It seems like Viego mid is on Riot’s radar.
League of Legends principal champ designer August Browning discussed Viego’s laning in a Reddit post last night, explaining that his win rate in the mid lane is “1-1.5%” higher than in the jungle. While that isn’t necessarily a problem, Riot wants to avoid a potential flex pick issue in pro play.
“We primarily want him to be a viable jungler, but hopefully we can also let him lane as there are quite a few players who enjoy him there (assuming we can still make jungle good and he isn’t a flex problem in pro-play),” Browning said. “If we needed to nerf lane further we’d likely hit the minion sustain again.”
Flex picks, like Pantheon and Sett, can be difficult to balance. This is especially problematic in pro play since it provides a massive advantage during the draft phase. It’s hard to pick a counter when you don’t know where the champ will appear. And since Viego is a strong laner right now, he’s definitely caught Riot’s eye.
Riot already targeted Viego’s lane sustain in a Feb. 3 hotfix, dropping Q’s healing versus minions from 150 to 100 percent. If the Ruined King’s laning presence needs more tweaking, Riot would just further target his healing.
Riot’s intention is for Viego to be a jungler, with mid being a viable niche pick. But his jungle win rate in Patch 11.3 hovers around 48 percent in Platinum rank and above, according to Champion.gg. The Ruined King might need some balancing help in a future patch.
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