Balancing a League of Legends champion can be a tricky affair, there’s no doubt about it. Yuumi is the absolute scourge of the bot lane; untargetable when attached to the ADC, the magical cat keeps other champions alive when they should be dead. Now, after just having her healing nerfed, Riot has announced a hotfix to buff her damage output.
A series of tweets by Riot’s Lead Designer, Phroxzon, explain the changes to Yuumi while also attempting to give some context: “Long term, we’re interested in reducing her level of force multiplication with fighters and have her be happier about sitting at Marksman.”
What Phroxzon is trying to get at is the tendency of Yuumi players to see the laning phase out with their ADC and then immediately attach to a strong, bruiser-like, solo laner for the rest of the game.
Someone like Aatrox, for example, already has a lot of sustain in their kit, and has been in a solo lane for most of the match, so they’re going to be ahead of nearly everyone in terms of experience. If you add a Yuumi to the mix, then they become neigh-on unkillable, offering very little counterplay.
With that, Riot chose to nerf Yuumi’s overall healing output with the 12.16 patch. Strange, then, that very soon after 12.16 was released they would implement a hotfix buffing the cat. These are the planned changes:
Yuumi
- Prowling Projectile (Q): Base damage (unempowered) 50/80/110/140/170/200 > 50/90/130/170/210/250
- Prowling Projectile (Q): Base damage (empowered) 60/100/140/180/220/260 (+2/3.2/4.4/5.6/6.8/8% of target’s current health) > 60/110/160/210/260/310 (+3/4.2/5.4/6.6/7.8/9% of target’s current health)
- Final Chapter (R): Cooldown 130/110/90s > 110/100/90s
The replies below the announcement are full of questions and anger in equal measure. Some fans give their own suggestions on how to make Yuumi less painful to play against, while YamatoCannon, Head Coach for FNATIC merely asks: “Why”.
It’ll be interesting to see how this damage increase will impact Yuumi’s pick rate, especially in the pro scene, as she’s basically been pick/ban every game. For a list of the current changes, see our League of Legends patch 12.16 notes. If you’re looking for something a little more light-hearted, check out this League of Legends cosplayer – they literally become the Rift, and I can’t stop checking to see what they do next.