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Feb 26, 2015

Top 10 Most Frequently Nerfed Champions

39 comments

Some champions seem to always be receiving the short end of the nerf bat, while others seem to skirt just outside of Riot's radar... Let's explore Riot's favorite targets and reminisce about old times past ^_^

Introduction

With RiotZileas' anti-fun patterns in mind, you have to wonder how some champions even make it past the drawing board. However, for some that do, they're hit with the inevitable nerf bat once they become the flavor of the month (FOTM) and start drawing heavy criticism from the league player base.

Let's check out some of Riot's favorite targets below counting down from the 10th spot!

#10: Elise

Starting the list off is Elise! This champion used to be the cream of the crop, constantly picked/banned, and C9 Meteos' personal favorite, She could easily be brought into the jungle, top, mid, and had enough free stats to even be considered for support! 

However, with nerfs on her damage, range, and particle collision sizes, she's now the second lowest win rate champion in the game and shares a place only in our memories with a ban rate 1/4th that of Urgot's. Talk about disrespect.

#9: Twisted Fate

TF's making his presence on this list mostly for nostalgia purposes. Back in the day, his teleporting ultimate was a regular spell, his gold card was an AOE stun, and his teleport range was massive and near instant. If you thought he was annoying now, imagine him back then...good thing release Xin Zhao was around to keep him at bay!

#8: Kha'Zix

Kha'Zix is simply one of those champions that won't sit down and die. Every time they nerf one of his skills, the league population picks up a different skill to max. We've had max Q Kha'Zixes, Max W Kha'Zixs, and for a brief stint, even max E (leap) Kha'Zixes. Somehow, they all seemed to work very well...almost too well. Nerfplz.

#7: Nidalee

Like Kha'Zix, Nidalee has been nerfed and played in pretty much any way you can think of, AP, AD, Tank, glass cannon, split pusher, team fighter, etc. With the latest patch, she's also been played in every single position, (yes, even AD carry). While she's fairly strong right now, she's definitely been up at the plate her fair share of times for the nerfbat.

I'm personally waiting on the roaming meta to come back. Roaming kitty OP.

#6: Lee Sin

Originally considered a "bad" champion, it wasn't before long when people discovered he could triple tempest strike and instantly clear camps...meanwhile, after professionals started picking him up and people finally started reading what his passive does, it's been nothing but nerfs patch after patch, mostly in the form of range reductions.

#5: Olaf

No nerf list would be complete without Olaf. Originally an unstoppable 1v1 duelist and even 1v5 duelist with his insane true damage power combined with items like Shurelia and lifesteal, he's a mere shade of his former self. With a minimum range applied on his axe throw, he can no longer pick up and throw it in place for insane resets.

#4: Alistar

Formerly the God of Gods and 100% ban rate in the jungle, Alistar is also a mere shade of his former self. A champion originally equipped with some of the hardest techniques in the game, Riot's since removed a lot of his power by nerfing his headbutt range and removing his ability to auto-attack immediately after headbutting.

Thank goodness he's not popular anymore since I never did get the hang of headbutt pulverize...much less headbutt-auto-pulverize-auto. When you pulverize in place EVERYONE knows what you were trying to do and how badly you just failed it.

#3: Shaco

Long time definition of "anti-fun", Shaco specializes in an array of skills whose primary purpose is to trick and frustrate enemy players. Direct Riot nerfs include:
  • Deceive (Q)
    • Could cast out of roots like Ryze (W)
    • Reduced from 575 range to 400 
  • Jack In The Box (W)
    • Fear range reduced
    • Originally magic immune
    • Trigger radius reduced to 325 from 450
  • Two-Shive Poison (E)
    • Originally allowed Shaco to stay in stealth after activating
    • Originally blinded targets with a % chance to miss (including neutral monsters)
  • Hallucination (R)
    • Damage reduced from 100% to 50% on turrets
Let's not forget that time where Shaco could finish both red and blue buff at 2:05 without a leash...I'll let you guys search around in the Nerfplz archives for that post, as it features some embarrassingly old formatting.

