LoL Patch 11.8 – New Champion Gwen, Top Lane and Jungle Options

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Patch 11.8 in League of Legends is live! The update lets Gwen debut as the 155th champion and gives champions like Morgana and Darius significantly more punch in the Jungle.

Patch 11.8 in League of Legends is live. As promised, the new update brings the seamstress Gwen to the Rift as a new champion on Wednesday, buffs a number of champions in the Jungle, and introduces changes to Mundo, Rumble, and Rammus. In addition, some supporter items receive adjustments. We have summarized the most important changes for you here.

Updates on the top lane

Besides the new champion Gwen, who is mainly intended as a top lane option, Riot Games wants to put some older characters back on the top position of the lane in the new patch. For example, Dr. Mundo gets higher life regeneration but reduced damage against monsters to be weaker in the jungle and stronger on the top lane. Rumble, for his part, is to be brought closer to tanks by percentage damage, and thus will be found on the top lane again, in addition to the middle of the map.

News in Jungle

A small rework to Jungler Rammus had already been announced by Riot Games since the end of 2020 and now comes into effect in the new patch. With his new Ultimate and other changes, the armored champion should become stronger in general. Junglers Lee Sin and Zac will each receive reduced cooldowns and increased damage on certain abilities. But those aren’t the only changes in Jungle.

As announced, a number of lane champions are receiving boosted Jungle options, which Riot Games hopes will make the position more popular in general. These include Diana, Darius, Morgana, Zed, and Mordekaiser. With damage and HP bonuses against neutral monsters, these champions should become playable in the jungle and provide variety.

League of Legends Patch 11.8

Nerfs and Buffs

The champions Gnar, Orianna, and Thresh have recently been extremely common in pro leagues such as the LEC, and not infrequently dominated their lanes. Riot Games is therefore downgrading Orianna’s resistances in the early game, reducing Gnar’s bonus movement speed, and increasing Thresh’s cooldown on the E skill Flay.

On the other hand, mages like Vladimir, LeBlanc, and Cassiopeia that have been pushed to the background will become relevant again through buffs. Snake Woman gets a stronger late game due to increasingly reduced E-Ability cooldowns. For Vladimir, it’s the same treatment with his Q ability, while LeBlanc does more base damage.

Support Items and Tank Options

As far as items are concerned, Riot Games is mainly focusing on support items in the new patch. The Moonstone Renewer gets a static healing value of 60 points, which is now increased by a percentage in combat situations. Shield can also be strengthened in this way.

Shurelya’s Battlesong, for its part, no longer buffs damage values, but instead grants increased movement speed when an ally is supported by shields or healing. Similarly, Chemtech Putrifier should be activated by ally support, which in turn will allow the Grievous Wounds effect to be dealt.

For tank champions, the Frozen Heart and Titanic Hydra items may soon become more interesting again. The former will soon give ten points more armor, while the latter will turn a percentage of HP increased by one into bonus damage.

Report from April 13:
With patch 11.8 in League of Legends, which will launch on Wednesday, some changes are coming to the Summoner’s Rift. Several champions should become more flexible and also be usable in the Jungle. Darius, Zed, Mordekaiser, Morgana and Diana are all affected.

According to the information from the PBE test servers, the damage of the affected champions increases enormously on monsters – fittingly for the Jungle position. Accordingly, Darius will be upgraded from 175 percent to 300 percent damage. The same applies to Diana. She also gets a bit more attack speed.

Gwen as a new top lane option

Gwen comes into play a bit surprisingly. After all, Isolde, the wife of Ruined King Viego, was originally expected to be the next character. Now, Gwen, one of her created dolls, is the 155th champion in the game.

The gifted seamstress is expected to find her place on the top lane and joins the champion pool with her additional skin. Space Groove Gwen is available for purchase as usual for purchasable skins for 1,350 Riot Points. In general, more Space Groove and Battlefrost-themed skins will be making their way in.

Rammus update makes for tricky new ultimate

The large-scale changes to Rammus culminate in his new Ultimate. This one is now called Soaring Slam instead of Tremors. With a leap into the air, the champion lunges at his opponents from the air. In the impact radius, there is magic damage for the opponents, who also lose speed by 15 percent for 1.5 seconds.

