The meta will be shaken up after the release of this post-MSI update as announced in the League Patch 11.11 Preview.
League Patch 11.11 Preview gave us some of the very first impression of the upcoming meta of the game.
Rumble and Morgana, stay out of the way. New junglers are rising from the darkness to take control of the Rift.
Just after a preview of champion updates for Patch 11.11 yesterday, League of Legends’ game design director Mark “Scruffy” Yetter announced today how particular champions will be modified. Any of the Mid-Season Invitational’s most prioritized picks, such as Rumble and Morgana in the jungle, have been heavily nerfed. Meanwhile, other champions are getting buffs that can increase their play rate—even in positions where they do not usually belong.
Morgana and Rumble’s dominance in the jungle has finally been reduced as a result of their dominance in Patch 11.10. The bonus damage they receive against monsters on their abilities—W Morgana’s and Rumble’s passive, respectively—are gaining lower modifiers, which will not completely exclude them from the jungle but will save them from being the most competitive choices. Morgana’s modifier will be reduced by 30%, while Rumble’s damage limit for his passive will be set at 80.
Lee Sin and Leona are two more champions who have seen a lot of action at MSI and have been especially good in their respective lanes for quite some time. Lee Sin’s E cooldown has been raised by one second to force him back into the jungle and away from his superiority in the solo lanes in League Patch 11.11 Preview. Leona, on the other hand, is not getting her stun skills changed. Rather, her W damage’s secondary effect is being reduced from 60 to 200 to 50 to 190.
Other nerfs revealed in this League Patch 11.11 Preview target champions who have made a name for themselves in different ranks, some more oppressive than others. Urgot’s W AD ratio in the top lane has been reduced from 20 to 36 percent to 20 to 34 percent, rendering him less oppressive with his shotgun knees later in the game. Elise and Shaco are the only junglers who have been nerfed, with Elise losing 10% of her Spider Type AP damage ratio and Shaco losing a minor AP ratio on his W and E skills. Qiyana is the other mid laner who has been nerfed, this time for her oppressive movement pace, which makes it impossible to hunt down this assassin.
While the most powerful champions are due to be nerfed in and before Patch 11.10, other champions are being buffed in League Patch 11.11 Preview to take the spotlight that has eluded them for some time. The most popular buffs are Seraphine, Nautilus, and everyone’s beloved jungle horse, Hecarim.
Seraphine will get late-game buffs to her W, both the self and ally shields, which will definitely make her overturned with the concurrent buffs to Moonstone Renewer and Staff of Flowing Water. With the adding of a 200-percent modifier on his E against monsters, Nautilus is heading to his core, maybe trying to plant his anchor outside of the support position.
After being sent to the sidelines thanks to his incredible strides in the jungle in the middle of the season, Hecarim is being reintroduced into the meta with updates that (hopefully) aren’t as powerful as those pre-Patch 11.10. The horse’s Q AD ratio will be increased from 70% to 75%, while the minimum base AD ratio on his E will be increased from 50% to 55% and the limit from 100% to 110% in League Patch 11.11 Preview.
Moving away from the top lane tank meta, Singed and Teemo are getting buffs, while Graves and Master Yi are getting tweaks to compensate for their jungle roles. Singed’s E cooldown has been reduced from 10 seconds at all levels to eight seconds at max rank, allowing him to throw his enemies even faster. Teemo is now being much faster, with the W cooldown reduced to 14 seconds at all ranks.
Graves will earn a minor boost of one additional AD per level from three to four, but Master Yi’s modifications are more comprehensive. Because of his low-risk, high-reward playstyle, the champion is considered to be a challenge for lower-ranked players to contend with. So Yetter and his team attempt to reduce the strength of certain builds that render him much more difficult to contend with—specifically, Duskblade. Though his Q’s base AD ratio is reduced to 90%, his E’s base damage is improved by 10% at all levels in League Patch 11.11 Preview.
With Lee Sin’s (hopefully) disappearance in the mid lane, buffs are being given to other champions in League Patch 11.11 Preview in order to eventually restore their importance in the meta. Azir’s Q mana cost will be reduced to 55 for greater consistency while laning, and Ryze’s survivability will be increased by 110 HP per stage.
The ADC and SP meta do not change much in this patch, but two alternatives are becoming more viable—one in an unexpected way. Ezreal, who has been struggling to cope with Kai’Sa, Aphelios, and Varus, is getting a boost in base armor to 24 and a higher health regen percentage per stage to help him deal with the large amounts of poke from enemy laners in League Patch 11.11 Preview.
Yetter previously mentioned that Senna’s support builds with Frostfire Gauntlet will be a priority for updates in League Patch 11.11 Preview, and he’s gone into great depth about that in this patch preview. Senna’s fitness per stage will be increased to 82, her Q healing will now scale at 160 percent of her Lethality, her E activity pace bonus will now scale at 0.5 percent of her AP, and her R’s AP ratio will be increased to 70 percent. The changes open up new build paths for Senna, especially in the support position, where she does not prefer Kraken Slayer again or experiment with more AP-centric builds with other support pieces.
Many of the updates revealed in this League Patch 11.11 preview are subject to modification before they are released to the PBE or live servers. Patch 11.11 will be available on League’s live servers on May 26.