#2: Kassadin

Kassadin's one of those champions that no matter what the nerfs on him, he always comes back around to popularity...and gets nerfed again.

Meanwhile, I think the last two nerfs are enough to cement his spot on the top 10 nerfed champions, even without counting the insane number of times he's been nerfed:
  • Riftwalk cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 20 seconds
  • Riftwalker range decreased from 700 to 450
OUCH. R.I.P.

#1 Irelia

Last but not least, as you'd all expect, is the most nerfed champion - Irelia. Jungle Nidalee one-shotting laners? Better nerf Irelia!

In all honesty, she hasn't been nerfed that much compared to someone like Kassadin. However, she does get a lot of numbers tweaks simply as a result of how many different ways she can scale into late game. Her dueling potential is also very high in a 1v1 or 1v2 situation, which lends itself to more *WOW* factor.

She's also received a variety of indirect nerfs simply based on her item builds, most notably Trinity Force.

Conclusions

Notable omissions to this list do include Xin Zhao and Master Yi. That being said, as Riot's stance has historically been to nerf rather than buff champions, it's definitely been a nerf-fest these past few years.

That concludes the first Top 10 series of SSJSuntastic's Hyperaggressive Posting Schedule. I'm thinking I should definitely cut it down to Top Three Thursday, but that was definitely a fun write-up.

Thoughts? Comment below!




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39 comments:

  1. Ahri should also be around xD

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  2. Irelia wasn't (directly) nerfed in the last 3 years...

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  3. SSJSuntasticFebruary 26, 2015

    True, I did mention that she actually doesn't get directly nerfed too often, it's just a running joke.

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  4. Jim PaponettiFebruary 26, 2015

    Draven with Bleed, gg

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  5. Why is Kassadin RIP?

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  6. Eric PetersonFebruary 26, 2015

    cause his entire kit revolves around jumping in and killing someone and then jumping out or thats how he was played

    Now that the cd on riftwalk is 20 secs and the range has decreased to just barely above flash range he can't get onto targets as easy and he can't get out once he's gone in therefore this recent nerf is aimed more or less at killing kassidin as a viable pick im probably over exagurating but damn they hate this one champ alot

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  7. OK thank you

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  8. I know, even TheOddOne found out that the 'Better nerf Irelia' thing is a conspiracy by the Irelia players. :P But I wouldn't mind seeing her getting nerf as she's op as fk. :D

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  9. SSJSuntasticFebruary 26, 2015

    Oh wow, I just saw TheOddOne's video on Irelia, that's actually really funny since I drafted this post on Tuesday and noticed the same thing haha

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  10. Ziggs was nerfed a lot throughout season 4 also. Everything except his W was nerfed. Radius on his Q, E's damage to minions, R's cd, his aa range, and his movement speed.

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  11. last irelia ban was 2012 LMAO

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  12. You totally forgot Kayle, which got gutted in everything.

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  13. His nerfs didn't really affect him, so they aren't so noticeable. He still does what he's always done very well. The above champs were literally gutted or just constantly changed. Thresh has had only a few changes in the ~2 years he's been around. I think gnar has had almost as many in his few months.

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  14. Am I the only one who thinks Riot went too far with the last Kassadin nerf?

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  15. Exevier EtcheverryFebruary 26, 2015

    I would add Urgot in honorable mention:

    Stats: *Base health reduced to 437 to 457.
    *Base AD reduced to 51.6 from 54.1
    Q: *Base damage reduced to 10/40/70/100/130 from 50/80/110/140/170
    *Scaling is reduced from 0.85 of total AD to 1.2 of BONUS AD.
    *Cast range reduced to 1200 from 1500.
    W: *Shield is reduced to 80/130/180/230/280 from 80/140/200/260/320.
    E: *Damage is reduced to 75/130/185/240/295 from 100/155/210/265/320
    *Cooldown increased to 15/14/13/12/11 seconds from 11 in all ranks.
    *Cast Range reduced to 900 from 950.

