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Why Patch 9.19 needs to be REVERTED after Worlds!

Total Violation·9/30/2019, 8:19:09 PM·36 votes·12,630 views

Patch 9.19 is without a doubt one of the worst, most balance upsetting patches Riot has released to date. Benifitg nobody but those who main the overbuffed champions and clearly dictating what Riot want to be played in the Worlds tournamet. Never have i seen such a collection of unnecessary buffs and nerfs that do nothing but create more disbalance to the already poorly balanced game. Champions who are doing just fine are getting buffs nobody asked for! (Blitzcrank Fiora). Champions being trashed into being somewhat viable in only one role! (Karma) Champions getting nerfs to important parts of their kit, because of their dominance in pro play! (Yuumi)

The entire patch basically reads "This is what we want to be played at Worlds and this is what you should be playing and will be watching at worlds! Pick these OP shits or lose!"

It's mindblowing that this patch was approved by multiple developers. But i am not surprised, considering Worlds is the one annual time where crazy unnecessary changes can make it to Live. But that does not mean we should allow for that to be acceptable!

Let us now analyze some of the more stupid and unnecessery "balance" changes of 9.19:

Blitzcrank

Q - Rocket Grab Range: 1050 ⇒ 1150

R - Static Field Passive Max Stacks: 2 marks ⇒ 3 marks

"Blitzcrank is the Hook and should always be even as we release other champions who just happen to have hooks in their abilities alongside other things"

First of all, changing the ranges of abilities that have never been changed since the champion's release should not be acceptable. Much like the Lee Sin Q range buff some time ago. Blitz players know how to position and play with the range of the Q that they are used to. People know how to position and play around what they are used to. Even the pro players, who the balance team is apparently a slave to, know exactly how the hook works and where it cannot reach and at what angles it cannot grab. Vandiril proved that Riot has no respect for this!

NOBODY asked for this change! Not the Blitz mains, not the immobile champion mains, not the pros! Changes in ability ranges can be detrimental to a champion and their playstyle. And i can already see the slew of new Blitz mains who have "loved him from the start".

But the stupidest thing was Riot's context. "...should always be even as we release other champions who just happen to have hooks...". Translation: "Pyke exists and he is unbearable to play against so we're buffing Blitz to keep him in line with the horrible design standard.". Hands down the stupidest context in the patch. By this logic, Riot should remove Fiora and Irelia's mana costs and cooldowns because Yasuo and Riven exist. Or increase Vel'Koz's ability ranges because Lux and Xerath exist. Unbelievable.

Fiora

Q - Lunge Can now hit turrets and wards (will prioritize champion vitals, ultimate targets, champs, dying minions, turrets, and wards, respectively)

E - Bladework The second basic attack can now deal bonus damage to turrets

"Fiora's in an acceptable place when it comes to matchups in lane, but she struggles to convert her lane victories into game victories."

You can say that about every champion to justify a stupid buff for them. "Yasuo's in an acceptable place when it comes to matchups in lane, but he struggles to convert his lane victories into game victories. So we made his tornado global and split into three tornadoes."

The entire change goes against the concept of Fiora being a duelist and shifting her more into being a splitpusher. A boring one-dimensional playstyle that Riot should NOT promote. Fiora should be in the center of the teamfights, or focusing down one target and outplaying them with skill and clever positioning. Now, Riot wants to see Fiora staying at top, Q-ing and righ clicking turrets to death. Congratulations, what interesting Worlds content this will be to watch!

Karma

Q - Inner Flame Q1 Damage Ratio 60% Ability Power ⇒ 40% Ability Power

"Nerfing Karma's non-support damage so she isn't so strong as a blind pick generalist. Teams will now have to consider losing a considerable amount of damage if they want to pick her."

Why? Why is she never allowed to be played anywhere but support? Why are her solo lane capabilities being destroyed? Why is Riot trying to turn her into nothing but a shield bot who deals tickle damage? She is viable for a patch and now she gets her arms and legs broken, because how dare she touch the melee exclusive top lane! Riot is saying she is a "generalist". But doesn't having only one viable playstyle make the champion more of a generalist? This feels exactly like the time Morgana touched mid for one patch and she got nerfed out of it.

