League of Legends (LoL) players are concerned about the potential impact of the upcoming changes to Katarina in Patch 13.7. The changes are intended to nerf her Divine Sunderer but instead, there is room for a new attack-speed-based build that can take full advantage of the buff.
Riot has been working on adjusting the pro play meta prior to the start of the MSI tournament, and the next two patches will determine and shape a new meta, forcing players to re-invent themselves and fight with new optimal picks and strategies.
However, the Riot devs are also trying to buff some of the under-performing champions in solo queue in Patch 13.7, granting better numbers to champions like Alistar, Kalista, and Yasuo, among others.
One of the champions getting a buff is Katarina, who will see an increase in her passive date AP ratio by five percent at all ranks, and her ultimate Death Lotus’ bonus AD ratio changed. The change will lower the based bonus AD ratio by two percent, and the buffed version will give 20 percent more bonus AD for every 100 percent bonus attack speed.
The increase in numbers is causing concern among players, as it opens up the possibility of a new attack-speed-based build that can take full advantage of the buff. A Reddit user showed the potential damage that Katarina could deal with a Kraken Slayer build, full of attack speed items like Blade of the Ruined King, Wit’s End, and Rageknife. At level 18, the ultimate could deal up to 5100 physical damage over the ultimate’s 2.5-second duration.
Katarina has had balancing issues ever since the removal of the Hextech Gunblade, an old League item that was removed a few years ago. The item was built on specific champions that wanted both lifesteal and spellvamp, and Katarina was among those champions. The most important thing, however, was the active slow that she could use at the beginning of the fight to better hit the daggers.
When Riot removed the item, there was nothing that could replace it, so they decided to give her on-hit procs on her passive, E, and ultimate. This forced players into choosing between two builds: one glass-cannon, damage-oriented build that made Katarina squishy, and one that was the exact opposite. It would deal less damage but made sure you could tank a bit of damage.
The Reddit user thinks that to have Katarina in a healthy state, Riot should either remove the delay on her E reset to make her dash instantly and hit reliable combos or add a new item similar to Hextech Gunblade. According to him, Riftmaker cannot be considered the Gunblade replacement, and while Blade of the Ruined King is the most similar item to the removed item, it lacks spell vamp and ruins your third or fourth item spikes.
