Riot is nerfing Bard and Nami in League’s Patch 10.9

The two champions have been running rampant in solo queue.
Image via Riot Games

Bard and Nami are taking a hit in the next League of Legends patch.

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The two support champions have climbed to the top of the rankings in the last few months and have dominated solo queue.

Nami has an extraordinary 53-percent win rate in Platinum and above, and Bard isn’t far behind her at 52 percent. Nami is a strong, all-around support and has seen success from the bottom to the top of the tables. Bard isn’t quite as prevalent in the lower ranks, but in the elite Elos, he’s a top-tier pick.

In Patch 10.9, Riot is targetting Nami’s stats. Her base HP is being reduced from 489.32 to 475, her base mana will be lowered from 277.24 to 264, and her passive movement speed will drop from 60 to 45. Together, these changes should create a weaker laning phase for the champ. Nami players will have to be more conservative with trading and indiscriminately using their abilities. The nerfs should give players less room for error.

In February, Bard received his first direct nerf since he was released in 2015. Riot reduced his damage per five chimes alongside nerfs to Boots of Mobility and Spellthief’s Edge, two of his core items. This may have impacted his damage somewhat, but he still remains a menace in solo queue.

In the next patch, Riot is nerfing Bard’s movement speed on his Caretaker’s Shrine (W) from 50 to 30 percent and its cooldown from 12 to 14. The devs are also increasing the cooldown on Magical Journey (E) from 18 to 14 to 22 to 16. This is quite a substantial nerf that will affect Bard in the early and late stages of the game. In the laning phase, particularly, the changes to E mean Bard will have a difficult time escaping from crowd control-heavy champions, like Sett, Thresh, and Nautilus.

League’s Patch 10.9 is scheduled to go live on Wednesday, April 29.


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Author
Jerome Heath
Jerome Heath is a senior editor at Dot Esports.