The nerf is pointless and does nothing but hurt solo lane Karma as well as support Karma, since her poke capabilities are a key factor to her pick rate in the support role. Riot have always said that they want to preserve her "battle mage" as well as her "support" identity, but this nerf clearly shows which one they prefer.

Orianna

R - Command: Shockwave Damage 150/225/300 (+0.7 Ability Power) ⇒ 200/275/350 (+0.8 ability Power)

"Orianna is feeling generally weak right now so we're powering up her ultimate for the sweet wombo combos."

Yet another pointless buff nobody asked for. They are not even trying to hide the fact that they're buffing for Worlds. "Yea, we're buffing her for dem lit playz fam, get used to it!" Seriously, who's child wrote these context notes?

Orianna's ultimate's strenght should be its utility, not its damage. In a teamfight her ultimate should usually be followed up by another AoE ability. Adding more damage to an already powerful AoE utility spell is a mistake. The "sweet wombo combos" should be about synching multiple abilities together, not melting a team faster. They should be about timing, not numbers.

I cannot wait to see Malphite's ultinmate do 1000 base damage at level 1 and Miss Fortune being able to channel her ultimate infinitely. For the sake of the "sweet wombo combos".

Yuumi

Q - Prowling Projectile Slow 20/32/44/56/68/80% ⇒ 20% at all ranks Slow Duration 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 seconds Slow no longer decays over time

"Yuumi has been a fuzzy menace in the pro scene, so we're nerfing one of the more pro-impacting elements of her kit."

AGAIN we're experiencing the phenomenon of a champion being overnerfed for the sake of pro play. We saw it with Azir and Kalista, we're now seeing it with Yuumi. "The pro players don't want it viable so noone will get to play it!"

And as with Karma, a very crucial part to Yuumi's support capability is being nerfed. But, unlike Karma, Yuumi is completely unable to function in a solo lane or the jungle. Meaning if Yuumi is unviable as a support, she is unviable everywhere. What a glorious way to solve balance issues for the sake of the pros. Might as well disable champions completely once the whole charade is over.

Let's not also forget about some of the other unnecessary pro oriented nerfs... Gragas Sejuani

...And buffs that were introduced, but nobody asked for. Akali Heimerdinger Riven Vayne XinZhao TwistedFate

While not big or exactly game changing, it's still clear that most of them were intended for Worlds.

This patch is a menace to the game! And it is time to let the balance team know it! Because they clearly do not care about solo queue and the casual player's experience. Seing as how much disbalance this patch has created.

Fine. Let the pros have their moments and their 20 minutes of fame. But when these stupid, overrated, overhyped LAN parties are over, this abomination of a patch needs to be REVERTED! Save for the skins and the bugfixes.

The patch has created more problems and solved none in terms of balance. If we allow this "balance" philosophy to continue, Riot will see it as acceptable, which in time will make the playerbase start to see it as acceptable, leading to a game in which only a certain portion of champions are either pick-to win or unviable at Riot's will. This is NOT how a competitive game should be balanced! And i will not stand for this madness to continue! And neither should you!

#Revert9point19

54 Comments

preternatural9/30/2019, 8:58:11 PM19 votes

karma is mega unhealthy, she should frankly be put on the rework table lol. nuff said about that. any time she even creeps into viability it's a shit show as she completely takes over a lane and people are punished for interacting with her, and punished even further for trying not to interact with her. unhealthy design all around tbh, just rework it.

Serika Zero9/30/2019, 9:04:32 PM10 votes

[{quoted}](name=Total Violation,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=cbfEEs6s,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-09-30T20:19:09.084+0000)

Fiora

Q - Lunge Can now hit turrets and wards (will prioritize champion vitals, ultimate targets, champs, dying minions, turrets, and wards, respectively)

E - Bladework The second basic attack can now deal bonus damage to turrets

"Fiora's in an acceptable place when it comes to matchups in lane, but she struggles to convert her lane victories into game victories."

