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League of Legends’ Master Yi gets key balance changes

Master Yi is getting a bunch of balance updates with the MOBA's next patch which should dial back his Duskblade of Draktharr build's play and open his playstyle

League of Legends patch 12.5 is currently on the MOBA game’s testing servers for a pre-launch test drive, and a fresh round of balance changes have now arrived. While the patch is a little smaller than usual due to the President’s Day national holiday in the US, if you’re a Master Yi main, you’ll want to check out what’s coming as the assassin champ is in for some significant tweaks.

There are currently three big changes to Master Yi’s Q ability, Alpha Strike, up for testing. The damage dealt by the ability has been buffed overall, and critical hits now deal more damage, too. Alpha Strike now also applies on-hit effects, while “on-hits from subsequent hits are also reduced”, as the patch preview notes. “CD refund now scales relative to the max cooldown reduction from ability haste (no longer double dips haste),” they also explain.

Wuju Style’s damage is getting a bit of a nerf at various levels, and the nature of its duration has changed so now it also doesn’t decrease during the champ’s Q ability as well as his W (Meditate). The ability can also now be cast during his Q – and these two latter changes have been applied to Master Yi’s R ability, Highlander, too.

The new changes now on the PBE follow a recent tweet from game designer Kevin ‘Captain Gameplay’ Huang giving an idea of what’s coming up for Master Yi, with changes seeming to target his regular Duskblade of Draktharr build.

As Dot Esports notes, it looks like the champion’s been pretty tough to beat in solo play of late with this build, particularly when in combination with items such as The Collector. The new changes look to shift his playstyle, with Huang explaining last week that the devs “will likely need to pull a bit of power somewhere to keep this power neutral for Kraken [Slayer]/on-hit builds”.

Elsewhere, Seraphine is also getting a few important balance changes this patch, while Kennen, Ahri, Gwen, and Xin Zhao are also due a few tweaks. League of Legends patch 12.5 is due to go live on Wednesday, March 2.