League of Legends Patch 10.8 Preview: BIG ADC Buffs
Here’s a preview of the upcoming League of Legends update, Patch 10.8. The preview includes all of the projected changes and a breakdown of their impact.
Patch 10.8 is just one week away from hitting League of Legends live servers, so we’ve been given a sneak peek of what’s to come from the balance team.
Earlier in the week, Riot Scruffy tweeted out a list of the projected changes coming to the game with Patch 10.8. Note that these changes are subject to change and could even be removed entirely by the time the official 10.8 notes arrive!
Here’s every change and how they could affect your League of Legends experience:
Champions
Aphelios
"Passive – The Hitman and the Seer [Removed] Bonus Armor Penetration: 3/6/9/12/15/18% [New] Lethality: 2/4/6/8/10/12 Lethality Q – Weapons of the Faithful Level Up: 1/3/5/7/9 -> 1/4/7/10/13"
Aphelios remains one of the highest priority champions of the current meta (91% presence in pro play on Patch 10.6) as he continues to dish out unmatched damage from the marksman role compared to his counterparts.
As a result, the balance team has targeted two aspects of Aphelios’ kit for nerfs on Patch 10.8: His Passive armor penetration and weapon levels.
The Hitman and the Seer will no longer grant free armor penetration as Aphelios levels up but instead will now offer lethality. This means that in the late game the marksman will have to invest in armor pen items rather than have it inherently in his kit while also making his level-up choices more of a headache early on.
As for the Weapons of the Faithful change, all this means is that Aphelios’ weapons now hit their maximum ability at Level 13 rather than Level 9.
Ashe
"Q – Ranger’s Focus Bonus Attack Speed: 20/25/30/35/40% -> 20/30/40/50/60%"
The ADC champion pool is rather stale right now with very little variety as the same champions have dominated throughout Season 10. Time for Ashe to step in.
Ranger’s Focus is the second ability Ashe ranks up, so the full effects of this change will be felt at Level 13 when the Frost Archer will have a 60% increased bonus attack speed instead of the 40% she gets usually.
As a champion that already boasts a 50.88% win rate in solo queue, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ashe establish herself as an S or A tier AD Carry on Patch 10.8, improving the boring marksman champion pool.
Evelynn
"Q – Hate Spike Spike Damage: 25/30/35/40/45 -> 30/35/40/45/50"
Evelynn’s 49.11% win rate needs a small boost if she’s to become a viable jungler on Patch 10.8. This Hate Spike change is exactly the right amount of love for the Agony’s Embrace.
If you land all 3 Hate Spikes during a trade your damage is set to be increased by +15 on Patch 10.8. In a duel with an enemy jungler, Evelynn’s getting off at least 6 Hate Spikes, which is a +30 damage increase.
It’s a small buff, but it’s strong enough to have junglers consider Evelynn on future patches and possibly add her to the viable jungle champion pool on Patch 10.8.
Kalista
"Base Stats Armor: 23 -> 21 E – Rend Slow: 25/30/35/40/45% -> 10/18.5/27/33.5/42%"
Over recent patches, Kalista has become one of the most valued ADCs in the game as she offers strong lane control and unrivaled neutral objective securing.
On Patch 10.8, she’s set to have her armor reduced by 2 and her early Rend slows reduced by over half of their current amount. This makes Kalista’s laning phase far weaker and opens up vulnerability during the early game for enemies to shut her down before she can get ahead.
Master Yi
"R – Highlander Bonus Attack Speed: 30/55/80% -> 25/45/65%"
Master Yi is an unstoppable jungler, particularly in the lower elos of solo queue.
Alpha Strike ensures he can never be caught in a team fight, but Yi would be useless without access to Highlander’s bonus attack speed which is currently a bonkers 80% at Level 16.
By reducing this to 65% at max rank, Yi’s impact on team fights is a little less oppressive, his DPS is lowered, and the time taken to find Alpha Strike resets is longer.
Whether these projected changes will reduce the Wuju Bladesman’s 50.69% win rate significantly is unknown and we’ll find out just over a week.
Orianna
"W – Command: Dissonance Movement Speed Modifier: 20/25/30/35/40% -> 30/35/40/45/50% E – Command: Protect Shield Strength: 60/100/140/180/220 (+40% AP) -> 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% AP)"
Orianna is absent in the expansive champion pool of mid laners of the current meta with an abysmal 47.89% win rate on Patch 10.7. Is this about to change with these projected Patch 10.8 changes?
Orianna and her allies are set to receive 10% more movement speed when standing on Command: Dissonance, while her enemies will lose 10% more movement speed when treading on the ability.
This isn’t a huge buff but will help Orianna close down the distance between herself and enemies to land some crucial auto attacks and Command: Attacks.
Command: Protect’s buff is also a small and unnoticeable one, but will definitely play a part in Orianna’s team fighting whether she’s shielding herself or an ally, particularly in the late game as she stacks up Ability Power items.
We’ll see a small rise in play and win rate for Orianna on Patch 10.8 as a result of these buffs, but nothing more than that.
Ryze
"Base Stats Health: 570.48 -> 575 Attack Damage: 55.04 -> 56 Q – Overload Bonus Movement Speed: 20/25/30/35/40% -> 28/32/36/40/44%"
Ryze suffers a similar fate to Orianna as he finds himself abandoned at the foot of the mid lane tier list despite the wealth of options available to solo laners in the current meta.
A few base stat changes and 8-4% Overload movement speed buffs aren’t going to change that though.
Senna
"Passive – Absolution Mist Spawn Rate: 25% for minions and lesser monsters that Senna doesn’t kill -> 22% for minions and lesser monsters that Senna doesn’t kill"
Once again, Senna’s Passive – Absolution is being hit with changes, this time aimed at her currently overpowered strategy of “fasting Senna”.
If Senna continues to ignore last-hitting minions on future patches, she’ll have a 22% drop chance for Mist, rather than 25%, reducing the number of Absolution stacks she receives and delaying her power spikes.