Patch 3.0B - Golfing on Wii Island
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Patch 3.0B - Golfing on Wii Island
All beauty is temporary. Decay and death haunt every breath we take.
You can read the patch notes here. This blog post is built off my annotations and meta expectations.
Wild Rift’s developers presumably play Wii Sports Golf. 3.0B is a balance patch, which could tap a few characters into the meta. Instead they brought out the nine-iron and swung for the fences. I don’t know enough about Golf to keep this metaphor going.
I’m legally required to mention
that Fizz got nerfed. Assassins are always much more deadly in solo-queue than competitive play, and Fizz was competitively viable. I expect these changes to whack him out of pro-meta. He’ll still be workable at most solo-queue ELOs though. Pro players should be playing Zed, so I don’t expect this to change their meta.
In a similar vein,
Jax got tuned down. I already thought he should fall out of favor with nerfs three patches in a row now. Hopefully this attack speed reduction will be the final nail in his proverbial coffin. I don’t like playing against Jax.
This does mean that Lulu and Yuumi compositions need to find another carry. I expect Riven and Garen to fulfil that role. Both those characters are really good right now. More people should pick them. Riven can be played jungle!
Thank god,
they nerfed Lulu. She hasn’t been particularly powerful in most people’s solo-queue games due to her weak laning phase. However, western pros have gotten very good at using her Polymorph to erase Braum and other frontline picks. The Polymorph cooldown is now a consistent second longer, and her shield is much less powerful. I already doubted Lulu’s place in drafts. These changes aren’t the biggest nerfs, but should stop people from drafting her. Finally.
Do you think the lord stays in heaven because he lives in fear of what he has created?
Yuumi, a character who’s numbers made her almost irrelevant in most people’s games, has nonetheless slipped into professional play. In a few irritatingly effective North American drafts, and a truly horrifying Garen pairing in the WCS, the cat has proven what we learned from her PC launch. If you give her any power whatsoever, she can be optimized to make one of your players immortal.
The Wild Rift developers seem to have focused on the cat’s absence from casual play. They’ve given her what might be the largest raw stat increase to any character in Wild Rift so far. I’m already cowering. Expect this to come to a solo-queue game near you. It’s probably even good in top lane, which is horrible.
How to survive the coming terrors:
Everyone should be building anti-heal. If you are a tank, build Bramble Vest early. You don’t need to complete it until late game. Executioner’s calling and Oblivion Orb should be used similarly.
Draft Tanks. For the love of god. This will work very well with Yuumi as it gives her more time to add value. It’s also the best counter to Yuumi. If you don’t have a tank on your team, your ADC’s will get run down. Carries die quickly if they’re forced into “even” trades with a cat-enabled opponent.
Save spells to dodge Final Chapter, Yuumi’s game ending ultimate.
If you are a Duo Lane main, draft characters that can take care of themselves. Yuumi players have no soul and will not stay in lane.
Ezreal is quite good right now, his high mobility allows you to disengage without a support.
Varus’ wave clear, which has defined the WCK meta also makes him a good choice for the coming Cat-pocolypse. I expect him to continue to thrive in Pro Play where he can sit behind a Yuumi-buffed-Garen and throw arrows from the mini-map.
Ziggs combines the best of both worlds, with ranged threat and some mobility. He’s a useful draft if your midlaner is playing Jayce or some other AD threat.
If you are playing Jungle, draft characters that can pair well with Yuumi.
It helps to have a little bit of HP here. Riven is very strong right now. She’s a mechanically complex pick though, so make sure you get some practice before playing ranked.
Speaking of Tank Junglers: Mundo, Jarven, Nunu, and Amumu all work very well with Yuumi. With the exception of Jarven, these are all microwave characters that do AOE burn from their Sunfire Agis. That means that you can build them for HP. Thornmail(anti-Yuumi tech) and Spectre’s Cowl(Yuumi-aide tech) will both increase their damage in fights, making them some of the most important items in the game.
The Item Change:
Normally, I’m really excited by item changes. This one’s fine. Maw of Malmortius is cheaper. That might scale back some of the mages who’ve been running the international meta. It’ll help tanks a bit. That’s about all.
It’s 𝕽𝖚𝖓𝖊𝖘 time.
They tweaked almost every rune. I think the buff to Electrocute will meaningfully impact some mid lane trading patterns. It’s probably really good for Zed, who’s already one of the best characters in the game. Thankfully I’m just going to play Yuumi into him.
Phase Rush got buffed, and that’s
interesting. Some of the Microwave damage Sunfire Agis characters might want to run it now. Perhaps it’ll be viable for Orianna and Seraphine, two lightweight characters who lack mobility options?
Sweet Tooth is
a pretty good comic book with an excellent Netflix show. And a worse rune now. Almost everyone runs this by default, the extra gold and healing is just too good. Tanks can swap to other Resolve options pretty easily, the newly buffed Second Wind is probably a good choice for anyone trading frequently.
I don’t really know what to think about
all the resolve tree changes. Hunter - Titan was my go-to on tanks because it gave both Tenacity (League’s anti-CC stat that reduces slows and stuns), and raw HP. The tenacity reduction hurts, but raw HP is still very useful. Especially if you’re popping in a Sunfire Agis and hitting Defrost. The buff to Conditioning looks significant. I’ll be running that on a lot of characters to see how it shakes out.