Big balance changes coming to League of Legends with Patch 10.1

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Published 07/01/2020

League of Legends is just a few days away from Season 10 and one night before the first patch of the year. Patch 10.1 is coming with four nerfs, more than 10 buffs, as well as changes to support items and Omnistone.

These changes will help shape the meta of the upcoming season. The biggest update is coming to Sylas, and although Riot considers it a buff, it’s more of a total overhaul of his gameplay. Besides Sylas, most other champions of the long list of balance updates are getting tweaked in their damage, cooldowns, and health.

Patch 10.1 brings nerfs to four champions

The four champions getting nerfed this patch are Aphelios, Mordekaiser, Aurelion Sol, and Kassadin.

The AoE blast from Moonlight Vigil’s Infernum will be dealing less damage, and Aphelios has also lost some of his movement speed and base health stat points. Though his popularity has started falling, Riot felt Aphelios was overperforming compared to traditional marksmen and needed tuning to be at their level.

Getting caught in Mordekaiser’s Realm of Death can be overly frustrating, especially as it lasts long enough to keep a player out of the most heated moments of a teamfight. With the bonus movement speed from his passive, it wasn’t easy to escape. From patch 10.1, the ultimate will last one second less, and his passive speed bonus is getting capped at 3%. Mordekaiser players will have to be more tactical about using their ultimate, with enemies having a higher chance to get out of it alive.

Aurelion Sol’s early passive damage will be lower, and Kassadin will move around the Rift a bit more slowly.

Many champions up for buffs in patch 10.1

Many champions have fallen out of the meta not because of their mechanics, but because they were underperforming in the huge champion pool. Including Sylas, 12 champions are getting love from the developer to start the year.

Azir and Corki have both been struggling to finish kills, especially when it comes to late game scaling. Both of these champions are getting their ultimate damage increased, with Azir also getting more of an opportunity to turn fights around and zone enemies as Emperor’s Divide gets a two second extension.

Being one of the least picked marksmen in the game, Riot is hoping to bring Kalista back to life with health and armor buffs which should make for easier trades. Varus has been in a bad position as well. As Piercing Arrow is critical to his performance in the lane, players will be able to use it a lot more often to gain an early advantage with the cooldown reduction coming in this patch.

Nami is about to become a very strong support. Her abilities have always made her a viable safe pick, but with TIdecaller’s Blessing now empowering abilities as well as auto attacks, she’s becoming one of the best champion boosters available. For marksmen who focus on poke through abilities, Nami will make every trade more efficient.

Sejuani’s gameplay focuses on her tankiness, but that’s also been her weakness. With her abilities having high potential for objective control, which is of great importance in the new season, buffs to her sustain may bring the old school jungler back to the map.

Shyvana, Zyra, Jayce, Jax, and Vi are also getting minor buffs, and support items are getting their stats updated with either mana or health regeneration. Those items that dealt damage, however, are getting their damage lowered as well, making them more fitting for the role.

The patch is set to go live across all servers on January 8. The full patch notes can be found here.

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

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