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True Damage Qiyana, ready to take over the stage and the Rift.
Image via Riot Games

Riot tinkers with LoL’s assassin item pool, including nerfs to controversial item in Patch 13.16

Finding a balance to the brutality.

Ever since Riot Games introduced League of Legends’ mid-season item changes back in May, many players have been clamoring about the new adjustments to an assassin item that has quickly become one of the most dreaded in the game: Duskblade of Draktharr.

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In Patch 13.16, however, the iconic weapon and a collection of other lethality-based items are getting some changes that should help balance out the role and the item usage among its most-popular champions, like Zed, Qiyana, Kha’Zix, and Shaco.

Related: Here are the early LoL Patch 13.16 patch notes

Based on the recent changes to League’s PBE server, Duskblade of Draktharr will be getting 20 seconds added to its current cooldown, along with a two percent damage reduction at later levels.

Zed's suits up alongside his clones in his Debonair skin.
Zed is ready to dominate in Patch 13.16. Image via Riot Games

This should be welcome news for many solo queue enjoyers who have deemed the weapon “anti-fun” since it makes burst-like assassins invulnerable to all forms of damage and crowd control after each kill. As a result, it makes it impossible for players to counter these champions once they’ve snaked their way to the backline where the squishier enemies are hiding.

By increasing Duskblade’s cooldown, players shouldn’t be able to continue the killing spree without having to wait out a few moments after breaking the item’s invulnerability effect. The invulnerability effect is still relatively obnoxious for many, but at least these changes will help a bit with how often an assassin can pounce on an unsuspecting opponent.

Related: Outraged LoL players beg Riot to nerf this ‘anti-fun’ item

Prowler’s Claw, on the other hand, is getting a five-second cooldown reduction and a 10 percent bonus AD ratio increase, while Axiom Arc is getting a base ultimate cooldown refund increase of five percent. All of these items are necessary purchases for many assassin champions, but now they’ll be much more efficient when ganking and in teamfights.

Patch 13.16 will be dropping onto League’s live servers on Wednesday, Aug. 16.


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Author
Image of Tyler Esguerra
Tyler Esguerra
Lead League of Legends writer for Dot Esports. Forever an LCS supporter, AD carry main, with more than five years in the industry. Sometimes I like clicking heads in Call of Duty or VALORANT. Creator of the Critical Strike Podcast.