Big Buffs Might Come Soon for Tanks in League of Legends

It’s always interesting to get a picture of how game designers plan the changes to their titles. For League of Legends, sometimes the changes can be quite volatile, and change the Meta in huge ways, while other times the changes can be small tweaks to a particular champion or ability. In a post made on the official forums earlier today, Game Producer Riot Maple Nectar outlined some of the changes they are looking at, that might spell a return to the old Tank Meta. Here are the changes listed.

Nautilus:
Goal: Give Nautilus' shield some more flexibility; aiming to bring the effect into more usable trade windows and additional casts per jungle camp.
Titan's Wrath (W)

• Shielding :: 65/70/75/80/85 (+9/11/13/15/17% maxHP) >>> 60/70/80/90/100 (+9/10/11/12/13% maxHP)
• Duration :: 10 >>> 6
• Cooldown :: 18 >>> 12
• Cost :: 80 >>> 60

Amumu:
Goal: Simply put, give some unique scaling to Amumu's defensive mechanic.
Tantrum (E)

• NEW :: Passive physical damage reduction gains additional benefit equal to 3% of Amumu's bonus Armor and Magic Resist

Rammus:
Goal: Generally just trying to make him a bit tankier at all stages of the game, but still with a heavier skew towards physical ad rather than magic damage.
Defensive Ball Curl (W)

• Bonus Armor :: 50/60/70/80/90% >>> 60/70/80/90/100%
• Bonus Magic Resist :: 25/30/35/40/45% >>> 30/35/40/45/50%

Sion
Goal: Increase the reward for stacking W passive
Soul Furnace (W)

• Permanent max HP gain from small enemies :: 3 >>> 4
• Permanent max HP gain from large enemies :: 10 >>> 15

Leona:
Goal: Giving Leona the potential for much higher uptime on her defense button, but trying to do so in a way that doesn't buff her lane too much. As such, W and E have had their damage redistributed to mean Leona doesn't get both incredible offense and incredible defense if she maxes W first.

Eclipse (W)

• Damage :: 60/100/140/180/220 >>> 60/90/120/150/180
• Cooldown :: 14 >>> 18/16/14/12/10
• Armor :: 25/35/45/55/65 (+20%) >>> 15/20/25/30/35 (+40%)
• Magic Resist :: 20/30/40/50/60 (+20%) >>> 15/20/25/30/35 (+40%)

Zenith Blade (E)

• Damage :: 60/100/140/180/220 >>> 60/110/160/210/260

Maokai
Goal: Giving Maokai some stat help aimed at a moderate buff to jungle position and small buff to non jungle positions. We're particularly hesitant to over buff his top lane.

Base Stats:

• Movespeed :: 335 >>> 340
• Magic Resist Growth :: 1.25 >>> 1.75
  Sapling Toss (E)
• Max damage against non champions :: 300 >>> 500

Tahm Kench
Goal: Reduce the overall availability of his defensive devour and better reward use in aggressive scenarios. Also tuning Q to give him a few more buttons to press in light of longer cd ally W, and reducing the slow to compensate.

Tongue Lash (Q)

• Slow Duration :: 2 >>> 1.5
• Cooldown :: 6 >>> 5

Devour / Regurgitate (W)

• Damage :: 20/23/26/29/32% (+2% per 100AP) >>> 27/29/31/33/35% (+1% per 100AP)
• Devour Duration :: 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 >>> 4
• Enemy champion duration still halved
  Cooldown :: 14/13/12/11/10 >>> 28/25/22/19/16
• Cost :: 90 >>> 60
  NEW :: Triggers half its normal cooldown on enemy cast

These changes are mostly buffs for tanks that are not seeing a ton of action right now, except for Tahm Kench who is getting a bit of a nerf. Whether these changes will prove to be the catalyst for a Meta shift remains to be seen, however any changes that might allow Rammus to see more playtime are pretty ok in my book. For more League of Legends news, check out the match results for the EU LCS earlier today, here.