Riot Nerfs Samira In Latest League Patch Following Backlash
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, but when it comes to League of Legends, Riot Games has nerfed Samira after players complained she was "broken". Despite the Desert Rose being the latest addition to the multiplayer online battle arena, that hasn't stopped her causing some serious problems across the board.
Samira had only been in LoL for a single day before developers decided she was too strong. It has caused its fair share of controversy, meaning Samura was quickly scaled back following fan backlash.
Samira dropped into LoL and was accused of immediately being broken. You only had to look at her astronomical win stats to see there was clearly something amiss with the eye-patched heroine. Stats site Lolalytics claimed that Samira rounded off her debut with a 49.28% win rate in platinum and above, being picked in 2.52% of matches. Players couldn't believe her win rate, which had risen to a ridiculous 51.67% on Diamond+.
Samira is sitting at a whopping 49.51% winrate in platinum and 48.57% winrate at all ranks on her second day on the rift! from r/leagueoflegends
Discussing Samira's nerf, lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter explained, "We’re still very committed to releasing new champions long term balanced. Sometimes we get lucky and nail it exactly on launch, but most of the time it’s about fast follow up. Based on our estimates and goals she looked clearly too strong on day one so we’re acting fast".
For a start, Samira's health points have dropped 600 to 530. Her ultimate ability, Inferno Trigger, has also been significantly stripped back. The considerable nerfs mean Samira deals 0–200 (+500% total attack damage) when activating Inferno Trigger. Her ultimate used to deliver a hefty 100-300 damage, with an impressive +600% total attack damage also being added. Yetter confirmed the 10.19 patch was fast-tracked on September 22 to try and fix Samira.
It's the same issue we're seen time and time again with new Legends in LoL. Earlier this year, Aphelios was one of the most picked (and banned) in the game's history. He was eventually nerfed back to a realistic form and the drama was soon forgotten.
With Riot promising to keep an eye on Samira into patch 10.20, it looks like Katarina and Lulu could be following in her footsteps with some major adjustments. Either way, it's good news that Riot Games has levelled the playing field with its Samira nerf.
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Images via Riot Games
