Patch 5.3 and Bot Lane
I haven't touched this in forever, but with Patch 5.3 here, guess I should prod it again.
What I'm really going to be touching on are changes that will be affecting laning phase bot. And right out the gate, we see some changes to Sona's base stats.
5.3 is seeing Sona's base stats getting a nice bump up with a little boost to her level one AD, movement speed, and health. This really doesn't seem like much since it's only a couple of points in each stat, but for the early level fights, this means that Sona has a lot more to bring in early fights since she does a tick more damage and can afford to take one more hit.
This patch is actually focusing more on dealing with mid laners and adjusting them with the changes brought around by the removal of DFG. But what this does mean is that there are some counterbalancing aspects being on Ahri who saw a spike in power coming out of 5.2. Increased mana cost on her Q and lowered range on her W and R puts Ahri at very close range for her initiates and forces her to play much closer to supports' disables and the attacks of your carries.
Aside from that, all that's left for champions in bot are quality of life changes. Varus' R is seeing a very small increase in its width, making it more reliable with its utility as an initiate or disengage.
Zyra's plants now show their range upon being grown, which is really nice in working with triggering the growth on her plants for harass. And also really helps with mana conservation now that you aren't guessing the range of the attacks only to find they're out of range.
Sivir's spell shield has been fixed, making this an indirect buff to most early game carries that were hindered by the unintended damage reduction it game. Graves is going to continue to be a powerhouse because of it, but this fix is definitely going to give Caitlyn more breathing room, as well as Nami, Annie, Sona, and Janna who looked to get some early level harass in that was mitigated by the bug.
Perhaps one of the biggest things I feel coming out of Patch 5.3 are the trinket changes. The blue trinket was already a great pickup on ADCs, but the change of the duration on it makes it a greater tool in lane and helps alleviate early warding problems with its range easy scoping out stuff like river bushes, dragon, or even the enemy buff.
But even better are the changes to yellow trinket. While Sightstone is a great buy for early warding, the ward charges on the trinket make it a great alternative if you're in the lead and looking to funnel that 800 gold you would have spent on Sightstone into more offensive items.