Riot Games has admitted that it “overshot” on recent Zeri nerfs by “quite a bit” and has now shipped a hotfix to League of Legends in an attempt to remedy the champion.
In a post on social media yesterday evening, Riot lead champion designer August Browning detailed all of the Zeri adjustments that have been pushed to the live servers. They include a series of buffs to the champion’s stats, Burst Fire (Q), Ultrashock Laser (W), and Spark Surge (E).
Stats
- Health: 500 > 530
Q – Burst Fire
- Lightning Crash (R) stacks and Spark Surge (E) refreshes on crit two > three
W – Ultrashock Laser
- Slow duration one to two > two
- AD ratio: 1.2 > 1.4
E – Spark Surge
- Cooldown: 28-22 > 26-20
In Patch 12.7, which went live on Wednesday, April 13, Zeri was targeted with nerfs to all of her abilities with the aim of “bring[ing] her brusier build more in line with her crit build, as well as mak[ing] her stacks and on-hits more predictable,” according to Riot. While they may have had the intended effect of allowing enemies to “catch Zeri before she starts zipping circles around them,” the nerfs were clearly overkill.
In the several days following the balance changes, Zeri has dropped down to a shocking 42.33 percent win rate in the Platinum division and above, according to stats site u.gg. This is by far the lowest in the AD carry position.
It remains to be seen if the hotfixes will put Zeri in a more respectable position in solo queue or if she will still continue to struggle. Further changes to the champion may be needed in the weeks to come.
The next patch, Patch 12.8, is due to release on April 27. This will be the patch the top teams from around the world will compete on when they attend this year’s Mid-Season Invitational in Busan, South Korea in May.
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