Briar is to be further nerfed in patch 13.22.
New champion releases, people exploit its hidden op mechanics, Riot notices it, nerfs it – as a League of Legends player, this is probably the most common cycle of events. Briar, the newest addition to the champion bucket, is no exception to it either. After her inception in patch 13.18, Briar has already undergone a long string of changes.
Especially in Patch 13.19, a huge number of bug fixes and new effects blessed her kit. And in 13.21, further adjustments were made to balance her offensive powers. But still, Briar stands tall with a scary 52.42%. Scary because her ban rate is also the highest in the game. Despite that, she is picked 8.07% of the game.
Even scarier is the fact that the lower you go down the ladder, the more her win rate seems to increase. To put things into perspective, while her win rate in Diamond+ is 51.07%, it’s 53.73% in around the Silver bracket. Since the majority of the player base crowd is in that zone, it has become imperative for Riot to normalize Briar. And hence, in Patch 13.22, they are bringing changes to achieve that goal.
In this article, I will highlight only Briar-specific changes from Riot Phroxzon‘s preview of 13.22 patch notes.
Read More: League of Legends Patch 13.22 Notes: New Changes, Release Date, and More
Patch 13.22 Briar Changes
- Q: Head Rush
- Base Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 >>> 60/95/130/165/200
- Armor Reduction on Target: 10/14/18/22/26% >>> 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%
- R: Certain Death
- Explosion Damage: 150/325/500 (+110% bonus AD) >>> 150/300/450 (+75% bonus AD)
Needless to say, Briar had to be toned down in damage. And these changes have made it clear. The armor shred reduction from 26% to 20%, in particular, maybe more noticeable as the game progresses. As an AD jungler, Briar is reliant on her raw damage to be effective. And when you take away her armor reduction alongside the base damage from her primary damage ability, it greatly reduces her threat.
Her ultimate scaling with bonus AD also will be reduced from 110% to 75%, in addition to the base damage at ranks 2 and 3. This again takes away a great chunk of Briar’s threat. But given her ridiculously high win rate in lower brackets, it’s understandable why such drastic measures are taken.
Sometimes, when Riot brute forces nerfs onto new champions, they swing a bit too hard and make the champion totally useless before they receive buffs again. So we’ll have to wait and see how these changes turn out once the patch goes live.
Patch 13.22 Release Date
Patch 13.22 is officially scheduled to be deployed on Wednesday, November 5, 2023 with the Briar changes.
ncG1vNJzZmifkaKys7XVZ5qopV%2BXv6qt0WaaoZmenLK0ec%2Baq5ygXWaAbn6RaA%3D%3D