'League of Legends' Update Expected to Change Conqueror Rune

League of Legends' next update is expected to alter the Conqueror rune as part of Riot Games' continued effort to tone back excessive amounts of damage.

Ignite and the upgraded jungle weapons stemming from the Smite Summoner Spell are two examples of what Riot Games has done in the past to adjust these high-damage tools, and Conqueror is the next in line. While Conqueror's true damage allows champions to cut through tanks, it also lets them take down pretty much any enemy quickly due to the burst damage it offers.

These are some of the problems with Conqueror Riot Games design director Riot Meddler outlined in a post on the League of Legends boards. The Rioter said the Keystone Rune doesn't offer many windows of counterplay since it can be prepped against minions and is always up for the most part. Conqueror's burst damage and the fact that it fixes situations where a champion should do poorly against a tank were both also mentioned as reasons for changing the rune.

As for Riot Games' plans for it, the Rioter listed several changes which are currently expected to release in Patch 9.4. Those changes, found below, would make it so that Conqueror grants adaptive stacks when engaging with an enemy champion with max stacks triggering the true damage effect. It'll also heal its users to shift the burst damage to survivability which will let the opponent have a chance to fight back.

Potential Conqueror Changes

• Gives Adaptive stacks on damaging champions with spells or abilities, making damage output backloaded and not something you can prepare with minion combat.
• Now requires max stacks (5 at present) to trigger true damage conversion and converts 10% instead of 20%, substantially reducing Conqueror's ability to negate defenses by itself while still hopefully serving as a useful safety valve on defense stacking.
• At max stacks also heals for same amount converted to true damage, moving some of its power to keeping users healthy enough to stay in sustained fights longer, rather than in dealing enough damage to make those fights shorter.

The changes aren't guaranteed to ship in Patch 9.4 but are currently planned for that update.