League of Legends Patch 16.02 buffs and nerfs jungle outliers, holds off on Vision and Role changes

Update (Jan 14th, 17:00 GMT): The full patch notes are now here, with Phroxzon posting about it on X. The patch goes into more detail on reallocating some of the jungle balance changes, switching the power around for its jungle roster.

Original Story:

With Season 16 being out for a week now, Riot Games is starting to respond to players about the proposed changes to the game. Right now, the game is going through some major adjustment period with the role quests, champion buffs, item adjustments and more. So far, some are standing out super strong, while others are fairly weak. The latest 16.02 patch preview shows that Riot are targeting the outliers that are both good and bad, and are still confirming decisions on where to take roles and vision till there’s more data.

The main talking points come from Riot Phroxzon, who posted the patch preview to X. The post outlines some champion changes, with ADCs like Sivir and Smolder, to popular or OP Junglers getting the nerf, like Gwen, Jayce and Nunu. The main problems come from certain champions excelling too well with the 16.1 changes. On the other hand, underperformers like Aatrox, Varus and Ashe are getting buffed since they seem weak in their roles right now.

There’s no real news on what’s changing. But Riot knows it needs to do something to those champions.

Items are also on there, with new LoL item, Bandlepipe getting nerfed to 2300 gold. It is being purchased by many champions and roles for how good the stats are on it. Enjoy the extreme efficiency while you can.

Game Pace and System Changes in the air

The other thing to note is the discussion in the community. Many people say that Season 16 feels fast. Riot disagrees, with the game length being similar to the previous season. The only difference is there’s less downtime in areas, with minions spawning earlier, objective changing spawn times etc.

So, game length is fine, but the rate at which you make decisions and sort your roles out makes the game feel more intense and faster. Riot seems happy with mid-game decision making.

One example is players opting to push for tower chunks, since there’s a lot of gold in towers now. Or maybe you want to set-up Drake or early Baron and need picks to do it. It makes those mid-game decisions much more impactful.

The other talking point is the vision changes. The fairy rings offer players lots of vision, especially controlling early jungle invades or ganking routes. It makes it much harder to actually gank now, forcing Junglers even further into their must clear the camp roles for their quest. Supports are also in an odd spot with their vision quest too.

As it stands, these likely won’t be changed till 16.03, or at least till Pro Play actually starts. That way they can see how abusive these systems are and see what changes they can make for both pros and the wider player base.