In League of Legends, the new champion Vex arrives with patch 11.9. The grumpy mage is too strong at launch and gets nerfed shortly after the release with a hotfix.
This is the new mage:
- Vex is a Yordle mage designed as “emo”. Everything annoys her in some way. She can’t stand hyperactive champions bouncing around her.
- Her abilities are designed to counter “agile champions” and eliminate them quickly. Vex herself is also agile, which is unusual for a mage. She fights in melee and can jump across the map.
- It was speculated in advance that her ultimate could be too strong, as it can be activated multiple times in a row. However, in live play, it was more her passive and her Q that caused a lot of trouble: Vex seemed easy to play, but dealt a lot of damage, especially in the mid and late game.
“I can play her with one hand”
How strong Vex was at the start: In the first 24 hours after release, Vex had a win rate of 50.67%. That doesn’t sound like much, but normally champions in LoL start with low win rates because everyone wants to try them, including players who aren’t good at that type of champion.
In the hands of real midlane experts, like Korean world champion Rookie, Vex turns into a killing machine.
Rookie played Vex in a stream and dominated the lane against Katarina. He said he could literally play Vex with just one hand (via twitter).
Videos circulated quickly on Reddit showing how the mage was achieving kills non-stop and leaping across the map with her ultimate in a rage.
These are the nerfs: Vex’s power level was evidently a problem that manifested not only in spectacular videos or forum discussions, but also reflected in solid data used by Riot Games for balancing.
On Saturday, September 25, less than 24 hours after Vex’s release, the first nerf came:
- The passive damage bonus of Vex was significantly reduced, from 30 -180 (and 25% bonus to ability power) to 30 -140 (and 20% bonus to AP).
- The base damage of ability Q was decreased in mid and late game.
Riot Games has stated that they will continue to monitor Vex. Nerfs may follow in patch 11.20 or in further hotfixes.
In contrast to the new heroine Vex, who appeared to be too strong, the situation with the last new hero in League of Legends was the exact opposite:
Everyone was afraid of the new champ in LoL – Yet Akshan is a loser, needs a helper patch
