Significant top lane damage changes headline Riot’s latest experiments on LoL PBE

As League of Legends‘ competitive and solo queue meta continues to take shape, Riot Games might be planning a whole gamut of changes to damage profiles for multiple high-profile top lane champions in upcoming patches.

On the game’s PBE server, multiple changes have been noted for 11 champions, including Sion, Ornn, Tahm Kench, Mordekaiser, and Malphite. These adjustments are all concerning the champions’ damage, including shifts from base damage to scaling ratio damage.

For example, Sett is getting reductions to his second punch base damage at later levels, but its AD ratio is also increasing by 15 percent. His ultimate ability is also getting a base damage reduction at all levels, but its bonus AD ratio is also increasing by 60 percent. Mordekaiser is getting his Q ability’s base damage reduced significantly at later levels but is getting an AP ratio increase of 15 percent.

Related: Here are the LoL Patch 13.12 patch notes

In a similar vein, Malphite’s Q ability will be getting a base damage reduction at all levels but will be getting its AP ratio increased by 15 percent. The ability’s movement speed steal has also been increased by five percent at all levels, giving it more utility when chasing down enemies or setting up for an engage right before a teamfight.

There are, however, some champions who are getting straight-forward nerfs, while others are gaining more durability in exchange for damage. Sion, for example, is getting a full-on nerf with small damage reductions to his Decimating Smash ability for both its minimum and maximum strikes. His shield is also getting a reduction at later levels, making him a tad less tanky—although at the late game, Sion should have enough items to be still able to soak up as much damage as he needs.

Some players are already jumping to conclusions about how this will affect these different champions, with some arguing that these are straight nerfs since most of these top laners cannot afford to build enough damage items to take advantage of these ratio increases, making it an overall nerf when put into practice on the Summoner’s Rift.

The next League update, Patch 13.13, is scheduled to hit servers on Wednesday, June 28, which means that there’s still plenty of time for the developers to hold back or revert these upcoming changes as they see fit.