You can say that about every champion to justify a stupid buff for them. "Yasuo's in an acceptable place when it comes to matchups in lane, but he struggles to convert his lane victories into game victories. So we made his tornado global and split into three tornadoes."

The entire change goes against the concept of Fiora being a duelist and shifting her more into being a splitpusher. A boring one-dimensional playstyle that Riot should NOT promote. Fiora should be in the center of the teamfights, or focusing down one target and outplaying them with skill and clever positioning. Now, Riot wants to see Fiora staying at top, Q-ing and righ clicking turrets to death. Congratulations, what interesting Worlds content this will be to watch!

How the fuck do you plan on making a 1v1 champion into a team fight champion?

Let me reiterate what you said:

Fiora should be in the center of the teamfights

Do you begin to comprehend what that means? Being in the center of team fight means: you are either having very high regeneration ability DrMundo or very high resistances Rammus or abilities to block damage for a long duration Alistar Braum .

You can't focus "one target" and "outplaying them" in a TEAM FIGHT, since that by default assumes there's 3-5 people involved in it from each team. You don't have ONE TARGET, YOU GOT 3 TO 5 AND YOU GOT TO DODGE SKILL SHOTS AND EVERYTHING FROM ALL OF THEM. There's no such thing as "cleaver positioning" for Fiora in team fights, she's a melee with a very short gap closer. Even if it has a low cooldown, its a very short ranged ones.

If you want Fiora to be able to team fight, she would need: higher range on her Q. Do you want fiora's Q to get double range? If you want Fiora in team fights, she needs to be able to build tanky. Do you want higher % base damage on her passive and ult??? do you want fiora to be able to do 100% max hp true damage while building 1 offensive item (like hydra or tiamat) while the rest tanky and still doing 100% true damage with ult and 1 vital????? If you want Fiora in team fights, she needs a lot more cc than a single target slow/stun.

Lets take fighters that are seeing team fights: Riven . Has 2 aoe CC abilities, a lot of animation cancels to get her damage output faster (be it on turrets or team fights), has a shield to mitigate a lot of incoming damage. All with overall low cooldowns. Camille: Huge engage range on her E and ult combo. The ability to stun one target and knock back others. A large amount of true damage on her second Q and a shield to mitigate damage, and an aoe slow. Renekton AoE damage/heal, single target stuns, and extra hp. He gets away with it by using item 3161 which allows him to use multiple spell rotations in a team fight (his empowered W counts as 4-5 auto attacks btw).

Fiora lacks any of that. IF anything, Camille is seen as a "team fighting Fiora". Fiora's main aspect is 1v1. And you only get 1v1s in: lanes and ............. side lanes. Who are found on side lanes?????????? split pushers.

Fiora NEEDED THESE BUFFS. She desperately needed them as it took her forever to take down a turret. Now she needs some nerf to stop auto winning laning pahses vs a large amount of top laners and she's going to be fine. But being able to take towers faster and being a split pusher actually makes Fiora somehow useful and have an identity and being playable besides the "We will only play Fiora if by picking Fiora we auto win all the laning phase" sort of balance happens. Which btw, its stupid balance.

Stephenizgod9/30/2019, 8:34:27 PM9 votes

You must be new here. They do this every year at Worlds. Champions they want to see in Pro Play always get buffed, champions they don't want to see in Worlds get nerfed. Champions too strong outside of the pro scene but weak in the pro scene get buffed, champions weak outside of pro scene but strong in proplay get nerfed. In the months before Worlds Riots balance changes to Pro-play > actual balance.

Eedat9/30/2019, 10:49:31 PM9 votes

Patch 9.19 is without a doubt one of the worst, most balance upsetting patches Riot has released to date. Benifitg nobody but those who main the overbuffed champions and clearly dictating what Riot want to be played in the Worlds tournamet. Never have i seen such a collection of unnecessary buffs and nerfs

Dude what? Have you only been playing for 6 months or something? They do this literally every year on the worlds patch. This year's world patch is actually extremely mild compare to practically every single other one. I mean they only managed to break one champ really. Meanwhile in the past they dropped an entire class update on the worlds patch one year lol.

