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Yuumi Proposal - Minor Rework / QoL Changes

Hotarµ·9/15/2019, 3:14:55 AM·23 votes·9,514 views

Currently, Yuumi's most glaring issues are how non-interactive she is during both laning and teamfight phases in addition to her lack of disadvantage states. Before we can talk about changing Yuumi, we need to talk about what disadvantage states are and why Yuumi's limited ones are so problematic.

Through healthy discussion and potential minor QoL changes, we can make Yuumi less frustrating to play against, keep her mains satisfied, and open up room for buffs to areas of play outside of the LCS.

#~~1 - Disadvantage States ~~

What is a disadvantage state?

A "disadvantage state" is a term used in fighting games to describe the timeframe when a character is punishable after performing an action. Although it is most commonly used in fighting games, it can be applied to any game and character regardless of the genre.

Yuumi being one of, if not the squishiest champion in League of Legends is surprisingly slippery and very difficult to capitalize on.

Whether stepping out to ward or when her target ally is killed in a teamfight, Yuumi can instantly reattach to her teammates without much risk. The large majority of players are not able to capitalize on this small window without extreme and precise coordination. As a result, many players dislike Yuumi and consistently ban her **as evidenced by her near 20% banrate across all ELOs. **

Frustration is ultimately subjective however, and not the only thing we should look at when discussing a champion. Yuumi's extremely small disadvantage states don't just result in frustration, they also make her a dominant pick in pro-play. At the highest levels of play, Yuumi's base kit combined with her low-risk makes her a staple champion resulting in a high winrate and even higher banrate.

As of the 2019 Summer LCS Season: Yuumi is in the top 20 champions with 18 games played, a 72% winrate, and a near 100% banrate. And that's just in NA alone.

#~~2 - Non-interactiveness ~~

Non-interactiveness and disadvantage states tend to go hand-in-hand. If a champion can't be capitalized on, that results in a non-interactive experience where the player can't be aggressive, take trades, or even move from under their tower.

Unfortunately, Yuumi's gameplay revolves heavily around remaining untargetable for a majority of the game's duration. This makes her immune to poke, effectively makes her immune to engages (as she herself has a good disengage), and results in a very frustrating lane phase for the people playing into her.

By giving Yuumi incentive to detach and become targetable, we can alleviate some frustration and open up windows of opportunity.

#3 - Finally, let's get to the changes!

When reworking any champion, we want to tackle their most glaring problems while keeping their core identity intact. In this case, Yuumi is known for empowering her allies while being attached to them, however that constant untargetability and lack of risk is what makes her so problematic in the first place. So I propose we find some middle ground and the easiest way to do that is by changing her W in two small ways.

Yeah, it's really that simple.

https://imgur.com/2SFjuZw.png?noredirect

Current W - You and Me!

Passive: While Attached, Yuumi and her ally gain a percent of each other’s AD or AP converted to Adaptive Force.

Active: Yuumi starts with a point in her W. She dashes to an ally champion and attaches to them. While Attached, she follows her partner’s movement and is untargetable by everything except tower damage. Yuumi’s abilities fire from her ally’s location, and she can’t attack enemies. There’s no cooldown to jump among her teammates. However, if Yuumi un-attaches entirely, she’ll need to wait for the cooldown to partner up, which starts as soon as she’s attached.

#Changes New effect: Purrfect Partner - Yuumi's allies now have meters above their health bars. (Appropriately titled "Meturrs") Attaching to an allied champion will slowly drain their meter. Meters recharge slowly over time, but will recharge faster if Yuumi lands Prowling Projectile (Q) or Bop N' Block (Passive). Yuumi can only attach to a champion when atleast 25% of their meter is filled.

New effect: The Cat's Out of the Bag! - When Yuumi detaches from a champion (either willingly or through the target ally dying), there is a slightly increased delay before she can reattach to any ally. / AKA Longer W cooldown.

Closing: While on the surface it may not seem that impactful, limiting Yuumi's ability to remain untargetable gives her more meaningful disadvantage states, alleviates frustration across the board, and most importantly reduces her impact in pro-play which, by extension, could lead to improvements for other areas of play.

These proposed changes just scratch the surface of what could be done to Yuumi. (Yes, that was a cat pun.)

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!

21 Comments

jocomotion9/15/2019, 3:34:47 AM11 votes

This is an amazing concept, forcing Yuumi to spend more of the game as an actual champion is a good idea to improved her overall health and make her gameplay less toxic, if I could add one small detail though.

