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Everything you need to know about League of Legends patch 8.21
Patch 8.21 is on its way with a number of changes across the board. We break down the most crucial changes, and how they will shift the meta going into the future of the game.
It’s that time of year again. The League of Legends World Championship is nearing its exciting conclusion as the pre-season patch emerges on the horizon. Riot have always tended to avoid any big game changes around Worlds, in order to keep an even playing field. This year is no different, with extremely minor tweaks being implemented before, and around, the start of the competition – but a few tweaks with patch 8.21 have the potential to truly shake things up.
We’re nearly at the end of this year’s Worlds, with the Grand Finals taking place next Saturday: a west versus east match-up is on the cards, showcasing the European Goliaths, Fnatic, and China’s last hope, Invictus Gaming. It’s arguably been one of the most exciting Worlds to date, at least from a western perspective, as finally, LCS teams have risen up and shown the world they can contend with the very best.
1. The Daughter of the Void has been nerfed
One of the most contested champions in both the World Championships and solo queue, has been Kai’Sa, League of Legends’ latest released ADC. At Worlds she has a pick / ban rate of over 80 percent, featuring in 41 games to date, as well as being the fourth most picked champion in solo queue.
She’s an incredibly strong champion, with her hybrid mode of build, her hyper aggressive playstyle, and tank shredding capabilities. The biggest change, across a board of minor tweaks, has been focused on nerfing Kai’Sa. Riot agrees she’s a little too strong for the current meta, with patch 8.21 putting her back, just a peg.
Her AP build has been nerfed, but it will still be a formidable force in some circumstances. We’ll begin to see her built more into a classic AD build, rather than the typical pro player build of choice. Her passive has been nerfed, lowering the amount of missing health it deals from 3.75 percent per 100 AP, to 2.5 percent per 100 AP.
Although, on paper, it doesn’t look like a great deal, it adds up to a sizable amount when matched up against an item stacked tank. She won’t be able to freely chunk out the opposition with ease, nerfing her carry strengths in the latter stages of the game.
Furthermore, her ultimate shield duration has been decreased from three seconds, to two. Again, as minor as it looks, one second can count for a lot, especially with such a tight window – and something that could make or break a crucial play at the highest level. The 8.21 changes will make her a champion that cannot afford to make as many mistakes. It’s an overall well received nerf for the growth of the ADC meta.
2. ADCs have been tweaked
The most meaningful change has been in the transformation of Kai’Sa, but patch 8.21 also brings us a number of minor champion tweaks, that could just make the difference for some of the underperforming marksmen. It’s been a rough season for ADC mains, with a complete mid-season uphaul of the meta, as the botlane temporarily turned into season 1 again.
Thankfully we’re back to a more familiar looking League of Legends, with buffs and nerfs across the board, giving us a well deserved sigh of relief. That being said, we’re not quite there yet with a few of the more notable classic ADC champions.
Patch 8.21 has brought us buffs to Ashe, increasing her slow, as well as giving her Hawkshot the tiniest of improvements, now pinging enemies if your team didn’t already have vision of them. Draven has had a couple of important bug fixes, allowing him to be much more of a reliable, heavy hitting based ADC. Previously, his basic attack couldn’t crit if switched from a normal attack to a Q-empowered attack during the axe catching wind up. His Spinning Axe was also being cancelled whenever a targeted enemy died. Lastly, Ezreal’s new Essence Flux is getting a necessary damage buff, giving him a bit more viability.
3. Small item changes
Both Edge of Night and Essence Reaver were barely being touched in-game. The two underused items are having their prices cut in patch 8.21, to hopefully make them just a little more viable – at least in some niche situations. It’s not a drastic decrease in gold, but it’s a change that gives a positive direction to the diversity of ADC building.
Janna is looking spookier than ever with her new skin
© Riot Games
4. Have a comms boost
Communication has always been key to the success of a game of League of Legends, both at the lowest, or highest level of play. It can be the difference between winning and losing a lane match-up, or even the game itself. Most of us aren’t willing to get on voice comms with four strangers, making pinging, really, the only way to get the message across to our team-mates. As good as it can be, in certain situations, it’s not entirely reliable. It often results in incessant spamming and some undesirable exchange of words in chat, if a gank, or a team fight, doesn’t go as planned.
Patch 8.21 isn’t the answer to all our prayers, but it’s a good start. Now, your ADC, tunnelling on CSing, not paying attention to map, will have much greater a chance to be prepared for a well timed gank.
On my way pings now indicate the distance between the ping and the player. The further away the player is from their ping, the more muffled and delayed the audio will be. For example, if you’re heading towards the botlane, and you’re all the way in the topside jungle, your ping will be barely noticeable, versus, a much fuller, and louder ping, in the bot side river. It’s a welcome change, and should help get your comms up to a winning state.
