Every couple of weeks, the developers update the game. The most recent patch is one of the smaller, supplementary ones. In the newest update, developers attempted to fix some of the most broken picks in the game. Most of the patch update were nerfs, targetting overpowered champions. The most notable being the Master Yi nerf. But are these balance changes enough? Here is a Wild Rift Patch 3.1a Analysis to help players understand exactly what went down in the most recent
[Related: Wild Rift Karma Build]
NEW MODES
ELEMENTAL RIFT
The Elemental Rift testing mode remains live for only a couple more days. This is a separate mode from the typical ranked and normal play. Use this time to try out the new feature to understand and expect the future gameplay changes, likely implementing in Patch 3.2.
Elemental Rift will be available to play until April 10 at 4:59 PM PT
Wild Rift Patch 3.1a CHAMPION CHANGES
JARVAN IV
- Attack Speed bonus: 15/20/25/30% → 20/25/30/35%
Riot Description: “The heir to Demacia has been underperforming amongst other popular fighters in both the Baron Lane and the jungle. We want to amp up Jarvan’s dueling potential and increase his ability to support his allies, so we’re boosting the Attack Speed bonus that Demacian Standard grants.”
Analysis: This seems like a very careful buff. A bonus 5% attack speed doesn’t really his dueling potential. Instead, this prioritizes the champion’s wave clear more so than anything. Faster wave clear means better scaling and faster relevance.
KARMA
- Mantra bonus base damage: 70/160/250/340 → 70/150/230/310
Riot’s Description: “Karma’s release balance was close to where we want her to be for the long-term, but she’s doing too much damage in the mid-game. We’re tipping the scales, and lowering Inner Flame’s Mantra bonus damage to make her less of a damage threat since she has so much other powerful utility in her kit.”
Analysis: Karma’s Inner Flame definitely dealt way too much damage. With 30 damage trimmed off it for the late game, the nerf undoubtably hurts her scaling. But with the remaining of her kit literally unchanged, she’ll still be incredibly strong. Karma’s utility from her ult, snare, and shields remains insane. So for Karma players, don’t fret from continuing to spam her.
MASTER YI
- Bonus damage against monsters and minions: 90/125/160/195 → 80/110/140/170
- Bonus damage ratio against monsters and minions hit by subsequent strikes: 100% → 25%
Riot’s Description: “We know that Master Yi has been terrorizing the rift and been perma-ban status for a lot of players since our update to his Alpha Strike. It’s allowed him to clear the jungle at turbo speed, so we’re reducing the bonus damage he deals to monsters so this Wuju Bladesman isn’t the undisputed clear speed king.”
Analysis: The nerfs only target Master Yi’s clear speed. But the issue is, though his clear speed was broken, his damage on single target champions is even more broken. In other words, this is also not enough to stop the Master Yi pick from dominating solo queue. By slowing down his clears, Master Yi shouldn’t be able to scale as fast into the game, and thereby diminish the pick’s priority a slight amount. Play testing seems necessary to observe whether the nerf will be enough or not. Don’t get high hopes Yi haters. It’s highly likely not enough.
NUNU & WILLUMP
BASE STATS
- Armor per level: 3.5 → 3.9
- Damage AP ratio: 50% → 65%
- Damage per snowball: 7/10/13/16 (+3% AP) → 8/12/16/20 (+4% AP)
ABSOLUTE ZERO
- Minimum base damage: 125/190/255 → 130/190/250
- Maximum damage: 625/950/1275 (+250% AP) → 715/1045/1375 (+275% AP)
- Maximum charge multiplier: 5 → 5.5
Riot’s Description: “Nunu & Willump have a rather steep mastery curve; it turns out that piloting snowballs through the Rift is not as easy as it looks. They’ve been performing for players that put in the time to master them but we want everyone to have the chance to become master snowball pilots. We also feel that their Ability Power build has some room to grow, so we focused our adjustments to those parts of this icy duo’s kit.”