Another, albeit smaller, annoying thing about Yuumi’s kit is her Q. Enemies hate it because it’s free like that’s practically gaurenteed to hit, and Yuumi players hate it because it deals so little damage while costing so much. In the spirit of giving Yuumi more incentive to be detached at times riot could implement something like:

Q: Prowling projectile

  • [new] Firing prowling projectile while detached increases its missile speed drastically
  • Prowling projectile turn radius increased while attached (it can’t turn as sharply)

Because honestly her lack of vulnerability and her literal free poke are the main two toxic parts of her kit. (At least in my opinion)

Metal Janna9/15/2019, 4:00:51 AM3 votes

Two suggestions: 1: (Not mine) I've seen a suggestion (can't remember who to credit) that Yuumi's Q should be always empowered and faster when detached, so she doesn't HAVE to be attached in order to poke. This would make her self peel stronger though, so it'd be better if it was empowered damage but no slow. Maybe make it a whole separate ability for clarity's sake. You could call the detached version "The Cat's Meow" and give it different visuals from the homing-capable and slow-applying "Prowling Projectile".

As for making her more punishable: Suggestion 2 (my idea): making her passive-enhanced auto attacks not instant would kill two birds with one stone.

For the Yuumi it would eliminate the frustration of hopping off to proc shield only to have it immediately pop before you can put it on your ADC because the enemy's auto attack arrived. Now the shield generates after the enemy's auto lands, so you will always get it to your ADC unless you overstay and take a second hit.

For the enemy it gives Yuumi a counterplay strategy, one we're all already familiar with: "Focus the SorakaYuumi". Now when Yuumi walks up you can throw autos at her and actually feel like you're doing something, the same as when Soraka walks up to land Qs and you fire back to keep her from charging up her health battery. Yeah she's getting a shield out of it, but gosh-darn-it you're making her pay for that shield in blood.

There's just one more change that would be necessary to make this change substantial: nerf her HP regen. As it is you can go for a shield proc anytime you want as Yuumi because the shield will stick until it's needed, but the damage you take will not. Make it so trading HP for shield is sometimes the wrong choice.

Nasakeki9/16/2019, 2:29:40 AM3 votes

So you fix nothing, but make Yuumi horrible 99% of the time unless your team perfectly coordinates their engages with you so your timer doesn't run out?

Sounds terrible, and would just exaggerate the issues she has.

Support Position9/15/2019, 4:52:39 PM2 votes

Yuumi Counters:

Blitzcrank Swain Brand Sona

If you need info on why. I might type it up if i feel up for it.

EDIT: When I see Yuumi. Free game.

Spooky Skeleton9/15/2019, 3:45:46 PM1 votes

Never understood why Yuumi just doesn't take a % of the damage her host takes.

Troll Slaiyer9/15/2019, 4:04:31 PM1 votes

how about her W reduces a small %damage and she takes that much to her own hp. she'd be like a mini knights vow.

Póppy Chulo9/15/2019, 6:33:46 PM1 votes

The changes are fine but I feel as it would punish one of the main reasons she keeps on getting nerfed, and that is high elo presence. People who are good at her will just keep using her to top performance, and this mechanic just makes it harder for less experienced players. -Although it can be argued that more experienced players can find a way to easily counter this as well.

I was actually working on a Yuumi proposal a little ago in response to more nerfs. I guess I will go finish it now and post it, see what people think.

PARVDOX9/15/2019, 10:53:38 PM1 votes

A timer to kick Yuumi off to be a sitting duck when she's a free kill anytime she's caught alone is not going to remove the frustration of anyone except people who already ban Yuumi religiously. She needs buffs when she's alone like auto attack range or both to unattached Q and E, not just nerfs when shes riding on a shoulder.

It also might not make any thematic sense for Yuumi's bond to decrease the longer she spends time with someone, when it would logically increase over time since shes a literal pet. Approaching it that way would mean that the champ she spent the longest time on or around then she would be more inclined to share her W buffs and the new partner doesnt get the full percent right off the bat. Instead of a diminishing bar, represent the W gains per champ with Yuumi's paw print stamps of approval.

Groove Crusader9/16/2019, 12:29:36 AM1 votes

Just make her take a % of the damage that the person she's attached to takes.

The Anivia OTP9/15/2019, 12:15:41 PM1 votes

I have a better idea : Yuumi cannot attack an champion if he doesn't have item 3153 item 3022 and item 3504

There you go , it's as balanced as saying "Hey how about the champion that is based around being attached to someone can be forced to not be attached to anyone because for that , she has to land a skillshot that is almost impossible to land if she is not attached."

just make it so aoe silence make her being dismounted. so Soraka and Chogath can just get her off and kill her

BigSquirrell9/15/2019, 7:10:34 AM1 votes

I really like those ideas, and I'll share my own, too, to help contribute: Make Yuumi take a percentage of the damage of the person she's attached to takes so she can be poked down and forced away. Have it start at, like, 75%, then it scales down with points in her W, and if an amount of damage would kill her, she instead detaches and can't reattach for a couple seconds.