The League of Legends pre-season is ending soon as Riot has released the patch notes for Patch 8.24b. This patch focuses on balancing out some of the outliers from the pre-season. Riot has addressed champions that are too strong or too weak and made adjustments where necessary.
Akali and Pyke: Missed the mark
Both Akali and Pyke have been causing trouble in the pre-season due to the new rune combinations. Akali is a general nuisance, while Pyke has changed his position to the mid lane. Both champions are receiving significant changes in this patch, although it remains to be seen if they will effectively address the issues.
Akali’s changes are better than Pyke’s. Her Twilight Shroud has been a source of controversy for some time, and Riot is attempting to improve on it. Now, when she enters and re-enters stealth, basic attacks and non-cancellable abilities will no longer be stopped. She will also be briefly obscured when entering stealth. These are positive changes, but some players would have liked to see adjustments to her waveclear and True Invisibility.
Pyke’s changes are not as effective. His primary damaging ability, Bone Skewer, will now do less damage to minions beyond the first one struck. The execution threshold on his ultimate has also been lowered. These changes seem to be aimed at reducing his ability to clear waves of minions, but they may not have a significant impact given his other damaging ability and mobility.
Support item changes: Please, no.
There are buffs coming for healing and shielding items, which has caused concern among many players. In the past, this type of meta has proven to be frustrating and lacking in skill expression. Buffing these items may only be a temporary solution to the underlying problem. Until Riot can find a way to redesign these abilities to be more interactive and engaging, the cycle of buffing and nerfing these items will likely continue.
Marksman buffs: It’s about time.
One positive aspect of this patch is the much-needed buffs for weaker bot lane champions. Tristana, Varus, Caitlyn, and Corki will receive significant damage increases among other improvements. These buffs will make these champions feel more powerful and help balance the bot lane meta.
The patch will be released this week.