Simple to learn, yet too strong, are the very first impressions of League of Legends fans on Vex – the game’ 157th champion.
The newest champion – Vex debuted in League of Legends after patch 11.19 and quickly drew players in. Even professional players can’t ignore her, and Rookie, for example, has comments about Vex on his stream channel. Invictus Gaming’s mid laner, in particular, stated that Vex is so simple that he “can play the champion with one hand”.
Perhaps because it is so simple to play, and also has a very strong skill set, high damage, and strong counters to mobile champions, Vex has a win rate of up to 50% in less than two days. And, according to the League of Legends player community, this is likely the strongest name ever released in modern League of Legends when compared to other names, particularly champions with “Riot’s 200 years of experience” like Viego (only 42 percent after the first day of releasing) or Gwen (also 42 percent during the same period). Only Dr. Mundo has a win rate of more than 50%, but only after this reworked champion has been out for a week.
Riot was forced to announce the hotfix for this champion only nearly two days after its release. Of course, this is a significant nerf for The Gloomist after the champion demonstrated her power and outperformed Riot’s expectations: passive damage reduced from 30 – 180 (+25 percent AP) to 30 – 140 (+20 percent AP), and Q – Mistral Bolt damage reduced from 60/110/160/210/260 (+60 percent AP) to 60/105/150/195/240 (+60 percent AP).
Riot hopes to make Vex’s power more balanced by nerfing the passive Doom ‘n Gloom and Q – Mistral Bolt, and this champion’s win rate will be reduced to a level that Riot can control. Because Vex is both strong and easy to play, putting it in professional or high rank matches is extremely dangerous for Riot’s goal of creating a balanced game, especially as Worlds approaches and Vex is likely to appear. And if she continues to be banned, Riot’s plan for their new champions will be hampered.