A few days ago, Riot Games revealed details about the upcoming patch 10.12 to be updated next week. Most notably, the “champion” Yasuo will receive a significant nerf, especially with his W skill – Wind Wall, which will have a cooldown increase of up to 30 seconds at level 1. You can read the details HERE. Perhaps due to Yasuo’s excessive popularity in League of Legends, many other champions have been sidelined, prompting Riot Games to find a way to nerf this champion.

However, things are not as simple as that. The Conqueror rune, with its excessive damage and healing, still makes the “champion” extremely strong. Therefore, in the latest tests for patch 10.13, Riot Games has also nerfed the Conqueror rune, targeting not just Yasuo, but also many burst damage champions that have been abusing this rune.

Riot Mark Yetter: “We are currently conducting early tests to reduce the power of the Conqueror rune in patch 10.13”
The maximum stacks increase from 10 to 12.
The adaptive power per stack decreases from 2-5 to 1.7-4.2.
Essentially, when at maximum stacks, the amount of adaptive power will remain the same; however, the journey to achieve this will be more difficult. It will be more suitable for longer matches and won’t be as strong in the hands of burst damage champions anymore.”

This change by Riot Games is not without reason. The Conqueror rune was created to enhance the power of champions that engage in long fights, but lately, it has been misused too much. We are increasingly seeing Assassins, those who deal quick burst damage, like Zed, Talon, previously Akali, and even recently, LeBlanc using this rune. The direct damage increase is what has caused the Conqueror rune to be abused so much.

Although this nerf does make Yasuo weaker, this champion is still a type of melee DPS, and the additional 2 maximum stacks is merely one extra basic attack. Therefore, if the above update becomes a reality, it will have little impact on Yasuo, while it will cause Assassins to revert back to burst damage runes like Electrocute instead of abusing Conqueror as they have in recent times.
