Riot Phroxzon authors the latest League’s gameplay thoughts post regarding recent Zeri and Yuumi balance changes in Patch 12.16
Contents
Yuumi and Zeri are hard to balance champions
Phroxzon cited these 4 elements as the cause:
- Perceptions of fairness and counterplay
- Champion is exciting to play and has “high moments”
- Performance in Elite/Pro play
- Performance in Average play
A high moment for a champion, such as Zeri’s R infinite mobility, is satisfying for the player, but is also frustrating for the opponent and thus can be perceived as unfair. Additionally, some champions are less effective in pubs but prove to be a constant menace at a high skill or pro level. Zeri/Yuumi in particular have been wrecking havoc across LoL pro games, but have notably sat at below 50% winrates on average according to mobachampion
Recent changes to Yuumi and Zeri in Patch 12.16
Zeri
- Q AD ratio: 105% – 125% >>> 100% – 120%
- W AP ratio: 60% >>> 40%
Yuumi
- E Movespeed AP ratio: (+6% per 100 AP) >>> (+2% per 100 AP)
- E Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8s >>> 12/11.5/11/10.5/10s
- Q base damage (unempowered) increased from 50/80/110/140/170/200 to 50/90/130/170/210/250
- Q base damage (empowered) increased from 60/100/140/180/220/260 (+2/3.2/4.4/5.6/6.8/8% of the target’s current health) to 60/110/160/210/260/310 (+3/4.2/5.4/6.6/7.8/9% of the target’s current health)
- Final Chapter (R) cooldown decreased from 130/110/90 seconds to 110/100/90 seconds
Phroxzon admits they have no idea how to approach Zeri and Yuumi yet
Long term, reducing her ability to “go infinite” in teamfights while maintaining her ability to make plays around the map is where we’re looking to optimize her. This will take time to explore and implement, so for now we’re taking her out of the limelight until we can land on a healthy and sustainable direction.
Riot Phroxzon
While the direction of “reducing her ability to go infinite” is there, we could see some head-scratching there from the way Riot just decided to nerf and kick Zeri out of the limelight for the time being. The specifics are likely being figured out, but as we’re already onto the 1st of 3 Worlds patches, there is a chance ‘the time being’ might include even Worlds.
Longer term, we think Yuumi’s laning phase performance should be more important to her success. Reducing her strength on fighters in favor of marksmen and reducing her coordination burden will put Yuumi in a better state long term while retaining the aspects of Yuumi that her players care about.
Riot Phroxzon
Yuumi is the other recent controversial balance change. She received a nerf in Patch 12.16, but was buffed in a hotfix just a day after. This has turned heads within League community. According to Phroxzon, Riot intends on making Yuumi stronger individually and more aggressive with her Q pokes instead of just chilling on top of a teammate. But the changes so far have not really gone far enough to deliver this vision.
Patch 12.17 preview is already out, and no changes on either Yuumi or Zeri in sight. We might have to wait for the final Worlds balance patch 12.18 or even beyond.