Analysis: These buffs may make Nunu pretty busted. The champion received buffs on practically every damaging ability in his kit. And considering Nunu really wasn’t considered weak, these changes could quite possibly push him over the edge. Expect to see more Nunus rolling around in ranked.
OLAF
- Base damage: 70/130/190/250 → 60/120/180/240
Riot’s Description: “With the addition of Divine Sunderer and the other changes to the fighter item system we made, Olaf has been dominating both in the jungle and Baron Lane. We’re slightly decreasing the base damage on his Reckless Swing to make it more difficult for him to bring down any target he comes across, particularly in the early game.”
Analysis: Olaf is a hidden overpowered champion. Especially against comps that are squishy, and rely heavily on crowd control to deal with tankier enemies during team fights. Taking 10 damage off his reckless swing hurts Olaf’s DPS capabilities. But seeing as its only 10 damage, though he does kind of spam the move, it shouldn’t be enough to completely stop Olaf from being meta.
RENEKTON
BASE STATS
- Health per level: 105 → 115
- Health at level 15: 2120 → 2260
- Healing per enemy hit: 6/9/12/15 → 4/6/8/10 + 8% Bonus Attack Damage
- Enhanced healing per enemy hit: 18/27/36/45 → 12/18/24/30 + 24% Bonus Attack Damage
Riot’s Description: “Lately, Renekton has been struggling in ranked while continuing to be a powerful pick for coordinated teams. We’re cutting down on some of his early game healing to make his lane priority less powerful, but in return we’re giving this gator some more durability and healing for the later stages of the game. This should ensure that he can still perform his role in teamfights and skirmishes outside of the laning phase.”
Analysis: Riot traded off early game with late game scaling. As they noted, the pick stands as a great lane bully for competitive play. But for ranked, the pick’s reliance on stalling the enemy falls off, as proper coordination is necessary to capitalize on the opportunity Renekton creates.
VAYNE
- Final Hour bonus movement speed: 90 → 70
- Bonus Attack Damage: 30/40/50 → 20/30/40
Riot’s Description: The Night Hunter has been hunting a little too well during her Final Hour, so we’re cutting down on both the movement speed bonus and the extra damage she gains during her ultimate.
Analysis: Vayne stands as one of the greatest marksmen in Patch 3.1. Nerfing her movement speed while chasing enemies definitely hurts her strengths, especially with the ultimate nerf as well. Really good balancing to be honest, trimming down Vayne’s overpowered traits while still keeping the pick viable.
VEIGAR
- Cooldown: 18/17/16/15s → 16/15/14/13s
Riot’s Description: “This tiny Master of Evil has been struggling to keep up with the other mages in the Mid Lane, particularly in high level play. We’re reducing the cooldown of Event Horizon to give Veigar more opportunities to lock down his foes and blow them up with dark magic, all while laughing maniacally at them.”
Wild Rift Patch 3.1a Analysis: CDR on Event horizon doesn’t really change Veigar’s playstyle at all. Especially with just one second. The change stands more as Riot’s developer team testing the waters, seeing if it’ll change anything substantially, while just attempting to promote the champion a bit more.
VI
BASE STATS
- Base Attack Damage: 58 → 64
Riot’s Description: “Piltover’s finest fighter has been lagging behind other junglers in recent patches. We’d like to see her pack more of a punch in her early game ganks and skirmishes, so we’re beefing up her base Attack Damage.”
Analysis: Base attack damage buff is really nice for any bruiser. This bleeds through all its moves, allowing Vi to scale far better. It won’t be anything massively game changing, but for a relatively weak champion like Vi, the buff is much appreciated.
Wild Rift Patch 3.1a GAMEPLAY CHANGES
ITEMS
BLADE OF THE RUINED KING
Riot’s Description: “Blade of the Ruined King has been a popular item choice since the beginning of Wild Rift, but over time it’s grown to be more common and more powerful as a first purchase for many fighters and marksmen. We’re slightly increasing its price so you’ll have to farm a couple extra minions if you want to snag this blade early on.”
