League of Legends Patch 10.3 Breakdown: Aphelios and Sett Nerfed
Patch 10.3 is set to hit League of Legends live servers on Wednesday with nerfs to several strong champions. Here’s a breakdown of all the changes.
Four of the most annoying champions in League of Legends right now are set to be nerfed on Patch 10.3. That’s right, Akali, Aphelios, Senna, and Sett have ALL been addressed in this week’s change list.
A total of 16 champions have been buffed/nerfed as the balance team looks to adjust some of the outliers in the current League of Legends meta both in solo queue and pro play. There’s a bunch of jungle camp experience changes as well that will hopefully improve the “weakest” role in the game right now.
How will these changes impact your solo queue experience? Will we stop seeing Aphelios and Senna dominating the bot lane? Here’s our breakdown:
Champions
Akali
"Q – Five Point Strike Cost: 100/95/90/85/80 energy -> 120/115/110/105/100 energy W – Twilight Shroud Movement Speed in Shroud: 20/25/30/35/40% movement speed -> 30/35/40/45/50% decaying movement speed for 2 seconds on cast R – Perfect Execution R1 Targeting: Target direction -> Targeted enemy champion [New] R1 Target Range: 675 R1 Dash Distance: 675-825 based on distance from enemy"
There is only one champion with a 100% presence in picks and bans across the top four competitive regions in Season 10. Her name is Akali.
Despite the Rogue Assassin’s unmatched priority in pro play, she’s currently struggling in solo queue with a 46.22% win rate and is rated B in our Patch 10.2 aggregated mid lane tier list.
As a result of this pro play/casual disparity, the balance team have looked to significantly reduce Akali’s power level in the first of the two, while keeping her at a similar level in the latter.
First of all, Five Point Strike has seen its energy cost increased by 20 at all ranks making Akali’s wave clear more expensive, while also reducing her burst damage in situations where it may require two Q casts. The most important aspect of this change is definitely the less effective wave clear which gives the champion less time to leave her lane and threaten a roam to either side lane.
The second change is to everyone’s least favorite part of Akali’s kit, Twilight Shroud. At present, whenever the ninja presses W she’s instantly granted a rapid 20-40% movement speed for a full 5-7 seconds. On Patch 10.3 and beyond, this will be reduced to 2 seconds and a decaying 30-50% movement speed, significantly weakening her ability to manoeuvre and reposition inside her shroud.
Finally and perhaps the biggest change to Akali’s gameplay is Perfect Execution’s first cast becoming a targeted ability.
One of the biggest complaints about Akali from her release right up until these patch notes being released was the number of dashes in her kit. Well, now those dashes have been scaled down from 3 to 2, as well as the second R cast being almost impossible to use as an escape tool due to this change.
What can we expect from Akali after these changes? Well, she’s not going to be any better in solo queue that’s for sure. However, when it comes to pro play we will almost definitely see her 99% ban rate fall to 50-70% as teams allow her through the ban phase and pick her up in the first few rotations of champion select.
She’s much weaker as a result of these changes, but that doesn’t make her a bad champion, she still has the damage numbers in her kit to one-shot squishy champions at any point in the game.
Aphelios
"Q – Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle Marked Enemy Attack Range: Infinite -> 1800"
One of the most frustrating things about facing Aphelios (other than still not knowing what his kit does two months after his release) is thinking you’ve escaped his onslaught, only for him to finish you off with his Calibrum Q from two screens away.
This has now been reduced to one screen away. Aphelios might miss out on a few kills on Patch 10.3, but will continue to dominate the bot lane and remain one of the most powerful champions in League of Legends right now.