Over the years, League of Legends has seen the rise and fall of champions, drastic changes to the Summoner’s Rift map, and complete meta shifts as the Riot Games developers worked to balance the complex MOBA. Yet, through it all, both the red and blue buffs have gone all but unchanged over the years—until now.
Next update, the main jungle buffs, Crest of Cinders and Crest of Insight, will be receiving significant changes, Riot developer Phroxzon confirmed on July 10.
Crest of Cinders, also known as Red Buff, received its first balance sweep in 13.12 but with today’s announcement, both Red and Blue Buffs are getting a tune-up in League Patch 13.14 as part of Riot’s plan to shake up the jungle meta.
For the first time in almost five years, the Crest of Insight—or Blue Buff—will be changed. Previously, Blue Buff gave 10 ability haste at all levels; now, the received ability haste will scale depending on the player’s level. At the beginning of the game, a jungler will now only receive five ability haste with a return to 10 once hitting level six.
At level 11 the buff is 15 ability haste, before capping out at level 16 and granting 20 ability haste. The change will mean champions that rely on spamming abilities to farm will see their clear times rise in the early game.
It’s the first time Blue Buff has been touched to this extent since all the way back in League Patch 6.24 (six years ago, on Dec. 7, 2016), which saw Blue Buff lose its 15 percent bonus ability power bonus and had its duration increased to two minutes. The Patch 10.23 change in 2021 was a minor adjustment following the introduction of ability haste as a stat but otherwise, the Blue Buff cooldown reduction on offer was approximately the same.
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Red Buff’s changes in June’s Patch 13.12 was the first time Crest of Cinders had been adjusted since the removal of bonus true damage to turrets in Patch 8.7 in Apr. 2018. June’s patch dropped bonus health regeneration, physical true damage, and a slow after dealing damage, with those figures once again under the spotlight for 13.14.
Like Blue Buff’s halved ability haste before level six, Red Buff’s melee movement slow has been halved to five percent in the early game, before returning to pre-nerfed levels once a champion has leveled their ultimate. This will mean melee junglers will need to do more to close the gap early, as enemy movement won’t be as inhibited.
Just how much of a meta-shift these changes will be isn’t quite clear yet, but with League Patch 13.14 set for July 19, players won’t have to wait long to see.
As always, these changes are only tentative until they’re shipped live.
