League of Legends Patch 8.15 arrives this week, and one of the goals of the update is to fix the mess that Patch 8.11 caused when AD carry base stats and items were all gutted.
This means that Riot is taking a second pass at the items affected in the original patch. More specifically, it’s going to hit the crit-based items that were altered. Other AD items will remain largely the same.
Most of the changes going live this week are two-sided, but there are a few very straightforward buffs as well. For example, the Essence Reaver is gaining five more AD. That’s about as simple as a buff can get. Also, all major Zeal items, including the Statikk Shiv, Phantom Dancer, Runaan’s Hurricane, and Rapidfire Cannon, are dropping in price by 100 gold.
The cost reductions on Zeal items are nothing but a good thing. All of those items are retaining their current power levels, but now they’re cheaper, allowing you to access much-needed critical strike chance faster. Changes to other crit items aren’t quite so cut-and-dry.
The Infinity Edge is also getting a cost reduction of 200 gold, but its AD is dropping by 10 and its True Damage conversion by five percent. The build path is also changing from two BF Swords to one BF Sword and a Pickaxe, and the item will now cause your crit strikes to deal bonus damage to monsters and minions. So sure, you’ll be able to access the power of this item much faster. That much gold is a lot to suddenly not need, and the replacement of a BF Sword for a Pickaxe accomplishes the same goal, too.
The tradeoff, however, is that the item will deal considerably less damage. So yes, you won’t have to wait as long to hit power spikes, but you also won’t be able to carry the game as well once you get it, and that will have an impact on the meta at large. AD carries will suddenly be viable throughout the laning phase, but your team may require a secondary source of late-game damage to melt through tanks.
The Stormrazor and Mercurial Scimitar are getting the same treatment. The Stormrazor’s cost is dropping by 400, and the Merc-Scim’s is dropping by 200. Both items are also losing a hefty chunk of AD, and in the Stormrazor’s case specifically, attack speed is going down, too.
AD carries will probably return to the bot lane after this, but tanks will feel a lot stronger with a damage nerf of this scale to their direct counters. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as tanks are a bit weak at the moment, but AD carries might still get a little mad.
