Amid the ongoing battle within the Soul Fighter event, Riot Games is stepping in for yet another round of changes to accompany League of Legends Patch 13.15, including a handful of buffs to champions that many find quite frustrating to play against already.
Riot Phroxzon, lead designer on League’s balance team, teased players with a look at the Patch 13.15 preview today, withholding further details until these changes are released on the PBE tomorrow prior to the official release of the patch on Aug. 2. While only a few champions are subject to be buffed, the specific faces that make up this section are rather jarring: Not only are they quite powerful already, but they’re all widely considered meta or somewhat-meta picks.
Among the champions being given a bit of help are the infamous wind brothers, Yasuo and Yone. These mid lane champions may both be mobile swordfighters, but their abilities are rather different—reuniting in the fact that they both want to be in the face of multiple enemies at once so they can thrive.
Yet the two brothers haven’t enjoyed the recent item overhaul too much as their go-to Mythic item, Infinity Edge, no longer provides them with the bonuses to their crit damage that it once did. Since both Yasuo and Yone share similar stats, should these buffs be targeting that aspect of them in particular, they’d likely receive the same changes.
Gwen is listed as the sole top laner being buffed just in time for her major appearance in the Soul Fighter event, possibly to reignite her presence as a powerful tank-buster and late-game menace. Meanwhile, Taliyah will likely receive mid-lane-centric buffs to increase her abysmal pick rate of 1.74 percent according to League stats site OP.GG and make her a more important pick in a meta full of mobility.
Related: LoL’s best and newest champions are both getting nerfed in Patch 13.15
This patch’s bot lane buffs go to Caitlyn and Nami, another pair of champions that have their strengths but have certainly been outclassed by others. While it’s unclear how exactly these two will be buffed, it’s likely their strengths will be tackled further—which may lead to further balancing issues due to Caitlyn and Nami’s ever-prevalent pairings with Milio and Lucian, respectively.
Phroxzon also included within the Patch 13.15 preview a section for adjustments to systems, which oftentimes includes both buffs and nerfs targeted at specific champions simultaneously. He said the team will be nerfing the Smite interaction with summons and pets, leading to changes in the durability of Annie’s Tibbers, Yorick’s Maiden of the Mist, and Hermerdinger’s turrets. Rell also appears once again in this adjustment section, marking yet another set of changes impacting the support/jungler that recently underwent a massive midscope update.
All of the changes included in the League Patch 13.15 preview, including the abundance of nerfs to both powerful champions and rather niche ones, are expected to be revealed in full tomorrow when they are pushed to the PBE. They will be released on the live servers on Aug. 2, though they may be altered prior to that depending on the results of the testing period.
