Patch 8.4 just arrived in League of Legends today, but big jungle buffs for Patch 8.5 are already on the PBE for testing. Olaf and Nocturne are first up on the balance team’s agenda, and their buffs might actually be enough to make the duo viable.
Nocturne’s buffs are all about boosting his jungle clear speed and health, because, honestly, that’s one of his largest concerns right now. Unfortunately, his poor scaling makes it difficult to keep up with other assassins and divers the longer games run, too—but this boost to his camp clear might be so helpful that it doesn’t even matter.
His W, Shroud of Darkness, will now fear monsters on top of its normal function. His terrible jungle survivability matters less when the monsters can be reliably feared out of hitting him twice. On top of this, when he triggers the new fear, it will double the attack speed given by the ability’s passive for three seconds. So not only will his clears be safer; they’ll also be much faster. His ultimate’s sight-reduction effect is also being extended by two seconds.
Olaf’s buff is much more combat-oriented, because, let’s be honest, he doesn’t need any help in the jungle clear department. For starters, the duration of his Vicious Strikes ability is being extended by one second, which is inconsequential, but his ultimate’s buff is much larger. The bonus armor and MR provided by the ability are each being raised, as well as the AD boost from activating it and the duration of the effect.
After this buff, when Olaf uses his ultimate, you know you’re in for a world of hurt if he can catch up to you. Olaf’s major shortcoming this season so far has been his ineffectiveness when actually catching opponents when mid-game rolls around. With a beefier ultimate, he won’t have to worry about that nearly as much.
These changes should arrive with the patch on March 7 as long as it sticks to the usual patch schedule.
Published: Feb 22, 2018 12:38 pm