5 Changes We Want in League of Legends Patch 10.9

With League of Legends Patch 10.9 making its way to servers in just a few days, here are the five changes we want to see in League of Legends Patch 10.9.

5 Changes We Want to See in League of Legends Patch 10.9

1. Allow Enchanter Supports to be Viable

After almost six patches of the same melee supports like Nautilus, Leona, Braum, and Tahm Kench dominating the meta, there's finally been a switch up that has seen enchanter supports like Nami and Bard become relevant again. Now these champions, that were previously terrible, now have an opportunity to shine in both competitive play and solo queue because of their unique ability to counteract the engage oriented supports that dominated League of Legends.

One of the worst things Riot Games could do for the balance of the game is to nerf high skill expression enchanters like Nami and Bard, while leaving lower skill enchanters like Sona and Yuumi intact. It only serves to narrow the pool of viable supports and will create only create further balance problems. Let the meta adapt and evolve naturally, don't attempt to force it through nerfs to enchanters.

2. Encourage a Diverse Selection of Viable Junglers

The jungle meta, like the support meta, was relatively standard through most of Season 10. Only junglers like Karthus, Gragas, Lee Sin, Elise, Jarvan IV, and Rek'Sai were viable in competitive play. But, as Sejuani made its way back into the meta, so did the champions that traditionally answered her, like Trundle. And as Trundle came back into the meta, so did the champions that generally countered Trundle like Graves and Kindred.

Having numerous junglers be viable encourages a diverse range of picks and brings champions that previously were not viable, like Graves and Kindred, back into the meta. Nerfs to junglers like Trundle and Sejuani should be avoided for the foreseeable future because each champion already has its weaknesses and counterplay, as is shown by their approximately 50 percent win rate in ranked solo queue and losses on the competitive stage.

3. Wukong Nerfs

The armor that Wukong gets from Stone Skin (Passive), along with the intricacies of his combos involving Warrior Trickster (W), make his kit a relatively difficult one to balance effectively. Unfortunately, he's still a bit too powerful, holding the best win rate in top lane for the second consecutive patch at around 55 percent and cheesing traditional bot laners. He's also got one of the highest ban rates of any champion in the game at just over 33 percent.

The majority of the changes to his kit should be related to his passive. The simultaneous buffing of Death's Dance and the release of reworked Wukong just made the champion far too strong in its initial state. Scaling back the amount of passive armor Wukong is able to get from Stone Skin and the armor shredding he's able to get from Crushing Blow (Q) should go a long way in making him the balanced champion he was always intended to be.

4. Yuumi Nerfs Relative to Skill Expression

While enchanter and healing supports should be viable, their healing and damage should be proportional to the skill expression that's exhibited. In other words, players that choose to play a more exposed enchanter support, like Nami, should feel more rewarded when they're able to successfully land skillshots and combinations.

In the case of Yuumi, she really doesn't have any skillshots outside of Final Chapter (R) and Prowling Projectile (Q). The latter of which, she can control with her mouse for two seconds after casting it. The rest of her kit allows her to sit safely inside another champion on her team, making her largely immune to poke while still being able to give massive heals after just two items. Taking away the effectiveness of some of Yuumi's healing from Zoomies (E) seems a valid tradeoff for the safety and poke she gets during the early and middle parts of the laning phase.

5. ADC Meta Changes

Bot lane champions like Aphelios and Senna have received round after round of nerfs, with very few buffs to other major bot laners outside of Kai'Sa. It's time for some bot laners left on the outside to get some well deserved buffs. A few champions that could use the buffs are Sivir, Tristana, and Kalista. All of which enjoy a win rate hovering around 50 percent in solo queue, with Kalista just below the midway point.

The nerfs to Aphelios and Senna gutted the champions, but they'll continue to be viable because very few other champions in the game have the same kind of mid and late game power. Creating a more diverse pool of AD carries will go a long way to changing the bot lane meta and rotating Aphelios, Miss Fortune, and Senna out.