Biggest Changes for Patch 14.8 | Buffs & Nerfs

Top:

• The top meta is looking pretty varied, with a mix of fighters, tanks, AP (any Morde enjoyers) and some ranged. We're not looking to mix this up too much as a result.
• Tanks are a little on the weaker side, but K'Sante, Udyr, Ornn, Sion, etc. should be situationally viable. We're not looking to make them a dominating blind
• With grub buffs and their spawn times offset, we're hoping to see a little less trading of objectives and an increased focus on attention on top side

Jgl:

• With Rell out, tank junglers most drafts should be less prevalent
• We're looking to get a few more carry junglers back into the mix and AP junglers are lacking presence, so we're targeting Sylas as an exciting flex (and hoping this doesn't come back to bite us 🙃)
• Graves, Jarvan, Olaf are also targeted to make an appearance, though Olaf is probably the most opportunistic of the bunch

Mid:

• Azir's nerfs are targeted at his ability to get through lane in tougher matchups to open up more champs
• The meta is pretty mage heavy, but opening Sylas as a flex is aimed at having him see more play and with Leblanc, Akali buffs, looking to have a few more non-mages see play
• Galio is still a bit under after all his changes, so we're bringing him a bit further up; he's a relatively low mastery champion and we expect him to be able to live above 50% comfortably
• Hwei is a tad contentious, but he's a champion that we expected to balance around Pro Play. He's not seeing play broadly so we're giving him a buff (he had a brief stint in popularity though, but rapidly declined). He's a unique non-hard carry mage, so should add some additional texture there

Bot:

• Despite not being directly buffed, Zeri benefited from both her core items being buffed, so we're taking her down some amount to open up the meta more
• Otherwise, we're seeing a good range of early, supportive and late oriented Marksmen available, and just trying to open up a few more situational picks with Jhin, Kai'sa and Draven

Supp:

• Finally, just a lonely Thresh buff to support meta
• Overall, we think it looks good with a variety of things that are viable from many classes

Briar:

• She's too effective in especially the lower ranks
• Even though her winrates are being propped up by Skarner's low ones, they're still too high.

Zac:

• While he isn't technically overpowered, his lane phase is relatively uninteresting.
• We're looking to tap him down a little bit, especially to make sure Jungle is still his most powerful role.

Azir:

• Azir has been too present after re-entering the Pro meta.

Zeri:

• After all the Crit item changes have shaken out, Zeri has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of these changes.
• We're tapping her down and her regular performance is still pretty healthy.
• We're feeling a lot more confident about her long term balance state after all the changes, but she's just a bit too strong right now.

Skarner:

• Skarner is doing a lot better as players play him, gaining a decent amount of performance day over day.
• We're targeting some nerfs to bring his Top and Jungle closer in line.
• We're looking to make some adjustments to make him smoother to play, while trying to keep the impactful feeling of the boulder.

Mordekaiser:

• A pretty large change here, but making his Ult not QSS'able.
• This change was originally done to prevent Morde from becoming a Pro staple.
• As time has gone on, he has too much counterplay in especially the higher ranks and experientially, if you're picking Morde, you want this portion of his kit to be effective.