The Interim 6.11 Balance Analysis and Chat Thread

Since Riot's not really showing up to discuss matters of balance right now, we'll have to do it ourselves.

With data.

And analysis.

All data is taken from champion.gg (which means plat+ ranked games, people) or other sources, first batch of analysis is all of the champs changed directly in the 6.11 patch and those who got core items changed.

To wit: Anivia: Was 54% winrate mid, got early mana costs on Ult nerfed. No meaningful change in winrate or playrate. This suggests to me that Anivias aren't leaving their ult out in the first place. Probably a good prospect for further nerfs.

Azir: W's tower nuke function removed; Ult duration from 5/6/7 to 3 seconds at all ranks, speedup function on allies walking through it removed. Was 48% winrate on average, has dropped to 46%. Still has an 11% winrate, down from 14. High skill with Azir does equate to winning more games, but unless you're very good with him, you probably shouldn't be playing him right now.

Corki: Was very low win and pick rate (I'll be totally honest, I was around for Mid Corki every game and I don't miss him, but he needs buffs). Got buffs to his R's AD ratio mid and lategame. Trinity Force is/was core on him. The effects of the changes seem to have so far canceled each other out.

Ekko: Everybody's least favorite tank assassin toplaner. Base damage nerfs, some AP ratio buffs, nerfs to his W's stun and passive lockout duration. This has taken Tank Ekko from clearly strong (53% winrate top) to mediocre (49%). He's also shed about 3% playrate. Unfortunately, AP Ekko has also dropped 2% in winrate. A sacrifice I'm sure we're all willing to make.

Illaoi: Has been weak pretty much since release, on account of an insanely feast-or-famine play pattern (ye gods, her ult). Was a 45% win rate last patch, with a 2% play rate. Had changes to her Q to make her tentacle damage just scale with Q rank instead of scaling with Bonus AD, and W changed from flat damage with a total AD component to % health damage with multiple sources of AD scaling. She's now gone from 45% win rate to 50%, and has a much healthier play rate. Excellent work, Riot.

Jax: Was weak, played in both Top and Jungle. Changes made mean that his passive attack speed boost drops stacks one at a time instead of all at once. Trinity Force is incredibly core on him. Has a better winrate and playrate Top, though still not hitting 50% win rate. On the other hand, his jungle win rate has jumped from ~49% to ~52%, and play rate has almost doubled. Any further buffs should have to take his jungle role into account.

Kindred: Let's be real, was incredibly OP. Q and E's base damages and slow nerfed, gains more damage on Q based on passive stacks, passive stacks easier and faster. Has gone from 55% to 52%, but the sheer playrate and ridiculous skill scaling (seriously, people with 125+ games have 60+% winrates!) means further nerfs would probably not go awry.

Lucian: Blah blah dash everywhere build assassin get played in 50% of games. Q and W's ranges got nerfed, Q's AD ratio nerfed. Has dropped from 50% playrate and 53% winrate to 34% playrate and 49% winrate. Should even out as people who aren't actually good at Lucian drop him for not being blatantly OP. A good job on Riot's part, but merits further watching.

Maokai: The unkillable teamfight tank. Health regen highly nerfed, and his Q's cooldown increased early. This has brought him from the not-so-lofty heights of 51% winrate and 11% playrate to 49% and 8% respectively. And yeah, he's definitely weak early now, but his winrate should increase as the experience of his playerbase increases. Good work.

Nidalee : The cancer panther herself. Changes mean prowl's movement speed no longer activates semi-globally, and her W's cooldown reset on marked targets is lower early. Has dropped from 52% winrate and ~10% play rate to 48% winrate and 7.5% playrate. Still a good pick if you're amazing at her, but nothing of value was lost.

Ryze: You all know him. Q's maximum damage nerfed, R's cooldown increased. Has lost about 3% winrate and 2% playrate both mid and top. Still has his ridiculous skill curve, but hopefully he stays there until the rework comes along.

Swain: Was fantastically OP and massively banned after all the hotfix buffs and bug fixes. Got his Q's damage and R's healing nerfed. 55% winrate top down to 53%, 55% winrate mid is still 55%, and his play rate in both roles is only increasing. Has remained massively OP, still needs a bunch of nerfs.

Taliyah: Newest champ, recieved hotfix buffs. Given that she's holding steady around 49% both mid and top and almost nobody knows how to really play her yet, this can only rise. For the love of cats, DO NOT BUFF. PSA: She's not a support, stop trying to play her support.

Vel'Koz: Holy shit, why did they buff this guy? He went from hovering about 50% winrate in middle and support to 53% winrate mid and 52% winrate support when the buffed his Q's slow duration and gave his Ult the ability to stack his passive again. REVERT, REVERT.

Zed: It's Zed, 'nuff said. They nerfed his Q's base damage and ratio, but gave it a stronger multi-hit. Also, he's dropped from a ~50% winrate to a ~48% win rate. You can probably stop banning him reflexively now, there are much better things to use your bans on (but that's a topic for next time).

Items: Boots of Swiftness/Berserker Greaves/Ninja Tabi: Taken all as one clump, because they're all related. Swifties were overbuffed and Mercs were gutted, leading to absolutely everybody building swifties. So Swifties are losing 5 MS and Berserker Greaves and Tabis are having their unique passives buffed. Expect to see fewer swifties on top laners facing all AD teams, I guess. (Hint: Swifties are still OP)

Trinity Force: Loses crit, gains increased attack speed and 10% more CDR. Frankly, this is a massive change that completely shifts its attractiveness to certain champions, most notably nerfing it for Corki, Yasuo, and Gangplank and buffing it for Irelia and Jax.

Jax/Corki: Already mentioned.

Gangplank: Barely affected top, where he can often use the increased attack speed on melee targets, but lost 2% winrate mid, where he relied on crits from forever away in the early and mid game.

Yasuo: Lost ~1.5% winrate both top and mid, seems to have cut the item out of builds entirely. Seeing as it's Yasuo, this is no big loss.

Irelia: Has jumped from 51.5% winrate and 7.5% play rate to 54% and 12% win rate and play rate, respectively. Uhhhh, yeah. Lights the Morello signal

Next time: Winrate outliers!