LoL Patch 13.15 Preview is Here

LoL Patch 13.15 Preview looks to revert some of the strongest buffs of 13.14, while giving some forgotten champions a bit of love.

Almost a week have passed since the release of League of Legends latest update, Patch 13.14! This patch saw the release of League of Legends newest game mode, Arena, which has been a huge success with the fans, as well as a new champion, Naafiri, who took over the midlane and the jungle by storm with his pack of wild hounds. Of course, this patch also brought a heap of balance changes to both champions and items, with most of the buffs and nerfs being a success.

However, some changes were a bit excessive, like the Aatrox and Shyvana buffs. Riot Games’ balance team has been hard at work to put Patch 13.15 together, and Riot Phroxzon have revealed the preview for the next patch in League of Legends with some surprise changes to picks like Yorick, Camille and Yasuo, while also addressing problematic picks as well.

LoL Patch 13.15 Preview – The Details

LoL Patch 13.15 Preview – The Buffs

Seven champions have been buffs, but this time around, Riot Games didn’t feel the need to make any of the items and other systems in the game. They tried to make some forgotten champions a bit better for both casual, high level and professional play, which should shake things up a bit:

• Caitlyn’s Passive Crit Chance Ratio has been increased from 1.2 to 1.3, as well as the damage of her Ultimate, Ace in the Hole, which now has a 3.5% Damage/10% Crit instead of 2.5%, making the Crit-focused build of Caitlyn even better,
• Camille’s AD Growth per level has been increased to 3.8 from 3.5, which is not much – however, she got some hefty buffs to her Ultimate’s On Hit Base Damage for the target stuck in the Hextech Ultimatum, as Camille now deals 20/30/40 extra damage with her Attacks instead of 5/10/15,

• Gwen will be a bit more tankier once the patch drops, as her HP Regen has been increased to 9 from 8.5, and her W, Hallowed Mist now gives her more Resists based on the abilities level,
• Nami has been in a rough spot since her breakup with Lucian, and Riot wants to bring her back a bit. The balance team gave her some extra damage for her Q, which now deals 310 base damage at level 5, and her Passive gives 100 Movement Speed plusz 25% of her AP instead of 90+20%,
• Taliyah still had her place as a dash-counter thanks to her E, but she could be doing better. She received some extra damage for her Q, which now deals 5 more at every rank, and her E cooldown now starts at 16 seconds instead of 18. Jungle Taliyah could also see a resurgence, as Riot gave some extra damage for her E against monsters,
• Yasuo and his brother Yone also get some love from the developers: Yasuo’s Passive Shield is now bigger, shielding him for 125-600 depending on level, and Yone’s W now has 10 extra Shield at every rank.

LoL Patch 13.15 Preview – The Nerfs

While the buffs have included some champions who have seen less play in both the lowest and the highest ranks, the nerfs are trying to take character who are overperforming down a peg – even though they just got buffs, for example Aatrox, Shyvana and to some extent, Ivern:

• Aatrox’s Q AD Ratio has been brought down from 60-100% to 60-90%, which is still stronger than what he had before 13.14, but with the base damage reduction of the latest live patch, it evens out more,
• Ivern’s buffs have received some criticism, as the Green Father has felt overtuned (and oversimplied) for weeks now. Phroxzon revealed that they can’t solve the Ivern issue without extensive changes, but the focus will be to make him an Enchanter again instead of a pseudo mage who rushes Night Harvester every game,

• Kai’Sa has been running rampant since players discovered her AP build again, and since her buffs to reach her evolutions a bit faster. Riot Games is finally addressing the member of the KDA K-Pop group by reducing her Base HP by 30, as well as bringing down her AP Scaling on her Q and her Cooldown refund on her evolved W (by 2%, but we don’t talk about that),
• Maokai got a small dose of the treatment Wukong received, as the balance team reduced his Q Bonus damage to monsters by 20,
• Sejuani’s W deals a surprising amount of damage for a tank, so in 13.15, it will deal 20 less at every rank,
• and last, but not least, Shyvana is getting hit as well. Even though they just buffed her AD build, they needed to nerf her again as they went a bit overboard. The balance team didn’t touch her recent buffs but lowered her AD per level to 3 and her HP per level to 104.
• They also nerfed some systems, such as Glacial Augment, which now scales better with Ap and AD, so champions other than Supports can take the Keystone,
• Night Harvester, which will only trigger from Attacks, Spells and Pets, while indirect effects, such as Damage Over Time spells won’t activate the extra damage passive of the item,
• and Smite, the Summoner Spell, which now deals 20-160 damage to summoned pets such as Yorick’s Maiden, Ivern’s Daisy and Annie’s Tibbers. In exchange, the 20% slow when Smiting an enemy champion is now available from Tier 2 instead of Tier 3.

LoL Patch 13.15 Preview – The Adjustments

Some of the changes of each patch can’t really be categorized as buffs or nerfs – they don’t make a champion weaker or stronger, they just change the way they work. This time around, three of the “summoner” type champions have been changed so that they can be a bit more healthy with the Smite to Pets nerfs:

• Annie’s Tibbers has been weakened a bit, as his Armour and MR now doesn’t scale with Annie’s AP, his Health scales a bit less, and he has reduced Health overall,
• Heimerdinger’s H-28Q Apex Turret (the Upgraded one) has less Health and scales with 50% of Heimer’s AP at all levels, but it’s Armor and Magic Resist has been increased,
• Yorick’s Maiden of the Mist now regens 2.5 Health per second, so with a bit of time, the Maiden can regenerate to full health. She also has 10-50 Armor and MR scaling with Yorick’s level, but her HP is now 400-1950 down from 3300, which seems like a huge nerf – but if the Yorick player is careful, one Maiden can serve them for the whole game.

Overall, the next Patch in line for League of Legends seems like one on the conservative side. Riot Games is in a bit of a pickle with some picks, such as Kai’Sa, Ivern, Aatrox and Shyvana, as they can’t decide whether to buff or nerf them. The Smite changes are also a bit weird, as at this point, Smiting a Pet will be just a waste of a Summoner Spell – at least it can secure a kill if you Smite an enemy champion. But it’s great to see that Riot Games didn’t forget about champions such as Camille and Caitlyn, who have been struggling for a while. Hopefully, they can make a comeback for the end of the competitive year as well as the second ranked split of 2023!