Usually, Riot puts a lot of effort into the League of Legends patch notes. We not only get exact numbers, but also explanations as to why something was nerfed or buffed. This time though, it seems like Riot forgot some key information.
LoL Patch 13.16 has been live for almost two week, and most of us will have already adapted to the changes in the meta. Actually, we should now have our eyes on the upcoming patch - but something is strange about this update!
Some keen-eyed fans have noticed something weird with the latest patch notes... that something was missing and we're not just talking about some small QoL changes, but actual champion buffs! What did the balance team do this time?
League of Legends: Mega-Buff For Mid Lane-Mage
So, who is the unexpected lucky fellow? It's Kassadin, the Void Walker! An attentive Redditor noticed these buffs and immediately spoke up on the League of Legends subreddit.
Kassadin's R got buffed in patch 13.16 and it's not written in patch notes by u/EvilSwarak in leagueoflegends
"EvilSwarak" pointed out just how big of a difference the damsge is before and after the buff. It seems like his Ultimate, which is his key ability was adjuted.
R - Riftwalk
- Damage: 70 / 90 / 110 (+40 % AP) >>> 70 / 90 / 110 (+60 % AP)
I had to do a tripple check to make sure my eyes didn't deceive me, but it seems legit. Kassadin, legit just silently received a 20% AP scaling buff.
This would already be incredibly strong for a conventional ultimate with a 60-90 seconds cooldown, but Kassadin's ultimate has a base cooldown of two seconds at its highest level! Therefore, such a strong buff to his scaling drives his damage per minute insanely high
Of course, everyone is scratching their heads, wondering how this could happen. As just mentioned this isn't some small QoL change that wasn't mentioned, but a pretty strong buff. Is this an accident that just slipped in? And when did these unseen changes even go live? Redditor "Caenen_" has this theory:
Actually in 13.15 according to what I can gather from his spell data. That also checks out with this winrate increase right at the start of August (13.15 dropped August 2nd). I'll see what context I can gather, maybe it's a buff they planned but decided not to ship that got into the PBE build anyway. Or something else entirely.
That could also be possible. If you look at the trends for Kassadin on op.gg, for example, you'll see that his win rate has surged from Patch 13.14 to 13.15. Comparing Patch 13.15 with the current patch, there's no dramatic change in his win rate
With LoL Patch 13.15 Riot released some changes for Kassadin, but not on Summoner's Rift. Instead, they buffed the champion for the new Arena mode, so those adjustments might have bled over into League of Legends as well.
Will we ever find out how this crazy Kassadin buff came about? Or will the developers silently roll it back just as they buffed him? An explanation would definitely be interesting, as nobody really seems to be able to make sense of it yet.