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The Yuumi changes flat out miss the mark of what her problem is

Barcid·12/6/2019, 2:25:49 AM·21 votes·10,927 views

If you want to get directly to the main point, skip to the second heading text.

This is gonna be rough for all those who really like playing Yuumi to have to read - but Yuumi's issues boil down to her very kit, not just as a "backpack" champion, but to how it plays. To put it bluntly: Yuumi has zero counterplay.

"But that's not true! Hard engaging on her in-lane is her weakness! ADC's make terrible frontline champions to try and eat damage with. So all you have to do is all-in her!"

The problem with this argument is this: You are not at any point engaging on Yuumi. You engage on her host. Yuumi is so removed from the action you have no means of actually getting to her.

So that's just it, then. Yuumi as a concept is horribly flawed, can't be made to work, and will always have no counterplay. All right, team, that's a wrap then! Mystery solved, let's go home!

Now hold on. I wasn't finished - there is actually a very key example of this kind of champion working well, made far, far earlier.

#Let's look at the legacy of Mina, the original "backpack" champ.

Back in season 5 going into season 6, there was a little up-and-coming MOBA that was supposed to face off against the likes of League and DotA called "Dawngate". It was actually pointed out as being an actual contender against League and while it was rough around the edges at the time, many game journalists pointed it out as being "how League should play", having a flexible and very open meta largely focusing on team composition and synergy versus picks and counterpicks.

The thing is you probably never even heard of this game because this game hit open beta in May of 2014, had pretty much no advertising done for it, was allowed to run in open beta for a total of 5 months before rumors started spreading that EA was thinking of shutting it down already (lolfuckingseriously), and then 2 months later in November of that very same year, EA announced they were going to shut down all servers in 90 days, closing at the end of January 2015. Welcome to EA's business model, ladies and gentlemen, and of course in 2015 EA registered Dawngate as a trademark just to really tell any of the fans that actually managed to get into the lovely little gem to go fuck themselves. Seriously, fuck EA.

But in that game, my favorite shaper (champion, whatever) was made: Mina. To call her playstyle "bold" would be an understatement. When you picked up Mina, it was one of those rare occasions where you didn't just play support, you locked yourself into it.

Mina on paper is pretty much how Yuumi is - a champion that can't carry a game by herself but rather carries a game through others. Without a team, she's very little - but as a team, a great Mina was invaluable.

But while these two characters were similar in the base gameplay concept, how they actually played is far different.

Yuumi you build as an enchanter support, fielding mostly AP increasing items and things that let her heal and shield more. Pretty clear cut, seems like the most straight-forward approach to such a support.

Mina on the other hand you built as a bruiser. Yeah, you read that right - health and power with small investment in resistances. This is because unlike Yuumi, you can kill Mina while she's attached to someone as instead of just healing somebody with zero counterplay, Mina fed some of her own health pool into her ally as a shield - as the shield got depleted, it would damage her health, and the amount of shields you were giving out increased with your health pool. This means that instead of just hiding on an allied unit if you get low for the rest of eternity, Mina actually had to, you know, worry if her health got too low because no matter what she could still be killed.

But that seems like it would be a bit forced into a kit, right? Like, the only reason to build health is to provide more of a meatshield to your teammate. You'd still be piggybacking on them all the rest of the time, so that's just kind of a loose end in the kit. Wrong! The way Mina's dismount worked is that on impact where she landed, she would fear enemies in the area, meaning Mina's crowd control was tied directly to her putting herself in danger - and it was no small amount of CC, either, it was a pretty large area for about a 1 second fear. She then would place her W on cooldown after leaving, meaning no, she couldn't then just hop back onto somebody else consequence free - she had to actually interact. She had to be able to still survive. Meanwhile you have Yuumi who might as well just tab out and wait out the inevitable grey screen if she's ever caught outside her host.

As for the other two abilities in Mina's kit, they were pretty standard fair as far as enchanter abilities go - a skillshot that provided a temporary damage buff on hit to either her or her host and an ability that would allow damage mitigation to her or her host. But it's not the enchanter style that made Mina interesting - it was the balancing of when to hop off, when to stay on, when the CC was needed and how much damage you could front yourself while still being able to stick in and aid your teammate, and the fact you could still provide yourself with power while being off your host which enabled you to chase different objectives from your teammates. The focus wasn't so much on her auxiliary abilities as it was on her primary trait as a support.

Which brings us to the issue with Yuumi: she really doesn't have many mechanics based on her dismount. It's basically eat the occasional critical skillshot and maybe proc a shield with an auto, which takes all of a fraction of a second on hopping off a friendly champ.

