Over the last month, the League of Legends scene has been treated to one of the most diverse metas in a long time, especially in the bottom lane, where multiple unique champions have been drafted in regions around the world.
In a new Quick Gameplay Thoughts post, Riot Games addressed some of the shifting tides within the support role, and discussed how enchanters and marksmen supports have risen to power since the preseason began. Supports picks like Caitlyn and Jhin suddenly rose in popularity in pro play, especially after Heimerdinger became a priority in the bottom lane.
As a result, Riot is giving more strength to melee supports in Patch 13.3, along with some greater discussion for larger systemic solutions in future updates.
“The emerging meta of fast ganking bot lane in both high skill solo queue and in pro play is on our radar as something that needs correcting,” lead League designer Brian “Catches Axes” Salvatore said. “Besides looking at the champions in the meta, we’re also acting on Umbral Glaive and increasing early ward availability a bit this patch to help laners protect themselves, and are looking to trim some power from the jungle.”
Riot will be working on some direct nerfs to the jungle role, in order to take away its influence on games through fast ganking. With changes to yellow trinkets, Umbral Glaive, and tower buffs, early dives and roams will be much more punishing if they aren’t successfully executed. The developers are also considering a buff to power farming to incentivize fewer ganks, but Riot is still tinkering around to ensure that those types of changes don’t increase the jungle’s net power by too much.
Looking towards the summer, however, Riot will be making some sweeping passes at enchanter items and general support items from a gameplay satisfaction angle, since many enchanter enjoyers do not think that there are enough build options that are reasonable to follow. In general, supports are pretty stuck in their build paths, so it’ll be important to make those limited options as satisfying as possible.
Riot is also looking to make some changes to mages in the mid lane, in order to help boost general role satisfaction. The devs are currently looking at building new tools for immobile mages to protect themselves with, on top of the importance of roaming as a mid laner in today’s meta. These changes won’t be implemented soon, however, as the team is looking to make adjustments after MSI 2023, at the earliest.
