LoL Patch 13.8 Notes: The Mid-Season Invitational Patch

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LoL Patch 13.8 Notes: The Mid-Season Invitational Patch

MSI 2023 only couple of weeks away, the final patch before the event is finally out.


The first international tournament of the year is almost here. Unfortunately for the fans expecting some massive changes that would shift the meta beforehand, it is not happening. Unlike some of the previous MSI patches, this time Riot isn’t doing some sweeping changes that would bring champions in or out of pro play meta.

LoL patch 13.8 is one of the smallest patches we’ve got so far in Season 2023. No big system or item changes, no reworks or mid-scopes and certainly no big buffs or nerfs to champions dominating pro play.

For solo queue players, there are some more interesting changes in the patch. Champions like Shadow Assassin Kayn and Malphite who are especially strong in the ladder are getting nerfed, along with some quality of life changes to behavioral systems. The latter change is one many players have been asking for a long time now, a way to report players after you exit the end-game screen. After patch 13.8, players will be able to report another player by right clicking on their row when viewing past game summaries in the Match History tab.

Can Riot shake up the bot lane meta ahead of MSI 2023?

2023 so far has seen some of the stalest bot lane metas in recent history. From Zeri/Lulu and Lucian/Nami duos dominating the bottom lane to the current trade of hyper carries like Jinx and Aphelios, there hasn’t been any room to get creative in the marksman position. Riot already touched on these problems with the Bloodthirster, Navori and Lethal Tempo nerfs in 13.6, but their efforts seem to be continuing.

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With LoL patch 13.8, Riot is buffing one of the quintessential hyper carries in the game. Kog’Maw has been missing from pro play for years now, even at times when late game scalers enjoyed free reign. 

  • Passive – Icathian Surprise
    • [NEW] Run Kog, Run!: Kog’Maw is now Ghosted while in his passive form
    • True Damage: 125-550 (based on level) ⇒ 140-650 (based on level)
  • Q – Caustic Spittle
    • Cooldown: 8 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds
  • E – Void Ooze
    • Mana Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100
    • Slow: 20/28/36/44/52% ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50%

kogmaw

While the passive changes are insignificant when pro ADCs tend not to die too many times, the Q cooldown and the early mana buff on E can be helpful for the Void puppy. Even if Kog’Maw doesn’t see pro play at MSI, these changes will help players in solo queue as well.

The other buffed ADC in the patch is Ezreal. While not exactly a hyper carry, Ezreal is a pocket pick for a lot of ADCs, especially LCK and LPL ones. He is getting the classical 2 Attack Damage, from 60 to 62, buff from Riot, which can mean anything from a non-change to game-breaking.

Two of the most dominant champions in the game are getting nerfs

malphite

Jarvan IV and Malphite are the highest win rate jungle and top lane champions in the current patch, respectively. While they are only situational picks in pro play and they’ve proven themselves effective in their limited appearances, their dominance is more on the solo queue side.

Both of these champions are in a very powerful state thanks to thanks to some big buffs in 13.4 and them not having too many losing matchups in the current meta. Jarvan players have been finding a lot of impact with the early ganks being prevalent, and they aren’t getting outscaled due to farm heavy junglers not being viable enough. His nerfs in the patch aren’t too big. He is just losing some AD, and some tankiness from that lost AD affecting his W shield. But there are also some bug fixes for some of the Jarvan skins which will remove some of his almost pay-to-win interactions.

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Malphite changes are a lot more significant compared to Jarvan, and thankfully so. The 13.4 changes somewhat overbuffed the rock, since he was already a strong pick. Now he is an oppressive laner against melee champions, in a lane where melees are exclusively picked, as he could just beat most champions while not taking damage back if you happened to be playing an AD champion. With the early game damage and the armor scaling on his Thunderclap (W) nerfed, some champions will now have a chance to fight Malphite unless they are outright counterpicked. If you are the Malphite player, you shouldn’t be worried all that much. The nerfs are decent-sized, but they aren’t going to push him out of the meta.

When does LoL patch 13.8 go live?

Patch 13.8 will go live on April 19.

The first region that the patch will drop is the Oceania servers at 10 AM AEDT. The rest of the servers will follow suit in the morning hours of their respective regions. Here are the timings for most servers:

  • 3 AM PT (NA)
  • 5 AM GMT (EUW)
  • 3 AM CET (EUNE)
  • 8 AM KST (Korea)

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