With the characteristics of solo queue, champions that deal damage early and can snowball the game quickly are extremely strong in this position. Katarina is perhaps the most typical example as she has had nearly no changes at all, mostly bug fixes, yet she remains among the top mid-lane champions since the official launch of Season 10.
If Katarina’s story only stops at solo queue, Miss Fortune dominates the professional scene as well. If you have been following major tournaments from VCS, LCS to LCK, LPL, and LEC, you often see this captain appearing, even being a first pick for an extended period. Despite her power, it is only now that Riot Games has plans to reduce the strength of these two champions; is it perhaps a bit late?
Alongside the two champions most deserving of nerfs (Katarina and Miss Fortune), we see a list of champions that are extremely strong in solo queue included in Riot Games’ “nerf list.” First, there’s Kled and Maokai; you may not see them frequently in your matches, but when you do, the feeling will be incredibly annoying. If you are an ADC player, what could be more frustrating than being closely followed by these champions?
Diana also shares similar traits with Katarina (AP assassin and good snowball potential), so her nerf is understandable. Taric also faces the same fate due to being used excessively by pro players and the “funnel” strategy when paired with Master Yi. Most notably, the nerf will target Kayn in his Rhaast form; this will be the first time this champion has been nerfed after over 10 consecutive buffs.
Moving on to the favored champions, we can easily see that they are not necessarily weak but have somewhat outdated abilities and are not very popular. Champions like Udyr, Annie, Nidalee, Twisted Fate, and Sivir belong to this category; perhaps Riot will increase some interaction rates with AP and AD for their abilities so that players feel more satisfied when casting spells.
Irelia is a rather special case as she still has stable strength with the Blade of the Ruined King playstyle; hopefully, Riot will gently buff her so that she doesn’t become too overpowered after the next patch. Two champions in the Support category, Soraka and Lux, continue to be buffed; perhaps Riot Games is looking to transform this Lady of Light from a pure mage into a Support role.
