League of Legends Patch 13.4 ships tonight, bringing balance changes to twenty different champions, including Maokai who’s been dominant in both jungle and support for a while.
Maokai has been a terror on Summoner’s Rift lately. His sapling toss (E), while intended to be a vision tool, has instead become a neverending barrage of magical nukes because of the tree’s high ability power ratios. Riot is seeking to address this by nerfing both the slow and damage numbers on Maokai’s E while buffing his bramble smash (Q) damage to compensate.
Maokai will also be hit even harder by a nerf to his primary damage item, Demonic Embrace. The item’s damage against monsters will now be capped at 40 damage per second, reducing its effectiveness as a jungle item significantly.
Several other champions have fallen afoul of the nerf hammer. Amumu has been nerfed again, this time his base armour and health growth have been reduced, along with a nerf to his despair (W) damage. Anivia’s health and amour growth have been similarly hit.
Another one of League’s other recent terrors, Annie, is also being nerfed. Her base health is being lowered, as well as the retaliation damage from her molten shield (E). The cooldown of her ultimate is also being increased. Azir is getting a pro-play focused nerf to address his current status as the go-to power pick mid laner.
Elsewhere, the jungle duo of Elise and Jarvan IV are picking up nerfs to tone down their newfound power. Jax is getting a nerf to his base health and health growth, along with a change to his counter-strike (E) and a nerf to his ultimate. Samira’s passive is being nerfed, as is the lifesteal on her ultimate. Finally, some of Udyr’s base stats are being nerfed along with two of his stances.
Now, for the good news! Several champions also picked up buffs in this patch. Ahri is being buffed again with her base health and armour being increased, and her ultimate having a lower cooldown. The healing on Alistar’s passive is being increased, as well as the ability power ratios on both his pulverize (Q) and headbutt (W). AP Cow enjoyers rejoice.
Cho’Gath is receiving buffs to his base armour growth, damage on his rupture (Q) and a reduced mana cost on his feral scream (W). Fellow tank Malphite his receiving buffs to his thunderclap (W) to keep his damage more relevant throughout the game. Orianna is receiving very minor buffs, an increase in her base armour and a reduction in her W costs.
Riven is being buffed to make her more of a sidelane tower threat, her Runic Blade bonus damage will now apply to towers. Senna is receiving some buffs to her attack ratio and ultimate. Thresh is being adjusted to discourage W maxing, and increase his damage in teamfights.
Veigar is getting a buff to his baleful strike (Q) and dark matter (W) range. Viego’s passive damage from his Q can now crit, and his ultimate now packs more punch.
On the item side of things, besides the aforementioned Demonic Embrace nerfs, Doran’s Shield is also having its base health regeneration nerfed. Support items are being changed to bring parity to when melee and ranged supports receive their ward upgrades.
Magical Footwear will now only sell for 30% of the value of the boots, to stop the increasingly common strategy of selling the boots for mythic item rushes. The gold that can be earned from the treasure hunter rune has also been reduced.
There are various changes coming to jungling, including the leashing behaviour of the Rift Herald and the health of the Gromp.
To cap off the patch, the first Clash tournament of 2023 is coming soon. It will be a two-weekend event, with the first Clash running between March 11 and March 12 and the second weekend running between March 25 and March 26.
You can read the full patch notes for additional detail here.
