Riot addresses the overpowered state of Shaco and Garen after League Patch 9.20

Patch 9.20 may have been a bit too friendly to Shaco and Garen.

League of Legends design director Andrei “Meddler” van Roon commented on the state of Shaco and Garen in the Dev Corner today, explaining that the two champions will likely be nerfed in the next patch.

Shaco

The Demon Jester underwent huge changes in 9.20. His Jack In The Box (W) ability now deals area of effect (AoE) damage to multiple enemies at a time. The intention was to improve Shaco’s early game, but the buff allows him to hit level three while bottom laners are still level one. 

While Meddler thinks the Shaco changes look promising, he does admit that the jester’s jungle domination is problematic.

“Looks like he’s too strong, though probably at ‘nerfs next patch’ levels not ‘hotfix levels’ of too strong,” Meddler said. “First thing we’ll test is weaker level one boxes, aimed particularly at hitting how quickly he’s clearing his initial camps and hitting level three.”

Although Riot plans on scaling back some of Shaco’s early-game presence in the next patch, it doesn’t want to nerf him so that he’s weaker than he was prior to 9.20.

Garen

The Demacian Knight’s passive health regeneration was increased, while also giving him a shield from his Courage (W) ability. Garen’s spin-to-win ability now scales with attack speed rather than just levels and attack damage.

Unfortunately for top laners across the globe, Garen’s early game is too oppressive while also scaling well into mid and late game. Meddler is happy with the direction tanky top laners are headed in, but is aware of the Demacian’s supremacy.

“Is also looking too strong and a candidate for nerfs next patch,” Meddler said. “As expected with Garen he’s less out of line in high MMR, though still on the strong side even there. Another goal was to shift power to his early game, the belief being that that’s both part of Garen’s historic identity we wanted to bring back and generally an appropriate pattern for juggernauts. Does look like that’s working so far.”

Some shine will be removed from Garen’s armor in Patch 9.21, but Riot doesn’t want him to be at a weaker stage than before—similar to the developer’s plans for Shaco.