League Of Legends Patch Notes: Neeko Gets Nerfed Mid-Patch

Riot Games revealed Monday Mid-Patch updates to the recently released Patch 9.5 for League of Legends.

The update makes major changes to Neeko, lowering her attack speed growth per level to 1.5 percent from 3.5 percent. Her attack damage per level has also been lowered from 3 to 2. Bonus magic damage of her W- Shapesplitter has been rescaled from 50/80/110/140/170 to 50/70/90/110/130. These changes effectively nerf Neeko and, according to the developers, the team pulled "back on Neeko's baseline strength so that her freshly discovered on-hit build isn't so overwhelming compared to her other options."

The changes are in response to an increase in the playing rate of Neeko after the introduction of Patch 9.5, which jumped from 0.14 percent to 3.05 percent. In addition, Neeko has the highest win rate for an ADC hero at almost 60 percent. The main reason is that players have foregone her use as an AP caster and instead played her an ADC-style, on-hit champion. The introduction of the mid-patch means that the on-hit Neeko builds slowly dies down.

The community has been mixed in terms of reaction to the nerf. On the one hand, there are those who say that the nerf was more than justified considering how she had become too strong. There are also those who argue that Riot Games should have, at the very least, balanced the build instead.

Balance changes were also done to ARURF, with Leblanc getting +10 percent damage done with Morgana having -8 percent damage done. For Camilla, she gets +1 percent damage done and -10 percent damage taken.

Lead Designer David “Repertoir” Capurro also provided players with a preview of Patch 9.6. In a tweet, Repertoir said that nine champions are expected to get buffs, including Ornn, Trundle, Urgot, Xayah, Caitlyn, Gnar, Hecarim, Nautilus, and Shen. Meanwhile eight champions will get nerfed, which include Rek'Sai, Sylas, Jayce, Morgana, Zoe, Leblanc, Overheal, and Dematerializer.

In regards to Riven, Repertoir said that Riven is banned in North America 60 percent more than the average. The problem is focused mainly on the western region, and Riot generally considers trends across all areas. He did mention that if Riot sees performance improve for the champion, Riven may be included in Patch 9.7.