Before patch 12.5, Master Yi dominated the League of Legends meta, despite Riot shipping nerfs to counter his Lethality build. The nerfs, however, have simply made the champion stronger, requiring Riot to release a mid-patch on March 4.
Riot intended to modify Master Yi’s Lethality build with nerfs in League of Legends patch 12.5, shifting power into his more typical on-hit attacks build. The nerfs, on the other hand, have simply helped to make him stronger than before.
According to LoLalytics, Master Yi’s previous win rate was already high (roughly around 52%) in patch 12.4, after the nerfs, it has increased to almost 55% across all tiers in patch 12.5. Furthermore, his pick rate continues to rise.
Riot recognized that the adjustments were inappropriate and has now released a mid-patch 12.5 on March 4 to try to make the nerfs operate as planned. According to Riot Games, instead of modifying the gameplay for Master Yi, this nerf unexpectedly became a powerful buff. As a result, they will minimize the direct damage to help Master Yi in the games depending on the attack.
Master Yi nerfs in mid-patch 12.5
Base stats
- Health: 599 ⇒ 550
Q: Alpha Strike
- Damage: 30/60/90/120/150 (+60% AD) ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150 (+50% AD)
- Bonus damage from critical strikes: +50% Damage ⇒ +35% Damage
- On-hit damage: 100%, reduced to 25% for subsequent hits ⇒ 75%, reduced to 18.75% for subsequent hits
E: Wuju Style
- True damage: 30/38/46/54/62 (+35% bonus AD) ⇒ 30/37/44/51/58 (+30% bonus AD)
R: Highlander
- Cooldown: 85 seconds ⇒ 100/90/80 seconds
Looking at the adjustments, we can see that Riot has considerably restricted the ability of Master Yi’s to burst down targets. Both the on-hit attacks and Lethality builds are now nerfed as a result of the reduced base health, his Q Alpha Strike, true damage on his E, and longer early game cooldown on his Ult.
The most significant nerf is probably his Q, Alpha Strike. The additional damage from critical strikes is lowered to 35%, and his AD scalings are also reduced. The on-hit damage will also scale less, making items like Kraken Slayer less useful, but still playable.