- Total cost: 3100g → 3200g
- Combine cost: 1000g → 1100g
Wild Rift Patch 3.1a Analysis: This definitely hurts a lot of the broken champs at the moment. Especially Vayne, who is one of the only marksmen that make great use of the item. A higher gold cost delays powerspikes.
MONSTERS
BARON NASHOR
Riot’s Description: “Baron’s powerful Acid Shot has been terrorizing champions on the Rift for some time. To ease some of the frustration around this ability, we’re reworking its damage so it scales less with Baron’s Attack Damage and also reducing its damage to targets who get hit by subsequent shots. Since Baron is losing power overall, we’re giving it some more base health.”
- Base health: 10800 → 11800
- Acid Shot damage: 20 + 120% Attack Damage → 120 + 25% Attack Damage
- Acid Shot damage ratio to targets hit by subsequent shots: 70% → 50%
Analysis: It seems developers are attempting to make games end faster. These baron changes make the objective far easier to take, since the damage it deal was the biggest deterring factor. Essentially, the developers are opening more room for teams to take Nashor, requiring less opportune timing and coordination.
SYSTEMS
HOMEGUARD & MINIONS
Riot’s Description: “Minions play a pretty big role in the later stages of the game, so we are making some adjustments to alleviate some of the pressure those late-game minion waves can cause. We’re increasing the bonus movespeed for Homeguard in the mid-to-late game to allow champions to get into more aggressive positions quicker while also reducing the move speed the minions gain.”
Homeguard
- Movement speed effect: After 12 mins, gain 30% movement speed for 4s → After 1 min, gain 40% movement speed until the game ends
Minion movement speed
- Movement speed bonus at 12 minutes: 40 → 10
- Maximum movement speed bonus: 120 → 100
Wild Rift Patch 3.1a Analysis: Riot is placing more emphasis on player movement over minions. This makes sense, as minions towards the late game essentially determine the game. Hard to tell how much things will change from this change alone.
RESPAWN TIMER
Riot’s Description: “We’re making some adjustments to respawns and changing how much a champion can be penalized or favored on their death timers. If you have a lead and are ahead in your game, you’ll be penalized less, but if you find yourself behind in your games you’ll be favored less.”
Base respawn timer
- 9 mins – 11 mins: 32s → 33s
- 11 mins – 13 mins: 38s → 40s
- 13 mins – 15 mins: 45s → 47s
Respawn modifier
- Maximum modifier: 25% → 15%
Analysis: Hmmmm… As mentioned before, they’re attempting to make games end faster. Deaths and kills essentially determine the game a bit more than they used to. Players were worried about this change, but it’s not too big of a change. No idea what the maximum modifier means.
ARAM CHANGES
WARMOG’S ARMOR
- Max health healing ratio per second: 5% → 2.5%
SKINS
Releasing April 14 @ 00:01 UTC:
- Pajama Guardian Lux
- Pajama Guardian Ezreal
ACCESSORIES
You can earn or purchase accessories from a bunch of different sources. Please check the relevant page in game for more information on how to get ‘em!
Icons: A Puzzling Reward
Emotes: Fast Asleep; Soon.
All accessories will be released throughout the patch.
EVENTS
WILD PUZZLE
Reporting in, Captain puzzle solver on duty! Get ready to put the pieces together for some fun rewards.
The Wild Puzzle event begins April 16 at 00:01 UTC
In Conclusion
Hopefully this Wild Rift Patch 3.1a analysis provided some insight to understanding the current meta. Some play testing seems necessary to properly gauge the changes. And since it’s a supplementary patch, not a big numbered patch, the changes target largely balancing the broken picks over creating drastic changes. For more Wild Rift content, be sure to Subscribe to Riftguides and stay connected at The Game Haus.
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