League of Legends Wild Rift Patch Notes 2.1a breakdown
Finally the long awaited Lulu nerf, along with some balance changes and arrival of Katarina to Wild Rift.
Katarina joins the Rift! Apart from that, mostly buffs and nerfs to champions and items. The ADC meta will se a shift. No gameplay changes.
Katarina, the Sinister Blade
She will be one of the highest skill cap champions on the Rift. Her ultimate has been changed because it cancelled very easily. She can now move along while casting her ult. She can be redeemed from her event, which will start sometime down the month.
Katarina skins
Death Sworn Katarina
Oof! My favorite Katarina skin.
Bilgewater Katarina
Skins
Omega Squad Fizz
Omega Squad Teemo
Omega Squad Tristana
El Tigre Braum
Super Galaxy Shyvana
Champions-Buffs and Nerfs
Lulu
Base Stats
- Base health: 570 → 530
- Movement speed: 330 → 325
(2) Whimsy
- Polymorph duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2s → 1/1.25/1.5/1.75s
(3) Help, Pix!
- Shield duration: 5s → 2.5s
- Cast range: 7 → 6
(Ult) Wild Growth
- Cast range: 8 → 7
The change we have all been waiting for. No matter the elo, Lulu was a staple pick always.
None of her damage has been nerfed but almost ALL of her utility has taken a hit. The third ability Help, Pix, was one of the free-est and most easy to hit poke abilities in the game along with her Q. This made it so most marksmen in the enemy lane would always be half hp during the laning plase. The range reduction means, other poke supports can now poke back. The poke is no longer as “free” as it used to be. Lulu might put herself in some danger or misposition just to hit the ability.
The shield duration is reduced by half! That means only the good Lulu players can pull off a good shield. The ability has become much less spammable. remember, her shield value is already less than that of Janna and she has no healing ability apart from her ult. Coming to the ult, again it takes a decent hit. Hotfix patch saw the cooldown being increased, now we see a range reduction. To buff the frontline, she would have to be slightly more in range.
Last patch Olaf would just jump on the enemy doing dragon and Lulu would max range ult him, knocking everyone up and ensuring the dragon steal. In situations like these the ult range reduction will hit the hardest, assume your Olaf is just one pixel away, you might have to expend a flash to reach him and put yourself in danger in the process.
This change might mean tank supports are in a better spot now.
I don’t think this change nerfs her to the ground. Her baron land and midlane strategies might still work, but the HP nerf is notable. She will be squishier and have to be more in range to deal damage. Meta baron laners might punish this behavior.
Lulu is still a viable support overall, but she might have dropped down to A or S from S+.
Ashe
(1) Ranger’s Focus
- Cooldown: 8/7/6/5s → 7/6/5/4s
A decent change. It didn’t take 4 seconds for her to stack the 6 arrows, so this change will make her gameplay smoother.
Darius
(1) Decimate
- Missing health heal %: 12 to 36% → 15 to 45%
(3) Apprehend
- Slow duration: 1s → 1.5s
This change seems great for Darius. He didn’t have a high pickrate in the professional matches recently. This change just might put him in a good spot. With the increase in slow, he will be able to proc 4 stacks on any Apprehended target easily, and the Q increases his sustain in those late game team fights.
Ezreal
(1) Mystic Shot
- Base damage: 20/50/80/110 → 20/55/90/125
Ezreal will be in a decent spot after his. He does not seem broken or too strong. The buffs aren’t too big.
Miss Fortune
Base Stats
- Base armor: 35 → 30
- Base health regen: 9 → 6
- Base health regen per level: 0.81 → 0.55
- 21 at level 15 → 14 at level 15
(P) Love Tap
- Love Tap Damage vs minions: 100% → 50%
- [BUGFIX] Love Tap Damage vs monsters: 50% (Unchanged - now in tooltip)
Miss Fortune will feel squishier now, but her damage output is untouched. She will still be a priority pick.
