Riot blames weak tanks for damage feeling too high, buffs are on the way

Earlier this week, League of Legends players joined in on a frustration-induced post on the game’s Reddit community to voice their concerns about the game being packed with way too much damage.

Riot posted on the game’s official message boards to address the issue today, and although it never seemed to directly say “We agree,” or, “You’re wrong,” to the complaining fans, it did provide some insight.

From the sound of it, Riot doesn’t specifically think damage has gotten too out of hand, but instead that tanks have grown too weak, so it just seems that way. Because of this, Riot will be trying two different approaches in the near future in an attempt to rectify what it believes is the true issue.

First, anti-tank items and stats will be nerfed. Items that counter MR or armor, specifically those that provide either True Damage or some sort of resistance penetration have been “pushed too far,” according to Riot’s post. To start, a nerf to the True Damage on the Infinity Edge will go live with Patch 8.15 next week. After that, Riot will dish out more nerfs, but it’ll be done cautiously to avoid the return of the dreaded tank meta.

Secondly, tanks will be directly buffed, and this will come in two parts. The first set of buffs will go to tank champions that were formerly performing well thanks to the innate strength of their kits. Many of these champions were then over-nerfed by Riot when the tank meta started. And next, overall weak tanks will get their individual buffs, too, like Amumu, Leona, and Rammus. Some of those former tank powerhouses that were nerfed into oblivion include Nautilus, Sion, and Maokai, although Maokai’s buffs will be more geared towards the jungle.

One of the goals of the individual tank buffs will be to reduce the gap between pro consistency and the average playerbase. In other words, the tanks that are really only useful on highly-coordinated teams will soon be useful to everyone else, although Riot admitted it doesn’t exactly know how that will be addressed just yet.

This process will begin with Patch 8.15 and the Infinity Edge nerf to True Damage next week, and will continue into other patches leading up to, and probably after, Worlds this fall.