League of Legends Patch 6.6 comes out tomorrow, and it’s a big one. Aurelion Sol is coming out, and I expect him to be the jungler Fiddlesticks always wanted to be. Riot buffed a bunch of champions in small ways that haven’t been seen in the meta, includingJayce, Master Yi and Kha’ZIx. Cho’gath gets more health per feast stack, which should bring him back into the limelight. The walking monster was never bad to begin with, but fell out of favor when assassins became popular.
The nerfs are where things get interesting. Nidalee no longer roots jungle camps and Pounce no longer gives an auto attack reset. Nidalee has been the best jungler since Season Six started, and this should tone down her strengths just enough to keep her good but not amazing. Janna lost some AD scaling on her shield and her Monsoon channels for less time. The weather wizard will still be the disengage queen, but her kit should now allow for some counter play, especially in the mid game.
There were also a bunch of little nerfs to the top-tier meta picks. The biggest one was to Fiora, the split push goddess. Her passive deals less damage and her Blade Work slows less. These were needed nerfs she’s been dominating the game since her last rework. A few other important nerfs include: Lulu lost 5 percent of her magic damage and some movement speed on Whimsy, Alistar heals for less and Kalista now gains attack speed when near her Oathsworn. I still see all of these champions doing well, though Lulu mid might not be a pick-or-ban priority anymore.
Items stayed fairly untouched, except for the ones that were so overpowered that you had to buy them: Tiamat lost some AD but cleaves in an AOE circle around the user again, and Runic Echoes does less damage. These are valid nerfs since they are both extremely powerful items.
Zz’rot Portal has been the go-to tank item for the last few patches and has finally been nerfed. It gives less armor and magic resistance, gives more gold when killed, and has hit points like wards. This should force players to defend their purple voidlings instead of just leaving them alone in a lane and forgetting about them.
