- Some say Aurelion Sol’s rework is a failure just a day after its release
- Others disagree, saying any change increasing the champion’s play rate is a success
- Meanwhile, Annie is seeing a huge spike in her win rate
League of Legends Patch 13.3 is here and with it comes a wave of buffs that have caused some disagreements amongst the game’s community.
Players Discuss Aurelion Sol’s Changes
Game patches have the task of fixing errors and balancing out different aspects of the game, at least in theory. However, what happens often is that a new patch fixes some issues only to create others and it seems League of Legends’ newest update has done just that. LoL’s Patch 13.3 promised a lot of buffs, including Aurelion Sol, a champion that hasn’t received a single buff in four years.
However, players have already expressed a negative opinion of the champion’s rework. Many said how the champion’s playstyle has essentially stayed the same except the celestial dragon has access to items that make him tankier. “He fundamentally suffers from the same play pattern that made him problematic, except his kit is now loaded with infinite scaling and high AP scalings, and he has access to items that make him tanker than previous iterations,” a Reddit post discussing Aurelion Sol’s changes reads.
But not all players share the same opinion. Many think that it’s just too early to give a final conclusion if Aurelion Sol’s rework is a success or not. “At least he's actually fun to play and fulfills the dragon fantasy a bit more. The numbers need tuning but I feel like this iteration has more hope than the old one,” one comment reads.
Another commenter wrote that any uptick in pick rate is a sign that the rework has performed well. In fact, Aurelion Sol’s pick rate absolutely skyrocketed from a measly 0.5% to almost 20% in Patch 13.3, according to League stats site U.GG. Although this number is heavily influenced by the fact that now many players want to try out the champion’s rework, it’s still likely Aurelion Sol’s pick rate will still stay a lot higher after the hype dies down.
Annie Is Seeing a Massive Change
Another champion is also seeing skyrocketing numbers after the release of Patch 13.3 – Annie. The champion had a measly 49.47% win rate across all ranks in the solo queue before the update, but now her win rate jumped to 56.65% according to U.GG.
This massive change is due to the fact that Riot buffed Annie’s shield, Molten Shield, by increasing its AP scaling, reducing its cooldown, and adding a retaliation passive for spells. Meanwhile, Annie’s companion Tibber got a stable buff to his health and movement speed. Finally, Annie’s passive will now be fully stacked upon starting the game and respawning, a mostly quality of life change, but it still matters.
As this post on Reddit discusses, many players agree that Annie’s win rate will drop down to more stable levels once the initial hype is over. Still, it’s likely these buffs will help the champion stay well above the 50% mark for the foreseeable future.