    R: *Armor and Magic Resist bonus reduced to 60/90/120 from 80/105/130.
    *Cast Range reduced to 550/700/850 from 700/755/850.

    Shen, Kayle, Soraka and Evelynn, in my opinion they are worthy of an honorable mention.

    Good job SSJ.

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  16. Agreed Kassadin was more annoying then op but this one really Olafed him

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  17. I think Diana could deserve a spot on the tier because of that massive all around nerf to her

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  18. Kayle coud be on this list but these guys got gutted and didnt receive any compensation atleast kayle has Nashors

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  19. But Pantheon with his triple passive proc is still here

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  20. rainy1314emily .February 26, 2015

    I'd add Ahri too. She'll come around some time soon to be nerfed.

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  21. Zac should've been an honorable mention too

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  22. last irelia nerf was 2012 aswell

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  23. As many have said, Irelia hasn't been nerfed since a patch in 2012. Was this whole article meant to be a set-up for the running "better nerf irelia" joke? If so I think I'm going to start getting my info from another source. This is upsetting. I was hoping for an in-depth evaluation of both number of nerfs and total impact of nerfs over the years. Other than the Shaco section, this missed the mark for me.

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  24. SSJSuntasticFebruary 27, 2015

    TheOddOne ruined it for me =[ It was actually supposed to lead into another article about how Irelia players are genius marketers, but then he released a video yesterday and I had to delete the draft.

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  25. disisdeathwingFebruary 27, 2015

    i always never understand the irelia is very good late game, yes she can dive a carry insanely well, but her dueling potential is much worse than you would think.

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  26. disisdeathwingFebruary 27, 2015

    release xin zhao is a joke compared to the might of the beta jax (aka jax with a real weapon).

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  27. Jim PaponettiFebruary 27, 2015

    lmao no? Shes one of the best duelers in the game

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  28. KingoftheSocksFebruary 27, 2015

    But hang on irelia hasn't been nerfed for 3 years and if people dare talk about nerfs her mains are like "stupid rito always nerfing irelia"

    What I havw never understood though is how Morgana who os played in multiple positions and does well in all Riot javem't thought "You know a near instant 3 sec snare plus black shield may be a bit overbearing"

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  29. Couldn't Mordekaiser be added to this list? He was very dominant in the old days of League, and was one of the champions who could stay in lane all game, and then 1v5 your whole team.

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  30. Josh ThurlowFebruary 28, 2015

    But how many times was he nerfed?

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  31. Andre MartinsFebruary 28, 2015

    Last time irelia was nerfed was in 2013..

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  32. I think you missed a nerf on Shaco's W where his boxes would never expire, now expire at 60 seconds. That to me was the biggest nerf to Shaco.

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  33. I'm just playing since the begin of season 3, and during that season / year Zac was really by far the hardest and most often nerfed champion, really wondering why he's not in this list. But while Zac simply doesn't exist long enough and was mainly nerfed during one single season, there's a champion that definitely should hold a really high spot here.

    Rammus - I don't think there's any reason to discuss, he has been close second to Irelia in regards of nerf memes even before the duration of his only core CC got reduced by almost a second. How can you forget him?

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  34. i still remember the good old king of the jungle and master jester shaco, he was the reason i got into playing league in the first place. Even though he has been nerfed a lot since then i really enjoy playing him still. With his nerfs i still think shaco is awesome and season 5 meta with taking buff as the second camp helps shaco a lot with invades at lv 2 when enemy is at their buff. i think we are going to see shaco back in the game as a common jungler in s 5, unless they find a new way to nerf him

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  35. I miss you Elise :'"(

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  36. but where is yasuo D: he got heaps of nerfs as well

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  37. i agree mordes shield,cooldown overall damage pretty much everything was nerfed so bad he went from a wrecking ball to a squishy wreck. he was my main and could stack up high 20's easy with no cc.... i quit when they nerfed him.

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  38. Raid Boss MordeMay 23, 2015

    He's been nerfed many times. HUGE amount of nerfs in the old days, and then he got nerfed recently.

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