Riot Scruffy is back with another Patch Preview for League of Legends. As always, these changes are tentative so may not go through, but it does give an idea of the direction that Riot want to go in.
Items
On the list of item changes are changes Everfrost and Trinity Force.
The former has seen a lot of use since its ability to root was introduced, and allowed more Champions to come into the meta, but it has obviously had a little too much use; so Riot is toning it down with a reduction to the damage as well as a cooldown increase.
Trinity Force has struggled to find a place, overshadowed by other Mythic items that are simply better. The current changes have slight alterations to the base stats, exchanging a little Attack Speed for Damage. The item's passive, Threefold Strike, will now be stacking on Towers too.
The big adjustment to Trinity Force, however, is the Mythic Passive change. Right now, it gives 10% Attack Speed per Legendary Item, but it will now give a flat three Attack Damage, Movement Speed, and Haste; living up to its trinity name. More Champions are likely to find this change useful, as not many Bruisers rely on Attack Speed but the new stats will be nice.
The thought is that these changes will make split pushers a little stronger, some argue too strong, but it eill allow for more variance in the Toplane beyond Tanks and teamfighters.
Turbo Chemtank is also getting some changes, with a 15% reduction to the Supercharged Move Speed, but a buff for the Supercharged Slow. This will help deal with the super speedy engagers, like Skarner and Udyr, and add more power to the engage side of things with a stronger slowing effect. I see this as a nerf for a lot of Champions which might rely on the speed, but it is healthy for the game and isn't a complete nerf.
Champions
Most buffs and nerfs are small, a 0.8 Attack Damage per level buff to Ashe's Yasuo (W), gaining 10 damage per rank.
Tristana's base Attack Damage is getting nerfed, but it shouldn't be enough to see her power drop significantly. Kai'Sa is also receiving a small change to her ultimate's (R) cooldown at early ranks, to reduce her ability to dive and fight all the time.
Yorick is receiving some larger changes though, and partnered with the Trinity Force buffs, this could see a huge resurgence in the Shepherd of Souls and split pushing.
Mist Walkers will draw Tower Aggro to themselves when attacking, rather than causing Yorick to be the target. Apparently, this is unlikely to be shipped this patch, but definitely gives an idea that there might be changes coming; and you'd expect similar to go over to things like Heimerdinger and his Turrets.
Towers will also prioritise the Maiden (R) last, whereas before it was prioritised like a Cannon Minion. This will definitely help the Yorick split push efforts.
Further changes come to the Mourning Mist (E), where champions marked will continuously awaken Graves (P) during the debuff; the Mist Walkers that leap due to the Mist will also attack on landing, adding more instant damage.
The official League of Legends 1v1 tournament returns for another year, with more than 30 countries participating in Red Bull SoloQ 2021.
