7.4 AD Carry changes focus on Jhin and Lethality builds

To say that Riot’s Lethality buffs last patch were effective would be the biggest understatement of the season so far. Items like Edge of Night and Youmuu’s Ghostblade went from niche choices to staples for any champion that could take even slight advantage of the Lethality stat.

Since patch 7.3, the AD Carry meta has been focused on champions that could make full use of these newly revitalized Lethality items. While they helped many less popular AD Carries rise above the crowd, no one did so quite like Jhin.

During competitive play on patch 7.3 Jhin has had the most wins of any bottom lane pick. Meanwhile in Solo Queue he has hovered around the fifth highest winrate with far and away the highest play rate.

In response to his overwhelming strength Riot has aimed a few of patch 7.4’s changes directly at him:

Jhin

R - Curtain Call

SLOW DURATION :: 0.75 seconds >>> 0.5 seconds

Riot is also taking the next several patches to walk Lethality’s power back, and make sure that it isn’t the only option for killing tanks:

Youmuu's Ghostblade

LETHALITY :: 20 >>> 15

The slight reduction in Lethality for Ghostblade should go a long way in making sure the item isn’t quite the catch all powerhouse it is now. While this isn’t likely to remove the item from anyone’s core build, it should give players more choices when looking at a Lethality build path.

Last Whisper

BUILD PATH :: Pickaxe + 425 gold (1300 total) >>> Long Sword + 950 gold (1300 total)

BONUS ARMOR PENETRATION :: 30% >>> 45%

ATTACK DAMAGE :: 25 >>> 10

This is one of the buffs that AD Carries have been looking forward to for almost two seasons. A buff to the armor penetration and the cleaner build path finally make Last Whisper an appealing item on it’s own rather than just taking up space until it was upgraded. This should give some of the game’s less popular AD Carries a better chance at being played thanks to finally giving them an early game option against tank champions.

The final piece of good news for some of Season 7’s less popular AD Carries are patch 7.4’s changes to two of their staple Keystone Masteries.

Fervor of Battle & Warlord’s Bloodlust

Fervor of Battle

STACK DURATION :: 6 seconds >>> 8 seconds

Warlord's Bloodlust

MAXIMUM BONUS :: 20% >>> 15%

These changes should take some of the power away from the current meta’s most popular AD Carries while putting power back in the hands of champions like Lucian.