Riot to improve low play rate champions in Legends of Runeterra

Riot Games has identified several champions in Legends of Runeterra, including Vladimir, Shen, and Kalista, with low play rates and plans on making adjustments. 

Champions are an integral component within LoR and several of them aren’t getting played at the higher levels of the ranked ladder and competitive tournaments. Revealed during today’s “State of Open Beta,” Riot disclosed data supporting low play rates and how improvements will get implemented. 

Champions like Vladimir and Shen were initially equipped with narrow archetypes. Rather than buffing the champions to improve gameplay, the LoR team has identified their supporting cast as the issue.

“For these champions, we look to make their narrow decks a bit more meta or make tweaks to their supporting cast of followers before we outright change the champion itself,” Riot said. 

Champions like Kalista are also seeing low rates of gameplay—but not due to inefficient units that can be played with her. In this case, the LoR team plans to give her a buff to improve Kalista’s rate of play. A scheduled time in which this buff will occur hasn’t been revealed at this time. 

Riot also addressed champions like Yasuo and Ezreal, identifying them as “consumptive champions.” These champions have powerful level-ups that shut down an opponent’s overall strategy. And while changes aren’t planned in the near future for these specific champions, the LoR team is keeping a close eye on them. 

“While we aren’t planning to rework either [Yasuo or Ezreal] in the near future, we’re being careful about how we design champs like that going forward, and are keeping a close eye on existing champs that fall into this category,” Riot said.