5 changes you need to know to adapt to Patch 10.5
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
While League of Legends patch 10.5 isn’t as meta-breaking as 10.4, there are still shifts in power that will impact your ranked games and some aspects of competitive play.
1. Turret Plate changes
Turret plates grant more gold, take more damage from melee champions, and are more resilient to group pushes.
Reduced damage dealt by ranged champions means that Caitlyn and Ziggs will no longer be able to single-handedly destroy turrets early.
In the same vein, melee champions now deal more damage to turret plates and have a higher chance of profiting from the extra plate gold. As such, get used to seeing more melees played in solo lanes. If they have wave clear, even better.
These changes also make the Demolish rune increase in importance because it deals bonus physical damage to structures. The damage scales off maximum health, which goes hand in hand with the rising tank meta.
2. Ravenous Hydra, Titanic Hydra, and Blade of the Ruined King buffs
Ravenous Hydra – Lifesteal increased. Active area of effect increased, now occurs at your max attack range.
Titanic Hydra – Passive damage to targets in the cone increased.
Blade of the Ruined King – Current health damage increased for melee champions.
Fiora, Camille, Irelia, and Renekton players should be celebrating this patch. While these champions may not be S+ tier compared to Ornn and Sett, the 5% increase in lifesteal and active radius does give them more trading power in the top lane, so make sure you watch out for them.
Warwick is the one champion that benefits from Hydra and BOTRK together, so watch out solo queue. Jax and Irelia can also opt for these items in addition to Triforce depending on the matchup.
Overall, the buff to BOTRK gives players a viable choice that helps them respond to meaty opponents in-game thanks to the tank buffs last patch.
Not to mention, Master Yi will be wrecking low ELO even harder.
3. Neeko buffs
Base AS growth and ratio increased. E AP ratio increased. R shield increased.
Neeko faded out of the meta as an on-hit top laner ever since patch 9.14 hit last year, which reduced her AS growth and movement speed on Shapesplitter (W).
The buffs to AS and AP means that teams will have more flexibility doing drafts. Plus, Pop Blossom has the potential to shield Neeko for more than 200 HP in the late game given the boosted 0.75 AP ratio.
These changes won’t propel her to top tier however, and she’ll continue to be picked circumstantially.
4. Boots of Mobility nerf
Cost increased from 900 gold to 1000 gold.
100 gold is more than you might think, especially in the early game. Assassins like Qiyana and Talon, and roaming supports like Thresh and Bard have been utilizing early Mobis to snowball other lanes, tipping entire games in their favour.
For ADCs in particular, it’s especially discouraging when an assassin comes out of nowhere and nukes you instantly despite your solid performance in bot lane.
The additional gold cost means waiting an extra wave, stalling the early snowball and giving opponents a chance to breathe.
5. Poppy jungle buff
Hammer Shock (Q) max health damage cap vs. non-champions increased from 40/60/80/100/120 to 50/80/110/140/170
Poppy jungle has been underrated for a long time. Unlike the other champions in 10.4 who were given specific jungle buffs, Poppy never had any changes to abilities that favored her in the jungle.
Yet when played well, her ganks are strong as she provides hard crowd control. Patch 10.5 directly acknowledges her increased presence in the jungle – which is way more than can be said about her non-existence in the top lane.
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