With the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational only a few short weeks away, upcoming League of Legends patch 13.8 will be one of the significant factors for several pro players regarding champion picks, bans, and even what items they need to buy.
League balance boss Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison revealed the full Patch 13.8 details on April 11, a week out from the update’s April 19 release, and there’s certainly a bundle of exciting changes in the mix.
While all the planned buffs in the upcoming League patch carry a major jungle focus, Riot has been a little more scatter-shot with its nerf targets this week. In Patch 13.8 there’s no specific lane assignment, with Aurelion Sol, Jarvan IV, Kayn, Malphite, and Rakan all seeing changes. Most will be getting hit with reduced base stats.
Unsurprisingly, Aurelion Sol is on the list to be nerfed, considering how notoriously broken he was after his rework and his continued domination on the Rift and Howling Abyss even after several nerfs. Although his rework was thoroughly broken, the silver lining is he finally appeared in pro play after several years of being unviable.
It’s also not a surprise to see Malphite nerfs as he was utterly ignored in League Patch 13.7 despite his top lane domination and rocketing win rates. Even with these nerfs, it may not be enough to stop this tank from getting another pentakill in pro play either.
The Kayn and Jarvan IV stat nerfs aren’t as extensive and may not have any great impact on how players pilot these champions in season 13. But the Rakan nerfs may be enough to push down his pick priority at MSI and in ranked games, especially when packaged with the buffs Alistar is receiving in this patch.
But as Rakan is a pretty great counter to Alistar as a support pick, we may actually see even more action—if that’s even possible—in the bot lane after the update.
