League of Legends Patch Notes are largely underwhelming and solo queue centric for October with lateral changes and not a major change to meta or picks. While some of the stronger Champions in the meta get toned down, the buffs are fairly uninteresting and Item Adjustments make it so melee mids are basically non-viable without additional changes. The new game mode of ARAM Mayhem with ARAM but with Augments spices up non Summoner’s Rift as an exciting alternative that should be fun for all levels of players.
Patch Notes Changes
It’s a disappointing Patch for most of the buff side, but the nerf list should make most solo queue players happier about the gameplay patterns being toned down, while the rune changes will have melees that are weak early even less viable in a meta that is defined around snowballing and early skirmishes. Lanes should matter more after the Rune and Item Changes but it also probably tones down weak early melee skirmishers, one of the more popular classes in the game.
Champion Buffs
The buffed Champions include:
- Anivia
- Bard
- Ezreal
- Kalista
- Katarina
- Malphite
- Pantheon
- Veigar
- Yone
- Yunara
If the buff List seems largely uninspiring or even flat out tone deaf, that’s probably because that is how it feels to the majority of the community. 25.20’s buffs are largely incremental numbers changes that shouldn’t affect win rate or play rate too much outside of Pantheon, who is probably viable again. Malphite may be strong but struggles from being boring to play, while more technical champions such as Anivia get some numbers boosted. It’s overall a very safe buff list that strengthens Champions that are going to be unplayable because they’re completely useless, or small percentage buffs that are likely going to be more placebo than win rate altering.
25.21 is not much better, although it does target a group of oft played and weak champions. Giving buffs to OP Champions like Bard is still a head scratcher, although some Champions like Yone and Kalista probably need all the help they can get after the gutting Riot did to their kits or reliant items and runes.
As a patch meant for solo queue, it is understandable if slightly underwhelming without the changes likely pushing something into meta that wasn’t already there. Gameplay wise, there are plenty of other Champions that could have gotten buffed over the likes of Bard, Katarina or Pantheon who fulfill their niches. Other Champions struggle to fulfill the role they are picked for and the fact that another month goes by where they’re hung out to dry is disappointing.
Doran’s Shield and Second Wind are not going to help weak laners survive.
Champion Nerfs
The nerfed Champions include:
- Briar
- Diana
- Kog’maw
- Morgana
- Orianna
- Qiyana
- Quinn
- Volibear
- Warwick
These Nerfs probably target solo queue more than pro with Champions such as Briar and Warwick in there, who are more commonly solo queue Champions. This isn’t to say it’s a bad nerf list, for Champions such as Volibear or Diana have been S-Tier for a while and deserve to be tuned down. A lot of these Champions are mobile squishies with high burst damage or Champions with niches that make them frustrating to play into, making it probably a good list if you don’t play any of these Champions.
It is surprising to see Kog being nerfed, because they don’t seem like nerf worthy Champions versus the rest of the solo queue stompers such as Diana or Quinn who have been fairly good fairly consistently. It should be applauded that the nerfs are more solo queue centric, and a lot of these Champions have been blind pickable in their best positions rather than counterpicks to specific picks or comps which is probably another reason why they are being toned down in comparison to winning but niche Champions.
Adjusted Champions
The adjusted Champions include:
- Azir
- Dr. Mundo
- Camille
- Fizz
- Graves
- Gwen
- Wukong
Azir has been buffed to the moon again post Worlds patch to the surprise of no one, while Fizz, Camille and Graves have their numbers cycled around which should be net positives for all three. Graves players might be more annoyed at his lack of one shot potential so it should be less oppressive to face off against a fed Graves. In saying so, Graves’ grit has been tuned up so if he stays in the fight for long enough, his sustain and resistances will make him annoying which just opens up another can of worms but perhaps incentives the playerbase to build him more defensively so he can’t be one shot burst.
Wukong gets the boink stick of nerf, while Gwen may be back to terrorising everybody after being completely unplayable for the past few patches, where it is valid to fear Riot’s balance team may have turned her into Thanos again. Champions such as Azir and Gwen are oft on these lists because their kits are too strong so they have to nerf the numbers to compensate and make them borderline unplayable or else it just becomes OP in pro.
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Item and Rune Reworks
The reworked items and Runes include:
- Catalyst of Aeons
- Doran’s Items
- Second Wind
Doran’s Shield-Second Wind makes Yone, along with any Champions that use this combination (largely melees in Mid and Top) completely nerfed. The other Doran’s items also get tuned, and Catalyst receives a flat Health nerf probably due to the component becoming too strong. Catalyst has been another lane neutralising item being targeted and therefore points to Riot wanting laning phase to determine win loss outcomes more significantly by giving weak laners less power to survive. In terms of the design decision to nerf Second Wind and Doran’s Shield, it’s a positive if those Champions affected can fill other roles(such as Top) without their playrate plummeting.
If the devs do not balance out the melee Mids or buff them to become viable in other positions, it will be another poor design decision that only serves to narrow an already exclusive meta that has suffered from powercreep within the last few years. In terms of making the laning phase much more meaningful and punishable, this change should be applauded, but without buffs to weak early game laners, some Champions will just run over all the Champions using reliant on D-Shield and Second Wind and make them completely unplayable if they see certain blinds.
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