One of the most influential picks in professional League of Legends over the past year has to be Gwen, the Hallowed Seamstress. The plucky doll-turned-human has been the top lane champion of choice for many people around the world, but in Patch 12.13, Riot Games is planning to shift a bunch of her power around her kit.
First, Gwen’s Snip Snip ability will be getting hit with a 25 percent reduction to its true damage, but its base damage and final snip damage will be getting some significant buffs as well. Farming should be easier with Snip Snip, even though its minion damage will be decreasing by 25 percent since the ability will execute minions under 20 percent health.
Gwen’s most controversial ability, Hallowed Mist, is also receiving some changes, with its duration getting reduced by one second but its resists getting increased as a result. It’ll be interesting to see how well this trade-off fares for players as they scale in the later stages of a match. The Seamstress’ early mobility is also taking a hit with some nerfs to Skip n’ Slash’s early cooldown refund on basic attack. The ability is, however, getting buffs to its bonus attack range and overall damage.
Her ultimate ability will be getting an increase to its damage per needle hit, but instead of having to hit an auto-attack or Snip Snip in between, players will just need to wait 1.5 seconds to cast the second and third casts.
This should make skirmishes and teamfights a lot simpler for players who aren’t able to weave in unique attacks because they’re in a disadvantageous matchup and can’t get in range. This is a pretty significant nerf for her burst capabilities, however, since she can’t dish out all of her ultimate charges as quickly as before.
Overall, it feels like Riot is trying to skew Gwen into more solo queue players by making her abilities a tad easier to pilot, including her ultimate and farming with her Q ability. For players who have a good mastery of her mechanics, the changes might need some getting used to. But for anyone who wanted to try Gwen out, Riot is making her a lot simpler to learn.
Patch 12.13 is scheduled to release on Wednesday, July 13.
