The League of Legends patch preview for Patch 13.19, on which the 2023 World Championship will be played in its entirety, is finally here, bringing about an influx of unexpected buffs that are sure to shape the entirety of the biggest tournament of the year.
Riot Phroxzon, the lead designer on the League balance team, has offered both fans and pro players alike a small tease at what they can expect from this year’s Worlds patch, consisting of—following the trend of years past—multiple changes to champions both in competitive play and those that have fallen out of the meta.
This time around, the Worlds patch is centered mostly around buffs rather than nerfs, bringing former dominant picks back into the fray at a very convenient time.
The sole top laner listed as receiving a buff in Patch 13.19 is Gangplank, a champion that has remained controversial among players across multiple elos for some time due to his varying degree of strength in the laning and late-game phases. Phroxzon briefly mentioned he still feels “a little weak overall” despite a refocus on his crit-centric build, while the champion’s pick rate remains rather low due to his complexity.
Lee Sin, a staple of pro play in the jungle, is back on the buff list as the team feels his buffs just a few patches ago haven’t been enough to bring him back into an aggressive jungle meta helmed by Jarvan IV and Rek’Sai.
A similar increase to aggression—as well as roaming—is being given to Nunu and Willump, who appear to be getting more damage in their snowball-rolling endeavors.
Riot is also planning to diversify the mid lane meta slightly to prevent AD carries and assassins like Tristana, Naafiri, and Talon from running over the meta through buffs to old staples Galio, Syndra, and Lissandra. They’ll also be accompanied by buffs to Ziggs, who Phroxzon noted has a particularly low win rate in the mid lane (48 percent in high elo, according to OP.GG), though it’s more than likely the champion will continue to appear in the hands of ADCs venturing outside of the typical marksman pick, where Ziggs is about to become much stronger.
Traditional ADCs joining the buff list include Jhin and Twitch, who have strayed away from pro play over the last number of months due to the prevalence of Kai’Sa, Ashe, and specific mages. The sole support joining their endeavors in the bot lane with newfound power is Pyke, one of the few champions in this engage support-centric meta that hasn’t made as much of an impact as options like Rell, Rakan, and Nautilus.
These champions will be joined by only two buffs to existing items—Randuin’s Omen and Seeker’s Armguard—both of which Phroxzon specifically mentioned needed to be tuned to deal with the resurgence of AD champions in the mid lane. In the preview, he explained Randuin’s Omen in particular serves as a decent option to Tristana, but isn’t too popular among players.
All of these buffs, as well as other massive changes to champions not named Kai’Sa, are expected to be pushed to League’s PBE within the next day for around a week of testing before they land on live servers next Wednesday.
The 2023 League World Championship will begin on Oct. 10 in South Korea with the Play-In stage, and utilize the upcoming League Patch 13.19 for its duration.
