Riot promises League of Legends fighter nerfs & AD carry changes as Season 13 starts slow

Andrew Amos
LoL Lunar Beast Prestige Fiora Skin

League of Legends Season 13 is off to a rocky start. After a relatively smooth preseason, LoL patch 13.1 and a poor reception to the start cinematic, players are left wanting more. Riot is promising balance changes like fighter nerfs and AD carry adjustments to start hitting the right notes again.

League of Legends’ Season 13 launch hasn’t been all smooth sailing ⁠— in and out of the game.

While the majority of pre-season changes landed well, LoL patch 13.1 threw the meta off-kilter with drastic nerfs forcing some hotfixes on day one. A late announcement and delay to the official season start killed the mood a bit, as well.

On top of that, the community dunked on Riot for their season start The Brink of Infinity cinematic, which failed to deliver on the hype set by Warriors, Awaken, and The Call.

For all of that, lead designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison apologized to players to kick off Season 13, saying “our commitment to improving the game hasn’t changed and we’ll continue addressing player concerns in as timely a manner as possible.”

Testament to that, Leung-Harrison started spilling the beans on League of Legends patch 13.2, which is going to include some adjustments to fighters, AD carries, and Grievous Wounds.

In order, Riot has decided nerfing the damage stats on fighter items, or the champions themselves, isn’t enough. With so many duelists dominating the top and mid lane metas, the next stat they’re targeting is Ability Haste and sustain on items and mechanics.

There are plans for “small scope AD carry satisfaction changes” too, which will increase the “situational durability” of marksmen after the litany of adjustments late in Season 12 as well as in preseason.

Finally, for Grievous Wounds, Riot wants to push the value of healing cut up to 40% on Executioner’s Calling and Oblivion Orb to help with curbing the power of enchanter supports and drain tanks.

Enchanter supports more broadly are on Riot’s hit list, according to Brian ‘Axes’ Salvatore, but nothing will be pushed for some time.

“Enchanter item satisfaction is on our radar and we’re starting explorations, but it’s not one of the next pieces of work we expect to deliver and it’s too early to say how that’s going to turn out.

“Fighters and ADCs are next, then if nothing changes ⁠— which something always does ⁠— I would expect mid Mage satisfaction and Enchanter items in some order, depending which we can get to a good resolution on first.”

These changes will first start appearing in League of Legends patch 13.2, due to go live at the end of January 2023.

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About The Author

Hailing from Perth, Andrew was formerly Dexerto's Australian Managing Editor. They love telling stories across all games and esports, but they have a soft spot for League of Legends and Rainbow Six. Oh, and they're also fascinated by the rise of VTubers.