League of Legends Patch 10.10 Preview: Exciting Annie Buffs
The League of Legends balance team has released a preview of the proposed changes heading to Summoner’s Rift on Patch 10.10.
Exactly one week after Patch 10.9 hit League of Legends live servers, the player base has been gifted a sneak peek of what lies ahead on Patch 10.10. We’ll break down every projected change and how they’ll affect your experience on Summoner’s Rift.
Another edition of the fortnightly patch update provided by Riot Scruffy was released on Wednesday with no less than 14 champions set to experience buffs or nerfs on Patch 10.10.
Aside from that, no other item/rune/system changes were mentioned, however, it is likely that mid and bot lane items will be receiving some adjustments next week as the balance team looks to fine-tune the power levels of the mid and ADC roles.
But with those changes yet to be revealed, we’ll stick to breaking down the tentative Patch 10.10 champion changes for now:
Annie
"E – Molten Shield Damage Reduction: 10/13/16/19/22% -> 13/17/21/25/29% R – Summon: Tibbers Aura Magic Damage: 10/15/20 (+10% AP) -> 20/30/40 (+20% AP)"
We start off with what is set to be the most exciting change of the patch. With virtually zero interest in Annie across all roles in solo queue, it’s clear that the Dark Child needs some love to give her pick rate a small boost.
That love is coming in the form of a Molten Shield buff which sees her E receive a +3% damage reduction increase at rank 1. Reducing an extra 3% of all incoming damage is great, but isn’t significant enough on its own to make any real difference to the champion.
Combine this with the Summon: Tibbers buff, though, and Annie might just spike in popularity on Patch 10.10. Tibbers’ aura damage is often completely ignored by players in solo queue, but with a +10% AP ratio, it could cause some chaos in team fights.
Diana
"Base Stats Health: 594 -> 570"
Despite being subject to large nerfs on Patch 10.3, Diana still remains one of the strongest mid lane champions in the current meta with an astounding 52.11% win rate.
While a -24 health nerf will offer more opportunities for Diana’s opponents to poke her out of lane, it definitely isn’t significant enough to push her out of the S tier of mid lane.
Irelia
"E – Flawless Duet Magic Damage: 70/110/150/190/230 -> 80/125/170/215/260"
Irelia is set to receive +10 damage on Flawless Duet at rank 1, scaling to +30 at rank 3. This ability is used purely for the crowd control and Bladesurge Passive, so a damage boost as small as +10 isn’t going to have much of an impact.
Katarina
"Passive – Voracity AP Ratio: 55/70/85/100% -> 55/66/77/88%"
Katarina’s 52.44% solo queue win rate has become a bit troublesome, particularly in lower elos. As a result, the Sinister Blade is set to receive an AP ratio nerf on her Passive – Voracity.
This will have a decent impact on Kata’s DPS as retrieving daggers deals a surprising amount of damage compared to Bouncing Blade and Shunpo.
Kayn
"Passive – The Darkin Scythe Rhaast Healing: 34.5-43% of damage dealt -> 30-40% of damage dealt"
On Patch 10.9, Kayn received buffs that saw him go from a niche pick to one of the strongest junglers of the current meta with an excellent 51.46% win rate.
On Patch 10.10, the Shadow Reaper will lose a sizeable chunk of his self-healing after transforming into Rhaast. While this will have a noticeable impact on Kayn, a -4.5% reduction isn’t the end of the world.
Kled
"Q – Beartrap on a Rope Cooldown: 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 seconds -> 11/10/9/8/7 seconds"
Kled is one of the strongest top laner’s on Patch 10.9, boasting a 52.67% win rate and being an effective counter to the likes of Fiora, Maokai, and Teemo.
However, a 52%+ win rate is always likely to trigger balance team action and it has this time. Kled’s Q – Beartrap on a Rope is set to receive a +2 seconds cooldown nerf, which disappears after he puts 5 levels into it, which happens at level 9.
After level 9, there is no change to Kled’s gameplay whatsoever. Before level 9, Kled players will have fewer opportunities to jump on their lane opponent and will need to time their trades more intelligently during the laning phase.
Maokai
"Q – Bramble Smash Cost: 50 mana -> 60 mana"
While it may not seem like a lot, increasing the mana cost of an ability like Bramble Smash by as little as 10 can have a massive impact on a champion’s early game. In Maokai’s case, in order to manage his mana pool during the laning phase, the Twisted Treant will be forced to use his Q sparingly and walk up to the minion wave for auto-attacks more often on Patch 10.10.