League of Legends Patch Buffs 7 Champions to Make Them More Viable in the Jungle

The notes for the next League of Legends patch are out, and with those come the details of what Riot Games plans on doing with nearly 20 different champions whether that means buffs or nerfs. For at least seven of those champions, players will find that they might be more viable in the jungle once Patch 10.4 releases. Riot previously expressed interest in helping some non-jungle champs see more play there, and this patch has done just that by buffing various abilities to deal more damage to monsters.

The seven champions Riot chose to buff in the jungle are Darius, Diana, Garen, Gnar, Mordekaiser, Talon, and Zed. Five of those were listed in the previous discussions from Riot’s end about buffing potential jungle picks to work better in that role in lower ranks while Gnar and Mordekaiser are new to the list. Each of them have one thing in common though: They’ll be clearing the jungle much faster, and some of them will be staying even healthier while they’re doing it.

“One trend we’ve seen over the years is that new and low-MMR players pick jungle at a much lower rate than other positions—even when it’s stronger than those other positions,” Riot said. “For 10.4, we’re approaching this problem by giving some popular champs at these skill levels better tools to jungle with, especially also because jungle has an arguably smaller champion pool than other positions. While players here will still have to contend with the learning curve of jungle as a position, they won’t have to learn to play a new champion as well. All the changes below are to ability effectiveness against monsters to avoid accidental impacts to lane strength.

Full details for each of the latest champion buffs applied to these seven champions can be found below courtesy of the official patch notes.

Jungle Champions

• Darius
  • PASSIVE – HEMORRHAGE DAMAGE: Now deals 120% damage to all monsters
  • Q – DECIMATE HEAL: Now heals from large monsters
• Diana
  • PASSIVE – MOONSILVER BLADE DAMAGE: Increased by 150% on non-Epic monsters
• Garen
  • E – JUDGMENT DAMAGE: Now deals 150% damage to non-Epic monsters
• Gnar
  • W – HYPER BASE MAXIMUM BONUS DAMAGE TO MONSTERS: 100/150/200/250/300 ⇒ 300 at all levels
• Mordekaiser
  • PASSIVE – DARKNESS RISE MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO MONSTERS: 15-100 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 25-120 (levels 1-18)
• Talon
  • PASSIVE – BLADE’S END MONSTER DAMAGE: Abilities now wound all monsters for 120% damage
• Zed
  • PASSIVE – CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK DAMAGE: Increased by 100% against monsters
  • PASSIVE – CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO MONSTERS: 120/240/360 (levels 1, 7, 17) ⇒ 200/350/500 (levels 1, 7, 17)

League of Legends’ Patch 10.4 is scheduled to release on February 20th, a day later than normal because of the holidays this week.