League of Legends – Patch 11.18

The official 2021 League of Legends World Championship is only a few weeks away, and it’s no surprise that Riot Games is getting things ready for the professional players by perfecting the balance of various champions. The most recently released patch (11.18) and another patch that is scheduled to release sometime in the next couple of weeks (11.19) are two parts of a very exciting change coming to League of Legends this Fall.

First, let’s cover the changes that came with Patch 11.18, which, as mentioned earlier, are mostly nerfs and buffs. As for the champions that are being weakened, Aphelios is having his base attack damage slightly decreased from 57 to 55, while Lee Sin is also receiving a reduction to base attack damage from 70 to 68, and Varus’s base damage had decreased from 61 to 59. The cooldown for Ashe’s ‘Volley’ and Camille’s ‘Adaptive Defenses’ are being increased, the duration of Jayce’s ‘Hextech Capacitor’ has been cut in half, Lillia’s base health regeneration stat has been cut from 1.5 to 0.5, and Thresh’s base movement speed has been very slightly reduced. The slow effect of Trundle’s ‘Pillar of Ice’ has received a minor decrease, as did the stun duration of Renekton’s ‘Ruthless Predator’.

Some of the champions have become more powerful. For example, Karma’s base armor stat has been slightly buffed from 26 to 28, and Gangplank’s health was increased from 540 to 570. Twitch’s ‘Spray and Pray’ had its bonus attack damage increased by 10, while the mana cost for Jinx’s ‘Switcheroo!’ was decreased. Lillia received a buff to her healing ability as her passive ‘Dream-Laden Bough’ now heals against large monsters in the range of 27 to 104 up from 18 to 94. Also worth noting is the decrease of the cooldown duration for Morgana’s ‘Black Shield’ by about 2 seconds.

Interestingly while most champions are receiving either a buff or nerf exclusively, Fizz is receiving a significant amount of rework because his ‘Seastone Trident’ ability is having its damage significantly increased, but the damage for his ‘Chum the Waters’ ability is being decreased.

Certain items and runes also had some minor changes. The Predator Rune had the duration of its speed bonus decreased from 1.5 seconds to only 1 second, although the bonus to move speed was increased from 45% to 60%. Also to note is that both the Ravenous Hydra and Titanic Hydra items no longer activate on turrets.

When all is said and done, it appears like there has been a huge amount of work done to make sure that the balance of the game is as best as possible to be better prepared for the upcoming professional esports games. It will be interesting to see how many of these changes will be permanent and what will need to continue to be reworked.

Patch 11.19 has not yet been released, but it is expected to go live in a little over a week. It’s not clear what exactly will be included, although what we do know is very exciting! An entirely new champion called Vex the Gloomist will be added to the very large roster of playable characters. No doubt, trying this new champion out will be a fun experience for the players.

Developed and published by Riot Games in 2009, League of Legends is available on Windows and macOS. After more than a decade, it continues to be among the most popular esports games.