The Ultimate can also be combined with the Q skill Powerball to hurl the closest enemies into the air for 0.75 seconds. It also creates multiple aftershocks around the impact for 3.5 seconds, dealing additional magic damage.

Original report from April 7
More detailed information about the upcoming LoL patch 11.8 hit Twitter last Tuesday night, giving a first glimpse of the direction Riot Games wants to take the game. Gameplay designer Mark Yetter posted details about upcoming buffs and nerfs, as well as other tweaks, without guarantee on the social media platform.

In addition to the upcoming mini-rework of Jungler Rammus, the update mainly consists of realignments of mage items and new jungle options. You can find out what these look like here.

Champions in focus

A special innovation is coming in the upcoming patch: A whole seven champions are to become relevant for alternative positions by fine-tuning their passive abilities, attacks and resistances. This affects the top laners Mordekaiser, Diana and Darius, as well as mid-laner Zed and even supporter Morgana – these five will soon be playable in the Jungle. Mundo and Rumble are expected to find their way back to the top lane using the same principle.

The most dominant champions of the past weeks will be added to the nerf list in the upcoming patch. Among others, Thresh, Gnar and Orianna will be put to a halt. Increased cooldowns, reduced resistances, and speed should make the three weaker in the gap. Top laner Yorick will receive several minor tweaks to his E ability and the Mist Walkers he summons, which should weaken the champion overall.

On the buff side, mages Vladimir, Cassiopeia, and LeBlanc should find their way back into the Kluft through buffs. ADC Aphelios and junglers Lee Sin and Zac are expected to become playable again with lower cooldowns, increased damage, and more HP.

Last but not least, Jungle champ Rammus will receive slight adjustments and a completely new ultimate ability in the upcoming patch. The latter will also bring new visual effects to the game that were designed especially for him and are currently being tested on PBE servers.

Item adjustments

The buffs and nerfs to items are kept fairly simple in the upcoming patch: The Ionian Boots of Lucidity will soon cost 50 gold more, the Titanic Hydra grants a lower amount of bonus damage, while the mythic item Frozen Heart grants higher defense. Things only get a bit more extensive with the item adjustments to the Enchanter items.

Shurelya’s Battlesong gets a new passive that rewards strengthening allies with a 25% speed bonus – so the item might become more interesting for some supporters. Similarly, the Hextech Putrifier will soon grant bonuses to your champion when giving shields or healing to allies.

The mythic item Moonstone Renewer will soon have a fixed healing value, but it will increase with combat duration, making it more useful for more offensive play. The Staff of Flowing Water will soon grant a fixed value of Ability Haste instead of movement speed – which also works for one second longer than before. The Hextech Rocketbelt will soon have limited magic resistance penetration, but will grant 100 points of reduced HP in return.

Original report from April 6
The next patch in League of Legends is due on April 14 and will bring extensive changes. According to Riot Games gameplay designer Mark Yetter, some item adjustments are coming as well as extensive changes to champions.

The patch preview lists a whopping 19 champions this time around, nearly half of which will become playable in a new position as a result of the update. More detailed information about the upcoming changes will probably reach us in the course of the next week.

More flexible items and role distribution

Mark Yetter announces three main objectives for the new patch. On the item side, mage items such as Moonstone Renewer, Staff of Flowing Water, and Shurelya’s Battlesong will each receive adjustments. Exactly what these might look like is still unknown. According to Mark Yetter, however, the goal is to give the items a broader range of uses.Another objective of the upcoming patch is to change the roles of a number of champions. Many of the upcoming updates should allow for quite interesting jungle options: among others, Supporter Morgana, Top-Laner Darius and Mid-Laner Zed are to make their way to the camps soon.

In addition, Mundo and Rumble are to resume their original position on the top lane, while jungler Rammus will receive a general gameplay update. The Jungler was supposed to be reworked in patch 11.5, but will now be changed in 11.8. In particular, Rammus’ E and R abilities will receive adjustments with the goal of giving him a wider range of play options in-game.

More balance in the meta

As for champions, Riot Games is slowing down some of the more dominant characters a bit with nerfs – this list includes top laner Gnar, supporter Thresh, and mid laner Orianna, for example. The six champions on the buff list have become rare faces in the Summoner’s Rift. After the new patch, LeBlanc, Aphelios, Zac and co. might show up more often again.