Patch 7.3 top lane nerfs: Camille and Jayce targeted

The top lane meta has been all over the place in season 7. Depending on the composition, a top lane player could end up going all damage Fiora, or full tank Maokai. Well, it looks like Riot has chosen a side, and is toning down two of the big top lane terror machines in 7.3: Camille and Jayce.

Riot Games

Of the two, the Camille nerfs are by far the most significant. According to Champion.gg for 7.2, Camille saw a 51% win rate in solo queue and a whopping 70% ban rate. In pro-play, Camille has been picked or banned in 100% of games, playing every position but ADC. Needless to say, the nerfs are justified. She is seeing power reduction to all four of her abilities, leaving her passive the only thing untouched. Her Q, Precision Protocol, is losing a flat 20% damage when empowered. Her W, Tactical Sweep, is seeing a small decrease to the slow applied by the outer edge. Not only does it now only slow 80% instead of 90%, but the slow itself now decays completely over the duration.

While both of those changes are significant in their own right, the big changes are coming with her E and her ultimate. Hookshot, Camille’s E that sends her flying in your face, is getting a mana increase and a stun time decrease. Riot is also adding more required skill to the ability, as Camille will now only receive the attack speed increase if she hits an enemy champion. The ultimate, Hextech Ultimatum, will no-longer last for the entire duration if Camille dies. If Camille is killed while her ultimate has someone trapped, the barrier will now drop within one second.

All of these nerfs will have significant gameplay implications on Camille, and they all seemed aimed at making her a more fair champion to play against. Gone are the days, however brief, of a near death Camille ulting the AD Carry before her untimely death. Both the changes to her ult and her E seem to be very AD Carry focused, making it harder for Camille to just decide that the enemy team doesn't really need a Caitlyn.

Riot Games

According to Champion.gg, Jayce is also sporting a 51% win rate in solo queue. In pro-play, Jayce has been picked or banned in 71% of games in both the middle and top roles, according to Oracle’s Elixir. Jayce is seeing nerfs to three of his seven abilities, focused entirely on his hammer form. Jayce’s hammer form Q, To The Skies!, is seeing a five damage reduction at level one and 30 at level six. His hammer form E, Thundering Blow, is getting a small increase in its mana cost. The big nerf comes in on Jayce’s “ultimate,” Mercury Hammer. Hammer form is getting a flat 0.15 bonus attack damage ratio nerf, going from 0.4 to 0.25.

These nerfs to hammer form seem focused on pushing Jayce to actually use his ranged form, rather than just hammer bashing people all the time. The flat nerf to the hammer scaling should also suppress Jayce’s unstoppable snowballing ability, making it harder for him to just take over the game with a few damage items.

With two of the top lane heavy hitters seeing power reductions...

Let the age of tanks begin again.