K’Sante nerfs will make LoL power pick ‘more exploitable’ so he can actually be beaten

K’Sante’s overwhelmingly high presence at the 2024 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational in Chengdu has prompted Riot Games in the very next update, with the changes mainly focused on the fact he’s durable and “not exploitable enough.”

Since MSI concluded with Gen.G’s victory over Bilibili Gaming, K’Sante has been a hot topic given he had one of the highest presences at the international League tournament, and it’s easy to see why too—his tankiness, damage potential, and utility. To combat this, Riot is blasting him with power reductions, as first revealed by League gameplay designer Phroxzon through his Patch 14.11 preview on X (formerly Twitter) on May 20.

While he had a win rate of 51 percent at MSI 2024, his solo queue win rate has been quite horrendous, sitting at just over 44 percent, according to famed League stat tracker U.GG. Because of this, some League players were a little surprised to see K’Sante on the nerf listings, though only time will tell how badly he’s hit.

We haven’t seen the full patch notes yet to see precisely what the devs are targeting for the Pride of Nazumah, though Phroxzon did explain that his League balance team would be making targeted changes to reduce the amount of damage his Path Maker (W) can soak, and reshape his kit to give him those strengths and weaknesses every champion should have. These changes should make him less durable and easier to exploit in teamfights.

Phroxzon’s comment about reshaping K’Sante’s kit stood out to me the most, considering that not even a year after K’Sante went live he underwent a complete overhaul to help make him a balanced and viable champion. Funnily (or sadly, depending on how you look at it), he had a better win rate before these changes. It seems like K’Sante’s massive rework in Patch 13.20 didn’t go quite as planned—at least, not for those of us grinding ranked play.

While it’s true K’Sante’s versatility and durability are a problem, we can only hope K’Sante’s upcoming adjustments in Patch 14.11, which will drop on May 30, can balance helping him in solo queue and bumping him out of pro play.