It’s unclear if it’s just a coincidence or if there’s a reason behind it, but Riot Games has recently been buffing champions with new skins. The most notable example is Senna, who was continuously nerfed for a long time, remained a good pick in both professional play and solo queue, but was suddenly buffed just as her Cowboy skin, a Legendary tier skin, was released in patch 10.12.
This isn’t just a one-off situation; last year there were also unexpected buffs for Kha’Zix, Riven… simply because they were about to have new skins or old skins were going back on sale. Thus, players have gradually formed a habit that if Riot Games intends to buff a champion, there’s a pretty high chance it will receive a new skin, regardless of whether the champion is strong or weak in the meta.
This suspicion was further raised by players when just a few hours ago, Riot’s Mark Yetter announced the list of buffs and nerfs in patch 10.14 featuring names no one expected. Even the unexpected buffs for Zed, Riven, and Kha’Zix can easily be explained as they are likely to be getting new skins soon—if not this patch, then the next one for sure.
Riot Mark Yetter: “Here’s the overview for patch 10.14, specific updates will be available tomorrow. A small note is that the changes related to the Ghost spell and the Predator rune are in their final testing, and it’s likely to be a slight nerf.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, Riven will be among the champions receiving buffs.”
The only two champions with detailed updates in Riot’s patch overview are:
Pyke
Magic Resistance per level decreased from 1.5 to 1.25.
Armor per level decreased from 5 to 3.5.
Q – Bone Skewer: Energy cost reduced from 70 at all levels to 55-70 based on level. Cooldown reduced from 12-8s to 10-8s. Damage increased from 75-275 to 85-285.
Karthus
Base health increased from 528 to 550.
Base movement speed increased from 325 to 335.
Q – Lay Waste: Damage increased from 45-125 (+30% AP) to 50-130 (+35% AP). This ability now only deals 80% damage to jungle monsters.
E – Defile: Energy will now always regenerate even when Karthus is using this ability. The number of damage instances per second increased from 1 to 4, damage remains unchanged.
Mark, if you want the game to be fair and interesting, please look at this statistic, the top 3 champions in each position are extremely overpowered to the point of absurdity. The fact is that Karma, Nidalee, Zoe, Twisted Fate, Graves deserve heavy nerfs but are not included in the list.
Another disastrous patch for Marksmen, don’t worry too much, they know what they are doing.
Please remove the double knock-up mechanic of Wukong and add a bit of magic resistance, reduce the armor from his passive. The Duskblade and Death’s Dance are way too strong and the craziest thing is that Wukong uses these two items extremely well.
Are you really buffing Zed? Is this a joke? I think we are about to get a Blood Moon Zed skin.
It’s quite surprising that there are no buffs for Sylas when he has been hovering around a 47-48% win rate for 5 patches now. As for Zed’s buff, I don’t think it’s necessary; that champion is doing quite well.
Perhaps in terms of numbers, Zed, Kha’Zix, or Riven all deserve to receive a little power boost as these champions currently have unremarkable win rates. However, for players, buffing these names only leads to more people picking them, which comes with the risk of encountering “feeder” teammates more often. It could very well be true what players have asserted, that Riot is about to release a series of skins for Zed, right?