Olaf
Base Stats
- Base armor: 40 → 35
- Base AD: 70 → 64
(1) Undertow
- Slow: 30/35/40/45% → 20/25/30/35%
- Slow duration: 2.5s → 2s
This doesn’t seem like too big of a nerf at all. He will still be a monstrosity in the early game, still have the fastest jungle clear and still be a force to be dealt with.
Varus
(1) Piercing Arrow
- Cooldown: 18/16/14/12s → 16/14/12/10s
This might not seem like a big buff but he has been progressively buffed over the patches. Only time will tell if this will make him meta. He has been overlooked by players for so long that it might just take a little more than this to bring him back.
Vayne
(3) Condemn
- Damage on terrain stun: 75/120/165/210 → 105/145/185/225
(Ult) Final Hour
- Cooldown: 100/80/60s → 90/75/60s
The changes might seem huge at first, but her core item Blade of the Ruined King, is nerfed. She synergized really well with Lulu, but now even Lulu is nerfed.
Xayah
(1) Double Dagger
- Base damage: 35/65/95/125 → 50/75/100/125
(2) Deadly Plumage
- Bonus attack speed: 25/30/35/40% → 35/40/45/50%
(3) Bladecaller
- Cooldown: 12/11/10/9s → 11/10/9/8s
- AD ratio: 0.6 → 0.8
(Ult) Featherstorm
- Base damage: 100/200/300 → 125/250/375
It was no secret that Xayah was underperforming. Even after hitting her entire combo she still didn’t have enough dmg in the late game. The ult did a very low amount of damage that was not even enough to finish low hp targets. These changes will hopefully bring her on the Rift as an actually playable marksman. Finally, Xayah Rakan duo might be in a good spot.
Items
Blade of the Ruined King
Attack damage: 30 → 20
Attack speed: 30% → 35%
On-hit damage
Melee: 6% → 9% of current enemy health physical damage
Ranged: 6% of current enemy health physical damage (unchanged)
Drain movement speed duration: 3s → 2sThis had become the staple item on many marksmen. The nerfs are to the Attack Damage so only the marksmen that want Attack speed can build this. This is an indirect nerf to Kai’sa, Vayne and so on.
Which meele champions are affected by Blade of the Ruined King?
Champions like Shyvanna, Master Yi, Tryndamere, Yasuo and Jax have received an indirect buff coz this item is good on them. Both attack speed and the percentage hp damage is great on these champs.
Liandry’s Torment
Ability power: 90 → 70
Total cost: 3150g (unchanged)
Combine cost: 800g → 950gThis was a staple item on most mages and even some poke supports had started to build it. Nerf is well deserved but it is still nowhere near enough to nerf Orianna.
Haunting Guise
Ability power: 35 → 25
Total cost: 1450g → 1300g
Upgrade cost: 950g → 800gFree to Play Champion Rotation
| Date | Easy | Medium | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 4 - Mar 10 | Tristana, Sona | Aurelion Sol, Gragas, Kai’Sa, Lulu, Teemo, Tristana | Fiora, Lee Sin |
| Mar 11 - Mar 17 | Amumu, Braum, Seraphine | Alistar, Evelynn, Singed, Vayne, Jhin | Camille, Yasuo |
Rundown Videos
Patch Notes from a challenger ADC main, iTzSTU4RT. His insights are really useful, as this patch mainly touches the marksmen meta the most. Special thanks to him for letting us use his video on here. If you aren’t already subscribed, do it!
Here are the Patch Notes from the Gaming Pharaoh himself. Many thanks to Shurkou for letting us embed his video on here.
Final Thoughts
Really excited for Katarina. About the buffs and nerfs I am just glad that the reign of Lulu has finally been addressed. I was expecting more changes than these after delay of nearly a month. The ping issues are still rampant, Orianna and Olaf will still decimate their respective roles, role queue and ban system is still to be implemented.
Goodluck on the Rift, friend!
Have anything you would like to add? Let us know what you think about these changes!