Tentative balance changes of patch 10.15 have just been teased by Riot Scruffy, League of Legends Lead Champion Designer. Some big names are probably going to fade for a while to make room for the underdogs.
While many of these adjustments aside from those made to Swain, Skarner and Aphelios are minors at the first glance, this will definitely either boost the win rate of these champions or dwindle it by a fair amount. Here is our in-depth analysis of the implication of these changes.
Contents
Aphelios
Patch 10.15 sees another massive Aphelios nerf. Crescendum turret activation delay by 0.1 second might not sound a lot, but it will somewhat hinder his ability to chain a combo with his off-hand weapons (such as the Turret + Gravitum Root combo). The most notable power down here is his AOE damage. Infernum cones’s width and length are greatly reduced on both regular and critical strikes, making his wave clear a bit less efficient, and his teamfighting with the high damaging, high AOE main weapon less destructive, thus the Lunari marksman will have a harder time making those Pentakill compilations on patch 10.15.
Ornn
The 3 minus base armor does not mean much to his functionality, he might be more susceptible to lane harassment from ranged champions and damage from minions, but this should not severely hamper his prowess in teamfight. Ornn will still be a viable tanker top lane pick for the next patch.
Lee Sin
While the Blind Monk’s damage output is still there, the 2 seconds W cooldown increase will slightly affect his sustain in the jungle. His trademark ward jump will take the most significant hit, as he cannot repeatedly escape clutch situations as frequently as before. Other than that, his ganking and counter jungle potentials are mostly intact.
Fiddlesticks (Tank build)
Solo queue players have been abusing pure defensive Fiddlesticks build, thanks to the high amount of base percentage health damage in his kit, and the synergy between his Q and Aftershock keystone. Riot addresses this by reducing his lane sustain, so he will be more vulnerable to all-in before the scarecrow can get beefy enough to be unkillable. You should still expect the build to pop up after patch 10.15 is released, since the effectiveness of the strategy post-laning phase is still there.
Twisted Fate
Pick a Card (W)’s cooldown increase at early ranks will have a significant impact on his laning phase, as he relies on spamming blue cards to regain his mana lost from using his Q and red cards to push the wave. Being unable to quickly clear the minions is very detrimental to a character with a kit centering around roaming and map control. His win rate will take a hit on patch 10.15.
Thresh
Dark Passage (W) nerf will not be felt much, as there are not many instances where support champions can reach level 18 in the current fast-paced meta, and Thresh players usually max the iconic lifesaving lantern last. Thresh is safe from falling out of favor on patch 10.15.
Skarner
His Q will receive percentage damage in exchange for reduced AD ratios, and the empowered damage buff duration will be increased. This will improve his DPS significantly, even when he builds mostly defensive items. E travel speed no longer gets dwindled down after hitting the first target – this is a sizable buff for lane Skarner, where he has to launch the spell through minions. We forecast this as a major strength update for both top lane Skarner and jungle Skarner for patch 10.15.
Swain
The Noxian Grand General will receive a minor gameplay update in patch 10.15 to improve his reliability and to strengthen his identity as a Battle Mage who wreaks havoc in the middle of the fray.
His movement speed is slashed a bit, his passive mana restore removed, his Q cone gets narrower, but his Q cooldown is only 3 seconds long at max rank and now passes through champions, his passive has lower cooldown at earlier levels and do not decrease with level but will now scale with Cooldown Reduction stat. His W has massively increased range (3000 to 7500 at max rank) – for scouting, damage – slow – zoning potential – or just to “secure” kills while having lower mana at later ranks, in exchange for a small reduction in damage. His E cooldown is also reduced to 10 seconds at all rank to match his passive cooldown, not to mention the vastly cheaper mana cost at 50, from 60-80.
These changes improve his early game safety greatly, while his teamfighting prowess and objectives scouting are absolutely powerful. Swain can potentially make it to the list of must ban or pick champions after patch 10.15 is released.
Shen
A little passive shield buff from 50-101 to 70 – 121 will make his early game even more oppressive. If Shen wins his late, the game is pretty much in his hand, as he can distribute his advantages to other players in the team through his ultimate. Shen’s win rate is promising for patch 10.15
Gragas
With a 20% AP buff to his kit, Gragas will be an absolute monster if he ever snowballs. AP Gragas will experience a skyrocket play rate after this patch goes live. Prepare to save a ban slot for the drunkard.
Irelia
Despite the current overpowered state of Blade of the Ruined King, Irelia is still a bit lackluster, finding difficulty in translating her early game dominance to mid-late game functionality. As such, this 20% attack speed buff will help her in dishing out some respectable DPS, should she gain the upper hand during the early game.
Caitlyn
A 3 attack damage points increase will make her a bit more dominant during the laning phase. While the 5 movement speed buff/nerf has been meme’ed a lot by the community, it can add up nicely, especially if you are an ADC who needs to traverse through the map as fast as possible to get all those juicy stacked up waves.
Yuumi
The mana increase on her E was deemed excessive by Riot Games staff, so they decided to give a bit of her power back, albeit situational, with risk involved. Her passive restore will have a percentage scaling now, so by late game it should synergize well with the maximum mana provided by Presence of Mind, along with any mana items she builds. Hate her or not, the cat will make her comeback in patch 10.15.
That’s it for our patch 10.15 run down. We will update more information in the future, so stay tuned!
Read more changes and upcoming content and PBE below:
5 Leaked Spirit Blossom skin for Kindred, Ahri, Riven, Cassiopeia, Yone, and possibly more.
All We Have Known about Yone.
Yone Splash Art Leak.