Besides this very limited range of occurrences, Yuumi doesn't have very much in her kit coaxing her off of a friendly champion - so let's count the things telling her to stay attached then:

  1. Better control over her Q while also making it stronger.

  2. Adding adaptive force to her and her teammate free of charge - no input required, just need to sit on them.

  3. A very minuscule health pool with even fewer resistances than any other champion in the game.

  4. The fact that she has absolutely no buffs (let alone power in general) without being attached.

#And that's the overarching issue - Yuumi still hasn't been given enough of a reason to be detached from a teammate and arguably these changes make her even less inclined to leave a teammate.

The things that were increased were:

  1. Power of her Q while she's attached (Like... just, why?)

  2. Adding even more adaptive power to her and her teammate while she's attached.

  3. A stronger base heal with better scaling that is slightly weaker on very low health units; charges removed, means less burst healing and more healing over time, which Yuumi is not likely to survive "over time".

  4. A new delay on her W to hop back onto other champs, which while it adds an opportunity to catch her, it makes people playing Yuumi less likely to want to ever leave their host.

All four of these changes multiply the issue that Yuumi is, and that is that Yuumi is not a champion - Yuumi is a fucking buff. She is a stat. She's basically a keystone rune controlled by a different player than the host. Yuumi does not exist on her own at all. While Mina was geared to be able to interact with enemies by herself as well as on the backs of her teammates, Yuumi has nothing to offer by herself, no bulk, no damage, no frontline capabilities - nothing.

#Yuumi doesn't just need some number shifts and a delay on her W - she needs a real reason to be detached from an ally. Yuumi needs a part of her kit to goad her into detaching for longer than .25 seconds or her gameplay will continue to remain completely unhealthy and devoid of counterplay.

And no, a 210 point shield (generously assuming Yuumi reaches level 12 in a game) that scales 30% with AP really doesn't offer hardly enough reason to hop off when you could cause your ally to lose upwards of 40+ AD by doing so, and it's even less of a defensible reason when it's once every 20 seconds as a base meaning she's only interacting with enemies at most once every 12 bloody seconds (again, assuming Yuumi would be reaching level 12 this season).

Also just for convenience, one of the few gameplay videos for Mina left which should give you an idea of the disparity between Yuumi's gameplay and Mina's.

50 Comments

Zeppelins circus12/6/2019, 2:45:48 AM20 votes

This post explains in detail what I warned others when Yuumi was released. "She is a healbot playstyle Soraka you cannot even dream to hit". Yuumi has zero merits of actually getting off her ally and her skills should have had a mode like Jayce.

Also, wasn't Riot warned constantly about how enchanter supports are extremely safe and been a really unhealthy class to fight against, It went to absurd point of community frustration that enchanters being accused of being "overpowered" so that they can "compensate players lack of skill". Around the ardent meta and if you played an enchanter you were accused of boosts.

Riot really needs to think about how enchanters interact with the enemy. I think this class has been THE most hated when they were actually adjusted to be strong.

Btw I seen the info about this character called Mina. Very interesting. An possessed doll I guess?

Paroe12/6/2019, 3:39:34 AM15 votes

This is gonna be rough for all those who really like playing Yuumi to have to read - but Yuumi's issues boil down to her very kit, not just as a >"backpack" champion, but to how it plays. To put it bluntly: Yuumi has zero counterplay.

"But that's not true! Hard engaging on her in-lane is her weakness! ADC's make terrible frontline champions to try and eat damage with. So all you >have to do is all-in her!"

The problem with this argument is this: You are not at any point engaging on Yuumi. You engage on her host. Yuumi is so removed from the action >you have no means of actually getting to her.

So that's just it, then. Yuumi as a concept is horribly flawed, can't be made to work, and will always have no counterplay. All right, team, that's a >wrap then! Mystery solved, let's go home!

Im going to argue your take on Yuumi is as flawed as you think she is, because you fail to recognize the actual counterplay at hand here. Theres many different kinds of counterplay, and in Yuumis case, her counterplay involves items, burst damage, and simply playing around her passive. As you said Yuumi is a champion who enables others to carry, rather than being an explicit carry herself. Cat buff, is, in fact, a buff that is a cat. Any form of coordination and lockdown will completely destroy a Yuumi lane since its a 1v2 lane because her counterplay, while not direct, is essentially basic sense; Greivous wounds Hard to Semi hard CC Burst damage Offensive mobility Its VERY easy to punish the cat buff for misplays, and with the PBE changes it will be even easier because her mana costs are going sky high. Theres nothing wrong with Yuumi being a buff - in fact, its a playstyle that is ENJOYABLE when you actually learn it because you can focus on other aspects of the game like the state of the map as a whole without compromising the lane.

I will concede the current state of Yuumi is to far in the middle. The PBE changes are very clearly an attempt to consolidate her into the cat buff position rather than an artillery cat, which i approve of, but she still needs changes. Her Q, for example, NEEDS to be scrapped entirely and replaced with something else that works better for her cat buff theme. Personally i think her Q should just become an empowered basic attack that procs a part of her passive; While tethered it procs the shield part, while not tethered it procs the damage part and gives her increased range. In this way Yuumi can choose whether or not she wants to poke or not, instead of just lobbing off Qs like nidalee spears. It would also make Yuumi very vulnerable - and therefore punishable - if she tries to land her standard passive then an empowered Q auto, which would be good for perception.

