League of Legends Patch 10.1 breakdown: Welcome to Season 10

1 of 4

Season 10 of League of Legends is finally upon us! Here’s our breakdown of the Patch 10.1 changes and how they’ll shape the start of the new season!

League of Legends is heading into its tenth season and we’ve received our first set of Patch Notes just seven days into 2020! It’s a relatively short list of changes as a result of the balance team’s decision to make the majority of the large changes during preseason and only make small adjustments on Patch 10.1.

Contained in this patch are fifteen champion changes, including a mini rework for Sylas, as well as a support item overhaul and a small change to Omnistone. Not only that, but Sett will be added to the game at some point during Patch 10.1!

Each change in the patch notes looks to adjust outliers that have appeared after Patch 9.24 was added to live servers, addressing the highest and lowest win rates in solo queue right now.

Patch 10.1 will hit live League of Legends servers on Wednesday, January 8th, so get reading and get ready for the return of the ranked season this week on Friday, January 10th!

Champions

Aphelios

"Base Stats Movement Speed: 330 -> 325 Health: 530 -> 500 R – Moonlight Vigil Infernum Empowered AoE Damage: 100% on secondary targets -> 75% on secondary targets"

Unsurprisingly, the balance team views Aphelios as an outlier in the current meta and is seeking to remedy his issues with these nerfs. His 50.67% win rate on Patch 9.24 may seem small, but couple this with his massive 64.3% ban rate and 12.1% pick rate, and it’s clear to see that the latest addition to League is a little imbalanced at present.

More from Blog of Legends

Reducing his base HP and movement speed impacts his early game, making him more susceptible to early engages and ganks that are targeted at setting the champion behind early. These nerfs also affect his late game, but less so.

Infernum is wreaking havoc in close-knit team fights at the moment with huge AoE damage being spread around multiple opponents, so reducing the overall splash damage from 100% to 75% is a step in the right direction. All in all, these are deserved nerfs for Aphelios and definitely a step in the right direction, but it remains to be seen if the player base will stop banning the champion and let us see his true power level on Patch 10.1.

Aurelion Sol

"Passive – Center of the Universe Base Star Damage: 16-120 (levels 1-18) -> 12-120 (levels 1-18)"

ASol is currently the strongest mid laner in the current meta with a monumental 55.48% win rate. He’s dominating his lane opponents currently, and has no trouble traversing the map and impacting other lanes throughout the early game.

In an attempt to limit his impact in the early stages of the game, the balance team has opted to decrease the damage of Aurelion’s stars until Level 18. This is the perfect nerf as it negatively impacts his wave clear, trading damage, and skirmish dominance, resulting in a more balanced state for the Star Forger.

Azir

"R – Emperor’s Divide Base Damage: 150/250/450 -> 175/325/475 Wall Duration: 3 seconds -> 5 seconds"

On the other end of the mid lane scales is Azir, a champion who currently struggles to show his face in the mid lane meta with an abysmal 45.22% win rate. It’s about time the Emperor of the Sands received some love, isn’t it?

The damage increase on Azir’s Emperor’s Divide is negligible and only acts to slightly boost his burst damage upon reaching Level 6, however, the wall duration is definitely a noticeable change and transforms a knock-back to a team fight impacting terrain by almost doubling its uptime.

Adding a five-second wall to a team fight has the potential to completely turn the tides of the fight and change the result, raising the skill ceiling for Azir players and adding a tonne of outplay potential. This isn’t what Azir needs right now to re-enter the meta, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye out for when he inevitably receives more buffs later in the year.

Home/League of Legends