Since her rework, Akali has faced a tragic fate as she has been continuously nerfed in various ways, including reduced damage, less energy regeneration, increased detection while invisible, and decreased mobility. Perhaps Riot Games has begun to realize that they have been too harsh on this assassin, as they are starting to take steps to slightly buff Akali’s power. However, this only involves increasing her damage, as they certainly won’t restore her mobility.
It is very likely that the above formula will continue to be applied in patch 10.7, as in the latest updates from Riot’s Mark Yetter – Project Director of League of Legends – Akali has appeared on the buff list. Additionally, Riot has confirmed that the reworked scarecrow, Fiddlesticks, will officially debut in this patch 10.7. Specifically:
In the above announcement, Riot Games decided to indirectly nerf tank champions again by reducing the power of the Conditioning rune. On the PBE server, the duration of this rune providing you with armor and magic resistance has increased from 10 minutes to 12 minutes, as Riot likely wants tank champions to not be too resilient early on. The Haste rune buff for melee champions is likely to help characters like Xin Zhao, Tryndamere, or Nasus stick to their opponents better.
As for the nerfs, the most surprising name is probably Nocturne in the mid lane. This is not a common choice in ranked play, but in the hands of a skilled player, it can be extremely formidable. The other two names on Riot’s “nerf” list are not too surprising: Wukong and Garen. Both are incredibly strong fighters at present, especially Wukong with his exceptional survivability and team-fighting capabilities.
Moving on to the buffs, we can see that most champions on the list are characters that are heavily out of the meta (like Nasus, Galio, Ivern, Corki, Xin Zhao, Riven, Kai’Sa) or have been nerfed to the point of being very weak (like Akali). In Akali’s case, she is still picked quite often in major tournaments, even though she is quite harmless in solo queue. Hopefully, Riot will find a way to give Akali stable power without making her “game-breaking” like before.
At the end of the update list for patch 10.7 will be the transformation of Fiddlesticks – The Ancient Fear. Players should prepare a steady mindset and a strong heart, as it is very likely that a demon along with his crows will suddenly eliminate you in places you least expect.
