League of Legends patch 10.5 — The needed nerfs patch

League of Legends patch 10.4 had shown a lot of changes in the meta, shifting more towards tankier champions that revolved around bami cinders. The upcoming patch 10.5 has some much needed nerfs have been made to these tanks champions. Following this, some love has been given to a bunch of forgotten champions. Check out the full patch notes here before taking a look on what the changes mean. 

Champion Changes

Alistar – Buff

Alistar’s base health will be increased from 575 to 600 in League of Legends patch 10.5.

At first, it might seem like a small buff, but Alistar has one of the strongest early game crowd control. At level 2, Alistar can gap close and knock up targets with relative ease. This health bonus simply makes his early game all-ins a lot more dangerous.

Amumu – Nerf

Amumu’s ultimate cooldown has been increased from 130/115/100 to 150/125/100.

With the buffs to bami cinder and Amumu last patch, his potential in the lower Elos had become nightmarish. I’ll still argue that he is still very strong as a jungler, just not enough to impact higher Elo yet. 

Bard – Nerf

Bard’s passive chime damage has been decreased from 15 to 12 in League of Legends patch 10.5.

A nerf to Bard’s late-game damage. I don’t think it’ll change his current stance in the meta. Bard is still a good support in skilled hands. AP Bard can still potentially work as well.

Blitzcrank – Nerf

Base armor decreased from 40 to 37.

Nerfed all-in potential during the early levels. Won’t do much at all as Blitzcrank’s kit is revolved around pulling enemies out of position. A smart player will simply bide his time to pull an enemy. The only time this nerf will ever be felt would be in level one invades, and early ganks.

Darius – Buff

Darius’ passive’s bleed damage to monsters has been increased from 120% to 175%.

As I concluded in my last patch note overhaul, Darius will not be a good jungler. I still stick by this statement. This buff helps his clear speed tremendously, but overall still won’t help his lack of ganking potential. I still don’t think this buff will improve Darius’ stance as a jungler.

Graves – Buff

Graves base magic resist will be increased from 30 to 32. His magic resist per level has been increased to 1.25 from 1. Alongside this change, his End of the Line mana cost has been lowered from 60/65//70/75/80 to 60 at all ranks. Its cooldown reduction has also been decreased by a second at each rank of the ability.

Graves used to be one of the strongest and most picked junglers when he was first reworked. Tarzaned, former rank 1 on the NA server, made Graves jungle well known and popular. Since then, Graves’ play rate has only decreased from his prime. These changes will help him when he ganks mid lane mages, as well as helping his mana sustain better when farming the jungle in the early game. But overall, these changes are very minimal and probably won’t change anything for Graves.

Kai’Sa – Update

Icathian Rain AP ratio has been decreased from 40% to 25%. The number of missiles fired from the evolved Icathian Rain has been increased from 10 to 12. Void Seeker  damage has been altered with 70% AP scaling instead of 60%, as well as 130% total AD from 150%. The cooldown refunded has been increased from 50% to 70%.

Kai’sa’s champion kit has always been revolved around evolving abilities based on her bonus stats. With these changes, Riot Games has essentially buffed their respective abilities towards the stats that have been invested in. Icathian Rain for AD Kai’sa as an ad carry, while Void Seeker is more bursty with AP Kai’sa. I still don’t think this changes Kai’sa too much in the current meta. She’s still a strong pick, not the best, but definitely better than a lot of other ADCs.

Kayn – Update

Kayn’s passive has been changed. No longer will he gain an increase in spawned orbs at eight and twelve minutes. Instead, the orb rate will be increased to 3% till his transformation bar is filled. Alongside this change, his Blade’s Reach slow has been increased from 60% to 70%.

Kayn is a champion that is very weak in the early game, requiring on his transformations to become a lot stronger. These transformation are what allows Kayn to either snowball and carry, or sit back and be useless for the rest of the game. The change to his passive rewards aggressive ganks and invades to gain orbs, as it now allows a higher orb growth earlier in the game.

His Blade Reach slow also helps him with this, as it is the only form of crowd control Kayn has. It’s his primary poking tool and allows him to either safely gain his passive orbs, or to chase his targets.

Overall, for those that play Kayn, I think this change is actually more of a buff than an ‘update’. The changes to his passive allows him to snowball faster, but punishes much more to mistakes. Good Kayn players will become a deadlier early game threat.

Lissandra – Buff

Lissandra’s Ice Shard AP ratio has been increased from 70% to 80% in League of Legends patch 10.5.

A decent buff, especially since it’s her primary poking tool in lane. Lissandra is already a safe mage to pick into assassins. This buff will allow her to dominate her lane much more easily.

Mordekaiser – Buff

Mordekaiser’s passive’s maximum damage done to monsters has been increased from 25-120 to 28-164.

A buff to jungle Mordekaiser. Again, I stand by my statement that out of the juggernauts that Riot Games is trying to make viable in the jungle, Mordekasier is the best. He has the strongest crowd control and the ability to take enemies out of a fight with his ultimate. His clear is now a lot stronger, so I’m expecting a better win rate with jungle Mordekaiser.

Neeko – Buff

Attack speed per level increased from 3% to 3.5%. Her Tangle-Bards AP ratio has been increased from 40% to 60%. Neeko’s Ultimate, Pop Blossom, has her shield increased considerately from 50/80/110 (50% AP) to 75/100/125 (75% AP).

Neeko is one of the burstiest mages in League of Legends. She’s a nightmare when she can land her abilities, able to one shot almost any champ in the game. Her weakness lies in her squishiness and the fact that her range is extremely limited. These buffs amplify her strengths, but don’t benefit her current weaknesses as a champion. I can only see her becoming a viable threat in lower Elos where they don’t know how to deal with Neeko.

