Patch 10.17: Bot lane Balance

Patch 10.17 was small, bringing minor changes and no new skin releases. The patch provided balances to the bot lane, specifically to overpowered picks. 

Courtesy of Riot Games

Caitlyn Nerfs

Caitlyn’s pick priority stands as one of the highest in competitive League of Legends as of now. Teams either ban her, or pick her. The utility she provides alongside late-game scaling places her as the strongest ADC of Patch 10.16. 

Caitlyn’s movement speed was nerfed from 325 to 320. The base movement speed decrease should decrease her ability to follow up engages, alongside minimizing her ability to chase the enemy. Her overall safety decreases, as movement speed is very important to running away from threats.

Riot left her base damage and skills untouched, clearly wanting Caitlyn to stay in the meta. The nerfs should not hurt Caitlyn much, but will definitely bump her down a notch from being an uncontested top tier pick. 

Sona and Lux Nerfs

Courtesy of Riot Games

Sona and Lux have been terrorizing the bot lane. These two have made for an unkillable duo in competitive play, scaling phenomenally well into the mid and late game. 

Riot decided to nerf both of them, decreasing Lux’s shielding and massive nerfing Sona’s entire kit. 

Lux’s shield now costs more mana per level up, and the base shielding has decreased. Riot did increase the scaling on the skill, but the nerfs hurt Lux support quite a bit. 

Sona has gotten the short end of the stick. Her Q, W, and E were all nerfed hard, decreasing the scaling on literally every one of her base skills. They even decided to nerf her base health and mana, rendering Sona completely useless in the meta. 

Riot has made it clear: they do not want Sona Lux bot to work. 

This means that this specific composition will no longer see any professional play. 

The Random ADC Buffs

Riot buffed Varus, after nerfing him twice in a row. They increased his base attack speed growth from three percent to four percent. Varus’s kit overpowered the meta many patches ago, but through his skill utility. This buff attempts to pull him towards a more auto-attack scaling champion.

Kai’sa received a scaling buff. Her attack damage growth was increased from 1.7 to 2.0, and her E’s bonus attack speed increased. This helps Kai’sa scale harder in the late game, making her power spike more significant. This buff will help bring her back into the meta, but will not be anything too game-changing. 

Xayah received a very similar buff. Her damage growth increased from 2.9 to 3.6, which is quite significant. She has been seeing in a relative amount of competitive play, so the buff should increase her chances of being picked. 

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