Patch 10.4 promises to bring a fresh wave of changes, completely transforming the jungle role by introducing a host of new options for this position. Alongside this, the dominance of the two Support champions Soraka and Sona in the top lane seems to be coming to an end as they face a significant nerf.
Here are the top 4 most notable changes in patch 10.4:
1. Nerf to Soraka in the Top Lane
Soraka has recently become a phenomenon in the top lane, not only wreaking havoc in Solo Queue but also dominating in professional play. This is largely due to the current top lane meta featuring champions that Soraka can easily outplay and kite to death, such as Mordekaiser, Darius, and Sett.
To limit Soraka’s laning capabilities, Riot is primarily focusing on her self-healing ability with her Q – Starcall. Accordingly, the amount of health she heals herself when hitting an enemy with Q is reduced, her cooldown is lengthened, energy costs are increased, and the bonus movement speed when running away from enemy champions is decreased. These nerfs make it difficult for Soraka to gain an advantage in trades, struggle to hold her lane, and significantly reduce her safety while laning.
As a buff-style Support, the nerf to her Q does not greatly impact Soraka’s ability to support in the bot lane, especially since Riot has tried to compensate her in this role by buffing her W – Equinox. Of course, in a Support meta dominated by names like Leona, Pyke, or Blitzcrank, few would want to take on difficult matchups with a squishy champion like Soraka who lacks escape abilities.
2. Nerf to Sona in the Top Lane
Soraka’s dominance in the top lane has also led to the rise of the Maven of the Strings, Sona. Once Riot decides to restore balance to this area, there’s no reason for Soraka to be nerfed while Sona escapes unscathed.
Unlike Soraka, Riot simply needs to increase the energy cost by 25 at all levels for Sona’s Q, W, and E abilities. This inadvertently affects her ability to support quite a bit, so to compensate, Sona will regain 30 energy per ability when she first applies the Aura effect to an ally each time she uses an ability. Overall, this change only helps eliminate the top lane Sona playstyle, while in the bot lane meta, she will continue to suffer the same fate as her colleague Soraka.
3. Adjustments & Nerfs to Aphelios
Since his release, Aphelios has made an impression with an extremely complex playstyle, not only confusing his opponents but also challenging the players themselves. Even regular players and professional gamers, who are well-versed in the game, have found themselves stumped by this new marksman, completely unsure of what he will do next.
To address this, starting from patch 10.4, players will be able to see what weapons Aphelios is wielding by displaying the icons of both his primary and secondary firearms to the right of his health bar. Additionally, Calibrum will no longer regenerate attacks when the mark is activated.
Along with this adjustment, Aphelios is also receiving direct nerfs targeting his Q – Calibrum from the Crescendum weapon type. The range of his ultimate R – Moonlight Vigil will also be reduced by 300 units to limit Aphelios’s burst potential. Hopefully, with these adjustments, the Weapon of the Twin Moons will no longer be overly powerful and will be more balanced against traditional marksmen.
4. A Series of Fighters and Assassins Added to the Jungle Champion Pool
It can be said that the jungle position has been a headache for Riot, requiring the most attention and effort since the pre-season 2020. We have witnessed new changes with Elemental Dragons, Rift Herald, jungle camp experience, jungle items, and now Riot is turning its focus to the jungle champion pool.
Accordingly, starting from patch 10.4, there will be an addition of up to 7 champions who can now jungle due to their newly added damage capabilities against jungle monsters, including: Darius, Diana, Garen, Gnar, Mordekaiser, Talon, and Zed. Aside from Diana, who has been used in the jungle quite a bit before, the rest are often considered to be trolling or ruining the game when played in this role.
According to Riot’s explanation, this move aims to help new or low-ranked players jungle more using familiar champions. However, it’s not without reason that a champion is designed to excel in only one role. Let’s wait and see how much the jungle meta will be shaken up in the near future!