Will Darius and Jinx fall out of meta in LoL patch 11.10?

League of Legends patch 11.10 will be rolling out on the live servers in a week and it will have quite a few changes to some of the strongest meta champions. 

In the most recent patch preview, gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter revealed detailed changes for the upcoming patch. These changes will hit the Public Beta Environment (PBE) in a matter of hours and include nerfs to some of the best solo queue picks such as Darius and Jinx. The patch will also try to bring back a few forgotten champions like Kayle and Zyra through some buffs. 

The patch will be smaller than what players are used to this time around, mainly because Riot has put a lot of focus on the jungle adjustments that will arrive with patch 11.10. This leaves the champion and item changes fairly limited, but they should be enough to shake up the meta a bit.  

Darius and Jinx hit with the nerf hammer on LoL patch 11.10

What many players will likely enjoy with this patch are the nerfs to Darius and Jinx. Both champions have been top-tier picks in solo queue recently and seen success on the professional stage. 

Most notably is Darius, who has been sitting at a 50% win rate or more in the top lane during the last five patches. The Hand of Noxus is a very safe pick in solo queue and able to beat most opponents in lane. Riot finally seems to acknowledge his strength and will be nerfing him by adding a longer cooldown to Apprehend (E). 

This change might not sound like a lot but will likely make Darius a bit less scary in the early stages. As of right now, Darius is able to win most trades by landing Apprehend and follow it up with Crippling Strike (W) and Decimate (Q) for a lot of damage. Adding a longer cooldown to Apprehend will make the time between trades bigger for Darius and hopefully make it easier to play around him. 

Jinx will take a hit on her base armor and receive an execution cap to epic monsters on Super Mega Death Rocket! (R). These changes seem pretty minor compared to Jinx’s current win rate of 51.22% in Platinum rank and higher as well as her common presence in professional games. 

Will Darius and Jinx fall out of meta in LoL patch 11.10?

Even though the nerfs to Darius and Jinx are needed, it’s hard to imagine that they will fall out of meta completely. With their current strength in solo queue, bigger nerfs to their power are likely needed to throw them out of priority.

Darius will remain a bully in the top lane with a lot of damage in his kit. The number of trades Darius can dish out will be limited, opening up for champions to do better against him in lane. With that said, he will still have carry potential until his raw damage is nerfed. 

The same goes for Jinx who will still be a hyper-carry in the late game. The reduction in base armor will make Jinx more vulnerable in the laning phase, but as soon as Jinx gets a few items she will fire away and be a big threat. The execution cap to her ultimate will make it harder for her to steal major objectives, but won’t change the fact that Jinx is one of the best hyper carries in the game. 

When does LoL patch 11.10 go live? 

With patch 11.10 hitting the PBE for testing, it’s expected that all changes will be live on Wednesday, May 12. The buff and nerfs presented in the patch preview are due to change before hitting the live servers based on community feedback.