Riot Games’ principal game designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer has revealed that gunslingers will be getting a significant buff to their kits for League of Legends‘ Patch 9.20.
Gunslingers used to be one of the strongest classes to use in Teamfight Tactics due to its ability to apply on-hit effects on multiple different targets. Many people built items like Cursed Blade, Hush, and Red Buff on gunslingers like Lucian and Tristana to guarantee themselves a top-four finish.
Now, Mortdog says that gunslingers will be getting extra shots to their class buff, going from 1/2/3 extra shots to 1/3/5. This is a huge buff because of the sheer amount of damage a four or six-man gunslinger group could apply to an enemy team.
Over the past few patches, gunslingers have fallen out of the meta due to the rise of assassin-based compositions, as well as tankier builds based on knights and brawlers. Gunslingers simply don’t do enough DPS in time and they’re either instantly killed or their damage is soaked up by heavy tanks.
These buffs may not skyrocket them up the meta lists, though. If assassin compositions remain meta, two extra shots might not be enough to help gunslingers survive an Akali or Zed in their backline.