Hullbreaker nerfs curb item’s power in next League of Legends update

Hullbreaker is getting nerfed in League of Legends just over six months after being added in-game. The legendary item, first included as part of patch 11.13, is getting downgraded as part of patch 12.5 after having an unexpectedly huge impact on the Season 12 meta.

Hullbreaker was an item that chugged along in the background since its League of Legends release. It was barely touched, except by a few select champions, despite offering serious stats for split pushers.

That was up until just over a month ago, where Team Liquid’s Gabriël ‘Bwipo’ Rau started wreaking havoc during the LCS Lock In to start Season 12.

Since then, Hullbreaker has been dominating the top lane meta. It’s been a staple on picks like Graves at the pro level, but champions like Urgot, Tryndamere, Garen, Kled, and Illaoi have been making a nuisance of themselves at all elos.

Even junglers like Rek’Sai can use Hullbreaker effectively.

Getting into the nitty gritty of how we got here, Hullbreaker as an item approaches 200% gold efficiency at Level 18 when a champion holding it is not near any of their allies. Even then, champions can group with the item and still benefit from the great baseline stats.

On Graves, for example, this makes him near-unkillable while he has his True Grit passive stacked.

This, combined with the recent fighter item rework nerfing most other options like the formerly-popular Goredrinker, made Hullbreaker the purchase of choice.

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Riot is issuing a bandaid fix of sorts on League of Legends patch 12.5, which goes live on March 2, to tone back its power.

The change will reduce its effectiveness on ranged top laners like Graves, but also picks like Urgot and even Quinn will get less use out of the item. The resistance buff granted will be halved from 20-60 armor and magic resist to 10-30, scaling based on level.

While the nerfs will still make Hullbreaker effective on melee champions, ranged champions with a bit more defensive utility won’t be as lucky.

Riot are also aware the changes will hit some champions disproportionately hard like Urgot, and “will have eyes on him” for buffs down the line, according to developer ‘Phlox’.

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The Hullbreaker nerfs will ship in League of Legends patch 12.5 alongside changes to Master Yi, Seraphine, Ahri, and more. The update launches on March 2.