The Volibear rework is here! (Yay!) Players have found that he’s very weak! (Boo!) As is pretty much always the case, the immediate reaction to the new hero balance has been negative, and the sentiment is in part backed up by the current League of Legends win rates. But the raw percentage only tells half the story.
Over the past seven days – since the launch of LoL patch 10.11 and the Volibear rework – the champion has had a 44.01% win rate in ranked play (according to stat tracker OP.GG) – the lowest in the game, just behind Akali at 44.36%. But he’s also had one of the top pick rates in that stretch at 17.76%, the third-most picked champ for that period.
Volibear’s win rate is improving over the past 24 hours in ranked, he’s at 47.10%. That’s still distressingly low, but it’s no longer the absolute bottom of the barrel. (Hi, Akali.) It’s likely that his low win rate is at least partly due to just how many players are picking him to see the new kit, but this week has also seen the sudden launch of a hotfix to improve the champ, which is likely also contributing.
The stats are similar in normal queue, though Voli actually fares a bit better there – a 46.94% win rate for the week and 49.47% for the day.
The Voli buff micropatch is now live! Again, we're being cautious with buffs and will reassess throughout the week.
Q- MS% increased by 5% at all ranks (10% towards champs)
E- base damage up by 20 at all ranks, % damage now 11-15% from 7-13%. Damage cap increased by 50.
— Nathan Lutz (@RiotLutzburg) June 2, 2020
Riot’s new champion release process offers a more specific roadmap for how new and reworked characters will be balanced in the short term. Voli’s hotfix is part of that roadmap, and if Riot decides on more substantial changes, those will come following the most recent patch cycle.