Damage for health: LoL Patch 13.17 to change how players approach lethality builds for 7 champs

Riot Games developers will be pushing League of Legends players to consider durability over lethality after next week’s Patch 13.17 with adjustments to seven powerful champions, all of which will have their health or shields buffed and their damage nerfed somewhat in order to limit their strong burst potential.

Lead League designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison discussed the team’s approach yesterday before revealing on Aug. 22 just how substantial these changes would be.

With the champions in question proving to be far too lethal and burst-damage oriented, the Riot balance team is hoping boosts to health across the board encourage players to build as tanks rather than “pure killing” machines.

One of the biggest changes has to be for Aatrox, who will now deal magic damage via his passive and his Q instead of physical damage. The Darkin Blade received hefty damage nerfs already in Patch 13.15, which saw his ranked play win rate plummet to well under 50 percent this season, according to League stats site U.GG.

With Duskblade of Draktharr no longer granting invulnerability while a champion is untargetable, the change means we’ll likely see Aatrox lean into the bruiser role a lot more over burst, meaning a switch up in Mythic item selection. Only time will tell which item players turn to next: could Jak’Sho or Riftmaker be the better play now for The Darkin Blade?

Select junglers also copped adjustments across the board. Hecarim lost his Omnivamp AD bonus, instead receiving 20 percent Omnivamp at all levels. Vi’s shield from her passive is more powerful and the cooldown refund via Denting Blows has been increased, meaning stronger shielding more often. Xin Zhao’s passive heal no longer scales by his AD, but is instead boosted depending on his maximum HP.

Again, it’s clear Riot is pushing players away from building straight burst damage, but it’s always a worry that players will find lethality builds just as effective on champs that have now become extra tanky too.

Related: Riot takes hammer to five meta League champions that are too good at ‘pure killing’

Changes also came for jungle leveling, with Riot revamping catch-up experience for junglers who fall behind. Preseason testing found jungle XP gains when two levels down saw champs who should have been punished for poor starts receive too much of a rebound. YouTuber KingStix highlighted just how much of a rubber-band effect this was having, showcasing in a video that, although he had twice the CS as the enemy jungler, they were both at the same level.

Phroxzon has noted this would be changing in 13.17, explaining: “We adjusted catch-up XP to trigger when down two levels rounding up to be more forgiving but had some negative consequences around encouraging too much ganking,” Now, jungle catch-up XP will round normally, as opposed to always rounding up.

Sticking to jungle changes, we’ve seen the last of Blitzcrank attempting the role, as Riot has given up on trying to make him work there. His shield has been reset to 30 percent at all levels, and his E no longer deals bonus damage to minions and monsters.

League Patch 13.17 is set to go live next Wednesday, Aug. 30.