League of Legends Game Designer Josh ‘Jatt’ Leesman has revealed plans for a number of champions who will receive buffs and nerfs in the v9.12 patch.
The v9.12 patch is already live on the PBE (Public Beta Environment), and introduced a huge rework for Mordekaiser, alongside Jhin, Karma and Shaco receiving new skins as they join the Dark Star line.
With v9.12 live on the PBE, Riot Games have a few days to make some last minute changes and updates to the game and its champions, and the developers are set to make changes to a number of powerful characters in an attempt to balance the game.
The biggest update for fans of League of Legends will come in the form of a much needed nerf for Yuumi the Magical Cat, who has quickly become an unpopular adversary in the game.
Yuumi is a support with a unique mechanic that allows her to become “Attached” to another member of her team. While Attached, it can only be attacked by towers and can’t take any direct damage from opponents, while her abilities fire from the location of the champion she is connected too.
The launch of the new champion didn’t go well, with Riot Games forced to release emergency buffs for the magical feline to try and improve her record-low win-rate of just 29.71%.
It seems those buffs went too far though, with Jatt revealing that the character was now so powerful, that it had become the most banned champion in the Elite division, with over 45% of matches featuring the Yuumi being banned – double her rate since v9.11.
Yeah, Yuumi is currently the most banned champion in Elite, and is above our 45% ban threshold for that tier. (her ban rate has doubled since early patch 9.11)
— Josh Leesman (@RiotJatt) June 3, 2019
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Irelia, Nautilus and Aatrox will also receive nerfs, while Zac, Ashe, Karma, Lulu and Caitlyn will be buffed. Jatt also mentioned that Sylas and Ryze will have larger changes, but refrained from sharing what those would be.
Patch 9.12 looking to have larger changes to Sylas/Ryze Nerfs: Irelia, Yuumi, Nautilus, and AatroxBuffs: Zac, Caitlyn, Ashe, Karma, and Lulu
(all targets are tentative) I'm gonna be working on Naut, Zac, and Karma.Will post tentative lists later! #lifeofapatch
— Josh Leesman (@RiotJatt) June 3, 2019
Caitlyn’s buff will be relatively small, with the developers looking for, at most, to bump her win percentage up by 1%, but are undecided on how this will be achieved at this moment. Karma’s un-empowered Q and E abilities will also be improved slightly, and the cost of mana for the E ability will be reduced by 10 mana across the board.
Considering buffs for Caitlyn. Looking for at most +1% winrate since she's quite close. Debating between simple: +2AD (moderate and reliable impact), or spicier like E Slow amount or R Damage. Want to avoid Pro bias buff since she dominates metas. Probably +2AD :^)
— Riot Captain Gameplay (@riot_captain) June 4, 2019
Early direction for Karma — small buffs to un-empowered Q and EQ slow25% >>> 35%
E movespeed1.5s >>> 2.5s (match shield duration)
E mana cost60/65/70/75/80 >>> 50/55/60/65/70
— Josh Leesman (@RiotJatt) June 4, 2019
There is currently no official release date for these changes, but with v9.12 already live on the PBE, we can expect to see these buffs and nerfs included when the update goes live, most likely on Wednesday, June 13.