League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter highlighted some of the champions that are getting nerfed and buffed in the game’s next patch last night. And one of the champs that’s being targeted is the Monkey King.
After Wukong’s recent rework, he became pick or ban status due to how strong he is. He received hotfix nerfs on the same day, but it wasn’t enough to stop his domination. He’s being played top, mid, or jungle, but is finding the most success in the top lane. Since he’s become overpowered after his rework, Riot will look to nerf Wukong again in Patch 10.7.
Garen became a staple in solo que after his reworked E (Judgement), which scales with attack speed. He received nerfs just like Wukong, but they didn’t stop him in his tracks and he’s on par with Wukong in terms of power. They’re both sitting at first and second as the most-picked champions in the top lane with the highest win rate right now. Garen will also be nerfed in Patch 10.7.
Yetter also announced a series of buffs for weaker or underplayed champions and a surprise nerf to Nocturne in the mid lane.
Nocturne has been terrorizing solo que. The champ boasts a 54 percent win rate, based on op.gg data, and has a six percent pick rate. His item build, which focuses on lethality combined with runes to reduce his ultimate cooldown, makes him extremely scary for side laners in non-coordinated play.
One surprising champ that’s being targeted for buffs after getting gutted for multiple patches in a row is Akali. The champion has been a big issue for both solo queue and competitive play with her reworked kit. She lost half of her reworked mechanics that she had on release, such as true stealth under towers, healing, micro-stun, and a movement speed increase while extending her shroud. She’s been Riot’s love child for the mid and top lane for the past few months with different buffs targeted at bringing her back into the meta.
The other surprise champion is Riven, who’s hated by most mid laners and ADCs in the game due to how strong she is against immobile champions. If Riven gets ahead, she becomes a nightmare to deal with, especially if you have no abilities to dash or blinks. It’s hard to escape a fed Riven without them since she has three small dashes via her Q and one bigger dash via her E.
Riot is also looking into buffing underplayed champions as well, such as Nasus, Galio, Ivern and Xin Zhao, who have all been missing from the Rift for the last couple of months.
While it’s unclear how Riot intends to nerf or buff the champions listed, the fact that the company is targeting the ones outperforming everyone in the top and mid lane is a good start.
Patch 10.7 should be coming out next week on Wednesday, April 1 along with the new April Fools’ Day themed skins.
