Ekko is going to shatter a lot of lanes next patch. Sylas and Akali are getting buffs ahead of Worlds. Big Naafiri nerfs, love to enchanters (especially Karma), and changes to Lethality items (Spoiler: Draktharr is being gutted).
League of Legends patch 13.16 is going to bring a ton of buffs on champions so things will be interesting in Solo Queue for a couple of weeks. The bigger changes are for Caitlyn, Ekko, and Akali. But still, keep in mind that the others are not slouch either.
In regards to nerfs, the OP Naafiri is being nerfed along with Shyvanna and Rek'Sai.There are not many nerfs in this patch unless we are talking about one lethality item.
Draktharr is being nerfed after pretty much dominating the entirety of the last and current patch. A lethality item buff that you should be aware of is the Prowler's Claw one.
The item is going to be OP in Qiyana and Kha'Zix, no doubt. So expect these assassins to be the go-to in League of Legends Patch 13.16.
For more of a detailed breakdown check other sections.
Inmortal Journey skin line is returning in LoL patch 13.16
When will the next League of Legends Patch 13.16 go live?
If everything goes according to schedule should be up on Wednesday, Aug.16. This would be the last patch where the Soul Fighter Event is still live, so if you haven’t finished your missions be sure to end them soon before Aug. 20.
- 3am PT (NA)
- 5am GMT (EU West)
- 3am CET (EU North East)
- 8am KR (Korea)
Mid
Akali is making a comeback
Starting with the mid-lane champion changes, two staples of Worlds are getting a round of buffs this time, and yes… we are talking about Sylas and Akali.
Akali’s Five Point Strike (Q) is receiving a huge buff, the base damage is improving, and most important, the energy is being lowered from 40/65/90/115/140 to 45/70/95/120/145.
If you play the Rogue Assassin you know this will be huge in the early levels, so expect Akali to be in a much better spot these coming weeks.
In regards to Sylas changes, only his base mana is increasing by 70, maybe this will make possible full assassin builds with Night Harvester. This buff is probably going to help only with that, but what do we know? Maybe it’s a bigger change than we think.
Watch out, he may be the most OP mid this next patch
Talking about perfect timing for buffs, Ekko buffs are gonna make him way scarier in the early levels.
His Timewinder (Q) outgoing damage is increased along with his base slow, making his first levels all-ins more deadly. And his Parallel Convergence (W) shield is increased by a lot in the earlier ranks.
If you want to pick up Ekko this may be the time for it.
Finally, the last change is to Brand in the mid lane. He’s getting a substantial amount of mana restored from his Blaze (Passive), which increased from 20-40 to 30-50. The last changes are to both his Sear (Q) and Conflagration (E) AP ratio increasing by 5%.
BIG Naafiri Nerfs in LoL Patch 13.16
She was feasting too much in lower ELOs
The darkin hound Naafiri has been dominating both mid and top throughout patch 13.15. No one can deny this fact when looking at her ban rate of 55.7% in Platinum+, or 45.5% in Diamond+. So to no surprise, she’s getting nerfs, despite being released just two patches ago.
The nerfs aim to hurt her viability as a top laner with the more bruiser-oriented build that’s being doing hot.
With these changes, she should be more squishy so will reward more a heavy-poke style gameplay in the laning phase,
- Base Armor 32 >> 30
- Base AD 57 >> 55
- Base Attack Speed 0.688 >> 0.663
Support
A significant set of buffs are directed to the enchanters, especially a guy who uses fuemigos
Currently, Milio has one of the worst win rates in the enchanters category so Riot is buffing up his numbers.
Milio’s Ultra Mega Fire Kick (Q) damage is increased, especially towards the latter levels, also the AP ratio is going from +90% AP to +120% AP, so Q max Milio is a possibility now.
The last change for Milio is to his Warm Hugs (E), the shield numbers are increased along with its AP ratio.
Now talking about the other enchanters getting buffs, Karma and Lulu.
Is no surprise that Lulu is getting buffs when close to Worlds. Throughout the years she has been a staple in competitive (Ardent Censer meta flashbacks).
Lulu’s HP per level is increased by a lot and both her Glitterlance (Q) and Help, Pix! (E) AP ratio is increased. These buffs don’t seem as strong so we can be hopeful for her to not define the bot lane meta ahead of worlds.
