The biggest winners and losers from League of Legends Patch 10.8

League of Legends patch 10.8 is out now, with adjustments to seven AD carries. While their individual changes aren’t huge, it does signal the start of a bigger shift down in bot lane in the near future.

The only meta-changing difference this patch, surprisingly, is Riot’s huge buff to Soraka.

Winner: Soraka

The biggest winners and losers from League of Legends Patch 10.8 — Credit: Riot Games

Base stats

Mana increased from 375 to 425

Q – Starcall

Cost reduced from 60/65/70/75/80 to 45/50/55/60/65 mana

After getting hit by all-round nerfs in patch 10.4 to steer her away from top lane in solo queue and competitive play, the most annoying spell to lane against in League of Legends is getting buffed.

In patch 10.6, Riot already gave Starcall some power back, increasing its base heal and movement speed bonus. With a larger mana pool and reduced cost at all levels, we expect her to return to solo and support roles, especially since her melee counterparts have been nerfed.

Winner: Orianna

W – Command: Dissonance

Ally haste/enemy slow movement speed increased from 20/25/30/35/40% to 30/35/40/45/50%

E – Command: Protect

Shield ratio increased from 0.4 to 0.5 ability power

The mid lane meta can be described in two words: Wave clear. Azir, Corki, Syndra and Orianna are commonly blind picked. While Orianna’s damage numbers aren’t affected, the added utility she now brings to team fights means extra protection for AD carries.

Winner: Junglers

Jungle camp XP increased from 1.25x more XP at levels 9+ to 1.35x more XP at levels 9+ (between 10-13 additional XP per camp)
(NEW) Hunter’s Machete, Hunter’s Talisman, Skirmisher’s Sabre and Stalker’s Blade unique passive: Now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health

Riot Games’ intention with these experience changes is to “reduce the perception that [junglers] have to have an aggressive early presence to be effective”. A boost to farming junglers like Graves and Kindred – both of whom also received individual buffs in patch 10.5 and 10.6 – we expect their play rate to increase in solo queue.

Winner: Ashe, Tristana, and Xayah

Small buffs were given to Ashe’s Q bonus attack speed, Tristana’s Explosive Charge damage ratio, and Xayah’s feather hit damage on Bladecaller.

While these adjustments aren’t sufficient to bring them to the forefront of the bot lane meta, the overall changes to ADCs do signal an intention to move away from the Aphelios-Senna-Miss Fortune trifecta to a different set of auto attacking AD carries.

Loser: Aphelios

Passive – The hitman and the seer

Aphelios no longer gains 3/6/9/12/15/18% bonus armor penetration
(NEW) Aphelios now gains 2/4/6/8/10/12 lethality

Q – Weapons of the faithful

Base damage and cooldown level scaling: Aphelios’ weapons actives’ base damage and cooldowns scaling increased from levels 1-9 to levels 1-13
Moonshot and Onslaught damage AD ratios, Binding Eclipse, Duskwave and Sentry damage ratios changed from flat to scaling from levels 1-13

With near 100% presence in pro games, Aphelios was hit hard by the nerf bat.

The shift to lethality might create more diversity for Aphelios. Varus is one of the few AD carries who take on a completely different build based off a single keystone, so we’ll have to see if Aphelios moves in the same direction.

Loser: Senna

Passive – Absolution

Mist wraith spawn chance on minions Senna doesn’t kill reduced from 25% to 22%

Like Aphelios, Senna’s kit is extremely difficult to balance. She also has a near 100% presence in pro games and as people continue to get better with her, she’s likely to become even more stifling. Expect more nerfs in the future.