Riot takes ‘larger swing’ at nerfing healing, buffing weak champs and prismatic items in LoL Arena

With the upcoming patch 14.11, League of Legends developers are making big moves to address the fundamental problems with the Arena game mode and make it more fun for casual players.

League‘s gameplay designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison went over the details in the 14.11 preview on X (formerly Twitter) today, saying that the developers will be taking a “larger swing” at nerfing healing, shifting the power scales of champions, and also looking at outlier legendary and prismatic items.

Healing is a critical part of Arena. It impacts everyone because safe zones get smaller every round, and champions with lower sustain often get trounced. As a result, the developer might be targeting healing to make things more balanced for competitive play.

Champions like Ekko, Fizz, LeBlanc, Corki, Viktor, Ziggs, and Akshan currently have some of the lowest win rates in Arena, so they received some love from the developer. Ekko, for example, has an abysmal 8.22 win percentage, according to League stats aggregator site, Metasrc.

Zaun’s teen inventor is underutilized, and his complicated kit makes him an unpopular choice among the playerbase. Some champions, like Fizz, require players to kite enemy champions to dominate in matches, but the Tidal Trickster has yet to find its groove in the meta. 

On the other hand, if you were tired of Darius and Vi being in every team composition, the developer has some good news for you. Champions like Darius, Vi, Kayn (Rhaast), Gragas, Garen, Trundle, Vladimir, Aatrox, and Briar, who ranked at the top of our LoL Arena tier list, are getting nerfed, so they’ll appear less often in your matches. 

Darius has the third-highest ban-rate (30.82 percent) among all champions and a consistent win rate in Arena. The strong sustain on his Q, combined with his potential to defeat champions in 1v2 matchups, made him a real threat. The developer is finally stripping some power from the champion to make him less oppressive. 

While we don’t have the exact values to gauge the intensity of these buffs and nerfs until the patch preview comes in, they should encourage players to diversify their champion pool in Arena and try out other champions. If the players’ respond positively to the Arena’s changes, Riot could consider making Arena a permanent mode.