With the arrival of patch 7.6 tomorrow morning, League of Legends is getting hit pretty hard with gameplay changes, including the arrival of the epic champion update to Galio.
Some changes in the patch really stand out—as they will impact the meta of League the most. Whether they be champion buffs, mastery changes, or a total champion rework, these are the most noteworthy updates.
1) Galio, the Colossus
Galio’s update goes live with the patch tomorrow, and boy, it is cool. Some players and fans have been reacting to the changes negatively, however. Those players argue that the update is too different from what Galio has always been—forgetting that a large-scale champion update is a complete redesign of who and what a champion represents. If Riot wants to maintain any elements of the champion’s former self, that’s ultimately up to the developer, but the new Galio is still awesome— regardless of whether you think he should have kept more of his Gargoyle-esque features.
We went into the details of Galio’s new kit already, so let’s talk about how best to use him. Galio is going to be utilized as a tanky mage. From his testing, he seems to be a relatively strong pick in a multitude of situations—as long as his item build is changed accordingly. Junglers will be happy to know that his camp clear and gank pressure is pretty strong, and his potential to be a bully in lane with his Winds of War skill should be decent as well.
Items that should work well on Galio are the Abyssal Scepter, Rod of Ages, Liandry’s Torment, and general tank items. Maxing his Winds of War first seems to be the best choice regardless of the role you pick him in.
2) More Aatrox buffs
Aatrox was hit heavily by buffs in patch 7.5, but he’s not out of the woods yet. Riot still deems him a bit too weak to be considered a viable pick, and the developer is not quite ready to leave him alone. We covered his potential buffs awhile back, but now that the patch is going live, we have a better idea of how the changes will affect him.
Upon being revived by his passive, he now maintains his progress towards his Blood Price/Thirst proc rather than losing it. He also automatically fills his Blood Well upon revival, making his passive a bit more powerful and meaningful.
Honestly, this isn’t as huge of a change as his small rework in the last patch, but hopefully it’s enough to push Aatrox into the realm of viability.
3) Quinn isn’t so scary now
Quinn has been a plague to solo queue for awhile now. Her insane burst coupled with the efficiency of the Lethality items has turned her into a killing machine. She’s been the go-to top laner for cheesing your way through the ranked ladder, and even some junglers and mid laners have been running her in higher elo games.
Well, say goodbye to that. The AD ratio on her ultimate is now being lowered substantially, so it will only do about 40 percent of the damage it did originally. She did get a buff to compensate for that huge damage reduction, however. The attack speed bonus granted by her Harrier Strike has been effectively doubled. This means that while her burst damage has taken a serious hit, her sustained damage in longer fights has been increased. She will be less cheesy now, but can still put out similar amounts of damage in a healthier way (and with more counterplay).
4) Warlord’s Bloodlust gets changed again
That’s right, you heard us. Warlord’s Bloodlust was completely gutted just a few weeks ago in patch 7.5, and it’s being gutted again. We covered this upcoming change already, but basically, Riot is removing the lifesteal portion of the mastery and replacing it when a self-heal that scales on the wielder’s total AD. The heal will be much more potent now on higher AD building champions like Jhin, so expect to see it run by assassins and marksmen that plan on stacking nothing but damage.
The movement speed boost from the mastery remains the same.
5) “Gnar gada!”
Gnar has been faltering against meta champions in the top lane for a bit now. Champions like Kennen, Renekton, Jayce, and even Rumble have been bullying the former king of top-lane-bullying more than we would have expected. Because of this, he’s getting some buffs to help him out in lane.
His mega form has always outshined his mini form, enough to make Gnar feel completely useless while mini in the current meta. The health regen is being raised significantly on his mini form from 2.5 to 4.5 health per five seconds. The regen on his mega form has been lowered to match, however, from 6.5 to 4.5 per five seconds.
He is also now able to queue up another spell while casting his Crunch in mega form.
6) Red Brambleback gets wimpy
This isn’t as large of a change at first glance, but its impact on the whole of the game will be a big one. The Red Brambleback’s MR is being lowered at all levels, which means magic-based junglers will be able to clear it much faster, especially at lower levels.
Lowering the time it will take to clear even one high-experience camp might be enough to open the door to junglers that deal magic damage to be more viable in the current meta. Fiddlesticks, Zac, Sejuani, Elise, Diana, and even jungle Ekko will benefit a lot from this change. If you see an Elise on your team in the next game, tell her to start at Red Buff.
There are more changes that we didn’t cover here, but these are the most important for this patch. Now you can go back to your busy schedule of insta-locking Galio in solo queue.
