League of Legends Patch 7.18: 5 things to know

Patch 7.18 is finally here! If you don’t know why that is exciting, it’s because this is the patch that the 2017 World Championship will be played on. Get in your money and finalize your bets everyone, because we are going to China. (Please do not actually gamble on these games. Gambling on games is bad.) This patch comes with some great changes to Ornn (who sadly will miss Worlds), a new skin for my girl and yours, Cassiopeia, and tons of changes for junglers, tanks and AD Carries alike. Here are five things you need to know before playing on Patch 7.18.

If you would like to see the full list of changes made in Patch 7.18, check out our post here.

1. Massive Ornn changes

Ornn has had a bit of a rough go of things over the past several weeks. His launch has been fairly sub-par and he has already seen a whole bunch of hotfix changes. But with Patch 7.18, Ornn is getting quite the buff. Teammates can no longer upgrade items until level 13 (thanks Riot), he can now upgrade Zhonya’s Hourglass into Zhonya’s Paradox and his big ram travels to him even faster now, making his ultimate easier to use. Will this improve Ornn’s win rate? I hope so. Will it stop my teammates from buying the very gold inefficient item upgrades as their second purchase in the game? Definitely.

2. A few much needed bottom lane nerfs

Riot Games

It’s no secret that bottom lane has been dominated by three picks over the last couples of months. Whether you have watched the professionals play as they attempted to qualify for Worlds, or noticed it in your own pick and ban in solo queue, you’ve probably seen some combination of Rakan, Kalista and Tristana.

Thankfully, Riot noticed too and all three champions are getting a bit of a nerf. It shouldn’t be quite enough to kick them out of the meta completely, but it might at least open up a few more picks for support and AD Carry players that were tired of the same old thing.

3. We may be headed back towards a damage meta in the jungle

The jungle is getting a pretty massive update this patch that should shake a few things up before worlds. Two of the game’s most dominant junglers, Gragas and Jarvan IV are getting nerfed, while a few champions who have been out of style over the last several months may be on their way back with buffs to Nidalee, Elise, Ivern, Rengar and Lee Sin. Alongside the nerfs to certain tank items, this might prove to be a huge buff to junglers that rely on damage to get their team ahead.

4. Tanks are getting just a little weaker

Riot Games

Tanks have had quite a good six months in League of Legends. Ever since the Mid-Season changes, tanks have been pretty dominant both in top lane and in the jungle. Along with all the changes to jungle champions this patch, Cinderhulk is also getting a nerf that should help push tank junglers a little further out of the meta.

While the jungle may be changing it doesn’t seem like tanks are going away completely up top. With that in mind, Riot made a few adjustments this patch to some of excessively strong items that top lane tanks used. Most importantly, Gargoyle’s Stoneplate got nerfed and now doesn’t grant exclusively bonus health, making it slightly less effective on some champions, like Cho’Gath, that could use the scaling. While not every tank took advantage of the bonus health, just about everyone from Shen to Maokai made use of the item, and are going to have to look elsewhere for their tanky stats now.

5. New Cassiopeia and Championship Ashe skins are here

Patch 7.18 is of course the patch that Worlds will be played on, and it wouldn’t be a worlds patch without a new Championship skin. This year, that honor is going to Ashe, everyone’s favorite Thornmail wielding ADC (classic tutorial jokes). If you want to complete your collection of the Championship skins, this is your PSA to grab her while she is available. With that out of the way, we can talk about the new Cassiopeia skin, which is very, very cool. It is also Cass’ first new skin in a really long time. Get out there and support your local snake-lady today.