League of Legends Damage Reduction Patch
Table of Contents
The latest League of Legends patch reduced the effectiveness of damage reduction items and gave some champions a lot more damage.
The damage reduction from items has been reduced, but the champion buffs are much more potent.
The damage reduction from items was reduced because Riot felt that it was making players rely too heavily on those items. Instead of allowing players to stack defenses as well as they used to, Riot made it so that defense items no longer stack as effectively and gave a lot more damage back to champions. Players can still use their preferred defense item, but now if they want more protection they need multiple defensive items instead of just one or two like before.
Health and mana have also been changed slightly with this patch—most champions now have less health while some have gained some in order to keep them competitive with each other (since they’re receiving more power). Mana costs were increased across the board for most champions (except Vladimir), making it harder for them to spam abilities without any consequences.
Defensive items were adjusted to reduce the effectiveness of stacking them.
Riot Games has announced changes to the itemization in League of Legends, making it harder for players to build defensive items to reduce damage taken. This change will have a major impact on how you play the game, so let’s take a look at what exactly Riot is doing and why they made this decision.
The problem with defensive items was that they were too effective when stacked together. If you built an entire team around taking less damage, you would be able to win games very easily because they would never die. As such, Riot decided to make many of their most popular defensive items less effective when used together so that teams couldn’t rely on them as much anymore. They also created new items which provide some sort of utility or other benefits but aren’t as good at reducing damage taken overall compared with old ones like Randuin’s Omen (which reduces attack speed).
These champion nerfs hit early game damage and sustain.
The following champion nerfs hit early game damage and sustain:
- Fiora
- Riven
These champions got a buff due to the changes in itemization and runes.
These champions got a buff due to the changes in itemization and runes.
Fizz, Leona, Vladimir, Wukong, Warwick, Xin Zhao and Zoe are all seeing their damage-oriented builds become more viable than before.
Some support items were made more effective, but not as effective when combined with defensive stats.
Support items have been made more effective, but not as effective when combined with defensive stats. Items like Guardian Angel and Zeke’s Convergence can now be built into tankier builds for supports who want to absorb more damage, but at the cost of some damage or utility. These items are also great choices for support players who haven’t yet reached their full build potential, allowing them to buy more expensive items while still increasing their defenses.
Guardian Angel and Zeke’s Convergence were two of the most popular support item choices during Season 8 because they can be built into tankier builds without sacrificing too much utility. Guardian Angel gives a lot of survivability through its shield and revive passive, while Zeke’s Convergence provides both health regeneration and movement speed boosts that work well on mobile assassins like LeBlanc or Rengar.
Changes to Riot’s game might upset some players, but overall these changes make sense for the good of the game.
While not all players will be pleased with the changes to the game, they make sense for the good of League of Legends overall. The changes are balanced and well-thought out, and they’re not too drastic, either. When Riot makes updates to League of Legends—whether they’re small balance updates or larger overhauls like this one—they always have three goals: create a better player experience (which means more fun and less frustration), improve competitive play as much as possible, and maintain healthy gameplay at all levels.