Yone’s Spirit Cleave (W) will now shield him for 50 percent for each subsequent enemy champion it hits, up from 25 percent. Zoe is also getting the cooldown on her Sleepy Trouble Bubble (E) reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds at rank one, and from 14 to 12 at max rank. Other champions set to receive buffs in Patch 11.18 are Karma, Kai’Sa, Morgana, and Yuumi.
Patch 11.18 is scheduled to go live one day later than its “expected” Wednesday release due to the upcoming Labor Day holiday in the United States. It will instead ship on Thursday, Sept. 9.
