The most recent League of Legends patch 11.14 is already showing signs of a change in meta on the solo queue ladder.
After just a week after its release, a certain champion has crawled back on top of the win-rate chart. The champion is Seraphine, who has returned as a very viable champion in the bot lane following an important buff in this patch. On patch 11.13, Seraphine was mainly used as a support or mid lane but on this patch she is back in the bot lane and can once again be flexed into three positions.
Is Seraphine good in LoL?
The buff for Seraphine on patch 11.14 was actually pretty simple but has clearly had a big impact when it comes to solo queue performance. The buff was given to Seraphine’s main damage ability High Note (Q), increasing its damage ratio with 5% on all levels. This little buff suddenly made Seraphine much stronger in her damage output and players have quickly caught onto that by playing her in the bot lane.
With such a big buff in her scaling, Seraphine is now sitting at a whopping 54.26% win rate in the bot lane. Her win rate in mid has also gone up just above 50% while Seraphine support hasn’t been affected too much because the damage doesn’t matter as much in that role.
Now that Seraphine can do more significant damage instead of only helping out her team with utility, solo queue players should fear facing off against her in bot. Even though Seraphine is still a niche pick, there are certain matchups where players should watch out. With the increased damage, Seraphine is now able to punish the shorter-ranged marksman way more. High Note will be able to push waves and poke the opponent from very early on and will only become stronger as Seraphine adds some ability power items.
Meanwhile, Seraphine is still the utility machine that she has always been, with great overall scaling the later a game goes. Picks that are currently struggling against Seraphine in the bot lane are Jhin and Samira, who both aren’t able to punish her in lane.
Seraphine is still mostly picked as a support but it seems that Riot might want to take her in another direction once again.
Is Sona better than Seraphine?
Ever since Seraphine was introduced to the game, many players have compared her to Sona. While the two champions are similar in many ways, such as high utility and a big crowd control ultimate, the champions are still very different in strength.
The strength difference is apparent when players take into account how often Seraphine has been played since her release. Seraphine was considered very overtuned when she first came out and was a dominant pick in solo queue as well as professional play. Riot has since then nerfed her several times, trying to get her in a balanced spot.
Seraphine will likely continue to be a better champion than Sona for a while. With that said, Riot is already planning a rework to Sona, which might finally bring the Maven of the Strings back into the professional meta. For now, Sona is still a solid pick in solo queue but can easily be punished.
