League of Legends patch notes 13.18 details: Tryndamere, J4, Gwen, Static Shiv changes explained
2023-09-07 09:11:00Riot Games developers put out a detailed preview for patch 13.18 in League of Legends. Tryndamere, Rell, Xayah, and Jarvan IV were nerfed, while Gwen, Senna, Thresh and other champions received some buffs. Game designer Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison shared the update on Twitter and explained some of them in details.
Tryndamere
+50 range (from last patch) was a big buff, but we think moves him in the right direction by putting as much skill expression in his spacing game as possible, rather than in being range-restricted and stat-checking you when he actually gets on you.
We would like to balance him around this +50 range and nerf elsewhere to reduce how binary he is. Given his kit is still 80% about auto-attacking, he will still be one of our more stat-checky/binary champions (possibly still the most), but the goal of the changes is to move power budget out of his actual damage when attacking and more into using his spacing tools smartly.
Tryndamere is OP right now, so all the frustrating things he does are amplified. He'll still be a frustrating champion to play against, but we hope less so, when he's not also overpowered. The changes hopefully mean he's less likely to randomly win the lane at level 1/2 and be easier to collapse on/burn his ult later in the game.
Jarvan IV
We knew J4 would benefit from Gore and Shojin buffs, but pre-emptively nerfing him, only to need to nerf him again, wouldn't be great. Now that we know how the buffs have landed, we have greater confidence for how much to nerf, where and for what skill brackets. We think his damage is over the line, given how durable he is and how many more casts he gets.
Kayn
Red Kayn's nerfs were offset by Gore buffs, while Blue landed well. We're targeting Red, specifically this patch.
Gwen
Gwen is a fun champ for JGL, adds value to the JGL ecosystem as an AP, but is usually ceilinged by Pro flex. We'll be closely monitoring how these go.
Xayah
She's a very stable champ, esp in Pro, so exposing her windows of vulnerability with lower base health and a slight nerf to one of her early farming tools.
Crown of the Shattered Queen
The AP bonus when shield is up has only really been well utilized by Pros where there's not much combat happening, compared to solo queue where the shield is often down. We're removing this mechanic and also reducing how sharp the anti-burst aspect of the item is. The intention of the item was to reduce your ability to be bursted, but not completely eliminate it. We still expect champs to die through the shield sometimes (similar to how we expect champs to die through zhonyas sometimes), but it's meant to give you a leg up in those cases.
The AP is being buffed, because Crown is currently being balanced around champions who have high damage without needing lots of AP ratios (Azir, Support AP, Veigar, Kass, Asol, etc. ). This will directionally help it be viable on more champions who don't have these properties (ie. traditional mages). We'll monitor how these changes land and be prepared to follow up.
Static Shiv
Shiv's identity is waveclearing, but it's been a little too good at it, resulting in lower levels of interaction and a bit too much tempo on these champions. We're happy that it's a core purchase on some champions, but with the nerf here and a small buff to Stormrazor, we hope that the Marksman 1st item space has a bit better diversity.
One of the reasons why we brought Shiv back is because waveclear is an immensely satisfying thing for an item to do. If we can manage to make it balanced for each of the different skill brackets, we think that's a great item. We're slowly getting it into the right spot with the right shape. (Each of the AD, waveclear, AS levers make it more/less optimal on different champs)
Update 13.18 will be released on the night of September 12, 2023. It will feature a new jungler champion, Briar. You can read more about her by the link below.
