League of Legends Patch 13.8 Buffs and Nerfs
League of Legends releases frequent patches on a two week schedule because of the numerous amount of champions within the game, which makes it imperative to constantly balance every character. Usually, Riot Games focuses on altering the champions who are performing at the highest and lowest points, which helps shake up the meta.
There have been many critics of Riot's balance team over the years, but changes are made to characters after a long enough time of community criticism towards them. Since the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is coming up next month, Riot has been making recent patch updates that will alter the competitive meta and nerf some champions that are always picked or banned.
Here is a list of the planned buffs and nerfs for Patch 13.8.
Full 13.8 changes.
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) April 11, 2023
We landed on pretty known changes to nudge a few champions in and out of meta. We weren't looking to take large swings and get surprise 100% champs
Nerfs are targeted at SoloQ (barring Rakan & Malph). Pulled Zoe for larger work, no ETA on timeline though pic.twitter.com/TGb7ANm28J
League of Legends Patch 13.8 Buffs and Nerfs
Riot Phroxzon always posts a preview of the planned changes for upcoming patches around one week prior to their release, so here are all the alterations transpiring in Patch 13.8:
Champion Buffs:
- Alistar
- Ezreal
- Garen
- Janna
- Kha'Zix
- Kog'Maw
- Leona
- Lillia
- Nidalee
- Poppy
- Zoe (pulled from patch for larger work)
Champion Nerfs:
- Aurelion Sol
- Jarvan IV
- Kayn (shadow form)
- Malphite
- Rakan
System Adjustments:
- Cosmic Drive
Most of the buffs and nerfs are relatively small, but will hopefully shift some power away from the power picks that are frequently seen in competitive play currently.