We’re barely past Patch 7.14, but the next League of Legends patch is already being planned out, one that will be balanced more around professional play this time around.
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Meddler commented previously in a Gameplay Thoughts post that the next patch would be the one that most of the Worlds Qualifying games would be played on and that it’d likely be a bigger one with anywhere between 10-20 champions being looked at for changes. Thresh and Gangplank were two of the ideas tossed around at the time, and with a more recent post from Meddler, we’ve got a bit better of an idea for what to expect from the next patch.
“We’re looking at groups of champions more than usual, with a few observations driving a lot of our changes and then a number of one offs,” Meddler said, adding that mid laners, junglers, and a few others would be looked at.
Top Lane
Top lane is one of the roles that was discussed the least during Meddler’s update, ย a couple of champs are in the lineup to receive some changes before the Worlds Qualifying games begin. Instead of filling up the top lane with classic tanks that can be a bit uneventful to watch, one of the champions that’s looking to get buffed is the barrel-shootin’ Gangplank.
Gangplank has seen some pro play in the past alongside other damage picks like Fiora, and the buffs that are currently being suggested would increase his damage output. Players asked in the comments what would be looked at specifically, and Meddler replied that, from memory, Gangplank’s passive, Trial By Fire, would have 15 damage added to it, a buff that might be one of several.
Gnar and Galio are also two tanky top laners being looked at, though they’re being watched for a different reason. Both of them are being watched to make sure that they aren’t too strong, especially in competitive play, but precautions are being taken to make sure they don’t get hit too hard with nerfs.
Mid Lane
As far as mid lane goes, Meddler said that it’s in a pretty reasonable spot for right now. However, they’d like to beef up a couple of champs to hopefully add some more picks to the competitive pool for the mid lane.
“That means buffs to TF, Ekko, Ziggs, Xerath and potentially one or two more,” said Meddler. “We haven’t seen artillery champs in pro play much for a while, Jayce excepted, so are hoping to get a bit of spot play on one or two.”
One of the ideas for Ekkoย Meddler said was being looked at was to lower his E’s cooldown at earlier ranks. Meddler added that the buffs for these champs would likely be pretty light, so while they’re not looking to shoehorn the champs into pro play, there’s a hope that one of the champs might get picked at some point. No word on suspected nerfs yet though, so Syndra and Orianna will likely remain contested picks.
Jungle
The jungle was one of the main topics of interest that the balance team is looking at pre-Worlds games, but instead of making every jungler crazy strong and messing up both normal and competitive play, they’ll be looking to tone down some of the more dominant picks.
“Belief is that it’s more appropriate to bring the top junglers down a bit than trying to buff others up to their level,” Meddler said. “That also has the added benefit of bringing jungler impact overall down slightly, in addition to hopefully being the better way to see some more diversity.”
Some of the champions that are being looked at for this role include popular competitive picks like Lee Sin, Gragas, Rek’Sai, Elise, and Zac.
ADC
Looking at ADCsย wasn’t one of the primary sections that Meddler included in his post, but there were still two champions there that were discussed a bit regarding both future buffs and recent nerfs.
Jinx was one of the champions that was mentioned by Meddler as a prospective target for a buff, a champion that doesn’t see a great deal of competitive play but still has hyper-carry potential. Meddler said that they’re still discussing what might be done with Jinx, but lowering the cooldown of her W, Zap!ย
Within the comments, players also asked about Caitlyn and her recent nerf to her already low base attack speed as they wondered why other aspects of her kit like her traps weren’t targeted instead.
“We think one of Cait’s main problems is that she’s too much of a generalist,” Meddler answered. “For a safe champ, who’s a lane bully, with some decent utility her single target damage later in the game (a core strength of other, narrower ADCs) has been too high, hence the AS hit.”
Support
Like ADC, support champions were discussed more individually as opposed to talking about the role as a whole, but there were still a couple of picks being looked at both in terms of nerfs and buffs.
While Thresh has persisted as a jack-of-all-trades in the bot lane with his insane utility and potential to pick off enemies, some players have speculated that he might be a bit too strong in the tanky support trend. He’s one of the champions that might get nerfed in the patch, though there’s no word as to what those nerfsย might be.
Two champions that are expected to receive some kind of buff with the next patch are Lux and Nami. Nami’s buffs are anyone’s guess, but Lux’s buffs look to be geared more towards her utility. Luxย was mentioned by Meddler in an earlier post, and while she wasn’t in the main one here, he answered a question about her buffs in the comments to explain what they’d be looking at.
“Overall buffs, but focused on team utility rather than comboing a target down (Q CD, W shield on allies),” Meddler said.
With the most recent patch just out, these changes will have some time to get tested on the PBE, so we’ll likely see more suggestions and solid numbers closer to the patch.
