Throughout League of Legends history, there have been occasions where a champion’s presence within the game, whether that’s on the ban table or dominating the Rift, is overbearing for everyone else playing.
This is the case with a popular Arcane character, who’s so overpowered she has skyrocketed to just under a 60-percent ban rate across all regions in League. That champion is Ambessa, the newest champion to be released to go alongside Arcane season two. According to leagueofgraphs.com, The Matriarch of War has a 59.9 percent ban rate in platinum and above in League.
This statistic isn’t at all surprising given how players normally react when a new champion is released. It also helps that Ambessa is a fun character to go after one-vs-one fights with, using her dashes to skirt around enemy top laners. On Patch 14.24 specifically, Ambessa did receive some more nerfs to go along with her previous changes, this time focusing on bringing more “losing lane” matchups to one of the stars of Arcane.
Despite these changes, the champions that receive the most amount of love from those nerfs are ranged champions, or more specifically, high DPS, which according to mobalytics.gg are a rarity, with many of the champions in the top 10 played being melee characters. This means Ambessa still has the edge, leaving top laners with no choice but to put her on the chopping block.
Riot is once again facing the difficult task of balancing out a new champion while also ensuring they are playable during the early period of their lifespan. Aurora was another champion who dominated in her early days before Riot hit the nerf buttons hard with patches and micropatches. We’ll see if Ambessa gets similar treatment soon.
