League of Legends Crit Changes Likely Coming in League of Legends Patch 9.3

League of Legends crit changes expect to finally go live in League of Legends Patch 9.3, as written Friday by Riot Games' Andrei "Meddler" can Roon in a dev corner post.

​​"We're currently aiming to ship changes to crit items, plus potentially some other associated work, in 9.3," Meddler wrote. The crit changes have been ​known for a bit now, and here are some more specifics.

League of Legends Crit changes

Per Meddler, the goals changes would include the following:

--Crit marksmen players have an appealing crit build path

--Marksmen (crit especially, but others to some degree) have improved ability to get some defensive effects when needed early/mid game

--Satisfaction of play for crit marksmen games increases

--Changes range from power neutral to power positive depending on the marksmen in question (e.g. Tristana has room to be stronger, Sivir probably doesn't)

Some of the specific changes include:

--IE goes back to increasing critical strike damage though not as much as it used to (225%). AD also gets increased to give it a larger early impact

--Essence Reaver goes back to a AD, Crit, CDR, mana return item. Mana return's on every AA and CDR is a flat 20%.

--The current ER effect (AAs lower CDs after ult cast) gets moved to a new item with an AD, health, CDR statline (using the name and icon of Spear of Shojin, the original design of which we concluded was too overlapped with other items, Sterak’s especially). Goal is to have it be useable by both some marksmen and some other classes as per current ER.

--PD gets a Lifeline passive that grants a shield when you fall below 30% health, also grants MS and ghost on basic attacking a champion. Loses the damage reduction from the enemy you last hit, though. Shift overall towards much more a burst mitigation item than a duelist one. Current PD has very few core users, with the two most noticeable, Trynd and Yasuo, champs who pivot between Shiv and PD depending on the tuning of each. Goal is to ensure Shiv’s a good option for them as a result, with a Shiv buff likely both to help them and other users.

--All upgraded crit items go to 25% crit (IE, ER, PD, RFC, Shiv, Hurricane)

--Stormrazor remains an AD/AS item, though now with a unique passive that amps your Energized effects (Fleet Footwork, Shiv, RFC) when they trigger.

League of Legends Patch 9.3 changes

Meddler also wrote about changes coming to Akali, Aatrox and Irelia, all of whom had potential changes ​pushed from Patch 9.2 to Patch 9.3​. After being nerfed in Patch 9.2, Aatrox needs further work "aimed at giving opponents better ways to play against him." Meddler said Riot has two directions it could possibly take, both involving Aatrox's E.

Akali's shroud will be removed, making her untargetable under towers. Akali's sustain is also being investigated in the search for possible further changes to make to the champion.

As for Irelia, changes likely include "making W more (or only) effective against physical damage so she's a less universal pick, improving visual effect clarity on E so it's clearer when you will/won't get hit, changes to improve her top lane performance."

Photo courtesy of Riot Games