Riot officially released patch 1.1 for Wild Rift, bringing massive changes to the Rift. Among those changes were new champions Darius and Draven alongside Ability Haste, mana regen nerfs, and some basic quality of life changes for certain champions.
Click here to see the full patch notes.
[Related: What is Wukongs’ Release Date in Wild Rift?]
With the Patch, Draven and Darius are officially out, or at least stated to be out. There is little doubt that they will shake up the meta in their respective lanes of adc and top. Wukong is slated to release later this month.
Both champions are bullies in the early game and have massive snowball potential. Look out for these champions. If you die early then it may be best to play passively for the rest of laning phase.
Mana regeneration has been overwhelming, with most champions having no issues whatsoever with their mana pool. In this nerf, Riot rolled out numerous mana substractions that should balance the game quite a bit.
The most notable mana regen balance is Ezreal’s. From 21 to 9 regeneration nerf, Ezreal should feel quite a bit weaker in the early game. But with tear, his team play in mid to late game should still be strong.
These mana nerfs targetted most of the high priority picks, but not all.
For some reason, Gragas has been buffed. Though minor, they fixed his ultimate animation reducing two frames off of the activation.
Gragas is one of the strongest picks in the game. He’s already a priority pick in the Baron and Mid lanes, his sustain and damage early to mid-game are uncontested. With Riot not having touched his mana regen, despite nerfing many other champion’s, Gragas will be highlighted as a top tier pick.
Riot buffed the defensive boots, which is a much-desired change. Mercury’s Treads and Ninja Tabi base stats have been buffed. Recently, most people opt for cooldown or lifesteal boots. With these buffs, defensive item optimization should be more encouraged.
The nerfs to bleed on damage based items helps tanks regen back into the game as well. Tank bleed damage duration has been increased, so this should shift the balance towards tank meta a bit more.
To add on, the buff to Gargoyle’s Stoneplate is quite massive. They vastly increased the health bonus which gives increased survivability.
Ability haste is the biggest change from this recent patch. Replacing Cooldown Reduction, there is no longer a 45% cap but rather depends solely on ability haste.
They perform essentially the same, but ability haste scales much different from Cooldown Reduction. 100 ability haste means that abilities will refresh 100% faster. This is, in essence, 50% cooldown reduction.
Here is a chart, credits to sanketower, converting ability haste to cooldown reduction.
credits to Sanketower on Reddit
The changes Riot implemented are much needed for Wild Rift. Thanks to the great work from the dev team, the game has become more playable and the ratings on all app stores have been gradually making their way back up.
This patch not only made positive changes to the game but also made great changes to the community. It shows the community that Riot is paying attention, that they are listening to feedback.
So Players. Stay hopeful, and believe in the longevity of the game. More positive changes will be here soon.
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