In League of Legends the new patch 13.12 is coming. The LoL developer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison announces significant nerfs for a duo of bot laner and supporter: Zeri and the cat Yuumi. He says both are already bad on their own, but together they are really overpowered. If the nerf doesn’t work this time, it could even get worse.
This is what Phroxzon says about the upcoming nerfs (via twitter):
- Yuumi and Zeri have both benefited from changes in 13.10 and 13.11 and have become a problem. They are “not happy” with their status in the professional game.
- Zeri is too strong and takes too much damage, especially when she has built the item “Trinity Force” – Yuumi has too strong synergies with the item “Echoes of Helia”.
- Both champs are now getting nerfed to reduce their win rate to below 50%. If that doesn’t work, Riot is ready for “drastic measures”.
What do the nerfs look like exactly?
- The passive of Zeri currently ensures that she receives a shield when she deals damage to an opponent’s shield – this bonus is to be removed.
- For the cat Yuumi, the attack speed buff E will be significantly weaker at low levels, and her heal with R will also be significantly weakened at low levels.
Yuumi has been a problem for ages – Zeri has been one for a few weeks
How is this being discussed? On reddit, the criticism is once again focused on Yuumi. The magical cat has been a constant topic in League of Legends for years: She is the only champion that can merge with another champion, making her untargetable.
Originally, Yuumi was designed as a beginner champion so that newcomers could learn the game by focusing on casting spells while leaving the complicated running and positioning to an experienced player. However, some of the best support players in the world abused Yuumi and her strengths to win tournaments.
Yuumi is therefore the most hated champion in LoL, having been radically overhauled several times, but Riot seems unable to get her under control.
For Zeri, there was a specific problem: a “tanky” build built around the items Sheen and Trinity Force simply felt unfair.
In the comments, it now says (via reddit):
- “I mean: At least it feels like they are listening. It will be interesting to see how far they have to go to maim the two so that their win rate drops to the point where they want it to be.”
- Another user says: The best build for Zeri with Sheen/Trinity is basically dead now. With Yuumi, W and E will now scale with level. The cat is still annoying, but much later in the game.
- A third user says: “Bruiser Zeri has already been incredibly unfair, but Crit Zeri is also a big problem.”
Ultimately, Riot Games will address two issues with the patch that have been bothering players for a long time. What the “drastic solution” for Yuumi looks like has been known to some pros for years:
One of the best players in the world calls for Riot to remove a champion completely from LoL.
