League of Legends Buffs Previewed for Duskblade Users

With the League of Legends item Duskblade of Draktharr being nerfed, Riot Games is offering compensation buffs for the item's most popular users.

In the hands of assassins, the item provides a powerful burst of damage that few squishy champions can deal with provided they don't have some sort of health. Even then, a Kha'Zix or similar champion getting an early Duskblade can be a death sentence to most players with more fragile champions who then have to give the champ a wide berth until they can catch up.

To tone down some of that power, Riot is nerfing Duskblade, but not without helping its most frequent users in the process. David "Riot Repertoir" Capurro recently previewed a list of changes for the item that included a damage reduction for its Nightstalker effect, those changes seen below.

• Melee Damage :: 60 / x / 320 >>> 30 / x / 200
• Ranged Damage :: 45 / x / 300 >>> 30 / x / 200
• NEW :: Melee basic attacks instantly kill traps and wards disabled by Black Out
• NEW :: Black Out won't be triggered if the owner is using a Red Sweeper (so you can't waste it)

The last two changes are still in place, but the damage values have since been changed to make it so that both ranged and melee champions deal the same proc damage with the item that ranges between 30-200 damage. It's a significant nerf to the item, Riot Repertoir said, but not one that's being pushed without giving the champs that use the item something to work with.

"The above changes are a large damage nerf to the item," Riot Repertoir said on the League boards. "We think the other additions are powerful and good additions to the item, but several champions have been crutching on the high powered damage tuning of Duskblade, and we're looking to inject that power lost back in. I think these changes are pretty generous, but that's pretty subjective, so let me hear it if that's way off."

The Rioter posted changes in the boards post for each champion, but those have since been refined following feedback and testing. Riot Repertoir offered an updated look at the champion buffs via Twitter:

Following some internal review and player feedback, tomorrow's PBE should have updates to some of the champions being adjusted on account of Duskblade changes. The current list is below. Changed from today's PBE are Kha'Zix, Shaco, Zed. pic.twitter.com/6Hqxx5k3sU

— David Capurro (@RiotRepertoir) March 9, 2018

The champion buffs are currently on the PBE for testing and may be changed before going live.