Who says new patchesnecessarily says meta evolutions. Even if these are not necessarily very impactful, they are important details for Riot Games, allowing the developers to see if the changes made fulfill the function they are supposed to serve. In fact, these details are also supposed to help maintain a healthy metawatching when a champion’s winrate and popularity increases, preemptively nerfing it if the changes undergone seem to have made him too strong. This is the case of these two characters, whose winrate and popularity increase drastically, but who will resume a small knock behind the neck during patch 12.18.
Hecarim, so young and already a pony
Shadow of War reigns terror soloQ, at the highest ranks. Sspawn rate increased by 5% at platinum ranks and above, at almost 17%. His winrate jumped almost 3%, to reach 51.5% today. It’s not enough to be considered OP by Riot Games (the limit being 52%), but given the increase in his pickrate, it seems that the champion is very strong even in inexperienced hands. Moreover, his ban rate is now 62% at diamond ranks +proving that players view him as a threat.
Riot Games has decided to reduce its power a little on the PBE, reducing the AD bonus by Rampage (A) and the care of‘Essence of Fear (W). Hecarim should still remain strong enough despite this, the Riot Games devs having said they want the champion to be played during Wolrds.
Maokai, the bush that hides the shrub
The case of Maokai is less impressive in terms of popularity (from 1 to 7%), but better in terms of winrate since it now exceeds 53%. Riot Games also has it in its sights, and plans to reduce passive healing. The shrub damage hidden in bushes should also be reduced, even if this modification is more strange. These latter are not maxed nor in toplane (where Maokai shines) nor in the jungle. In order not to penalize the junglers too much, the Q damage dealt to monsters increased.
With a patch every two weeks, one could imagine that all League of Legends champions regularly receive changes to their abilities. However, one character seems to elude logic and hasn’t received any major spell changes for over 2500 days.