Zeri With Massive Changes on PBE | RiftFeed
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Zeri With Massive Changes on PBE

Champions 17-11-2022 10:30
Zeri New Champion Lo L
Looks like the Spark of Zaun is receiving some special treatment. | © Riot Games

Zeri currently has the lowest winrate in League of Legends. Amidst preseason, Riot Games has decided it is finally time to do something about it.

Earlier this year, we saw pro players picking this champion left to right and dominating their opponents. Riot saw that something needed to be done and decided to nerf the champion time after time. Despite Riot's attempt, Zeri remained in top form in competitive play but had a heavily reduced winrate outside of the competitive scene.

The balancing struggle of this champion has been real, and she was even nerfed before release. As we can see, Riot really did this champion dirty, and currently, according to League of Graphs, Zeri has the lowest winrate in the game and is one of the least popular picks.

At the beginning of preseason, Riot Games is making yet another attempt to balance the champion, but this time, they are trying out something new. 

Which Changes Can We Expect?

Withered Rose Zeri
I love this skin. | © Riot Games

The new Zeri changes will be massive and will target all her abilities and base stats. In the post announcing the upcoming changes, Game Designer Tim explained that the current issue with Zeri is her high damage, infinite ultimate, and long range, making her have almost zero weaknesses in coordinated play but struggle outside of the pro playing scene. 

These changes look to give Zeri some strengths in some aspects but also reduce her abilities in others.  Here are all the changes summarized. 

All Base Stats Will Recieve a Buff

  • Movement Speed: 325 --> 330
  • Base AD: 50 --> 53
  • Base Armor: 20 --> 24
  • Base Health: 600 --> 630
  • Attack Speed Ratio: 0.568 --> 0.625
  • HP Per Level: 109 --> 115

Basic Attack

  • Fully Charged Damage: 90-200 (90%AP)(+1-15% target Max Health) --> 90-200 (110%AP)(+1-15% target Max Health)

Living Battery (Passive)

  • Gotta Zip Shield Bonus: 10% multiplicative MS --> 10% MS
  • Duration: 3s --> 2s

Burst Fire (Q)

  • Range: 825 --> 750
  • Excess Attack Speed to AD Ratio: 60% --> 70%
  • Base Damage: 8/11/14/17/20 --> 15/18/21/24/27
  • AD Ratio: 100/105/119/115/120% AD --> 104/108/102/116/120% AD

Ultrashock Laser (W)

  • Damage Type: Magic --> Physical
  • Damage: 20/55/90/125/160 (+100% AD)(+40% AP) --> 20/60/100/140/180 (+130% AD)(+0% AP)
  • Cast Time: 2.5x Attack Time --> 0.55 - 0.3s (Based on Attack Speed)
  • Missile Speed: 2200 --> 2500
  • Beam Cast Time: 0.75s --> 0.85s

Spark Surge (E)

  • Mana Cost: 80 --> 90/85/80/75/70
  • Cooldown: 24/22.5/21/19.5/18s --> 22/21/20/19/18s
  • NEW EFFECT: For the next 5s, Zeri's Burst Fire does an additional magic damage to the first enemy hit and pierce targets. 
  • Bonus Magic Damage: 20/22/24/26/28 (+20% AP) (+12% bonus AD)
  • NEW: Deals up to 65% bonus damage based on Critical Strike Chance
  • Pierce Damage Falloff: 60/70/80/90/100 % --> 80/85/90/95/100% 
  • Ability/Attack Damage reduce the cooldown of Spark Surge (E) by 0.5s (1.5s for critical strikes)
  • Reveal Range Through Walls: 850 C--> 1500

Lightning Crash (R)

  • REMOVEDBonus Magic Damage 
  • Chain Lightning Range: 450 --> 650
  • On-Cast Magic Damage: 150/250/350 (+80% AP)(+80% bonus AD) --> 175/275/375 (+110% AP)(+100% bonus AD)
  • If R hits (at least) one champion, Zeri gains 10% Move Speed, 20% Attack Speed, and chain shots for 5s. Hitting champions refreshes this buff by 1.5a (up to 5s total).
  • Hitting champions grants Zeri 1 stack (3 per crit) of Overcharge for 1.5s. Zeri gains 0.5% Move Speed for each stack of Overcharge (stacking infinitely). 

When Can We Expect the Changes?

These changes are already on League of Legends' PBE, meaning we can expect the changes to be implemented into the game in one of the upcoming patches. 

It is important to note that these updates are subject to change and might look different when hitting live servers.

What do you think about the upcoming Zeri changes? Are you ready to bring her popularity back up, or do you think this will be yet another balancing flop? 

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Maia Jacobsen

Hi I'm Maia, a recent University graduate from Norway, ready to work in the media field and becoming a key player in the esports and journalism sphere. That's why I started working here at Riftfeed as a content intern before...