Between two rounds of hotfix buffs since his release, Hwei’s been buffed in almost a dozen different areas in just a few days. His win rate continues to disappoint as LoL players struggle to learn him.
League of Legends has taken a very back-to-basics approach with most of their 2023 Champions, making them relatively easy from a mechanical standpoint with fairly straightforward kits. It’s been a refreshing change for players who want characters that are easier to jump in and play.
Meanwhile, Hwei’s 10 abilities require a cheat sheet to learn properly. The character is complex even by the standards of other complicated champs in the game, making it no surprise that his win rate debuted below 30% for most MMR brackets. He’s got one of the lowest win rates in League of Legends history.
In an attempt to smooth things over as players learn him, he’s received a ton of buffs over the week since his full release. Whether or not these buffs cause him to hit critical mass in pro play remains to be seen, but as it stands he needs some serious help to become a viable champion.
Hwei gets almost a dozen buffs across two LoL hotfixes
In the week since his release, Hwei has been given two separate hotfixes, all of which buffed his kit in different ways. And, while the second one hasn’t gone live just yet, it’ll be going up soon.
Here’s the first series of hotfix buffs that are currently live:
Q: Subject – Disaster
- Mana cost: 100-120 >>> 80-120
QQ: Devastating Fire
- AP Ratio: 60% >>> 70%
- Max HP damage: 4-6% >>> 4-8%
EQ/EW/EE
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- AP Ratio: 55% >>> 60%
These were confirmed by Lead Designer on League August Browning a day after his release as some small buffs to push Hwei in the right direction. These changes gave him more damage potential with his Q without destroying his mana pool. Hwei’s a very mana-intensive character despite having an ability that gives him mana back.
However, as confirmed in a Reddit AMA about the champion, he’s got more buffs coming. Here are the proposed buffs:
Base stats:
- Base HP: 550 >>> 580
- Base Mana: 445 >>> 480
- Base Movement Speed: 325 >>> 330
WW: Pool of Reflection
- Shields arrive instantly instead of on cast finish
- Shields: 90-170 >>> 100-200
EW: Gaze of the Abyss
- Setup delay: 0.7 seconds >>> 0.65 seconds
- Fire delay: 0.35 seconds >>> 0.3 seconds
- Chase range: 500 >>> 600
- Linger duration: 1.35 – 3 seconds >>> 3 seconds flat
This proposed hotfix combined with the buffs he received immediately after release totals 13 separate buffs for this champion. While many of these are small number tweaks to make him feel a bit better to play and make his abilities more consistent, it’s still a near-unprecedented amount of adjustments.
It’s hard to tell whether or not Hwei will have the same meteoric rise as champions like Zeri or K’Sante once people can grapple with his kit for a bit longer and learn how he works. Either way, for now, this seems like a step in the right direction seeing as players at all skill levels are struggling.