The League of Legends Patch 13.23 Preview was shared by League of Legends Lead Gameplay Designer Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison on Twitter, and it includes something everybody's been waiting for: K'Sante nerfs.

League of Legends Patch 13.23 Preview

Riot Phroxzon also provided commentary about some of the changes.

For the absence of the dominant mid-lane champions Orianna and Syndra, Riot Phroxzon had this to say: “While these Champs are undoubtedly strong for Elite players, some champ has to be the strongest. In regular play, these Champs are pretty balanced, so we're leaving them as is, rather than putting them back in a pro jail. They'll be a bit strong in elite for the last few patches of the year.”

Additionally, the patch preview also gives a peek at the big Azir buffs, changing the way he and his soldiers interact with on-hit effects. League of Legends Game Designer Madness Heroo was the one who gave a preview of these changes.

Champion Buffs

Azir

  • W attacks on the primary target now trigger on-hit effects at 50% damage value (100% in Arena). This include on-attack effects such as Rageblade's Phantom hit, Runaan's Hurricane, and Kraken Slayer.
  • W Base Damage from Rankup: 50-118 >>> 50-110
  • W Base Damage from levels: 2-92 (levels 10-18) >>> 2-77 (levels 10-18)
  • W AP Ratio: .6 >>> .55

Draven

  • R now returns to Draven if he's dead

Janna

  • Riot Phroxzon: We previously reverted a w cooldown buff last second in Dev, so we're restoring it here and adding a bit more punch to her harass. Overall, she's directionally looking better in her more interactive shape and will hopefully be in a better spot once she has the power to back that up.
  • P damage: from MS: 20/25/30/35% >>> 30%
  • W Cooldown: 9-7 >>> 8-6
  • R Cooldown: 150-120 >>> 130-100

Riven

  • Riot Phrozxon: Buffs to improve her general power level, without committing her long-term shape one way or the other (since she's very dependent on items, we're waiting to see how the item update affects her). This change is more oriented in buffing her spells.
  • Q damage: 15-95 + 45-65% AD >> 15-95 50-70% AD
  • R Bonus AD: 20% >>> 25%

Trundle

  • Riot Phrozxon: Trundle has been weak for a while, this buff looks to increase Sheen synergies and make trading and pushing out waves in top lane less of a strain on his resources.
  • AD growth: 3 >>> 4
  • Q mana: 30 >>> 20

Vel'koz

  • Riot Phroxzon: He's struggling in mid and supp, giving him a buff to P that rewards his core gameplay loop.
  • P damage: 33-169 + 50% AP >>> 35-180 + 60% AP

Champion Nerfs

Briar

  • Riot Phroxzon: a nerf to her early fighting power, as well as a slight nerf to her scaling. We're really happy with how she's turned out and are just continuing to make sure her power level is adjusted as players continue to get better on her.
  • Base health: 610 >>> 590
  • W missing HP damage: 10% + 3.5%% bonus AD >>> 9% + 2.5%% bonus AD

K'Sante

  • Riot Phroxzon: Changes here are focused around reducing his ability to fight early levels with q mana cost changes, moderate nerfs to his level 6 spike. Long term, we intend for ksante to have weaknesses against duelists (camille, fiora, Jax, Gwen, etc.) where he loses in both fighter and tank form. His strong level 6 was giving him too much leeway in these matchups, but his shape overall is looking promising. Through these q nerfs, we're trying to make his tank form have a bit less damage, so he is not as threatening all the time and has more windows to play against.
  • Q mana: 15 >>> 28-20
  • Q base damage: 30-150 >>> 30-130 (scaling unchanged)
  • W Hexflash bug fixed
  • E shield: 45-125 + 15% bonus HP 50-210 + 10% bonus HP
  • R passive amp: 45/60/75% >>> 30-78% by level
  • R bonus AD: 15/30/45 >> 10/25/40 (scaling unchanged)

Naafiri

  • Riot Phroxzon: While we intend for naafiri to be a champion that's great for regular play, she's getting a bit too much throughput from her packmates (average players are less likely to play expertly around them when playing against her). We're reducing their strength here slightly to increase the relative importance of hitting Q to have success. Jarvan: As mentioned yesterday, he's still too strong and been so for a while. With his Shojin builds, his Q is coming up a bit too often, which makes his windows of counterplay a bit too low. We're pulling back on some of this slightly.
  • P damage: 6-29.8 + 4.5% bonus AD >>> 5-25 + 4.5% bonus AD
  • E2 damage: 65-205 + 80% bonus AD >>> 60 – 180 + 80% bonus AD

Jarvan IV

  • Q cooldown: 10-6 >>> 10-8

Ziggs

  • Riot Phroxzon: Our nerfs last patch didn't go far enough. They were intended to reduce the power of bot more than mid and while directionally accurate, the nerfs need more oomph behind them.
  • Q damage: 95-295 >>> 85-285 (scaling unchanged)
  • W cooldown: 20-12 >>> 24-12
  • W mana: 65 >>> 80

System Changes

Turret Gold

  • Riot Phroxzon: Snowballing is in the lowest spot it's been for many years. We want to add Snowball back, but in ways that set up the game for the long term. We think split pushing as a strategy is still weak relative to dragon stacking and are adding some more incentives to play intelligently on side. Adding gold back to these side lane objectives hopes to make this strategy more viable, even if top and mid are feeling a little strong right now.
  • T2 turret gold: +125 local gold, -125 global gold
  • T3 turret gold: +325 local gold, -125 global gold
  • Tooltips updated

League of Legends Patch 13.23 is scheduled to go live on November 22, 2023.