Riot reveals anticipated nerfs for Viego on LoL patch 11.17

William Davis Published 17/08/2021

League of Legends patch 11.17 will drop next week and include some highly anticipated nerfs to Viego and adjustments to a few champions that might put them back into meta.

In the most recent patch preview, LoL lead game designer Jeevun Sidhu and principal champion designer August presented the changes for the next patch. This patch will be tailored towards solo queue as there will be no competitive matches on patch 11.17. What players will be most pleased about is probably the nerfs to Viego but the main focus might turn out to be on the bigger adjustments that Riot will be bringing to Lucian, Amumu, Gangplank, and Akshan.

Patch 11.17 Preview is here!

A few systems changes, champion adjustments, and a light set of buffs/nerfs that are a bit more solo queue focused for now, since there is no pro play on this patch.

11.18/11.19 will be more pro-focused (Worlds is on 11.19). pic.twitter.com/B5oBTN2PN7
— Jeevun Sidhu (@JeevunSidhu) August 16, 2021

Riot targeting Viego on LoL patch 11.17

After being a menace in both solo queue and professional play, Viego is finally getting some nerfs. Even though it took a while before Viego got enabled in professional play, it’s slowly starting to show just how strong the Ruined King can be when played correctly. This has also affected solo queue, where players are slowly starting to understand the ins and outs of Viego and how to utilize his unique kit.

So far, the problem with Viego has been his resets when he possesses the spirits of slain opponents. This makes Viego take over the body of an enemy but more importantly lets Viego become untargetable for a short duration before getting some health back. These resets have turned into some nasty plays that would seem unfair to most. Even the biggest leagues in the world have been haunted by Viego’s strengths and had games decided purely based on his ability to outplay with his resets.

This might change a bit moving forward, as Riot will be nerfing the healing when Viego possesses a new body through his passive. Viego will also lose some strength when camouflaged, as Riot will be increasing the reveal radius when Viego is in his Harrowed Path (E).

At last, the slow duration on Viego’s Heartbreaker (R) will also be reduced, which will hopefully help players escape from Viego a bit easier. With these nerfs coming through, the only buff Riot will be bringing is an increase in his crit multiplier on Blade of the Ruined King (Q). The goal of this buff is to turn Viego slightly more towards crit builds in the future.

These are the Viego nerfs we’re currently testing for next patch.

Goals:
1. Drain power from his resets, especially when behind or building tanky.

2. Reduce the versatility of his AA pattern by hitting AA range and camo radius.

3. Shift him slightly towards crit builds. pic.twitter.com/DB5EnYJH9A
— August (@RiotAugust) August 16, 2021

Adjustments for Amumu, Lucian on LoL patch 11.17

The other major changes on this patch will be the adjustments for Lucian, Amumu, Gangplank, and Akshan. The most significant ones look to be for Lucian, where Riot is aiming to adjust Lucian more towards the bot lane unlike mid where he has performed the best over the past few years.

Riot will look to achieve this by giving Lucian some clear advantages when surrounded by allies. This suddenly means that Lucian will rely more on a support to help empower his abilities. The abilities in focus are his Ardent Blaze (W) and Lightslinger passive which will both have empowered bonuses around allies.

For Amumu, Riot will look to make his Bandage Toss (Q) much stronger by allowing it to have two charges. This essentially means that Amumu can save up two charges and use his Bandage Toss twice within a very short span of time. After being tested on the PBE, it’s already clear that Amumu will be able to throw out some very long crowd-control combos and lock down targets much better than previously.

League of Legends patch 11.17 will be available for testing on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) shortly, before hitting the live servers on Wednesday, August 25.

William Davis

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