Some old names have been popping up recently with their winrates and abuse skyrocketing, for no apparent reason, other than them being impossible to play against. Whichever role you play in the game, a few names must have come to mind.
Starting off with a yordle with a penchant for, well, enchanting, Riot have laid down some nerfs to her kit. While Lulu’s power in Average play is balanced, she’s strong in Skilled and even stronger in Elite. Back in patch 11.9, Riot purposefully buffed Lulu, targeting these skill brackets by reducing the cooldown on her W and increasing its bonus attack speed.
The increased uptime on reliable peel made her a highly frustrating champion to play against, which has been reflected in her high ban rates. To get her back in action, they are reverting the buff on her Skilled-skewed mechanic of instant CC and increasing her R cooldown.
Moving to the River King, and the bane of any toplaner currently, Tahm Kench is next on the chopping block. Tahm Kench’s early game power has been especially strong in the top lane, where he’s able to issue beatdowns and heal through brawls. Riot are dialing, both, back to give his enemies more time to lick their wounds and try to out-sustain him in the laning phase.
In the jungle, not even the blind monk, who has his own set of nerfs, has surpassed the pure domination of Xin Zhao. I can't remember the last time I played a game, without Xin Zhao in it.
Even after the last set of nerfs in patch 11.14, Xin Zhao is still one of the top dogs in the jungle at all levels of play. With longer ranges on his new W and E, Xin doesn’t need to be one of the best-in-class early game bullies, since he has better access to his targets than ever before. Riot are trimming his base damage so that he’s still strong early, but isn’t as easily able to overwhelm other junglers.
Riot Games
Speaking of annoying champions to play against, Karma is getting some "adjustments". Karma’s been much stronger in coordinated Pro play than in solo queue for a while. Riot hope to extend this success to all levels of play, via introducing bigger changes rather than incremental ones.
To do so, they are targeting her consistent early game pressure and waveclear, along with her R-E shield-and-speed buff for her full team. In return, they're rewarding her with more Mantras when she lands abilities on champions, which will also be helped by her Q’s lower cooldown and cost, while also strengthening her R-Q so that she’s still able to obliterate her foes when she’s on her own. Which, of course, sounds not at all annoying.
