League of Legends: Neuer Patch 5.16 wirbelt Meta durcheinander

In the MOBA League of Legends, the new Patch 5.16 has significantly shaken up the balance of champions.

This happens relatively rarely: Not that League of Legends gets patched, that happens all the time, but rarely does a patch change so much about the game mechanics, balance, and the meta as the current 5.16 patch.

This changes the four “Juggernaut” champs Darius, Mordekaiser, Garen, and Skarner both radically and creatively. These are “off-tanks” that ended up playing quite similarly in practice, struggling to fulfill their role. Riot no longer wants to leave it like that. We have already presented the changes.

Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, Skarner get a new identity

Here, Riot is not only tweaking the value distributions but also giving each of the champs a “new” twist that should impact the matches they participate in:

Darius becomes significantly more defensive but deals heavy damage when a frenzy builds up within him
Garen aims to eliminate the most dangerous enemy in the opposing team
Mordekaiser builds a special relationship with the dragon
And when Skarner is in the game, crystal spikes erupt from the ground at key points on the map

This is part of Riot’s new idea that should clearly indicate whether this off-tank is in the opposing team or if another one is running around. Additionally, they will buff and nerf various champs across the roster once more and take a look at the items as well.

Three new items inspired by Marvel

Three new items are freshly coming into play that are a bit inspired by Marvel superheroes:

Titanic Hydra allows the bearer to gain speed, rolling them into a juggernaut
Rage turns the bearer into the Hulk when they really need to take hits
And the Plate of the Dead Man (okay, this is not a Marvel hero) provides an interesting area damage effect

In addition to all these “actually noticeable” changes, fresh skins like Arcade Riven or Battle Boss Blitzcrank, who looks like he’s from Toy Story, are also coming.