Perhaps among the character classes in League of Legends, Marksmen are the most disadvantaged in terms of stats, as health, base damage, armor, magic resistance, and movement speed… are all extremely low compared to other characters. In return, they are prioritized for farming, building damage items, and being protected to take down opponents; in short, this is the character class that sacrifices defense for offense in League of Legends.
However, as the game continues to evolve and more champions appear, there are dozens of ways to “erase” those weak Marksmen, leading to an increasingly limited role for this champion class. A prime example in recent months is that the most popular champions in this position are Miss Fortune, Senna (non-farming style), and Varus (usually Critical Damage). Their common point is high versatility, decent damage from abilities, and they do not need to stand and shoot too much.
The rapid decline of traditional Marksmen has forced Riot Games to take action, as otherwise, the champion system and environment of League of Legends would become severely unbalanced. Just a few hours ago, Riot’s project director Mark Yetter announced plans to enhance the overall strength of Marksman champions.
Riot Mark Yetter: “We are testing the first upgrades for changing the power of champions in the bot lane, both offensively and defensively. We won’t directly buff experience stats and will focus on balancing the power of Marksmen, rather than doing so for Supports as well.
Song Kiếm will increase attack speed by 3%.
Rapid Fire Cannon, Galeforce, Statikk Shiv, and Runaan’s Hurricane will receive an additional 5% attack speed.
The base health of Marksmen will increase by 30 points, and health per level will increase by 5.
Spideraxe – admin of the Surrender at 20 site: “Will these changes apply to Marksmen who don’t often play in the bot lane like Corki, Graves, Kindred, and Quinn?”
Riot Blizz – member of the League of Legends design team: “Those 4 champions are excluded and will not receive the above buffs.”
Shakarez – Riot Games expert: “Does the increase of 5 per level mean a straight +5 points or is it +5 for each Marksman in the level-up stats?”
Riot Blizz: “That is +5 in the level-up stats.”
Shakarez: “Wow, that’s a strong buff.”
Riot Blizz: “Very strong, in fact, we will be doing some testing for solo lane champions as well. My prediction is that it won’t be too big of an issue for the top lane, however, if necessary, some nerfs will be required for the mid lane position (maybe Vayne?).”
With the attack speed increase from Song Kiếm and the items built from it, ordinary Marksmen will have extremely high damage at the 2-item threshold (Infinity Edge + 1 item built from Song Kiếm) with great damage output and good attack speed. The weakness of Marksmen in mid-game, which causes not much damage, is likely to be addressed with this change.
Furthermore, the buff to health stats (both directly and per level) is extremely important for this champion class to survive after each opponent’s attack. Given that this class typically does not buy defensive items, this buff is incredibly valuable. Increased survivability means more opportunities to deal damage; one could say this buff is even stronger than the attack speed stats mentioned above.
According to Riot representatives, these updates will not be implemented immediately as they affect too many champions and could change the game. Riot Games likely needs more time to test, and this change may be released in patch 10.12 (coinciding with another major update for Teamfight Tactics).