Lucian, Kalista and Draven buffs give more impact in the mid-game

The conversations about League balance over the last several days has seemed to center mostly on the AD Carry position and its perceived lack of power. Along with some reactive changes to the jungle and certain tanks deemed most dangerous to marksmen, Riot is attempting to bring AD Carry back up a couple champs at a time. Patch 7.1 starts that process by providing buffs to three of the champions struggling the most: Draven, Kalista and Lucian.

Draven

Q - Spinning Axe

[NEW] BASE DAMAGE :: 30/35/40/45/50

RATIO :: 45/55/65/75/85% total attack damage >>> 65/75/85/95/105% bonus attack damage

W - Blood Rush

COST :: 40 mana at all ranks >>> 40/35/30/25/20 mana

These changes seem aimed at giving Draven a boost he has sorely needed since the vulnerability changes which took away some of his early power. Buffs to his Spinning Axe should bring back the lane trading power that gives him his early game strength, as well as helping his power curve to be a little more smooth as he transitions into the mid-game.

Kalista

E - Rend

STACKS ON STACKS :: Basic attacks and Q - Pierce add a spear to enemies ||| while Rend is off cooldown >>> at all times

MANA REFUND :: 2 units killed >>> 1 unit killed (matching the cooldown refund requirement)

BUGFIX :: Fixed an issue where Rend’s cooldown sometimes didn't reset when Rend killed a unit

Kalista has been out of style for a while now. These buffs aim to make her a little more appealing to learn, while also helping out with her Quality of Life, allowing her to stack spears for extra damage whether her E is on cooldown or not. This should make her a little less predictable, while giving her something to do between bursts of damage.

Lucian

Passive - Lightslinger

DAMAGE :: 30/40/50/60% total attack damage (at levels 1/6/11/16) >>> 40/50/60% total attack damage (at levels 1/7/13)

Q - Piercing Light

BASE DAMAGE :: 80/110/140/170/200 >>> 80/115/150/185/220

Lucian was another Marksman that suffered thanks to the itemization changes in the pre-season which took him all the way out of the game thanks to a painfully weak mid-game. These changes should help him work around those itemization changes to get more damage out of his passive.

While these changes may not make everyone fully happy with the state of AD Carry, they are definitely a step in the right direction, bringing the role back into mid-game viability. If these Marksmen come back into style it should give AD Carry players a greater sense of choice in the kinds of champions they play and more effective ways to influence the early game.