5 Changes We Want in League of Legends Patch 10.4

League of Legends Patch 10.4 expects to go live next week. As such, here are five changes we want to see in League of Legends Patch 10.4.

League of Legends Patch 10.4 Changes We Want

1. Soraka Nerfs

Soraka has come from nowhere to be one of the most prolific picks in professional play in the top lane. In the LEC, Soraka has yet to lose a game when played in the top lane and boasts a 50 percent win rate in the top lane in LCS.

Soraka's ability to sustain through lane with the healing changes made last year to Starcall (Q) make her difficult to punish and he strong healing late game allow her carries to stay alive through even incredibly well coordinated and executed engages.

A nerf to either her Astral Infusion (W) or Wish (R) healing would be a start to lowering her late-game power, and a nerf to her Starcall (Q) bonus regeneration would help bring Soraka back to the bottom lane.

2. Akali Buffs

Akali already had a win rate below 50 percent when she received another round of nerfs in Patch 10.3. The new nerfs, combined with the buffs other mid laners like Corki and Azir received, pushed Akali's win rate down to an unheard of 38 percent.

Akali may be frustrating to play against at times, but the changes to her kit left her in an essentially unplayable state. Perhaps reverting the change to either her Twilight Shroud (W) or Perfect Execution (R) would go a long way in bringing the champion back into balance.

3. Cinderhulk Changes

Rumors are already circulating about a proposed buff to the Cinderhulk jungle item and Sunfire Cape that would increase the amount of damage it deals by periodically factoring in a champions max health into the burn damage. This would go a long way in bringing tank junglers like Sejuani back into the meta.

But the changes should be limited to applying that extra damage to minion camps and only apply the damage at a reduced rate to champions. Otherwise it could spell a return to the tank metas of earlier seasons.

4. Jungle Experience Changes

The buffs to Krugs on Patch 10.3 was a good start to fixing the nerfs to jungle experience implemented at the start of Season 10 but didn't go far enough in fixing the disparity between laners and junglers after level 3.

Junglers are now usually able to stay within two levels of their laners, but that significant power gap makes level 6 ganking junglers irrelevant for a significant portion of the game. By the time they can successfully gank, lanes in solo queue are usually already either won or too far lost to make a significant impact.

A change in experience on the second spawn of jungle camps that would allow junglers to hit level 6 would help make the jungler relevant at all stages of the game, instead of just the first three levels.

5. AD Carry Senna Nerfs

Even after the changes on Patch 10.3, Senna still has a win rate above 50 percent as an AD Carry, which is higher than its win rate as a support. Although the change to soul drops slowed down Senna's late game power, her built-in attack speed and itemization still allows her to dominate the bot lane.

Balancing Senna will always be a difficult task because she's intended to be a support marksman, which is a seeming contradiction. We've seen marksmen play in the support role before, like Miss Fortune, but when marksmen are balanced properly, they always make more sense to play in the AD carry position.

Reducing Senna's starting attack speed might be a way to punish her play in the AD carry position without killing her ability to be played as a support, along with changing some of the AD ratios on her abilities.