The single biggest difference in patch 8.11 was the introduction of the new champion Pyke. However, there were many, many other small and big changes that will most definitely shift the previous meta. Down below, we extract the most important changes in the latest patch. For those who want to see a detailed list of all changes, you can go to our Notes for patch 8.11 post.
1. KHA’ZIX ULTIMATE EVOLUTION IS BEING REVERTED
The first noticeable change in the newest patch is the change on Kha’Zix’s ultimate. Namely, Riot choose to remove a huge part of his evolved ultimate. With that Kha’Zix was able to become stealthed and gain movement speed when he enters a brush. This was, at least for the high ranked players, one of the main reasons that allowed them to roam faster and gank more efficiently. However, with the removal of this effect, he will most certantly be thrown away from the current meta.
2. LEE SIN COMPENSATED FOR THE WARDING CHANGES
With the removal of the warding Tracker’s Knife (the jungle item that granted junglers the ability to place additional wards), as well as with the recent changes on the Warding Trinkets, Lee Sin was indirectly nerfed. Although Riot has introduced small overall buffs to Lee Sin’s kit, equipping him with a lower cooldown on all of his abilities, as well as granting him higher energy return on basic attacks, my personal opinion is that this will not effect him that match. The lack of jumping objects, such are the wards, Lee Sin will still be quite immobile. And for a champion like him, it will need much more for him to get back in the jungle’s meta.
3. RIOT THROWING ROCKS AT TALIYAH
One of the greatest directs nerfs that we have seen on a champion are definitely this patch’s nerfs on Taliyah. Namely, we have just seen the removal of most of the power stats from her Q, decreased early game damage on her E, and a huge decrease in her ultimate’s wall duration. Although there were some small positive compensations in her kit, this overall nerf will hit Taliyah hard. And if there were players that thought that she was already weak, they should see her now.
4. THE AD CARRIES ARE RETHOUGHT
Riot have decided to change the role of the Marksmen. This manifested in an overall decrease in the early game attack damage stats and base armor, but an increase in the scaling of the attack damage as well as in their health and health growth.
The introduction of the new item – Stormrazer – as well as the rework of the Infinity Edge (which now gives double critical strike chance) and Essence River (which empowers the basic attack if you haven’t attack for a while), although was initially planned as a nerf, many predict it will indirectly make the mid to late game AD Carry favorable. This is due to the decrease in the time needed for scaling for champions such as Twitch, Vayne, Jinx, Tristana, Kai’Sa etc. who can now get to the power spike level earlier in the game.
The only drawback for the ADC’s will obviously be the small increase in cost of the critical strike items. However, with the new passive on the Infinity Edge, this cost increase will hardly be felt.
5. REWORK FOR THE BANNER OF COMMAND
Banner of Command has been in the meta for such a time now. In the past months we saw some crazy things which concerned Banner of Command. However, with patch 8.11 that will most definitely change. This change includes the removal of the immunity of magical damage and the introduction of the damage reduction from champions. Although this is not seen as a nerf to the item, but a change to a different direction, we can only wait to see what are the most efficient tactics to exploit the new Banner.
6. CHANGES IN THE DOMINATION AND SORCERY RUNE TREES
The everyone’s favorite Ultimate’s Hat rune, which gave ultimate cooldown reduction, have been transported to the Sorcery three and is renamed in Ultimate Hunter. There are also two new runes added in the Domination and Sorcery tree.
The Domination tree got the Hail of Blades which draws huge similarities with the Lethal Tempo rune from the Precision rune tree. As such, champions that depend on attack speed, such as Xin Zhao, will use this rune the most.
The Sorcery tree was enriched with the Nimbus Clock rune that gives movement speed bonus after using an ultimate. While this rune could be great for champions like Kassadin or Nidalle, who can spam their ultimates in a small window, Riot placed a cooldown of 60 seconds on this rune, which will prevent them to use it proficiently. My initial assumption is that this rune is perfect for assassins that have offensive ultimates such as Nocturne and Zed.
7. WHO GET THE TURRET GETS THE GOLD
Turret gold distribution has been changed. The turret gold will mostly be concentrated in the champions that take it down. This will set a higher priority for the Carries to play around turrets so they can pick some money and scale faster. With this change we can surly expect some new tactics and possible faster rotations across the map.