The Magical Cat design team has released a document with the update plans they have in mind to fix Yuumi’s balance issues in the near future.
Yuumi launched in 2019 in League of Legends, and since then she’s been one of the most popular champions, but also one of the most controversial in the MOBA metagame. The Riot Games team is aware of this, which is why, despite the many changes and updates that the character has received over the years, the designers of the magical cat are working on a deep rework to fix the problems. Yuumi’s balance in different game levels.
What will Yuumi’s rework be like? Riot advances details
Riot Games introduced Yuumi to a unique mechanic that allows her to bond with his allies and become untargetable indefinitely. The team used this mechanic to give a large number of players a character that allows newbies to experience the game quickly in the company of their friends (such as Garen, Annie or Sona), however, this has brought many obstacles due to the path.
Some of the main champion issues that go hand in hand with this mechanic are the typical defense mix he has as a wizard, how far he progresses throughout the game, his access to powerful tools to start fights with, and the fact that be unreachable. All this, in Riot’s words, creates “a frustrating gameplay experience that is almost impossible to counter.”
Although there have been numerous minor changes to Yuumi since inception, mostly to limit her presence in the pro gaming scene, the character has yet to find a stable spot in the solo queue, and in the last two worlds she has been one of the stars. For all this, the design team is going to work on a major rework that makes Yuumi less prevalent in coordinated matches and easier to balance.
It seems the Riot team has already identified some of the main reasons why Yuumi’s ban rate in the pro scene is so high:
- Losing laning to Yuumi makes players feel like they’ve lost the game, due to how far she progresses from that point on.
- Yuumi’s power isn’t dependent on her own success, so making her fare poorly during laning doesn’t seem to have any impact, as she can easily switch partners.
- Being the ADC during laning with Yuumi isn’t fun due to how weak he is early in solo queue and he tends to bond with other characters.
- In the pro scene, there aren’t enough opportunities to counter Yuumi due to his great defensive potential and his tools to initiate matches.
With all of this, Riot plans to upgrade Yuumi into an easy-to-play Sorceress who focuses on protecting and empowering her allies. This implies that “we will be emphasizing the support Yuumi offers her allies early in the game, trading her damage and crowd control for additional power and defense during this phase.” According to Riot: “Yumii remaining bound for long periods of time is crucial for both her current players and those just learning the game. However, since being a fragile and reachable target is a fundamental weakness for most spellcasters, We must also come up with new ways to counter Yuumi.”
How to counter the character? Some of the ideas include “tying Yuumi’s success to her winning the laning phase, making her abilities easier to dodge, or making her less powerful by combining her with high-mobility champions.”
The Riot team confirms that they are still working on the initial phases of this update for Yuumi, so we will still have to wait to see it arrive in port. They have promised that they will share more information about it during the next year 2023.
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