League of Legends v10.6 Patch Notes: Aphelios and Senna nerfed

Riot Games have released the patch notes for v10.6 of League of Legends. 

This week’s update includes more changes to various of the up and coming jungle champions. 

The update scheduled for the 18th of March includes the long-awaited changes to two of the most successful bot lane champions, Aphelios and Senna.

Besides these changes, the planned update to Anivia hinted at by Rob “RiotKingCobra” Rosa, are seemingly delayed until v10.7. 

The long-awaited nerf to Aphelios

For weeks now, Aphelios was the dominating marksman champion of the professional scene. Because of his unmatched strength in the bot lane position, Aphelios maintained the highest pick priority in the drafting phase of the pro matches. In the last few game updates, Aphelios already received small adjustments to several aspects of his kit. 

Before today’s update, Riot Games wanted to tread carefully with the adjustments to Aphelios. The reason for this is that Aphelios was already too weak as a champion when the average player played him on the ranked ladder. 

Three of Aphelios’ weapons received changes in this game update. The most notable of these changes is the reduction of the area of effect damage on Infernum, the Flamethrower. Infernum previously dealt 45% of the spell’s total damage to minions. However, this is now reduced to only 30%. This change targets one of Aphelios’ weaknesses, as he lacks a reliable way to push out minion waves.

No more “Fasting” Senna

A strategy that gained a drastic amount of popularity in recent weeks was the introduction of “Fasting Senna.” A strategy first debuted in the North American League of Legends Champion Series (NA LCS), which has taken over all pro-leagues globally, in addition to the ranked ladders. The strategy consists of Senna, alongside any tank champion that can protect her during the laning phase. 

Senna’s passive - Absolution, allowed Senna to become an incredibly potent champion while not farming any of the minions in the laning phase. Absolution scales with the souls created by minions dying around Senna, which grants her increased attack damage and attacking range. 

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The upcoming change to Senna isn’t likely to be the end of the Fasting Senna concept. However, it should limit the strength of the strategy significantly. The scaling change of Absolution costs Senna around one attack damage per minute throughout the game. 

The third-round changes to underappreciated junglers.

In the third-round jungler changes, a total of six champions earned themselves a buff to their damage against monsters. Included in the list are Brand, Morgana, Shen, Teemo, Yorick, and Zyra. The most significant change of them all is to Morgana. Morgana’s W - Tormented Shadow now deals 150% damage to monsters. This change could well allow Morgana to return to the jungle position. 

For the full patch notes of League of Legends patch 10.6, check out the official League of Legends website.