Ornn – Nerf

Ornn’s passive, Living Forge, has its masterwork item level increase to 13 (14 for allies). Bellow’s Breath damage dealt decreased from 12%—20.5% to 10%—18%.

With the changes to sunfire cape last patch, Ornn’s win rate skyrocketed. Already having underestimated burst with his Bellow’s Breath, sunfire cape allowed him to burst even more, effectively almost one shooting squishy target’s and carries with a full combo. Being a tank, this was obviously an unhealthy change, so I’m not surprised at the Ornn nerfs. This obviously lowers his trading potential in lane as his Bellow’s Breath is his made trading tool. Overall a good nerf, but probably needs more with the current strength of sunfire cape.

Rammus – Nerf

Attack speed ratio decreased from 0.656 to 0.625.

Okay.

Sett – Nerf

Base armour has been decreased from 37 to 33. Base HP regeneration decreased from 8 to 7. Sett’s ultimate, The Show Stopper, has its slow duration lowered to one second from 1.5 seconds.

Ever since his release Sett has been really strong. His kit isn’t the problem, it’s full of obvious strengths and weaknesses, as well as counterplay. The problem lies in the fact that his numbers are way too high and easy to use against the enemy. He gains damage from his passive grit, which is charged from the damage he takes from enemies. With certain builds and the fact that his Haymaker does true damage depending on grit, means he can effectively one-shot an enemy.

Sivir – Update

Sivir’s Boomerang Blade has its total AD scaling increased from 70/80/90/100/110% to 70/85/100/115/130%. Her ultimate’s minimum movement speed increase has been changed from 20% to 20/25/30%.

Sivir has always been mediocre as an AD carry. The reason is that her late game is one of the best, even rivaling or beating Vayne’s late-game potential. These buffs make her one of the strongest late champions in League of Legends. The problem though is that Sivir has one of the weakest early games. With solo queue games rarely ending late, Sivir’s buffs are almost meaningless. It’s still a good change, and it doesn’t change the fact she’s probably the best ADC in late game, but her early game is not worth the struggle.

Sona – Buff

Bonus AD increased from 45 to 49. AD per level increased from 2 to 3. Song of Celerity has it’s bonus movement speed increased from 10% – 14% to 20% at all ranks.

This is a massive buff to early game Sona. Not only is this a literal Sivir ultimate on a short cooldown, but its flexibility and usage is a lot more deadlier now. Kiting and chasing is so much easier, escapes from ganks and unfavourite situations makes this ability ridiculous. Roaming with your ADC is much quicker as well as returning to the lane from the base.

Item Changes

Blade of the Ruined King (BOTRK) – Buff

Blade of the Ruined King now allows Melee champions to deal 12% of the target’s current health as bonus damage.

This is a massive change. BORTK is one of the best tank slaying items out there, and this change just made duelists that build it extremely deadly. Master Yi, Tryndamere, and Yasuo are prime examples of champions that benefit from this change. Three of the most hated champions in all of League of Legends. On the bright side, as a Zed main, these changes might allow the use of BOTRK bruiser Zed again so I’m looking forward to these changes.

Boots of Swiftness – Buff

Movement speed has been increased from 55 to 60.

Not enough champions ever buy these pair of boots — not even supports. Hopefully, this is enough to incite players to build it more.

Boots of Mobility – Nerf

Cost increased from 900 to 1000.

One of the best boots for supports and roaming mid-laners. This allowed specific champions to hold a huge presence during the early stages of the game. It was also originally cheaper than other boots, making them easy to rush. These nerfs are nice and probably necessary for Talon’s presence early game, as well as supports like Leona, Nautilus, Thresh, and Blitzcrank.

Death’s Dance – Nerf

AD decreased from 80 to 60.

Too many champions can buy this item and be viable. It heals of abilities, provides safety from being bursted, and offers cooldown reduction. It’s such a flexible item that this nerf was warranted.

Support Items (Frostfang, Harrowing Crescent, Spectral Sickle, Spellthief’s Edge) – Update/Nerf

The gold earned from its passive can now only be obtained while near an ally champion. Now I don’t want to immediately get mad at this. The range has been unspecified, but depending on how close you have to be to an ally, this change might be a case of poor judgment. Here are some scenarios to look at this current predicament.

Let’s say in solo queue, your ADC dies but you live. You can still poke the enemy but you don’t want to ruin the wave that is slowly pushing towards your tower for a perfect freeze for your ADC. You now, don’t get any extra gold. What if you’re in a scenario where you have to finish off an enemy after your ADC died? What if you get into a 1v1 scenario, and you die? You now don’t get any extra gold during that fight.

These might seem like trivial scenarios in the end, but keep in mind that supports don’t get CS. These support items grant 15 gold per hit, which is the same as killing a caster minion. It has a max of three stacks that gain one charge every 10 seconds. It’s abysmal for most champions, but it’s understandable as you don’t want other champions to abuse it. I’m cool with that.

The problem is that supports are now limited by the actions and choices of their teammates. If you’re ADC is bad and dies, if your team doesn’t follow an engage, and if you get into a 1v1 for whatever reason and die, you don’t get gold. Gold income stacks over time and it comes to fruition late game. It’s the only source of income a support champion gets. The support role was already difficult enough in solo queue, and now it’s even harder.

Ravenous Hydra – Buff

Life Steal effect increased from 12% to 18%.

A good buff to sustain in the lane. Against the tanks up top lane, bruisers and duelist that build this item will fair a better chance now.

Titanic Hydra – Buff

The passive and active damage have increased damage based on your max health.

Nothing to say here, I don’t think it’ll do much except to tanks that build this alongside sunfire cape. Shen, who is starting to perform much better due to the sunfire buffs will probably get even stronger.