Riot Games is currently working on balancing three different League of Legends champions to close the gap between how effective they are in normal and professional play.
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Galio, Sejuani, and Ornn are the three tanks Riot Games revealed that it’s working to improve, the three of them being ones that have “been a challenge to balance” according to League of Legends design director Andrei “Riot Meddler” van Roon. The Rioter took to the game’s boards to discuss the problems with the champions and the plans for fixing them.
“Correcting that sort of difference generally involves moving power out of places that are much more effective in pro and putting it elsewhere,” Riot Meddler said. “Can also involve removing unintended barriers to playing a champ successfully. A good example of both from last year was the Alistar update in 6.22.”
Separating the champions into three different sections within the boards post, Riot Meddler shared the buffs and nerfs planned for Galio, Sejuani, and Ornn. The changes are still a work-in-progress, the Rioter said, with there being a chance these changes don’t ship in Patch 8.23.
Galio
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- Nerfs: Waveclear’s disproportionately powerful in pro, so we’re cutting back on that, with Q damage over time moving to % only which is much less effective against minions. E is then also getting reduce damage to non champions. Finally his ult no longer knocks up more in the center, given coordinated teams are able to get much more value out of that bonus.
- Buffs: More upfront damage on Q and a significantly lower mana cost at higher ranks. Allows more harass, making optimal Galio play less about wave clearing. On the same note his E’s getting both a faster dash speed and a slightly lower cast time, making landing it on targets actually trying/able to dodge more feasible.
Sejuani
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- Nerfs: Reducing Sejuani’s CC power, targeting durations on Q and E, plus potentially removal of the brief W slow. Also testing lower range on E activation.
- Buffs: Adding strength to her later in the game with better per level health, armor and attack speed. Also just adding damage to Q,W,E, some at rank 1, but mainly loaded into rank up damage. Early game power’s highly favored in pro, so scaling stats can be good levers for addressing excessive performance differences.
Ornn
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- Nerfs: Targeting Ornn not winning trades so reliably in lane with removal of the W shield. R1 slow scales off distance travelled, so less power from just dropping it on someone. R2 knockup reduced on subsequent targets, cutting further power from his initiation and general team fighting.
- Buffs: Higher per level armor and HP here too. Return of Unstoppable on the W, high W damage, revised passive. Ornn changes have the most going on, with more other reasons mixed in as well, rather than a strong focus on just narrowing the pro versus regular play gap.
Alistar’s Past Update
Regarding the Alistar update mentioned in the initial post, the Rioter gave an explanation of what changed for the champion back in Patch 6.22 to preview how the three tank champions will look after their updates. The update in question was released 2 years ago with almost all of Alistar’s abilities being adjusted.
“Some of his CC got shifted from immediate to delayed (E stun), which, along with better buffering on his WQ combo, has narrowed the gap dramatically,” Riot Meddler said in summation of the full patch notes which can be read here. “He still goes through periods of really high pick/ban rates in pro play, but is in a much better state in regular games (doesn’t sit in the low to mid 40s win rate wise for example).”
