If we disregard buffs Vayne got with changes to AD carries’ base stats last season, the champion has gone three long years without any buffs to her kit. In Patch 13.6, Riot Games is handing out buffs and nerfs left and right, and Vayne has found herself on the list of lucky League of Legends champions. Still, the Riot devs fear the wrath of top lane Vayne and they’ve already locked in early nerfs and have more nerfs up their sleeves if she sneaks back into the meta.
On March 14, lead designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison shared the complete list of changes for Patch 13.6. On the list, Vayne buffs stood out thanks to them including buffs to passive movement speed, Tumble AD ratio, and Condemn cooldown reduction.
These buffs, however, didn’t last long as the lead League designer announced on March 15 that passive movement speed will stay unchanged after all. What’s even more important is that Riot already has a list of changes ready if we see top lane Vayne become overpowered.
In addition to that, the balancing team are worried about how exactly these changes will land as they presume this will change the maxing order and players will start prioritizing Tumble instead of Silver Bolts First.
Although top lane Vayne never had her time under the sun as a true meta pick, there’s no better time for Vayne to head from the bot lane back to the top lane to start terrorizing melee champions that struggle to touch her.
This pick is normally used if you already have an engage champion on your team (typically in the jungle) and you’re free to play a carry champion. In the jungle we already have a dominant tank meta, so you can expect to see the ranged bully and tank shredder Vayne when you log into the game after the release of Patch 13.6.
Still, Vayne has a long road ahead of her and these preemptive nerfs might just be the change she needed to be perfectly balanced in both roles.
Patch 13.6 is expected to hit the live servers on March 22, according to Riot’s official patch schedule.
