Following a hectic start to the 2023 League of Legends season, Riot Games is stepping in with major changes to a large number of champions and items in Patch 13.4, including buffs to several aspects of the game that have fallen far outside the evolving meta.
Riot Phroxzon, lead designer on the League balance team, provided specific details on the buffs scheduled to release alongside Patch 13.4 on Twitter on Feb. 23—many of which are being given to champions that have proven to be quite strong at different points in the past two years.
This patch also provides a large buff to an aspect of support role itemization that has removed a handful of champions from relevancy.
The top laners receiving buffs include Cho’Gath, Malphite, and Riven. Cho’Gath’s Q will cost less to cast and deal more damage at later ranks, while also gaining more armor per level and using less mana on his W. Malphite’s buffs are all tied to his W, which includes a cooldown decrease and better armor ratios. Of the three, Riven’s buffs are most notable, with her passive scaling with more damage over time and now being activatable on turrets.
All proposed Kennen changes have been delayed for “further investigation.”
Viego is the lone champion expecting buffs in the jungle, of which are explicitly aimed at making his crit build stronger. He will now be able to crit with his passive, and his R’s damage ratio has been increased based on the enemy’s missing health.
This patch is the first of many in which Riot is attempting to balance the efficiency of mages, a class that has fallen out of play nearly entirely after the changes to many items during the preseason.
Among the first few mages being buffed are Veigar, whose cast ranges on his Q and W have been increased, Ahri with base HP and armor buffs and an ultimate cooldown decrease, and Orianna, who will now use less mana when activating her W.
For the first time in months, Aphelios is receiving buffs, though only through his passive attack speed. Senna, another difficult-to-balance marksperson, will have her attack speed ratio increased while dealing more damage more frequently with her ultimate.
To compensate for the buffs to support items Spellthief’s Edge and Spectral Sickle, which have allowed for unforeseen variation in the support role, minion-executing starting items Relic Shield and Steel Shoulderguards will provide much larger health regeneration to users. Alongside this, Alistar’s passive heal has slightly increased, he now has more base armor, and his ultimate cooldown has decreased at all ranks.
Phroxzon also specified that Thresh is receiving a plethora of changes—both buffs and nerfs—to all of his abilities to change the way that players prioritize maxing his abilities. While none of his abilities have been hit too hard in either way, it appears an E-max focus is being emphasized over W for the Chain Warden.
All of these buffs, and an even larger pile of nerfs, are now available for testing on the League PBE and are expected to hit live servers with Patch 13.4 on Feb. 23. As these changes are in testing, some may be altered before eventually shipping.
Read: Here are the early League of Legends Patch 13.4 patch notes
