No Card Adjustments Going Into New Expansion

So patch 3.1 would have been an interesting time to adjust some underplayed Champs going into the new expansion.

However we didn't get that which means things are set going into the expansion on the 16th and.beyond.

Future patches post expansion will likely focus on adjusted newly released cards.

So if you were desperately waiting on a Garen or Katarina buff, that isn't happening.

So I'll see you all in 16 days.

I guess it all depends on how you define "going into the expansion," but Riot has explicitly said they'll be doing balance adjustments when they launch the new cards. Here's the relevant excerpt:

"This patch, we’re focusing on bug fixes to prepare for our next expansion coming in patch 3.2.0 on February 16! In addition to the new cards coming in that patch, we’ll also be doing a few balance adjustments to existing cards based on performance data & feedback we’ve received since our last batch of adjustments in patch 3.0.0."

As meisterz39 pointed out, they explicitly said they are doing balance changes with the expac launch.

This is a completely normal patch cadence. Patches every two or three weeks, alternating between bug-fix patch and balance patch. Last time was a balance patch. This time it's a bug fix patch. Next time is a balance patch + expac.

It is totally normal patch cadence which is to say they can patch what they want when they want.

Pretty sure the Braum overall was pre expansion and that literally changed how that character played.

Instead we got a Kindred mana reduction, pretty nice but not exactly game changing.

Its usually more exciting when they say reduced the number of jarvan strikes from 4 to 3 or if they had undone the nerf on TF to make him level able again.

But I'm not gonna spend all night going over why Champs are bad again, and how they could be better. Because those changes won't get made as long as people think that flipping as a lose condition is unacceptable in a game about leveling Champs.

Quote From Nifty129

It is totally normal patch cadence which is to say they can patch what they want when they want.

Pretty sure the Braum overall was pre expansion and that literally changed how that character played.

Instead we got a Kindred mana reduction, pretty nice but not exactly game changing.

Its usually more exciting when they say reduced the number of jarvan strikes from 4 to 3 or if they had undone the nerf on TF to make him level able again.

But I'm not gonna spend all night going over why Champs are bad again, and how they could be better. Because those changes won't get made as long as people think that flipping as a lose condition is unacceptable in a game about leveling Champs.

How is any of this related to patch timing? I mean, yeah, plenty of champions are weak/unplayable. But it's literally impossible to have all of the champions be in the meta. No matter how well they balance champions, there will always be some that are stronger and some that are weaker. It's completely unavoidable. The ones that are stronger will be meta and the others won't.

So maybe you buff the weaker ones, making them become stronger. Well, now those buffed champs probably become the new meta, while the previously stronger champs drop out of the meta. 

So, do you then buff the champs that dropped out of the meta to make them stronger again? Yes?

Great, now they take over the meta again and the other champs get knocked out of the meta ... I think you can see where this is going. I'll say it again - no matter how close to balanced all of the champions are, some of them will always be stronger than the others, even if it isn't by much. And the nature of a competitive game is that the strongest champions are the ones that become meta.

Side note: the current meta is mostly champion-focused decks. Even if you're using the mobalytics tier list (which I do NOT recommend), 12 out of their 15 meta decks are champion focused. The only ones that aren't are Pirates, Poros, and Spiders.