Recent patches in League of Legends have been relatively tame in comparison to what we saw in the Mid-Season Mage Update. Patch 6.13 is no exception to this, acting primarily as a remedial patch to dampen some of the overbearing aspects of the game. This article will review some of the key changes while also highlighting some possible future issues.
Nexus Siege Game Mode
Patch 6.13 brings players across the world a new game mode in the form of ‘Nexus Siege’. Although it’s a pretty significant change to the landscape of the game as a whole, it has no bearing on competitive League of Legends, nor regular ranked games. In short, Surrender@20 described the mode as “a round based attack & defense game mode, where teams take turns at sieging the enemy’s Nexus using an arsenal of deadly new Siege Weapons. The team who destroys the enemy’s Nexus in the fastest time wins!”
Unlike normal games where both teams have even footing, Nexus Siege explicitly places one team on offense, and the other on defense. Though the mode is a creative and intuitive take on existing game mechanics, it looks to be more like another Dominion doomed to fail.
Strong language in the above video.
Key Champion Changes
Kindred
- Base armor lowered to 20 from 27
- Armor growth increased to 3.5 from 3.25
- Wolf’s Frenzy (W)
- no longer heals.
- [new effect] Wolf’s attacks vs monster to now slow target’s attack and movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds.
The most important change for Kidnred in Patch 6.13 is the removal of her heal on Wolf’s Frenzy. By doing so, her ability to sustain in the jungle at early levels has been severely gimped. The reduction to her armor at early levels will only compound this effect. This nerf will likely bring her down to a level below all other S-tier junglers (Rek’Sai, Elise, etc.) and may take her completely out of the competitive metagame.
Lulu
- Movement speed increased to 330 from 325
- Base mana increased to 350 from 292.4
- Glitterlance (Q)
- Slow duration increased to 2 seconds at all ranks from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2
- Damage taken by targets subsequent to the first by each bolt is reduced to 70%
- [Enemies other than the first one hit only take 70% of damage.
- Whimsy (W)
- [new effect] Now also grants 15/20/25/30/35% attack speed for 3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4 seconds.
In essence, Riot Looks to be shifting Lulu away from the mid lane as much as possible and back into a support role. The wave-clearing capability of her Glitterlance is being reduced, while retaining its initial poke against a select target. The base stat increases will be a welcome quality of life change though for all Lulu players, especially those who struggle with maintaining mana in a poke-heavy bottom lane.
The added attack speed effect to Lulu’s Whimsy should create a greater incentive for support players to pick her. As the latter half of this season progresses, ‘Juggermaw’ compositions may be coming back into form due to the strengthening of marksmen overall combined with this change and buffs to support items.
Tahm Kench
- An Acquired Taste (Passive) [new effect] attacks and spells deals [X% of TK’s total health] bonus magic damage, stacking up to 3 times vs champions.
- X = 1%, 1.25% at level 11, and 1.5% at level 16]
- [NOTE: So if you have 3 stacks, each attack will do 3% of TK’s total health]
- Tongue Lash (Q) damage increased to 80/130/180/230/280 from 80/125/170/215/260
- Thick Skin (E)
- Cooldown lowered to 6 seconds from 16/15/14/13/12
- Passive is now 70/75/80/85/90% of damage taken while ability is not cooling down from 100%
- Shield duration lowered to 3 seconds from 6 seconds
- Shield no longer falls off over duration.
- Grey Health conversation now 25/30/35/40/45% from 20/26/32/38/44%
- Abyssal Voyage (R)
- No longer increases attack and ability damage by 2/4/6% of Tahm’s bonus health, a similar effect has been added to his character passive (1/1.25/1.5% of total health, stacking 3 times).
- range increased to 4500/5500/6500 from 4000/5000/6000
- Channel duration reduced to 6 from 15
- Delay on R reduced by .5 seconds.
- Time opponents have to see R coming reduced by .5 seconds.
The toad which garnered such popularity on release had since faded into the background. Patch 6.13 may give him just enough strength to be relevant again. His auto attacks will be enhanced from the very start of the game, while the rest of his kit received quality-of-life or direct buffs. The changes to his Thick Skin should make Tahm Kench a much more adept skirmisher in lane; players should be looking to use this skill’s active more often now, rather than to let it sink into its passive healing effect.
Key Item Changes
Riot is making a big push for the new unique passive, “% Heal and Shield Power” in Patch 6.13. This new stat featured on items such as Ardent Censer and Mikael’s Crucible will increase the effectiveness of heals and shields, a direct buff to most support champions.
As a whole, support items underwent some re-tuning, but none of the changes should actually change any play patterns/decisions; no significant item balancing occurred in Patch 6.13. Hopefully the support item buffs will increase the amount of players who choose to play the support role.