In all my years playing League of Legends, I’ve never seen a champion bounce around as much as Seraphine (perhaps Yuumi, but that kitten doesn’t have claws anymore). Initially billed as a midlaner, Piltover’s starry-eyed songstress was shifted into the support role following a series of changes last year, and it’s the role Riot seems intent on keeping her in. However, as she continues to perform as both a midlaner and ADC, she’s being adjusted yet again to try and firmly box her into support.
According to former caster turned League of Legends game designer David ‘Phreak’ Turley, Seraphine’s “primary audience is in support,” a statement he called “irrefutable.” Lead gameplay designer, Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison reiterates this in his Tuesday, February 27 patch 14.5 preview, noting that “players are clearly voting for her support to be her primary supported playstyle.”
As a result, the team is making moves to push her further into the MOBA‘s support bracket, away from ADC, where Phreak says she’s “overpowered.” Riot does, however, want to maintain some midlane power to “support the [carry Seraphine] audience.”
At the moment, Phreak claims there is a 6% win rate gap angling in the favor of ADC, and as someone who’s been spamming Sona Seraphine with her duo, I do agree that the champion is pretty broken if you play it correctly.
While there’s a whole slew of changes, support mains will be happy to hear that her Surround Sound (W) has had its cooldown and mana costs cut down, and its shield increased. Her mana growth and regen have also been increased to help her shield through the early game, too.
Where she loses out, however, is on her overall attack damage, and her High Note (Q), where the mana cost has increased – although it does a little more damage and drops a little quicker, so there’s that. Her E gets a slight buff, but the CC has been cut down from 1.25s to 1.1s (1.5s as the game progresses), and its damage to minions has been nerfed pretty heavily. Her Encore (R)’s cooldown has also increased in the late game by an extra 20 seconds, and its AP ratio has dropped by 20%.
All in all, this does feel like a push towards support, with the increased shielding and decrease in overall damage – especially to her waveclear. One commenter calls it a “total nerf,” while another writes “I’m totally confused on what they want to do with Seraphine.”
As someone who used to play her all the time, I’m also a little confused. She’s cycled out of my support picks because she just isn’t quite right yet. As I said, we saw some success with Sona Seraphine, but largely because of the sheer level of sustain across the two. Sera mid definitely seems to be a thing of the past, and while I’m happy to see some support-oriented changes as a support main, her kit still feels very confused – hopefully, this changes that.
If you, like me, are aiming for a decent rank this split, check out our LoL tier list to help you choose the best champions for the job. Or, if said ranked grind is getting you down, we have a list of all the best multiplayer games, too.
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