Karn Bishop12/6/2019, 5:31:02 AM10 votes

I'd argue just because your not a fan of yuumi's playstyle does not mean her playstyle is a problem at all.

You don't like her counterplay which is crush the person shes riding on into dust because as you said she cannot exist on her own without dying which is one of her main weaknesses but can make a champion into a super champion if played right which is the thing you all hate because you think its inherently unfair that someone can hop on a skilled garen, vayne ect and not be touchable until you first outplay the skilled host, you'd rather just catch her and instantly delete her and the player who is playing her can be damned and just die and not have fun.

You say mina is how yuumi should be while ignoring that they are pretty much the same just sub in enhanced base stats for a constantly regenerating shield and instead of healing off damage she just straight grants damage reduction, i would argue mina would be even more hated then yuumi as she pretty much doubles the hp of her host and when you have entire champions designed around health values Pyke ect and even champions who would outright be unkillable gods with damage reduced damage vs opponents Aatrox Singed Jax DrMundo

Yuumi has her weaknesses you just don't like that you have to actually use them and would rather just kill her quickly then fight your other opponent in a 2 v 1.

Malix Farwin12/6/2019, 4:21:03 AM9 votes

I agree with this completely. They are going in the entirely wrong direction with this change.

WoonStruck12/6/2019, 4:47:44 AM7 votes

Yuumi has so many massive issues that this coming patch is only the beginning.

Lowering her Q duration was necessary. If you've ever watched pro play, you'll know why.

Lowering her Q scaling and increases base damage was necessary. She's supposed to build like an enchanter, not like a glass cannon mage due to her safety.

W buffs are just a power band-aid. I agree something better could be done better here.

E changes are good overall, but not in combination with the W buffs.

TBH, with her current kit, her design is just really bad. She needs a total rework.

Revech12/6/2019, 3:13:30 AM5 votes

Great post and I'll comment more on it later. But I think Yuumis outplay is either ccing her when she detaches or killing her host which pretty much guarantees a Kill on Yuumi, this is especially frustrating in the vast majority of low elo where players more often make poor mechanical or macro decisions, causing Yuumi to die with them (and to me removing 10% off her zoomies speed means even less a way to escape when your unattached). I really like the idea of this Mina champion...wish I had the chance to try her honestly. Anyway great article, interesting though provoking take on things. Thanks.

Arammus12/6/2019, 8:59:21 AM4 votes

riot trying to fix a champ... and it completely misses the problem...

WHAT A SHOCK :OOO lol.

Zeppelins circus12/6/2019, 9:03:35 AM4 votes

Some of the reactions and comments of this post is so awful its borderline hilarious.

Q: "Why do you think Yuumi doesn't have has a toxic/uninteractive kit. I have my reasons here." A:** "Because she is not toxic/uninteractive."** Q: "I'm not convinced. You just repeated the exact same reasons why I think she is bad." A: "She is meant to be like that. She is unique" Q: "So she IS toxic/uninteractive?" A: "NO"

Logic is thrown out the window.

Honeydew Zekling12/6/2019, 9:11:34 PM4 votes

I always thought it was weird when Yuumi was released that her jumping onto an ally didn't act like sona's abilities. Temporary buff. It'd force her to jump back off, do some stuff, then jump back on when the buff is needed.

Instead, she jumps on and stays. I've only ever seen a yuumi jump off to get a few extra hits on a tower. Shes frustrating to play with and against because of the lack of interaction.

Done2512/6/2019, 10:49:14 AM3 votes

If Riot seriously wants to make Yuumi more fun to play against then need to heavily cut the CD on her passive, and increase the late game shield scaling. It's literally the only reason she has to get off a champ, and it needs to be a better reason.

FakeGravity12/6/2019, 2:35:17 PM2 votes

honestly im fine with yuumi moving into the stats cat buff area if we can get rig of artillery cat playstyle, just make her Q a mark that attach ally can proc for damage, and then make it so if her ally is CC she takes no damage from it but also gets CC herself, this means stunning her ally stops her R and prevent her from using the heal

ChaddyFantome12/7/2019, 2:16:49 PM2 votes

They need to give her a per target cooldown for her W or something that only refreshes if she hasnt been on them for a given amount of time without hopping on someone else.

Ornn12/6/2019, 7:50:25 PM1 votes

Her problem is shes to easy shes to un interactive and doesn't do much outside of her E her Q spam is annoying and they have addressed that Her E is annoying and now they have buffed that her ult is lack luster and her attach has finally got the nerf it needed so without typing a essay tell me your point?