Amumu recently got buffed in League of Legends Patch 11.17, making him a much happier mummy. And today, Riot touched on why that decision was made.
Game designer AzuBK discussed the mummy’s adjustments in a dev blog today, explaining Riot’s approach to helping champions be relevant at all ranks. And while the goal was to make Amumu more powerful in top-tier lobbies, it was still a “delicate undertaking.”
“For a long time now, [Amumu’s] barely scraped by in higher-skilled play while also bordering on overpowered for the average player,” AzuBK said. “This is an unfortunate position for players of any champion, because it means that your favorite champ becomes less and less powerful as you improve at the game. It can feel like League is telling you that, in order to climb, you need to abandon your champ—and that sucks.”
To help champs that fall into this category, devs take three considerations into account. Riot wants to enhance what players love about the champ, create more ambitious changes than a typical base stat increase, and they have to take a risk since they likely won’t revisit the champ again for a while. And since Amumu’s presence in high-rank play was low, “small adjustments weren’t going to cut it.”
The Amumu buffs give the jungler two charges of Bandage Toss (Q), giving him the flexibility he needs to be more impactful in higher ranks. With the extra Q charge, Amumu can farm faster, gank better, and threaten the backline during a teamfight. AzuBK says he’s no longer a “sitting duck” after casting the first Q, dramatically improving his dominance in all facets of a game.
While it’s too early to tell how well these changes will translate across the board, his win rate in Platinum ranks and above jumped from 48.25 percent to 51 percent, according to u.gg. If he’s dominating solo queue, Riot may consider bringing him down a notch in a future patch.
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