While the average player might not yet be aware of it, League of Legends has recently undergone its biggest change in over a year – a sweeping set of stat changes dubbed the “Durability Update”.
For months now, Riot has been assuring the community that they were working on dealing with the oversaturation of damage in the game, a result of power creep that began with the Items Rework at the start of last year. Since the power of healing, shielding, and damage has crept up over time, a change like this promises to deal with the burst/burst-denial playstyle that League has fallen into.
Riot’s stated goals with the patch was to deal with the general over-indexing into burst combos and teamfights – faster paced fights are certainly more skill expressive, but if skirmishes get so quick it feels like there was never counterplay, there’s a problem. They also intended on giving players the feeling that their champions were both dealing and taking less damage, thus forcing burst champions to commit more of their kit in a single rotation to secure kills. Considering even the meta of ADC, at times, has revolved around getting lethality instead of DPS onto champions like Ezreal, Miss Fortune, or Xayah, the move makes sense.
The update itself was massive, with every champion receiving a boost in base stats, 95 champions having in-kit healing and shielding nerfed, and 37 items having their stats changed – for the sake of clarity I won’t be analyzing all of the specific numbers, but rather how to generally adjust to this massive shift in the game.
First, every champion in the game received a Durability Base Stat Package, the first change of which was 70 base health being given to every champion; essentially a free auto attack worth of health, for every champion in the game. What may seem like an inconsequential difference could completely change the dynamic of a laning phase, by giving an extra buffer against champions that can find early lethal damage. Riot is essentially forcing trades at low health to commit for an extra ability or auto, which then doubly increases the time for potions to take their effect and cooldowns to return. Basically, just a minor change in health has a ripple effect across the systems that dictate the laning phase.
The second part of the package addressed stat per-level-growth for health, armor, and magic resist (14 health, 1.2 armor, and .8 magic resist). The easiest way to understand these numbers is a visualization – at level 11 every champion will have a Ruby Crystal, at level 13 every champion will have a Cloth Armor, and at level 15 every champion will have a Null Magic Mantle. When you consider that many champions get their only resists (Armor or MR) exclusively from Mercury’s Treads or Plated Steelcaps, it’s pretty significant.
The fallout from the Durability Package had the potential to make some champions and items broken at the level of release Aphelios, because as power shifts towards durability, sustain systems like healing and shielding gain even more time to exert value. So, this patch saw a combined 132 changes to champions and items – a list so long that even scrolling through all of them is a hassle, but since they all follow this general philosophy, they’re far more digestible.
Cursory analysis immediately indicated that hyperscaling champions like Kayle and Senna would do incredibly well on this patch – they’re not the only ones, but they’re the easiest to pick out. The only nerfs that attempted to balance these champions were in the vein of in-kit healing and shielding, with no specific changes to deal with the fact their early game vulnerability is now much harder to exploit. They both reach levels of damage where the Durability Package means nothing, and they can now reach those levels far more consistently. Both champions were #4 in their roles prior to the patch (Senna has been primarily a support since changes in 10.3), and had their win rates jump by 2% to take them to #1 in their roles. Because of this, the hotfix nerfs announced a couple days after the patch launch immediately addressed these two (among others).
This isn’t to say that Riot missed the mark with all of the pre-emptive nerfs on champions they expected to be OP, because they were right that some champions would be able to utilize far too much sustain if left unchecked. Aatrox, Irelia, and Soraka were veritably gutted, with the first two losing significant percent healing on their abilities, which looks like a strict overcompensation considering their performances on the patch. Aatrox is only at a 49% win rate – that still places him at rank 41 – but Irelia is under a 46% win rate, struggling pretty severely at rank 55.
Items got changed so much that the breakdown of them could essentially be its own piece, but they all mostly intended on maximizing the value of the base Durability Package. Enchanter items like Moonstone Renewer and Locket of the Iron Solari had their numbers pulled back for heal and shield power, along with Tank and Bruiser items that give healing like Sunfire Aegis or Divine Sunderer. Importantly, Grievous Wounds items were nerfed significantly (from 40%/60% to 30%/50%) to ensure healing wasn’t getting double nerfed, but anti-shield items (though usually unimpressive) weren’t touched, so Serpent’s Fang and Shadowflame have gained value. Also, penetration items like Void Staff and Lord Dominik’s Regards were pulled back in total percent pen, since both items were previously rendering any itemized MR and Armor immediately irrelevant.
It’s almost understating it to say that there’s a lot happening this patch, so adjustment to what is essentially a preseason patch level of changes requires time and effort. Already, 12.10b (the mid patch hotfix) further changed the state of the meta, though it does deal well with the most egregiously broken champions in the patch like Kayle and Senna. Thematically, the update naturally shifts power towards champions who are exploited by being burst. So, if you’re trying to find which of your champions are best to rely on, look for kits which revolve around sustained DPS and are normally countered with the likes of a Zed or an Akali.
Over the course of the next several patches, it’s good practice to try and relearn the thresholds of laning phase lethal that your main champions have, and where the edge is that you can trade to without being under threat of lethal damage. For now, playing passive in laning phase will likely cause an opponent to miscalculate lethal threat, so slowly feel out matchups until that new lethal barrier becomes clear – finding this early is a massive advantage against other laners, especially in mid and low elos where people may be slow to find these new thresholds.
The game is going to continue its metamorphosis over the coming months, looking to mitigate some of the Durability Update’s side effects, while making sure to still slow down how fights play out. At this very moment, there could be a champion that’s absurdly broken while flying completely under the radar – just like a normal preseason patch, finding new strategies and builds is going to define analysis and content around the game for the coming months. Make sure to keep up with the latest builds, strongest champions, and prevailing strategies as they come out, as those truly are the best edge one can have in game right now.
Thank you for reading, and good luck re-learning all your champions!
