Sona was 50% win rate in 10.1. Why buff her to 54% win rate in 10.2?

Josh Sand·1/30/2020, 5:22:52 AM·1 votes·821 views

I would love to have a better understanding of the balancing process at Riot. Because from the outside, it looks completely bonkers.

The team that gives us -5 Move Speed nerf on Kassadin, is also the same team that gives Sona a buff that shoots her from a 50% win rate to a 54% win rate in a single patch??

Can Riot please explain why some champs get ignored for nerfs for months at a time, but then randomly all of a sudden an untested buff (that nobody was asking for) like Sona's makes it to live?

Like I'm genuinely curious what the balancing criteria is for buffs and nerfs is because I absolutely dont get it. Someone like me would assume that a champ with a 50% win rate probably doesn't need a gigantic buff, but what the hell do I know?

5 Comments

Illabethe1/30/2020, 5:39:48 AM4 votes

Here's the problem with your argument.

According to those same stat sites, Players aren't even ranking Sona's E. They are leaving it level 1, so the buff really isn't even impacting her that much. The buff only affects her, not her allies.

It did nothing to her heals and nothing to her shields and nothing to her damage, and nothing to her ally's movement speed.

In other words: You're looking at a 6000 game sample size and "totally freaking out."

Pandemic Punch1/30/2020, 5:40:25 AM4 votes

She is already going to receive a nerf. Outside of that, she isnt anywhere close to being the best support pick right now.

Nami, nautilus, leona, soraka, zyra, blitzcrank, and brand are all better picks and agreed upon by high level analysts as being the best supports to pick right now.

Also factor in that sona only has like a 2-3% pick rate.

rujitra1/30/2020, 6:11:46 AM3 votes

Because Riot looks at a lot more than simply balancing around winrates.

Baby Ghoul1/30/2020, 6:55:15 AM2 votes

Win rates are not the only stat that is important.

This game has been out for years, and people still just blindly list win rates without at least listing the pick rate. It gives us zero context.

Sona has a 3.2% pick rate, so she's not even in the top 10. She's barely in the top 20 among just supports.

Please start looking at pick rates before you start freaking out, and if you want a better indication of what players hate playing against, then look at ban rate. You'll see Sona is dead last on that list as well.

Skeleton Support1/30/2020, 6:46:39 AM1 votes

Because she also had one of the lowest pickrates of any supports. I don't think she was that bad but a buff was nice to at least keep her relevant in the foreseeable meta.