Last week, the latest Midlaner named Hwei was released in League of Legends. Hwei caused quite a stir upon his announcement, as he possesses not 4 skills but a total of 10, which can be executed in various combinations. However, this complexity is also reflected in his disastrous win rate.
Who is Hwei, the visionary?
- He debuted with patch 13.24
- He is a Mage, intended for the Midlane
- Has 10 skills instead of 4, which can be executed with different stances and combos
- The skills provide him with mana regeneration, movement speed, or simply damage.
Based on his kit, Hwei is an incredibly complex champion and differs from champions like Briar and Naafiri, whose overall kits seem quite simple and rely on decisions made. However, Hwei’s complexity makes it difficult for him to win currently.
Hwei starts with an incredibly poor win rate
After his release last Wednesday, things didn’t look good for Hwei. As Dexerto reported, his win rate was between 27% and 35%. This marks a disastrous start to the game. Riot responded quickly, releasing a hotfix on December 8 that buffed many of his abilities.
However, that doesn’t seem to have helped much, as seen on U.GG, where he is still in a poor state. Sorting the list by win rate, Hwei holds the last 3 spots as a Support, Midlaner, and Toplaner. His win rate ranges between 35% and 38%. This is indeed better than the numbers reported by Dexerto, but still far from good. (As of: 11.12.2023)
What is the reason? As one might guess, it lies in the 10 skills. Briar also had a poor win rate at release, but it was mainly due to the new self-taunt mechanics that players needed to get accustomed to. To even be able to execute the 10 skills of Hwei requires a lot of learning time, and then knowing when which skill is worth using and what rotations to perform is no easy task.
Then there are the matchups. It is currently challenging to compete against Sylas or Fizz in the Midlane as a Mage.
However, Hwei should not be seen as a failure due to his current poor win rate. Over time, players will become familiar with him, and only then will it become clear what to expect from this champion. The 10 skills can also be advantageous, making it harder for the opponent to anticipate the next move.
Many also compare him to the ADC Aphelios, who has a similarly complex mechanic with different weapons. After some time, many players adjusted to him, and he even became a significant problem on the Botlane for a while:
