League of Legends Patch 11.3 Will Affect a Ton of Items

A preview of what's to come from the next League of Legends update was shared this week, and unsurprisingly, the next patch will have plenty of changes for the game's many new items. This'll be one of the first updates of the year with a long list of items and champions getting nerfed, buffed, or otherwise changed once the update drops. Some of Riot Games' goals for the update were also shared alongside the previewed patch notes.

League of Legends' gameplay design director Mark "Riot Scruffy" Yetter shared the 11. 3 Patch preview this week to give players an idea of what's to come when the update drops. Item buffs made up the majority of the changes in the "Items" section of the preview while the plans for champion changes were nearly split between buffs and nerfs.

11.3 Patch Preview is here. This is definitely a meaty patch.

-Took a big sweep across items to find over and underperformers
-More reductions on systemic healing (but not all nerfs just shifting)
-Lots of OP and sad champions to adjust

More tomorrow when we have full changes pic.twitter.com/qoetVOKHn4

— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) January 25, 2021

Players will recognize a mix of weapons old and new within the patch notes preview, but whether the items you're most interested in were added in the big item overhaul or existed before, there's a good chance this update will affect at least one item you're fond of. A nice even total of 20 items are affected by the update with some familiar names on the list that shouldn't be too surprising. Staff of Flowing Water and Goredrinker, for example, are items that have seen plenty of usage both at the normal levels of gameplay as well as in the professional leagues, so it makes sense that they'd be targeted for nerfs in the patch notes.

As for the champions, a healthy mix of characters across different positions are getting buffed and nerfed when the update drops. Safe from any changes is Viego, the newest champion to release in League of Legends and one who's escaped any kind of changes this time around while players still get used to his power until his performance evens out more.

League of Legends' 11.3 Patch is scheduled to go out some time next week and will be testable on the PBE servers prior to that release.