The Xerath patch is now live, following a one-day delay from Riot’s typical release schedule. The patch was relatively short on balance changes, the most significant of which were a token nerf to both Lee Sin and Singed and slight nerf to Morgana’s passive and the AP ratio on Black Shield.

I’m calling the Lee Sin and Singed changes “token” because they actually change very little about the game. Singed got a quarter-of-a-second nerf to his Poison Trail, which makes the duration line up with his animation, and a nerf to the CC reduction on his ult. Unfortunately, those things won’t keep him from absolutely dominating lanes. He still gets too many stats from Rod of Ages. The regen from his ult still makes him ridiculously difficult to kill, and Poison Trail will still give him the ability to amass a huge farm.

As for Lee Sin, I can’t believe Riot thinks a 10% nerf to the AD ratio on Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike is going to balance his damage. When’s the last time you saw a Lee Sin stack damage? Never? The problem with Resonating Strike is the execute. The Safeguard nerf is also a little silly. It does nothing to address the fact that Lee can drop 400 damage or so on a target that is standing under a turret without taking any return fire from either the champion or the turret. Sure, those tricks make him fun to play, but OP mechanics are usually pretty fun. Remember when Veigar’s cage could stun for 8 seconds? Yeah, it was fun. It was also horribly broken.

I’ll have more thoughts on Xerath later in the day. So far he seems a little underwhelming. A solid teamfighter, but he’s either going to take some time to learn well or I’m just going to give up on him. I think I’d much rather have Brand on my team. Watch for the impressions post a little later.

What are your thoughts on the patch so far?