Wild Rift Patch Notes 1.0a Breakdown
A thorough rundown of the most recent patch notes published by Riot. Xin Zhao and Blitzcrank nerfs are finally here.
Contents
Summary
In this patch, we’re taking a big swing at Xin Zhao to bring down his overall power.
Well deserved! Just have to look at the mains of all server tops, Xin Zhao is always almost always picked. Along with that, Blitz and Vayne got some major nerfs as well.
Blitzcrank
Blitz is supposed to rely heavily on his hook to make plays, but at this point, he can just run at you even without landing a hook and still solokill your squishies.
BASE STATS
- Health: 690 → 650
- Health Regen per level: 1.07 → 0.81
Static Field (Ultimate)
- Damage 250/375/500 → 200/325/450
- Silence duration 1s → 0.5s
Possibly the most broken support of the last patch. His hooks were a guaranteed death sentence along with that 1 second silence in his ultimate. His entire kit took a lot of hits, damage, tankiness and silence, everything nerfed. His damage definitely got a well deserved nerf, but I don’t think his tankiness needed any nerfs; he never felt unkillable. Blitz definitely took a hard one on his silence duration reduced by half is no joke! The AOE silence was a major part of his support kit. I don’t think Blitzcrank will be an S tier support anymore after this patch.
Vayne
Vayne in the Duo lane seems legit, but Vayne in the Solo lane is simply not fun to play against. We’re making her more vulnerable by reducing her movespeed. (2) Silver Bolts is also taking a large hit, since she seemed to be doing way too much true damage, which has little counterplay.
BASE STATS
- Movement Speed 330 → 325
NIGHT HUNTER(Passive)
- Movement Speed bonus [30 @ Level 1] → [15 @ Level 1] [20 @ Level 5] [30 @ Level 9]
SILVER BOLTS(Skill 2)
- Damage 50/70/90/110 → 30/50/70/90
If you have ever faced a Vayne solo lane you will know what the trouble was. You would be denied all last hits against a marksman who scales beautifully into the late game. This posed a major threat to the mobility less solo laners that had weak early game like Nasus. Easy snowballs could be expected from the enemy.
Riot’s response to this was nerfing her mobility in return. The base mobility nerfs are not significant but Passive herf is huge. Her mobility is literally nerfed by half! And because the damage scaling is the same, her duo lane performance has not taken any hits. Love these changes as they might put a stop to those obnoxious solo lane Vaynes.
Xin Zhao
The clear outlier from patch 1.0, Xin Zhao’s pick rate and win rate are both very high. His full combo is sweeping foes off the map, and teammates can’t even touch him if he has his ultimate on. We’re nerfing his most important stat, Attack Damage, while also making him much squishier.
BASE STATS
- Attack Damage: 70 → 64
- Health per level: 115 → 105
- Armor per level: 4.3 → 3.9
- Magic Resist: 38 → 30
AUDACIOUS CHARGE (Skill 3)
- Cast range 6 → 5.5
CRESCENT GUARD (Ultimate)
- Cooldown 80/70/60s → 100/85/70s
Finally the one we have all been waiting for! I don’t think anyone is gonna complain about these changes, not even Xin Zhao mains. The champion was a bit too OP, maintaining his tankiness along with all that ridiculous damage both early and late game. Riot is pushing in the right direction with these nerfs.
Nearly most of his offensive and defensive base stats have taken a hit. The ult cooldown is rightly increased. The cast range might seem minor but it determines if a ranged can potentially get away or not.
Hopefully he seems balanced after this patch. I don’t think he is unplayable by a stretch. He still retains a major part of his strengths.
Major Bugfixes
Fixed an issue where bots were significantly overperforming in Practice Mode.
I liked how good the Garen bot was. We might have lost a good sparring partner folks.
October 25 Hotfix
We deployed a hotfix on October 25 to re-add 60fps mode for some devices. We’re aware that many devices are unable to access higher graphics tiers, and are continuing to monitor the impact on game crashes.
Final Thoughts
I was expecting a solid Ezreal nerf, but I guess we aren’t getting one yet. That apart, we are definitely moving in the right direction here, with some well deserved nerfs. Riot is slightly closer to the goal of becoming “most balanced mobile MOBA ever.” Balance changes will be rolling out every two weeks and we will be breaking down all of them(even the hotfixes) on the day they release.
Have anything you would like to add? Let us know what you think about these changes!