League of Legends 11.7 Expected Changes: Split Push and Burst Nerfs (March 2021)

Patch 11.6, released on March 17, brought important item changes, jungle adjustments and balance changes for some champions. With the update to be released on March 31, Riot Games is focusing on delivering new game content, balance changes and bug fixes with League of Legends patches. What we understand from a post by Riot Games designer Mark Yetter on Twitter is that the agenda of 11.7 will be Split Push.

https://twitter.com/MarkYetter/status/1372963160336953344

The first things that stand out in the Patch 11.7 changes written by Mark "Riot Scruffy" Yetter are as follows:

Do Not Be Afraid When You Fall Behind, You Have a Chance to Turn the Match Around!

Comeback mechanics are very important for competitive games not to lose their excitement. Players who realized that a hopeless match on the brink of defeat had no chance of being turned around were often frustrated when they saw their team lose within seconds. Taking this into account, Riot focused on developing new comeback mechanics that will keep League of Legends players committed to the match until the final minutes. We can say that the comeback opportunities arriving with Patch 11.7 will make competitive matches more interesting, exciting and dynamic.

Work Being Done on Split Push

Mark Yetter recently wrote a "Quick Gameplay Thoughts" blog post focused on improving the split push mechanic. The Riot employee said that split pushing is an exciting strategic option that adds variety to the end of the game, that matches are agonizing for a losing team without such a mechanic, and that this needs to be improved.

New Non-Legendary Items

League of Legends Game Director Andrei "Riot Meddler" van Roon announced in a YouTube video titled "Client, Clarity and State of the Game" that Riot is considering adding new non-legendary items to the game. He said that ability power items and Tank items are not enough, and that filling these item gaps is a big step toward a more balanced game and greater build diversity.

Turn to Different Items!

In the video mentioned above, he says a champion buys the same item in 75% or more of their games, and that in the last patch Tank champions frequently used Sunfire Aegis, which caused negative experiences for AD-heavy champions. Although this problem has been solved for AD-heavy champions with the incoming patches, he said a similar situation exists for ability power-based champions and that a balancing change will come with Patch 11.7.

The Nerf Coming to Burst Damage

Burst damage mechanics have been debated frequently since the release of Season 11. Riot officials said that although burst damage serves a purpose in League of Legends gameplay, it currently seems overtuned, that burst champions snowball quickly and that the game suffers as a result. Riot said that some changes will be made to burst damage to balance this.