Riot Games is showing some love to a few champions who have been struggling in the League solo queue. The list includes several big names who fell below the curve heading into Patch 14.16.
Solo Queue Must Die
The main purpose of the champion buffs in League of Legends Patch 14.16 is to help those who are "strictly weak to solo queue," in the words of LoL game designer David "Phreak" Turley. Here's the full list of champions getting a buff in Patch 14.16:
Riot has always struggled to get Skarner’s balance right, and the developer has made multiple balance changes to help the Scorpion get to a better place. According to League of Graphs, Skarner’s popularity percentage is just 0.4%, the lowest of any top laner. Skarner also doesn’t fare well in the jungle, sitting at 0.8%. While Skarner has been a big player in the competitive scene this year, he’s shown no signs of a comeback following his VGU updates thus far.
Riot Phreak says the buffs are strictly aimed at improving champions that underperform in solo queue, but he has no problem with them popping up in pro play and "creating diversity." All of the champions mentioned above have a win rate of less than 50 percent in solo queue, and some are among the least popular. For this reason, they're getting damage buffs to help them out.
