Patch 8.23 Breakdown: Turret Changes

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Patch 8.23 dropped a number of changes beyond just champion buffs and nerfs. Turrets have been fundamentally changed in an attempt to make them tougher to take during laning phase, with plenty of other small changes to discuss.

As far as objectives in League of Legends go, turrets have been relatively untouched. The last major change was back in Patch 6.22 when a previously changed turret function, lasers on Inhib and Nexus turrets, was reverted; most other changes have been limited in scope, changing things like resistances and regeneration. In 8.23, however, turrets are getting a bit of a makeover.

Across the board, turrets will be increasing in power as the game goes on, and the global rewards for taking them down are decreasing. The stated reason for these changes is so that one winning lane won’t single-handedly grant too many rewards for the team that’s ahead.

OUTER TURRETS

"PLATING Outer turrets begin the game with five temporary plates. A plate is broken for each 1000 damage dealt to the turret. (Plates don’t have health of their own.) PLATE STRENGTH Turret plating grants 40 armor and magic resist at game start PLATE BREAKING Dealing 1000 damage to an outer turret also causes a plate to break, granting 160 gold (divided among nearby champions) and increasing the turret’s armor and magic resist by 30 until turret plating falls off BULWARK For 20 seconds after a plate is destroyed, the turret also gains Bulwark, granting an additional 25 armor and magic resist for each nearby enemy champion past the first. Multiple instances of Bulwark stack if multiple plates are destroyed within a 20 second window. FALLOFF Turret plating falls off at 14:00, causing outer turrets to lose ALL armor and magic resist and making unclaimed plating gold permanently inaccessible"

Up first are the outer turret changes, and there are a few ways to look at these adjustments. On one hand, lane-shovers like Caitlyn or Sivir will be able to take down turret plates more easily than someone like Vayne and be rewarded for early aggression. On the other hand, late-game hyperscalers like Kai’Sa or Kog’Maw will be able to stay in lane longer in order to farm up more safely.

The problem here lies in the reward tradeoff. As I quickly discovered during my playtest lab with Riot, the 160 gold per plate far outweighs the guaranteed longer laning phase. Using my example from the last paragraph, just because Caitlyn has the shove necessary to destroy turret plates doesn’t mean she’s unable to continue farming until 14:00; she just gets double benefits.