The Patch 9.12 Yuumi nerfs are not enough

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It’s a tale as old as time: Riot releases a new champion. Players complain the new champion is weak, so Riot buffs the champion. It then becomes overpowered and takes over the meta for months.

It’s a consistent pattern anytime something new appears on the Rift. It’s happened with the likes of Ornn and Zoe and this time, it’s happening with Yuumi. She’s become a priority pick in both solo queue and professional play, so Riot is giving her a sizeable nerf in Patch 9.12. The problem is, the nerf is not going to be enough.

The interesting thing about Yuumi is that her win rates aren’t that good right now. She’s sitting below 50 percent in both casual and competitive play. But what’s clear is that she’s extremely popular.

That makes sense—she’s a cute cat. How could you not want to play that? But as players get more and more games on her, they’re getting better and better with her. Anyone who’s played against a good Yuumi knows how oppressive her lane is with endless amounts of poke on both her passive and her Q.

The biggest nerf that she’s getting is to her passive. First, the mana refunded when her passive procs is decreasing from 40 to 30 at level one, though it will still scale to the same amount at level 18. In essence, she’ll have to hit her passive twice to fund the cost of one Q.

The shield she gains from the passive will also be a bit weaker at later levels, capping at 300 instead of 360, with a 0.30 AP ratio instead of 0.40. She’s getting a bit less adaptive force when attached to an ally and now, if you can CC her during her dash, it will stop her from attaching.

All of that sounds pretty sizeable. But there’s one thing that Riot also did that may undo all of that: increasing her base health from 432 to 480. That is a whopping buff. And it will disproportionately affect good Yuumis, those that are comfortable separating from their carry to zone and poke. Getting that much health threatens to offset all the nerfs to the rest of her kit.

So if you’re tired of getting poked out by Yuumi, Patch 9.12 may not help you. But if you love adorable League champs, this patch will be just fine.