Riot has released a new round of patch notes which include changes to Lee Sin! The patch arrives this week.
Quote From Riot Patch 1.13 brings with it our latest in-game event—more details tomorrow—and balance updates for Lee Sin and Make it Rain.
New Event
A new in-game event kicks off with tomorrow’s patch, complete with a new Lab, event pass, cosmetics, and much more. Look for a trailer and explainer article with MORE event details at 10 AM PT, October 28 (tomorrow).
Card Updates
As we mentioned last patch, we’re using Patch 1.13 to implement a Lee Sin change we’ve been working on and would like to get out the door immediately (along with a nerf to Make it Rain aimed at Bilgewater’s general strength), while Patch 1.14 in two weeks will be one of our larger mid-expansion balance updates. Those changes will focus mostly on small improvements to several Foundations set Champions, as well as some nerfs aimed at ensuring metagame health in the lead up to the first Seasonal Tournament in December.
RubinZoo, Live Design Lead
Champions
Lee Sin
Cost: 4 → 5
Health: 4 → 5
While our changes to Lee Sin in Patch 1.10 made him much more playable and brought Ionia and Targon buff decks into the meta, his newfound efficiency has proven overbearing, particularly in combination with his deadly combo kill potential once granted Overwhelm. We want to maintain Lee Sin’s usability, but at a fairer price point that keeps him from dominating early-round combat.
Lee Sin (Level 2)
Cost: 4 → 5
Health: 5 → 6
Followers & Spells
Make it Rain / Miss Fortune’s Make it Rain
Cost: 2 → 3
Make it Rain has played an outsized part in Bilgewater’s recent strength as a powerful tool for repeatedly punishing opposing unit development. Its many synergies with Barrels, Plunder, and Champion quests and skills have combined with high access through cards like Zap Sprayfin and Miss Fortune (her Champion spell) to make the card overly available, efficient, and effective.
This change should bring Make it Rain more in line with other damage spells’ potential and weaken Bilgewater’s overall toolbox. That said, Bilgewater’s strengths are resilient, with a wide array of effective options, and some Bilgewater decks may be able to replace Make it Rain (or simply still use it) while retaining most of their current strength. We’ll continue to monitor the region’s overall performance and make additional changes as needed.
Expeditions
With the release of Monuments of Power, Dragons have landed in a great spot, while Mending Touch debuted as one of the weakest archetypes we’ve seen to date. We’re starting off by giving the Bilgewater side of the archetype more ways to induce damage on your own units, removing many of the cards that were performing poorly across both regions, and increasing the chance you’ll see the archetype repeatedly while drafting it. Otherwise, we’re largely happy with the balance of archetypes across the board so we’re only making a few other light changes.
Offering bonus for Monuments of Power archetypes decreased to half as much as before (still 50% more than normal). The offering bonus will be removed completely with Patch 1.14.
Collective Support
- Added: Zenith Blade
- Removed: Crystal Ibex, Sneaky Zeebles, Wish
Mending Touch
- Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to High from Medium
- Added: Abyssal Eye, Crusty Codger, Hired Gun, Razorscale Hunter
- Removed: Monkey Idol, Pool Shark, Shards of the Mountain, Slotbot, Sunk Cost, Tyari the Traveler
Spell Slingers
- Added: Scrapshot
- Removed: Shakedown, Sunk Cost
Miscellaneous
- Added support for Apple login (iOS only) in Taiwan.
- Added an option to the Options menu to disable motion on the home screen background.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a crash that could occur during Ranked demotion or promotion.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when quickly viewing multiple preview images in a store bundle.
- Fixed a crash that could occur due to memory issues while using deckbuilder.
Comments
Lee was my fav champ at 6 mana but at 4 he’s obnoxious. 5 feels like a good middle ground to test not sure he needed the extra health though. Starting to feel like targon region is in need for more nerfs. I hope the buffs in two weeks bring some old champs back. They needed to nerf swain tf more imo. Deck is so broken and unfun to play against
Lee Sin was the reason why decks good versus aggro decks weren't played, nerfing Lee Sin is a indirect nerf to aggro (aggro decks prey on Lee Sin, while Lee Sin keeps decks that can beat aggro out of the game) so i'm ok with nerfing "only" make it rain for burn
Too little, too late.
Lee Sin would have been perfectly fine if they had left him alone in the first place. The main reason he's OP is all the Targon stuff they added after they buffed him. Without the buff, the Targon package would have brought him right up to par with most other Champions. This is not a card that ever needed to be ahead of the pack. The middle ground is not a compromise; it's a failure to admit they were wrong and a failure to fix the problem.
And yes, Make it Rain is worse now, but the real problem with Bilgewater has always been Ravenous Flock, so that's another bad miss.
I understand that a card game gets harder to balance the more cards you add, but it still blows my mind [Swain emote] that they were able to do such a good job in the earlier patches, and now we get garbage like this.
Ok, I do realize that Swain is usually played with Bilgewater, but I just have to point out that you need to pay attention to the icon at the bottom of this card, Ravenous Flock. Hint: It's not Bilgewater. And claiming that nerfing Make it Rain was incorrect - I don't know where to begin with that, so I won't even talk about it beyond this statement.
I agree that Ravenous Flock deserves a nerf, but TF/Swain has been much less played in the last 2 weeks than it was before that, so it's not a massive problem in the metagame right now. Maybe it will get the nerf bat next time around.
And seriously, I have to say - if you're so upset with where the game is right now (and I can tell you are, because you show up on just about every post to talk about it), maybe it's time to step back for a while and chill out.
Yay to squeezing Lee Sin and Make it Rain changes to this patch. But will it be enough? Honestly, I'm scared -- Lee's power is in his inevitability when combined with overwhelm; he frankly had the potential to be a top-tier even when he was 6 mana so I'm questioning how much of a deterrent this will be.
Honestly, the scariest thing for Lee Sin after this patch is the KDA card for Targon - 5 cost, all buffs are permanent (except Barrier) and it even draws a card to replace itself.
Good luck dealing with a Lee Sin who keeps every buff you ever give him. And presumably this means he won't have to cast a spell each round to get challenger either.
Support Lee Sin with Taric could even become a thing. Support him once with Taric, and he has Tough for the rest of the game. Support him once with Young Witch, and he has +1 strength and Quick Attack for the rest of the game. Heck, even supporting him with Pix! counts as a permanent Pale Cascade, and Fuzzy Caretaker gives him +3 strength for the rest of the game. Herald of Spring would grant him Lifesteal permanently, and Ghost would do the same with elusive. Plus his natural Barrier whenever he manages two spells, and Bastion ... and then there are the spells that would be permanent instead of temporary. Pale Cascade, Twin Disciplines, Spirit's Refuge (the lifesteal part), Sonic Wave, Resonating Strike, and Rush - all of these take on a whole new complexion when their effects are permanent.
I hope I'm over-reacting. But I kinda think I'm not.
Hopefully the Lee Sin nerf will make him balanced enough to not be oppressive. If nothing else, it'll allow Aggro decks to play a little slower because Lee Sin will come down one turn later. The Make it Rain nerf is also great, hopefully it's enough to stop Bilge Burn from being the uncosted Tier One deck (it probably isn't enough though).