League of Legends is Still Considering More Nerfs for Ardent Censor

The League of Legends balance team is still considering more nerfs for Ardent Censor after the first round took a shot at the support item.

Nerfs to the item were pretty conservative in the most recent Patch 7.17 with two different areas targeted. The attack speed buff from the item and the health drain buff were both lowered to 25 percent and a flat 25 value, respectively, but more nerfs might be on the way.

“We’ll likely take another pass at Ardent Censer soon,” Riot Meddler said. “We decided not to hit it very hard in 7.18 given the supports that use it are already less represented in pro play than tankier types and we didn’t want to create a further loss of diversity there.”

Meddler continued by saying that most patches would typically focus more on normal play than professional play, but considering how close these patches are to Worlds, it makes sense that Worlds receives a bit more priority when considering changes.

“That’s a tough call, given we’re therefore trading off viewer experience for pro and state of balance for regular games on 7.18,” Meddler continued. “We’ll usually lean much harder on what’s needed for regular play, the Worlds patch and the patch or two before it are the time of the year though where pro balance gets weighted quite a bit heavier.”

Several users on the League boards suggested some changes to the powerful support item, but nerfing or modifying the item is a tricky topic that could leave it usable for only a select few supports.

“I think Censer likely needs some adjustments for its primary users regardless,” Meddler continued. “Making it so it doesn’t proc off items, masteries etc then removes experimentation and adaptability without solving the needed problem.”

Making the item’s effects harder to proc by requiring multiple shields or heals to activate it was also one idea, but that would definitely exclude the item from many champions’ builds who can’t reliably spam their buffs.

The changes that are coming for Ardent Censor haven’t been detailed yet and there aren’t any nerfs listed on the PBE for now, but additional changes will likely ship with the next patch if recent comments are any indicator.