The three-week Riot Games break between patches seemed like quite a long time for all of us eager gamers (I know I was tapping my foot a week ago waiting for more changes), but the League of Legends balance teams are finally back at work, and are already targeting nine champions for nerfs in Patch 13.14 on July 19.
It may be surprising to see some of the characters on this list, but the following nine champions are expected to get nerfs in League Patch 13.14:
- Rek’Sai
- Rengar
- Sion
- Milio
- Hecarim
- Jax
- Karthus
- Kindred
- Rell
While the Rell, Karthus, and Rek’Sai nerfs are understandable, as they are performing above average, the nerfs to the rest of these champions are a tad confusing. A clump of the characters on the chopping block actually have quite average season 13 win rates, according to League stat tracking website U.GG.
The exception there is Rengar, who is way below the line. If anything, I actually expected him to instead be getting buffs sometime soon.
Of course, 13.14’s item changes may help that cause a little.
Matt “RiotPhroxon” Leung-Harrison, the man in charge of League’s balance team, believes the upcoming champion nerfs will help compensate for the items getting buffed in the mid-July update. However, the only item buffs affecting the main builds for these champions include Prowler’s Claw, Spear of Shojin, and jungle treats.
So, unless these buffs to these League items are pretty massive, it’s hard to see why many of these average and below-average champs are getting nerfed. There’s every chance Riot may come to the same realization—the changes will see a week of PBE testing—but it’s likely they do eventually hit live servers next Wednesday.
Either way, we won’t see the extent of these champion nerfs and how they’ll impact League’s season 13 meta until the full Patch 13.14 notes ship next week.
Until then, remember all these planned League nerfs could change.
