Riot is looking to nerf ADCs next patch.
League of Legends is a team-based game where players select a champion and compete against an enemy team. To create a balanced team, each player is assigned to one of five positions, also known as “Roles.” These roles consist of Top Lane, Jungle, Mid Lane, Bottom Lane, or ADC and Support. Each of these roles has distinct responsibilities and unique playstyles. They also have a similar level of impact, and the game is mainly balanced around the fact.
But, sometimes, due to changes made by Riot, a role becomes stronger than others or “Overpowered,” as many would say. In most cases, the overpowered role is usually the Jungle, but this time, it’s the Bot lane, more specifically ADCs.
ADCs have been pretty strong since Preseason 2023 changes. But with the recent Critical Strike Item changes and base stat buffs in Patch 13.1B, ADCs became a tad too overpowered. Riot thinks that they are pretty strong too.
In the recent Patch 13.5 Rundown video by Riot Phreak, he acknowledges that ADCs are overperforming right now. He stated, “AD carry is a very overpowered role now, and it will get nerfed.” He also mentioned that the buffs given to ADCs in PAtch 13.1B were to increase the satisfaction of playing the role. The buffs indeed did increase player satisfaction, but they also made the role very strong. Thus Riot on Patch 13.6 will be nerfing the role.
How will they be nerfing ADCs? Let us find out.
Incoming ADC Nerfs
Here are all the ADC nerfs coming to Patch 13.6,
Bloodthirster
- Shield: 180-450 (level 9-18) >>> 100-400 (level 8-18)
Bloodthirster was one of the items that received massive buffs in Patch 13.1B. The item got its cost reduced by 200 gold, and its shield value increased significantly. Now Riot is nerfing some of the shield values in this patch.
Navori Quickblades
- Cooldown refund: 15% >>> 12%
Navori Quickblades is taking a hit to this patch. The nerfs aren’t too big, but these combined with the other nerfs, add up.
Lethal Tempo
- Ranged attack speed: 30-54% (maxes at level 12) >>> 24-54% (maxes at level 18)
Lethal Tempo is one of the biggest reasons ADCs are overpowered. So nerfing seems to be a step in the right direction. Riot is making it, so the keystone takes more time to scale rather than spiking at mid-game.
Legend: Bloodline
- Maximum Life steal: 6% >>> 5.25%
- Max HP: 100 >>> 85
One of the most popular ADC rune choices is also taking a hit.
Dragons
- Hextech Drake:
- Ability haste and attack speed reduced from 9% – 36% to 7.5% – 30%
- Infernal Drake:
- Bonus adaptive force reduced from 6% – 24% to 5% – 20%
- Mountain Drake:
- Armor and magic resist reduced from 9% – 36% to 8% – 32%
- Ocean Drake:
- Health regeneration reduced from 3% – 12% missing HP to 2.5% – 10%
- Chemtech and Cloud drake remain unchanged.
Not only is Riot directly nerfing ADC, but directly they are also nerfing the role indirectly.
Dragons were massively buffed during the Preseason 2023, to the point the game revolves around taking dragons. Whichever team gets all the dragons usually wins the game. Since the bot lane is the closest to the dragon pit, the winning bot lane team usually gets all the dragons, making it hard to win through the top side of the map. Thus Riot is nerfing dragons to decrease the impact of Bot lane.
