A plethora of champion nerfs are coming in League of Legends Patch 14.9, with Riot Games set to bring the strongest overperformers in each role back in line with their peers.
13 League champions are being struck by the nerf hammer in Patch 14.9, including Ahri, Evelynn, Jinx, Kassadin, Skarner, and Twitch. Most are doing too well in their respective roles, which is the main reason behind the nerfs.
“Some of our previous patches have been buff heavy, so this is an attempt at hitting it down,” Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison wrote on April 24. At the same time, he pointed out these are mostly “small numbers nerfs,” with a few exceptions.
Ahri, for example, is having her W damage and ultimate cooldown nerfed. This makes sense, as these skills often make her way too strong for the current meta when combined with Malignence. But above all, the biggest nerfs seem to be coming to the champion of the hour, Skarner.
The scorpion has been constantly tweaked since his rework in Patch 14.7, and this time it’s no different. He’s getting nerfs to his mana regeneration, Q damage, W slow, and W shield. “The changes are intended to be further nerfs to top lane and jungle. Nerf how heavily he spikes at level nine specifically,” Phroxzon wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see how the solo queue reacts to these changes. Many of these champions are solid picks at the moment—Ahri, Twitch, and Kassadin are currently some of the most dangerous mid laners in the game, Evelynn is doing great in the jungle, and Skarner is deadly in the top lane and support. Their win rates have risen to around 51 percent, according to U.GG.
Patch 14.9 is expected to hit live servers on May 1.
