Yuumi was hit with a series of balance changes in League of Legends Patch 13.1B, which nerfed her base stats, passive, W, and E. The changes were met with backlash, but Riot Games developer Phreak defended the balance team’s decisions.
The former LCS shoutcaster explained on his YouTube channel yesterday that the primary goal of these changes is to see Yuumi disappear from professional play. Phreak underlined the nerfs to her base stats and passive will hardly impact Yuumi in solo queue since these abilities are abused by pro players, not by regular support players.
Phreak explained the developers’ goal was to “remove her [Yuumi] from pro play.” He also added the team were “okay with her being in a bad spot in solo queue pending the mid-scope update.”
The developer explained pro players are able to win laning phases on Yuumi by trading with the enemy laners on their own to some extent. Because of this, Riot shipped nerfs to Yuumi’s base stats and passive, which should make hopping off an ally and trading with enemy AD carries and supports more of a risk. As a result, Yuumi’s laning phase is expected to be weaker, at least in competitive games.
“I am pretty confident Yuumi should be gone from pro play. These are too much of a laning phase nerf to be playable in pro play,” Phreak said. “And pro will look better as a result.”
Phreak underlined these changes aren’t as bad as they look. While he acknowledged the nerf to her base stats and passive are significant, most Yuumi players don’t rely on them, and it shouldn’t have much of an impact on solo queue. “This nerf is less of a nerf than it looks on paper,” Phreak said.
The dev said he “wants the nerfs to look fucking huge.” He wants to see pros stop playing the champion and solo queue players stop banning it, while “low-key, she’s not really that much worse.”
Patch 13.1B drops today, so it still remains to be seen how the changes will impact solo queue and pro play.
