A few popular mid champions might return to the spotlight soon enough, thanks to buffs currently on the PBE. Corki, Cassiopeia, and Vel’Koz are all champions that have fallen by the wayside, crowded out by stronger mid laners like Zoe and Talon.
Corki’s changes target his early game damage on his E, Gatling Gun. The base damage on the spell is increasing by 40 at rank one, scaling up to the same damage as on live at max rank. The resistance shred on the ability is also being tweaked significantly, doubling from four to eight at rank one and scaling up to its live version of 20 at max rank.
A previous mid lane staple, Corki has seen his playrate drop in recent patches. His unique mix of physical and magic damage makes him extremely hard to itemize against, so any damage buffs to his early game might push him over the top.
Unlike Corki, Cassiopeia and Vel’Koz will be doing much more damage as they scale up. Cassiopeia’s Q, Noxious Blast, is seeing its AP ratio buffed from 0.7 to 0.8. In addition, its base damage is also increasing. While at rank one it will deal the same damage it currently does, the spell will be doing 20 more damage at max rank. Cassiopeia will be doing massive amounts of damage if she has time to scale and purchase items.
Her mid lane counterpart, Vel’Koz, is also seeing an AP ratio buff to his Q, Plasma Fission. The ratio will be increased from 0.6 to 0.8, meaning Vel’Koz too will be dealing obscene amounts of damage the longer the game goes on. It helps, then, that his favorite item is also being buffed.
Liandry’s Torment, a staple on any champion looking for more damage over time or spell penetration, is seeing its burn damage increase from one to 1.5 percent of an enemy’s max health. Movement-impaired enemies still take two percent of their max health as damage while under the effects of Liandry’s.
While the damage buffs to Cassiopeia and Vel’Koz will be massive in the late game, in the current meta that may prove too difficult to reach. Of these three, expect Corki to be the one that sees the largest spike in play and winrate, at least until the meta slows.
These buffs, barring changes, should go live with Patch 8.14 next week.
