League of Legends Patch 13.23 Preview: The End of the Great Reign of K’sante?

Riot Phroxzon shared the League of Legends Patch 13.23 Preview, showcasing some well-awaited changes.

While Patch 13.22 dropped only a week ago, Riot Games is hard at work to bring us the next update of Season 13. Riot Phroxzon, one of the games lead balance designers shared the plans for Patch 13.23, which is touching on some of the most problematic champions, while also aiming to iron some long-standing mistakes out in one of League’s most iconic character, Riven. Let’s dive right in!

League of Legends Patch 13.23 Preview

Turret Gold Changes

Turret Gold was nerfed a few patches back, making snowballing much more ineffective. While Riot has achieved the changes they wanted, they overshot a bit, and will try and cut back on the nerfs. They are looking at changing the local gold for Inner and Inhibitor Towers, which should give some agency back to toplaners and midlaners outside of the early game.

Champion Buffs

Janna

While the Janna mini-rework that dropped in 13.22 was a success, they overnerfed her a bit, so they are planning some buffs for the Fury of the Storm. While they didn’t reveal what part of her they want to buff, they should be aiming at her poking and harassing power, since that’s the direction they took Janna with her rework.

Riven

The discussion about Riven’s high level, but ultimately hindering mechanics, like the Fast Q and auto-cancels have reached Riot Games. While they acknowledged the issue, the balance team said that changing Riven in this way would be in vain because of the removal of Mythic items next Season and the restructured meta that follows. But as promised, they will buff the Broken Blade.

Trundle

Long absent from the meta, Trundle is receiving some toplane buffs to make him the king again. Riot wants him to become a counter (and failsafe) to tank champions in the toplane, who could run rampant next year.

Vel'Koz

Vel’Koz is struggling in both of his (it’s?) roles, so he will receive some buffs to help him out in both regards. The “Throwing Vel’Koz a bone” catchphrase is a bit concerning though, as the buffs might not be enough (again).

Champion Nerfs

Briar

The newest champion in the game has been terrorizing SoloQ on multiple roles. She’s disabled at Worlds, and smaller competitions are often non-representative, but Riot wants to address her before the start of the 2024 split. However, she shouldn’t be hit as hard, as people are still learning her, and the continued changes slowed her down a bit.

K'Sante

K'Sante's current state is deemed too strong, especially when he hits lvl 6, so Riot is looking to take some power from the Pride of Nazumah. It seems like the balance team doesn’t really know what to do with him, as he continues to be a nightmare to buff and nerf – hopefully next season, he will become less of a problem for the developers.

Naafiri

Recognized as overpowered in regular play, Naafiri will receive nerfs to bring her into a more balanced state. Even though she is not a problem in higher levels of play, the lower ranks can’t really deal with her, which means that the pack should receive some raw numbers nerfs instead of some mechanic change. Players are still unhappy, even with the proposed changes, as this doesn’t help Naafiri in higher ELOs.

Nocturne – who is actually Jarvan IV

Jarvan IV had a high presence and winrate since the changes to Spear of Shojin and Goredrinker a few weeks back, so Phroxzon and his team will nerf him again, as the previous hits weren’t enough.

Impact on Gameplay

These changes are mostly followups to weeks of buffs and nerfs, except for the Riven changes (which some think are unjustified, while other welcome it with open arms). As Phroxzon has already addressed it, the balance teams doesn’t want to make huge changes for the end of the year, as the new season will rewrite the entirety of the game – much like the Mythic update did 2 years ago.

13.23 Preview!

Turret Gold: We’re making some changes to inner and inhibitor tower gold to give a higher share of the gold as local gold. Given snowballing is at one of the lowest levels right now, we think this will help put it in a more correct spot, while favoring roles like… pic.twitter.com/y4nTKhzqqL

— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) November 14, 2023

The Turret Gold changes were absolutely necessary, as the nerfs to Plates have almost eliminated an entire playstyle, and while these buffs won’t bring splitpushing back to it’s former glory, it should help picks such as Yorick and Illaoi. The Buffs are alright as well, but one of the Nerfs stand out: Naafiri is not a good champion currently, so hitting the dog with the hammer seems a bit unnecessary. The Hound of a Thousand Bites has descended into obscurity since her release, so hopefully Phroxzon and co. will come up with some meaningful changes for her.

These adjustments are all subject to change, so don’t forget to check ESTNN regularly on the latest details about Patch 13.23!