Riot announces much-needed nerfs for Master Yi & Rek’sai.
Master Yi & Rek’sai have been terrorizing solo-queue recently, having a solid win rate and pick rate for a few patches now. So Riot has finally taken notice and is planning on nerfing both in patch 12.19.
Master Yi has always been a problematic champion to balance for Riot. Historically, the champion had a very good win rate in the lower ELOs and fell off with the higher ELOs. Thus he was given the nickname ‘The Noob Stomper.’
This has been the case for the past few patches, as he has been doing very well in the lower ELOs. Maybe too well. Master Yi currently has a 53% win rate in Plat+ with a decent pick rate. Unfortunately, he also has a ban rate of 21%, which is quite a lot. So Riot is planning to nerf him.
Rek’sai, on the other hand, is quite the opposite of Master Yi. She has a reasonable win rate in the higher ELOs but a bad one in the lower ELOs. This is mainly because Rek’sai takes quite a bit of game knowledge to manoeuvre properly. And her ganking pattern is very different from other Junglers. It also doesn’t help that she falls off very hard in the late game, so her early ganks must be successful.
Rek’sai currently has almost a 54% win rate in Diamond+. Unfortunately, she also has a 10% ban rate, making her quite strong. So Riot is planning to tune her win rate down by nerfing her.
Riot Phroxzon, the lead designer of the League Balance Team, announced the nerfs and some buffs on his Twitter.
What are the changes?
Master Yi
- AD growth lowered from 2.5 to 2.2
- Wuju Style (E)
- bonus AD ratio lowered from 35% to 30%
Master Yi is getting a small nerf to his AD growth and a scaling nerf to his E (Wuju Style) scaling. Although these changes will not be enough to stop him from being a top-tier pick in low ELO, they will certainly affect his win rate.
Rek’Sai
- Base AD lowered from 64 to 61
The Rek’sai nefs, on the other hand substantial. As Rek’sai is an early game champion, nerfing her base AD will affect her early jungle clear and ganks quite a bit.
When will the changes arrive?
Master Yi & Rek’sai changes will be coming to the live servers on Patch 12.19 Wednesday, Oct 5, 2022
