It sucks to be an ADC main in League of Legends right now. Last season saw assassins and control mages bursting down marksmen in a single hit, and this time around it’s the return of the tank meta, meaning if you’re not buying anti-heal and armor shred, you’re not going to do any damage. We’ve seen a rise in obscure botlane picks as a result, with mages and midlaners popping up everywhere in an attempt to try and mitigate the sheer might that tanks are bringing to the game. But the tides might just be turning, because a new datamine from the current PBE reveals that a significant attack speed buff might be in the works.
Currently attack speed is capped at 2.5, but the Tuesday January 28 PBE datamine from Redditor ‘FrankTheBoxMonster’ notes that Riot is increasing League of Legends‘ attack speed cap to 3.0, an increase of 0.5. While some champion abilities do exceed the cap (Urgot’s Purge has a fixed rate of 3.0, for example), this is the first time we’ve seen the MOBA‘s upper limit raised.
Riot has since confirmed that the 3.0 cap will be dropping with patch 25.S1.3, with ‘GalaxySmash’ noting that “3.0 is the new cap for all modes that don’t have their own adjusted version.” They do, however, go on to state that 3.0 may just be the beginning.
When asked about adjusting the cap up to 4.0, GalaxySmash notes that “we’re open to making this higher if 3.0 doesn’t achieve our goals.” A Jinx capped at 4.0 feels pretty damn terrifying, and that’s before you even consider Yone, whose Q and W both scale with attack speed.
The increased attack speed cap certainly solves a few of the game’s issues. Auto attack and crit-focused ADCs like the aforementioned Jinx or Kog’Maw certainly win here, meaning they can probably shred tanks a little better than they can at the moment. On the flip side, slower characters like Jhin lose out, so it’s not a flat ADC buff.
Then there is, of course, Yone. While he’s a somewhat variable champion (op.gg slots him into its third highest tier in top and mid at Emerald plus), there’s no denying that he’s pretty popular. If played well, he’s an absolute menace, and now he’ll be dishing out even more damage. Kiss your squishy midlaners goodbye.
All of this will drop with League of Legends patch 25.S1.3, scheduled to release on Wednesday February 5. I suggest you start practicing Yone or, alternatively, get ready to build a lot of armor.
In the meantime, however, check out our LoL tier list so that you lock in the right champions for the job or, alternatively, our rundown of the current League of Legends Mythic shop if you fancy some shiny new cosmetics – Crystal Motus Leona and Prestige Firecracker Vayne are absolute musts.
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