Global ults getting nerfed in upcoming League of Legends Jayce patch

Global ults will be getting a slight nerf in the upcoming Jayce patch, according to the preview released today.

Global ultimates have started dominating higher level play, forcing many teams into picking or banning Shen, Soraka, and Karthus every game. To combat this, Riot has decided to nerf the cooldowns on these ultimates, especially at high ranks.

"Global ultimates apply a lot of pressure and also don't need to worry about positioning," explained lead champion designer Ryan 'Morello' Scott, "so to balance them out they need to have longer cooldowns than other ultimates."

"With longer cooldowns, teams without global ultimates now have the opportunity to counter-attack and apply pressure back to teams that do have them," he added.

As someone who plays all three of those characters (primarily Soraka), I'm sad to see the nerf, but it could be a lot worse. I don't think it's an unfair balance change. It will just require more planning and strategy on when to use these ults. We'll really have to decide when the best time to use these ults will be, rather than just spamming them. I'd rather see an extended cooldown than lowered ratios.

The remaining portion of the patch preview focused on Orianna, LeBlanc, and Nunu. The changes to Orianna are being made to "clean up her gameplay" and make her feel more responsive. To do so, the global cooldown on all of her abilities will be shortened, allowing players to chain abilities much more quickly.

"One of the things that was holding her back was how much you had to fight the interface when playing her," explained Morello. "Lowering her global cooldowns is really to improve her responsiveness and kind of amplify your skill. Now it's much more possible to do big, epic skill combos with Orianna's ball."

Nunu will be getting a buff for jungling, specifically for being a strong counter-jungler. Consume will be getting a cooldown reduction along with the number of attacks required to trigger his passive: Visionary. Lastly, a few buffs will be coming to LeBlanc who Riot says is being "outclassed" as a high mobility, mage assassin. You can check out the Jayce patch preview above for more details.