Briar Receives Massive Nerf in LoL Patch 13.19 Just One Week After Buff

Riot's hasty changes raise concerns among players about learning curve.

Credit: Riot Games

Briar made a big splash when she joined League of Legends. At first, she was a pretty bad choice,  which made Riot dish out a set of emergency buffs. But now, she's doing so well that she has a win rate above 51 percent. However, in just a few days, she's going to get her first nerf.

On September 21, August Browning, the person in charge of designing champions, shared some news on X (formerly Twitter). They said that the upcoming nerfs for Briar are going to reduce how much she can heal, especially when she's dealing with monsters and minions.

briar-nerf-tweet.png
Source: X

The upcoming nerf is set to arrive in Patch 13.19. Here's a list of the nerfs she'll receive:

  • Attack speed growth per level
    • 2.5% → 2.3%
  • W ability, Blood Frenzy / Snack Attack
    • Extra damage against minions and monsters
      • Reduced from 20% 10%
    • Healing range reduced 35% - 65% → 36% - 60%
    • Using the ability will only deal 400 damage

Her W ability, Blood Frenzy / Snack Attack, is taking the biggest hit. The extra damage against minions and monsters is being cut in half, going from 20 percent to only 10 percent. Now, using this ability will deal only 400 damage, and the healing will range from 36 to 60 percent instead of the previous 35 to 65 percent.

In light of these news, some Briar mains adopt the 'glass is half full' attitude, hoping that her ban rate will drop.

On the other hand, this is just another case of Riot rushing changes for the sake of it, without giving players the proper time to learn the champion and for the meta to adapt. What was supposed to be a small hotfix became a point of frustration for Briar mains as well as her opponents.