Karma changes are looking strong
Another champion that is dangerous in Worlds is Karma. Karma’s Inner Flame (Q) AP ratio is increased from 40% to 50%. Her Soulflare (R-Q) AP explosion AP ratio is increased. Lastly, her Mantra cooldown is reduced from 40/38/36/34 to 40/37/34/31.
The big change is the Mantra (R) one, this for sure is going to make her lane more oppressive, so be on the lookout for Karma's being played in bot. You may be surprised by her damage.
Last but not least, changes to Shaco support. Apparently, Shaco is doing too well in the lower elos, so his Base mana regeneration is reduced along with his Jack in the Box (W) mana cost increased to 70 flat.
Jungle
Let her be!
No break for Rek’Sai and Shyvana, both of these picks have been getting quite a few nerfs throughout many patches. Riot doesn’t want them to be OP.
Let’s start with Rek’Sai one. Her Unburrowed (Q) base is removed and her AD ratio is changed from 50% to 34% to 50% total AD. This nerf will hurt her, especially in the early parts of the game, although there’s still a chance she will be fine and dandy. Time will tell.
One champ that just got nerfed and is receiving another round of nerfs is Shyvana. To be fair, according to Phreak's patch preview for 13.16, her win rate in low ELO is between 54% to 55%, making it unsustainable so another round of nerfs was expected.
Shyvana's Burnout (W) base damage per tick was reduced from 10 - 35 to 10 to 30, the bonus AD ratio per tick is reduced from 15% to 10% and the on-hit damage changed from 50% of DoT damage to 5 - 13 + 5% bonus AD.
This nerf will only hurt her AD build, so if you are playing Shyvanna AP, this patch is not going to affect you as much.
ADC
Headshots everywhere~
Moving to ADC changes. Let’s start with Caitlyn ones.
Caitlyn number of headshot stacks reduced from 6 to 5. This change is big, especially considering her bush interaction with her passive, allowing her to inflict a headshot every three autos.
So if you didn’t think last changes were impactful, this one will make a difference. So Caitlyn players, it is your time to shine.
The second champion getting buffed is Lucian. His Lightslinger (Passive) Vigilance damage increased from 10 to 15. This will make his damage with combos rise significantly.
Nerfs to Tristana Mid? Don't seem so
The last changes are the adjustments to Tristana. Base health reduced, Base armor increased, armor growth increased and Base MR reduced.
The changes are an attempt to make her laning against AP users way weaker, especially in the mid lane. There's an issue however, this may be unintended buffs to Tristana ADC, so this may end up increasing her playrate and domination.
Top
Some love for the Monkey King in the Top lane
Only one champion in top is getting changes in this patch, and that's Wukong. Although you can argue that the Shyvanna change was aimed at her use in the top lane.
Wukong is getting a set of changes to help his mana in the top lane, so a lot of his abilities are getting a mana cost reduction while his Mana per level is being increased.
Are these changes going to mark a return for Wukong? With his damage numbers is unlikely, but Wukong Top mains will be enjoying playing him more.
System Changes
Item Changes
Assassins are either for a treat or a bum with all the Lethality item changes. Worth to mention, Duskblade of Draktharr is finally getting nerfs.
In the last patch we’ve seen Duskblade of Draktharr all over the place, the problem of the item is how broken not only Tops are using it, but even ADCs too.
That’s why they are making changes to tune down troublesome parts of the item (The stealth), while not completely butchering the strengths of the item.
One lethality item that is indeed getting OP for the next patch is Prowler’s Claw. They are reducing drastically the cooldown of its active from 10 to 5 seconds, and the bonus AD ratio is going up from 45%/30% (Melee/Range) to 55%/35%.
So If you think Qiyana or Kha’Zix were dangerous before, expect the buffs to Prowler’s make them even more scarier.
Pyke and Nocturne are eating good this patch
Pyke mains are rejoicing with changes to Umbral Glaive. Although small, this lethality bump up is enough to make it attractive for their best users (Senna, Graves and Pyke)
.Also, Serpent’s Fang lethality going up from 12 to 15. Besides the niche spots where this item is OP, against teams with a ton of shields, maybe this will make the item more popular to build in more scenarios.
Last but not least, Axiom Arc’s cooldown refund is going up from 5% to 10%. If you play Nocturne, you will love this change
So if we know a thing about this patch is that more assassins are going to feast on targets. Not Naafiri hopefully...
