League of Legends' Ardent Censer Might Finally be Nerfed Enough on PBE

The reign of Ardent Censer in League of Legends might finally be drawing near its end thanks to a new set of nerfs that are being tested on the PBE.

For those who have played any amount of League within the past couple of patches, Ardent Censer is likely an item that's been mentioned in just about every game. It's become a staple on supports who can spam their shields on a team's carries, ADCs take Relic Shield just to get more gold for their supports so the item can be purchased sooner, and teams even have more than one of them being built when possible.

If you've been keeping up with the Worlds competitions, you'll no doubt have noticed how much emphasis is put on the item. In case you aren't yet convinced, the official League of Legends Facebook account has even gone as far as to change their profile picture to the Ardent Censer icon.

The item has been hit with several changes and nerfs over the recent patches alongside the champions like Janna who can abuse it, but the changes that are currently listed on the PBE might finally show the door to the support item. Below are the changes being tested for the item that'll likely go into effect in some form in the upcoming patch, courtesy of Surrender@20:

Ardent Censer

• Unique Passive
• attack speed lowered from [20% - 35%] to [10% - 30%]
• additional damage lowered from [20 - 35] to [5 - 20]

Both of the temporary buffs that the item grants take a deserved hit on the PBE, the largest of which being the damage boost that it grants. The minimum bonus damage it grants in its live version is now the maximum, the minimum only granting 5 damage to start with after the nerf goes through.

The changes being tested for the item follow a discussion started by Riot Meddler where he recently discussed the item's power. He noted that they probably should've nerfed it much sooner, but that more changes were coming soon for it. These appear to be those changes, and if they're as impactful as they seem, the bot lane meta might be moving away from Ardent Censer.