Volibear, Assassins nerfed in urgent 'b-side' patch release, Sorcerers, Wild given needed boost

Riot Games have released a mid-week patch between the standard League of Legends cycle, with Patch 9.14B - a "B-side update" if you will, mainly focused on ripping apart the developing Assassin meta that has taken over the game in the last month.

There are three key changes that have been issued to try and solve the Kha'zix, Zed-led meta. Firstly, Assassins have just had their trait boosts reduced, with their critical strike damage reduced from 150/350 percent at trait levels to 125/350 percent.

With the fact that Assassins only needed a single member to get the 150 (now down to 125) percent damage boost, they made a dangerous early game choice as you built towards that massive 350 buff.

Secondly, Riot has changed how critical strike damage works altogether. This isn't specifically Assassin-targeted, but with the fact that critical strike damage now stacks additively rather than multiplicatively, it will definitely slow down the class' burst damage.

Infinity Edge's buff helps keep them relevant though. The yellow blade now coughs up 150 percent damage for its critical hits, instead of just a base 100 percent.

Alongside Assassins, rampaging snow bear Volibear has been whacked with armour and attack speed reductions. The Thunder's Roar now has 30 armour and has had his AS reduced from 0.65 to 0.55.

Considering how dominant picking Volibear with any strategy has been, this swap will need to be watched carefully. If Riot hasn't tweaked the numbers enough, keep grabbing Volibear from the pool - he's been so broken he can auto-win matchups.

Systems

• Critical strike damage - Critical strike damage now stacks additively rather than multiplicatively. Paired with changes to Assassins and Infinity Edge, also in this patch, Assassins will deal around 25 percent less damage and IE will come out net neutral.

Trait changes

• Assassin - Critical strike damage: 150 percent/350 percent lowered to 125 percent/350 percent

• Sorcerer - Bonus ability power: 35/100 increased to 45/100

• Wild - Attack speed per stack: Eight percent increased to 10 percent

• Elementalist - Golem HP: 2,500 increased to 2,200

Champion changes

• Ahri - Ability damage: 100/175/250 increased to 100/200/300.

• Akali - Health: Decreased from 700 to 650; Attack speed: Decreased from 0.75 to 0.7.

• Evelynn - One star attack damage: Increased from 50 to 60; Health: Decreased from 600 to 550.

• Mordekaiser - One star health: Increased from 500 to 550.

• Poppy - Ability damage: 300/400/500 increased to 300/500/700.

• Rengar - Attack damage: Increased from 55 to 65.

• Tristana - Attack speed: Decreased from 0.7 to 0.65.

• Volibear - Armor: Decreased from 35 to 30; Attack speed: Decreased from 0.65 to 0.55.

Item changes

• Cursed Blade - Trigger effect chance: Decreased from 25 percent to 20 percent; Swordbreaker has a 25-percent chance and Hush has a 50-percent chance.

• Infinity Edge - Critical strike damage: Increased from 100 percent to 150 percent.

• Locket of the Iron Solari - Shield amount: Decreased from 300 to 200.

• Morellonomicon - Percent max health damage: Increased from three percent to five percent.

Bug fixes

• Raptors will now always properly drop a loot box.
• The Guardian trait no longer fades when a guardian dies.
• Redemption will now properly heal 1,000 HP.
• Guardian Angel will now trigger in all cases.