League of Legends patch 11.8 should hit live next week, and as usual we have a Patch Preview provided by Riot Scruffy!
As always, these are still tentative so could change or never hit live.
Items
The main changes are to Support items. Staff of Flowing Water is exchanging the Movement Speed bonus for Ability Haste, while the trinity of Support items (Staff of Flowing Water, Ardent Censor, and Chemteck Purifier) are being reworded to only proc their passive when an ally is shielded or healed, rather than 'any ally'.
The major changes are going to Shurelia's Battlesong and Moonstone Renewer. The former will no longer grant empowered attacks, but instead gains a passive which grants 25% Move Speed when you empower or protect allies.
Moonstone Renewer will no longer scale with level (currently healing 50-100 based on ally level), and will now heal a flat 60. However, the Mythic Passive is being changed, removing the Ability Haste and instead increasing the heal by 10. At full build, it will be still be healing the 100 as before. The passive is also being changed to no longer increase Moonstone Renewer's heal per second in combat, instead increasing Heal and Shield power per second in combat; giving a boost to Champions with multiple shields and heals in their kit, and also streamlining who can optimally build the item.
Champions
There is a list of small changes and adjustments to Champions, but the major one is the Yorick changes.
Yorick is getting more changes to his Mist Walkers and how he interacts with Towers. It is listed as a nerf, mostly due to the numbers going down, but I do wonder if it will be a buff in terms of his gameplay and pushing power.
Mist Walkers are having their damage reduced, and will deal less damage when they first leap to enemies. However, Towers will not target Mist Walkers when they attack enemy Champions, instead of targeting Yorick, which should make it easier for him to harass enemies under tower and execute dives. While they won't do as much damage when they initially leap to enemies, the Mist Walkers will instead deal increased damage for the first eight attacks they do against enemies mark by Yorick's (E) Mourning Mist.
The Maiden, Yorick's (R), will get a similar change in that she will be targeted by Towers if she attacks enemy Champions. She will also be lowered in priority as a target, meaning Towers will prioritise minions over the Maiden. This will allow her to live longer and aid in pushing that bit more!
Mundo and Rumble are having changes to put them back into the Top lane pool too.
Dr Mundo is having his passive healing increased as well as the health restore go from 50% to 100% if he lands a (Q) Infected Cleaver on a Champion.
Rumble, meanwhile, is getting a few different changes. First off, his base resistances are being reduced so he can't be used as a tanky Mid laner. His base damage from his Passive is also being reduced, but having damage based on the targets Maximum Health added in; increasing the damage against the tankier targets to be found in the Top lane. His (E) Electro Harpoon will now also shred the Magic Resistance from enemies, again helping against tankier opponents.
Further changes are going to helping to expand the Jungle pool as well as changes to Rammus to make him match the Wild Rift version of the Champion more.
We're a week away from Patch 11.8, but we've been given the direction Riot is headed.
