Riot Adding Even More Duskblade Changes In LoL Patch 13.17

Despite its change of direction in the mid-season patch 13.10 update, Duskblade of Draktharr continues to be difficult to balance. Riot are now making changes to the Nightstalker component of the item, in hopes to make it easier to play against.

Ever since its introduction in early 2016, Duskblade of Draktharr has always been a menace to League of Legends. The first ever Duskblade iteration would leave a mark upon basic attacking an enemy champion, which would detonate after a short delay and deal bonus damage based on the target's missing health. It looked, sounded and felt similar to Zed's R – Death Mark.

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After that, a version that would reveal and deactivate nearby stealth wards stuck around for a few years. This effect was only removed in late 2019, when Umbral Glaive was introduced to League of Legends. Due to that, Duskblade would only have its passive that granted a champion bonus damage upon being unseen for at least 1.5 seconds.

This version would remain untouched until the item rework in late 2020. From that point, the Nightstalker passive would grant a champion invisibility for 1.5 seconds upon taking a champion down. This was changed into untargetability on patch 13.10.

Duskblade Of Draktharr: Will The LoL Patch 13.17 Changes Cause The Item To Be OP Again?

You heard it right – Duskblade's untargetability will now destroy all projectiles that are already mid-air and on their way to the untargetable champion. This includes basic attacks and targeted abilities. To balance this out, it will no longer prevent any effects already on the untargetable champion from doing their thing. To translate this into your everyday English: killing Teemo will no longer prevent you from dying to his poison.

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The target will remain immune to any skill shots, while turrets will still not suffer from the untargetability. 

On paper, these changes look bigger than they actually are. It is a welcome Quality of Life update for any damage over time-reliant champion, while marksmen will be slightly annoyed over their occasional basic attack now missing its target. Overall, this should not change how Duskblade is played with or against too much.

These changes are proposed on the PBE as an addition to Duskblade's incoming nerfs on patch 13.16. We believe that these new changes will only be shipped at a later date, though.

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