'League of Legends' Will Get Another Mini Balance Patch in December

Now that League of Legends' preseason patch has been released, another smaller patch has been scheduled for some time in December to sort out any balance issues spotted in the preseason.

Just as its done last year and earlier in 2018 when a micropatch was released that focused specifically on fighters, Riot Games will be putting out another patch in December. Riot Games' Richard "Riot Maple Nectar" Henkel, product lead on the League of Legends' balance team, said on Twitter the off-schedule patch will focus primarily on struggling or overpowered champions with the possibility of more changes coming before the team takes a break for Christmas.

As we approach the end of the year again, we're going to be adding in another off schedule patch like we did last year (8.24b), that'll be focused primarily on champs that benefited/struggled too much with preseason changes. Still working on locking down the exact date, but if

— Richard Henkel (@RiotMapleNectar) November 24, 2018

You don't see as many changes in 8.24, know that there will be more coming before we break for Christmas.

— Richard Henkel (@RiotMapleNectar) November 24, 2018

Riot Games' design director Andrei "Riot Meddler" van Roon echoed those thoughts on the smaller patch recently when he said the update would be out mid-December. Like other smaller patches from the past, he reminded players that there'd be no new gameplay features included in the update with only balance changes being targeted.

"We will do an 8.24b patch mid December," Riot Meddler said on the League of Legends boards. "That will be a balance changes only patch though, not one that includes new content (whether items, non gameplay things like skins or other stuff)."

To give an idea of what kind of content players can expect from the update that's coming some time in December, the patch notes for what was called 8.13b earlier in the year are still up as an example. After the base patch was released, Riot Games released a mid-patch update like it did just recently to nerf Dark Harvest, only this one was much more robust with changes for several marksmen, critical hit items, and other outlying champs included in the notes.

Riot Meddler's most recent post on the League of Legends boards that broke down the strongest and weakest performers after the preseason update may give an indicator of Riot Games' plans for the micropatch depending on how things settle after the update. Ezreal, Lissandra, and Karthus were all pegged as strong champs, if only a bit stronger, and Gangplank, Irelia, and Taliyah were all listed as champs that seem to be performing worse.