This patch is nothing compared to every preseason patch (which never gets fixed before the season starts btw), all the class updates, and most worlds patches before it

Mihalikb9/30/2019, 11:18:29 PM5 votes

I agree with most things you said, but the Karma nerfs were absolutely necessary.

Karma's mobility, shields and team fighting was designed around her being a support.

If she does viable damage, has good wave clear, keeps her utility for mid and late game she is inherently broken.

If Karma were to be a top laner, her team utility needs to be gutted, which would mean she would no longer be suitable for the support role.

I can tell from your post that you are a Karma abuser. Just no.

tunehunter10/1/2019, 5:03:03 AM3 votes

I want to be fair to fiora. I dont play them, but to me I here duelist and and split pusher in the same sentence. If they are a skirmisher/ duelist they dont want to fight in big team fights they want smaller skirmishes with only a couple champions. Split pushing is the perfect job for this as you are more likely to run into 1v2 or 1v1 situations. So I think making her better at split pushing allows her to fit the role she is trying to fit by being a duelist against the enemy split pusher.

Ahri Baka9/30/2019, 10:25:27 PM3 votes

When I called it the worst patch I got 30+ Downvotes

Apostle of Light10/1/2019, 2:58:08 AM3 votes

Am I the only one who is completely fine with all the changes (except maybe Riven and Vayne)? I agree that the game state has some flaws but at this point y'all just complain about every single change they make

preternatural9/30/2019, 8:53:19 PM2 votes

no when the fuck was blitz doing just fine? he's so overshadowed by every other hook champion and seeing a blitz in soloq on allied team was just permanent dread. at least now he has some sort of gimmick, the longest hook. maybe now he'll be useful.

Sinister Anubis10/1/2019, 4:16:01 AM1 votes

Just because worlds is on 9.19 does not mean we stay on 9.19. We will be getting a new patch soon

Alüe10/1/2019, 6:02:29 AM1 votes

This has been occurring for quite a while now. While I may get bashed for this, I'd say its fair game that since S6 riot exclusively has been balancing around worlds and ensuring that quick, bursty and exciting game play are the forefront. Immobile champions have slowly become obsolete and are moving to the back of optimal champions to play.

SpecterVonBaren10/1/2019, 7:05:20 AM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Total Violation,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=cbfEEs6s,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-09-30T20:19:09.084+0000)

Patch 9.19 is without a doubt one of the worst, most balance upsetting patches Riot has released to date.

You must be new here.

OneMustFall10/1/2019, 7:15:18 AM1 votes

The overdramatic tone of this topic is nauseating.

R0ses R Red10/1/2019, 8:21:54 AM1 votes

Karma being nerfed is 100% justified, but her AP ratios aren't the issue. In the top lane, she's like a watered-down Kennen combined with a Lissandra. Her poke and self-peel is ridiculous. Imagine if you were literally unable to kill your two enemy botlaners, midlaner, or jungler until the laning phase were over. The game is often decided by then, so her entire purpose is more or less to make you useless and feel miserable.

Floren10/1/2019, 12:40:58 PM1 votes

Do you really want to see karma top every match at worlds?

ancient evil10/1/2019, 7:07:20 PM1 votes

The buffs to Fiora were needed tbh. As an ex-fiora main (main thresh now) fioras biggest problem was split pushing. She could 1v1 most champs but then what? She wasn't a threat to towers at all because she took forever taking them. These buffs fixed that problem however, her previous buffs plus these one make her go over the top.

What riot needs to do is keep these fiora buffs but revert some of the previous ones which will fix her split pushing problem while also not making her broken.

Also your post overall on fiora is stupid. Have you ever played fiora? Cause it definitely doesn't seem like you have fiora has never been a team fighter mate and transforming her into a teamfifhter would ruin her theme of being the grand duelist. GRAND DUELIST meaning 1v1 fights which she literally does in toplane forcing the enemy team to send 2 or more to answer her push. Before these buffs you could have an enemy fiora split pushing take 1 tower while your team takes 2 plus inhib.

