Hecarim will actually get a slew of much-needed League of Legends nerfs in the next game, patch 11.9. The Shadow of War’s simple pace, as well as his latest “unkillable” builds, are being targeted by Riot Games developers in Season 11.
The Shadow of War, along with the unexpected “king of the jungle” Udyr, has become one of the most successful champions early in Season 11, featuring in a staggering 72.1 percent of rated League of Legends lobbies.
Of that number, 58.33% is champion bans.
The only issue with these “presence” statistics is that Hecarim’s total win percentage isn’t decreasing either. So far in Season 11, the fast jungler has won 53.53 percent of his solo queue games, trailing only Annie (54.51 percent with a 2.77 percent pick rate). He’s already participated in 887 tournament games, winning 454 of them this year.
Hecarim did take a minor hit this week, as LoL patch 11.8 reduced his bonus transfer pace by 10%. Unfortunately, it just narrowly moved the dial.
Fortunately, the League’s balancing team has taken note.
Jeevun ‘Jag’ Sidhu, the lead designer-developer, has reported that the “out of control” Shadow of War is gradually being reined in ahead of the next LoL update.
The strategy, according to the LoL dev, is to “push power away from Hecarim’s tank build and into fighter builds.” If the LoL patch 11.9 nerfs are implemented, this change should make him more of a “glass cannon” character.
“We’re checking these Hecarim updates right now,” Sidhu said.
There’s also the possibility that they’ll only have to “adjust Chemtank,” he said. “Turbo Chemtank,” a mythic from Season 11, is at the center of Hecarim’s strength.
Hecarim’s flexible talent kit already includes a lot of paces. He also chooses “Ghost” over the more conventional “Flash” summoner spell to provide more speed to his engagement. The mythic “Chemtank” assists in this by giving him a 60% bonus transfer speed if he moves into an
enemy champ.
Simply put, he’s “way too fast.”
“The problem is that Chemtank is a pretty reasonable option on a lot of champions,” Sidhu added. It’s an incredibly strong tool, but it’s just on a few strongly shaping the meta (Udyr, Hecarim), so nerfs will have significant consequences.”
The Riot developers admitted that focusing on the mythic item itself would be a “last resort.” However, if Hecarim maintains his dominance, it is not out of the question.
Riot will also be hoping that their daring new jungle buffs for many lane champions shake up the wandering meta enough to force Hecarim and Udyr out.
The League of Legends balancing team surprised everyone by adding “another round of new champs to the jungle pool,” including Darius, Mordekaiser, and Morgana, as well as regular mid-lane stars including Diana and Zed. These were included in the April 14 patch, which is now available.