Riot outlines big tank buffs for League’s Patch 8.16

The tank era might be coming back.
Image via Riot Games

Riot announced last week that it sees tanks as one of the weaker classes in League of Legends at the moment, and after the company’s post on the official game forums today, we know exactly what’s coming.

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The theme of the buffs is taking tanks that used to be extremely powerful in the meta that have fallen to the wayside, and bringing power back into their kits. This includes all the tanks from last year’s tank meta before the mid-season, including Nautilus, Maokai, and Sion. There are also some more niche champions on the list, too, including Leona, Rammus, and Amumu. Tahm Kench is in there, too, but he’s here for nerfs, not buffs.

Here’s the full list of changes.

Nautilus

“Goal: Give Nautilus’ shield some more flexibility; aiming to bring the effect into more usable trade windows and additional casts per jungle camp.”

Titan’s Wrath (W):

  • Shield: 65/70/75/80/85 (and 9/11/13/15/17 percent max health) changed to 60/70/80/90/100 (+9/10/11/12/13 percent max health).
  • Duration: 10 lowered to six seconds.
  • Cooldown: 18 lowered to 12 seconds.
  • Cost: 80 lowered to 60 mana.

Amumu

“Goal: Simply put, give some unique scaling to Amumu’s defensive mechanics.”

Tantrum (E):

  • Passive physical damage reduction gains additional benefit equal to three percent of Amumu’s bonus armor and magic resist.

Rammus

“Goal: Generally just trying to make him a bit tankier at all stages of the game, but still with a heavier skew towards physical ad rather than magic damage.”

Defensive Ball Curl (W):

  • Bonus Armor: 50/60/70/80/90 percent raised to 60/70/80/90/100 percent.
  • Bonus Magic Resist: 25/30/35/40/45 percent raised to 30/35/40/45/50 percent.

Sion

“Goal: Increase the reward for stacking W passive.”

Soul Furnace (W):

  • Permanent max health gain from small enemies: Three raised to four.
  • Permanent max health gain from large enemies: 10 raised to 15.

Leona

“Goal: Giving Leona the potential for much higher uptime on her defense button, but trying to do so in a way that doesn’t buff her lane too much. As such, W and E have had their damage redistributed to mean Leona doesn’t get both incredible offense and incredible defense if she maxes W first.”

Eclipse (W):

  • Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 lowered to 60/90/120/150/180.
  • Cooldown: 14 changed to 18/16/14/12/10.
  • Armor: 25/35/45/55/65 (and 20 percent) changed to 15/20/25/30/35 (and 40 percent).
  • Magic Resist: 20/30/40/50/60 (and 20 percent) changed to 15/20/25/30/35 (and 40 percent).

Zenith Blade (E):

  • Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 raised to 60/110/160/210/260.

Maokai

“Goal: Giving Maokai some stat help aimed at a moderate buff to jungle position and small buff to non jungle positions. We’re particularly hesitant to over buff his top lane.”

Base Stats:

  • Movespeed: 335 raised to 340.
  • Magic Resist Growth: 1.25 raised to 1.75.

Sapling Toss (E):

  • Max damage against non champions :: 300 raised to 500.

Tahm Kench

“Goal: Reduce the overall availability of his defensive Devour and better reward use in aggressive scenarios. Also tuning Q to give him a few more buttons to press in light of longer cd ally W, and reducing the slow to compensate.”

Tongue Lash (Q):

  • Slow Duration: Two lowered to 1.5.
  • Cooldown: Six lowered to five.

Devour / Regurgitate (W):

  • Damage: 20/23/26/29/32 percent (and two percent per 100 AP) changed to 27/29/31/33/35 percent (and one percent per 100 AP).
  • Devour duration: 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 lowered to four.
  • Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 raised to 28/25/22/19/16.
  • Cost: 90 lowered to 60.
  • New: Triggers half its normal cooldown on enemy cast.

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Aaron Mickunas
Esports and gaming journalist for Dot Esports, featured at Lolesports.com, Polygon, IGN, and Ginx.tv.