There have been quite a few champions that dominated the playoffs across multiple League of Legends regions, but one bot laner has truly stood out and now Riot is nerfing her in Patch 13.18 so she won't take over the meta at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship.
Some champions just work better in professional League of Legends than in solo queue and sometimes champions are strong all across the board. There is one bot lane champion that has insane damage numbers, but is also extremely safe, making her one of the best bot laners in the current meta.
Throughout playoffs the playoffs of multiple regions, she's been one of the best picks and now Riot is looking to nerf her just ahead of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, to ensure a new and fresh meta at the biggest esports event of the year.
LoL Patch 13.18: Riot Wants To Ensure Diverse Bot Lane Meta
The bot lane is probably the most important lane in League of Legends. Early dragon stacking can lead to insane advantages in the mid and late game and bot laners are the driving force in the late game most of the time. At least that has been the meta throughout the last year or so.
Now, one of the most popular bot lane champions from the summer playoffs across multiple regions, thanks to her reliability. With 16 games played and 14 bans, she is the champion with the third-highest presence in the LCK playoffs. Who are we talking about? None other than Xayah of course.
She also played a huge role in the LPL playoffs with a total of 27 games played, ten more than the next most played bot laner Kai'Sa.
Now, she is going to be nerfed in the next patch with both her base stats and E receiving some major adjustments that could make her far less attractive to players at the World Championship level.
- Base Stats
- Base Health: 660 >>> 630
- Health Growth: 102 >>> 107
- E - Bladecaller
- Cooldown: 11-9 >>> 13-9
With these stat changes, her early game is going to be much weaker, meaning she is more susceptible to ganks. Add in the longer cooldown on her E, Bladecaller, which can also work as a stun, and you're going to be a lot more careful in the early game and cannot amas as much of a lead as you'd like to.
Sure, she's got higher health growth, but if she messes up her early game, then she won't be able to scale as well in the late game either, meaning that she also can't compete with other bot laners. So, will she still be a meta pick at Worlds 2023 or is she going to be forgotten for a new champion? As long as Zeri stays off Summoner's Rift we're happy....