Fioras main weakness is team fights she usually gets blown up in a few secs as she can only dodge 1 cc,is squishy af, and cant really get to her targets which is why she is a split pusher

Meep Man10/2/2019, 2:30:14 AM1 votes

We'll be 2-3 patches down the road by the time Worlds ends.

Summoner SpeII10/2/2019, 2:34:55 AM1 votes

i mean i could disagree with all these changes, but fuck yuumi. That pos deserves to die in game, and the only place she should belong is in my profile background picture as a cute kitty.

Vezeuse10/2/2019, 3:32:54 PM1 votes

The Blitzcrank change makes 0 fucking sense.

Blitzcrank is the Hook and should always be even as we release other champions who just happen to have hooks in their abilities alongside other things.

What the fuck does this even mean? Blitzcrank hook is already objectively the best hook out of any of the existing ones. It's not even like all the other hooks are Blitzcrank hooks but better or something. No, his hook is actually fundamentally different than any other hook. What a nonsensical change. Now we have Blitzcrank pulling Blue Buff from river and other shit like that. Very fun.

Not saying he's 'completely busted' or anything with these changes, but just pointing out that their justification is just fucking drivel.

Daddy Ants10/3/2019, 5:02:38 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Total Violation,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=cbfEEs6s,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-09-30T20:19:09.084+0000)

...And buffs that were introduced, but nobody asked for. Akali Heimerdinger Riven Vayne XinZhao TwistedFate

Balance isn't dictated by what you ask for.

Winrate changes based on u.gg with "Platinum+" and "World" used as filters.

Akali - 9.18 Win Rate: 43.81%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 45.42%
Akali Winrate change: +1.61%

Heimerdinger - 9.18 Win Rate: 50.96%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 53.25%
Heimerdinger Winrate change: +2.29%

Riven - 9.18 Win Rate: 48.58%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 48.44%
Riven Winrate change: -0.14%

Vayne - 9.18 Win Rate: 50.02%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 50.5%
Vayne Winrate change: +0.48%

XinZhao - 9.18 Win Rate: 49.74%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 51.25%
Xin Zhao Winrate change: +1.51%

TwistedFate- 9.18 Win Rate: 49.54%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 50.38%
Twisted Fate Winrate change: +0.84%

 

Vayne, Twisted Fate and Riven changes had a very very small impact on the champions.

 

Now let's look at some of the higher impact changes

 

Blitzcrank - 9.18 Win Rate: 50.7%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 53.61%
Blitzcrank Winrate change after hotfix: +2.91%

Annie - 9.18 Win Rate: 49.49%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 50.7%
Annie Winrate change: +1.21%

Ashe 9.18 Win Rate: 51.28%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 53.62%
Ashe Winrate change: +2.34%

Fiora 9.18 Win Rate: 49.71%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 49.58%
Fiora Winrate change: - 0.13%

Gragas 9.18 Win Rate: 48.81%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 46.66%
Gragas Winrate change: - 2.15%

Graves 9.18 Win Rate: 49.58%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 50.09%
Graves Winrate change: + 0.51%

Karma 9.18 Win Rate: 49.37% (Support) and 50.01% (Top). / 9.19 Win Rate: 47.48% (Support) and 48.73% (Top) Karma Winrate change: -1.89% (Support) and - 1.28% (Top)

Yuumi 9.18 Win Rate: 43.57%. / 9.19 Win Rate: 41.63%
Yuumi Winrate change: - 1.94%

preternatural9/30/2019, 9:02:16 PM1 votes

yuumi is very playable in soloq, people just can't play her i say this shit again and again man, no one uses her passive. MASSIVE skill gate on that champion it seems, dismounting to get the shield off mid combat? who woulda thunk it. it's a good skillgap too, whatever nerfs the pro-scene brings down on her will be negligible in soloq with the above being considered, matter of fact most soloq yuumi opinions are to be ignored simply based off the fact that soloq doesn't use her passive.