LoL Patch 14.9: Riot Buffs Beginner-Friendly Champions, With One Exception
Riot is buffing some of the easiest champions to play in LoL Patch 14.9, but one annoying easy pick is getting nerfed.
While the nerf list in LoL Patch 14.9 is pretty long, there are also quite a few interesting buffs being added to the game. Some are just mere quality of life buffs, but there are also strategic buffs to a specific champion type this time around — noob champions.
Riot Phroxzon explained the reasoning behind these buffs, as well as the nerfs in the patch, so why is Riot targeting easy to play champions right now?
LoL Patch 14.9: Noob Champions Are Getting Buffed
Some champions are harder to master than others, that's for sure. We've got super easy OP picks like Annie where you have to master a single "combo" — if you can even call it that — and on the other hand there are high mechanical champions with too many abilities and buttons — looking at you Hwei.
In LoL Patch 14.9, Riot is going to be buffing a few of these giga simple champions, namely Seraphine, Amumu and Malzahar. Lead Gameplay Designer, Riot Phroxzon explained the reason behind these buffs.
Some of our easy champions (Amumu, Malzahar, Seraphine a bit less so) with low mastery have been sitting at 51 percent for a while. For these champions, this is actually pretty critically weak.
He noted that Master Yi, who is one of the easiest jungler in the game is getting a nerf though. That is because ever since his rework, he has actually become a much more difficult champion to navigate and Riot is looking to change some of his power around to make him a beginner-friendly champion once more.
We did some work to Master Yi many patches ago to flatten his performance skew by MMR. Some of this is great! But if we go too far, it can mean that Master Yi is not able to function properly for his target audience.
Riot is looking to make him easier in the long run, which is why they will nerf him in LoL Patch 14.9. There might be some more significant changes in his future. But for now, the "training wheel" champions are getting some love from Riot!
More League of Legends: