League of Legends Patch 10.8 Breakdown: The Marksman Patch

Tristana

"E – Explosive Charge Explosion Damage Ratio: 50/70/90/110/130% bonus attack damage -> 50/75/100/125/150% bonus attack damage"

Another marksman buff! This time, it’s Tristana!

Tristana’s scaling strength is intended to make her a high priority pick in metas where games last 35-40 minutes, but that isn’t the case on the current live patch. Instead, the Yordle Gunner finds herself struggling with an underwhelming 49.16% win rate and zero pro play action.

Increasing Explosive Charge’s AD ratio will increase Trist’s late game DPS allowing her to keep up with her ADC counterparts going forward. Therefore, we can probably expect to see her win rate hit 50%+ over the next few weeks.

Urgot

"R – Fear Beyond Death Cooldown: 120/95/70 seconds -> 100/85/70 seconds"

Following his Patch 10.6 buffs, Urgot is receiving even more love on this patch with an ultimate cooldown reduction.

With 20 seconds fewer to wait for Fear Beyond Death from levels 6-10, the Dreadnought has been granted more opportunities to fight his lane opponent and look to build a gold lead early on.

Varus

"R – Chain of Corruption Cooldown: 110/90/70 seconds -> 130/100/70 seconds"

Varus has become the go-to second-string AD Carry over the last few patches as he offers more utility than those below him and can somewhat match those below him in terms of DPS.

If the Darkin marksman gets an early kill, it’s far too easy for him to snowball a lead with a tiny 110 second Chain of Corruption cooldown. Increasing this to 130 seconds isn’t a crazy nerf but should be enough to slow any Varus snowballs on future patches.

Xayah

"E – Bladecaller Additional Feather Hit Damage: 10% less damage per feather -> 5% less damage per feather"

At a 46.79% win rate, Xayah needs buffs sooner rather than later. Although she’s thriving in pro play due to her synergy with high-priority support Rakan, she is nowhere near strong enough to compete in solo queue.

The damage falloff for hitting multiple feathers with Bladecaller has been reduced, so therefore Xayah’s damage output has been increased. If you’re having trouble understanding what this buff means for Xayah, here’s a quick rundown:

If you hit an enemy with 5 feathers on Patch 10.7, you’ll deal 400% of the damage of a single feather. If you hit an enemy with 5 feathers on Patch 10.8, you’ll deal 450% of the damage of a single feather.

Funnel Mechanics

Unique Monster Hunter

"Minion Gold Penalty Trigger: Gold earned from minion kills is greater than 50% of your gold earned from monsters -> 40% of your gold earned from monsters Minion Gold Penalty Removal: At 14:00 -> At 20:00"

Hopefully, this finally kills the funnel strategy for good. The 20 minute gold penalty should be enough to deter Taric-Yis from attempting to funnel on Patch 10.8 and beyond.

Death Changes

"[New] Pity Zooms: On death, gain a smaller version of Homeguards which gives the player about 2.5 seconds less time to get back to lane [New] Lone Wolf: At levels 1-6, a champion’s solo kills grant 20% more experience and assisted kills grant 20% less experience. At levels 7-8, these numbers are reduced to 10%"

These changes encourage early fighting, particularly in 1v1s, as you gain more experience from getting a kill, but can return to lane faster after being killed.

The mini-Homeguards could have an interesting impact on the jungle role and could be something to keep an eye on!

Jungle Buffs

"Jungle Camp Experience: 1.25x more XP at levels 9+ -> 1.35x more XP at levels 9+ [New] Hunter’s Machete Unique Passive – Nail: Now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health [New] Hunter’s Talisman Unique Passive – Tooth: Now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health [New] Skirmisher’s Sabre Unique Passive – Tooth/Nail: Now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health [New] Stalker’s Blade Unique Passive – Tooth/Nail: Now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health"

The extra sustain on jungle items is aimed at low skilled junglers who struggle to clear out camps without falling dangerously low on health, possibly due to poor kiting or pathing.

As for the jungle experience buff, this allows junglers to keep up with laners in terms of levels from level 9 onwards. Previously they were falling pretty far behind in terms of experience, so this is a welcome change!

Are you happy with the buffs on Patch 10.8? Which champions would you like to see buffed on Patch 10.9?