Through the life of League of Legends, multiple champions have received updates from Riot to create more sophisticated playstyles and renovate champions so they keep pace with the newer champions on the Rift. The full AP Sion that existed before the end of Season 4 used to be stupidly oppressive. Stun into shield activation used to take half your health with no forms of counterplay unless you played with a spell shield. His update completely changed the definition of how Sion worked, making him a hard scaling tank with the ability to initiate fights from anywhere on the map. Riot did the same to the fat man, Gragas. Evolving his playstyle to fit his characteristics more by making him an bruiser tank from the full AP nuker he used to be in Season 3. Through this article I will discuss the changes Riot made and its affected the champion on the Rift as well as the game itself.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I won't be talking about all the champions Riot have updates as that will take a little bit too long. I'll mainly focus on the champions that have seen a significant change in their playstyle due to the effect Riot has had on them. Focus points will look at the differences directly and how the champion's abilities have changed to affect their main game play. Any role diversity due to the changes and how they interact with that lane. Their overall new role on the rift after the change, example initiator, peeler etc. Then looking at the update as a whole and judging whether the development was good or bad.

So lets get started. My first 2 champions have received the biggest form of update with a complete visual overhaul and gameplay overhaul. "The Enlightened One", Karma and Sion, "The Undead Juggernaut" are where I start.

Karma's old spotlight, narrated by Phreak!!

Some players who have recently joined the game won't even know that Karma received a large update around 2 years ago. She used to be fan wielding geisha who moved from side to side on the map. Her outdated kit and visuals made her a primary target in Riot's eyes to hit the full rework bench. A few of her abilities kept the same premise to them with a tether, a shield and an ultimate that enhances her other abilities on cast. The options given to the Karma player in terms of role are the same in terms of being either a solo lane mage or support. The way they work and how they interact on the Rift has creatively changed how she plays the roles though.

Karma's playstyle looks for the early part of the game in the laning phase. Due to her low cooldown abilities and available early ultimate, Karma can create pressure in the early stages where some champions lack. With this, she can emphasise her dominance by consistently bullying her opponents out of lane. Creating a time disparity for her team that abuses Karma's level and possible item advantage which her opponent lacks. A player can use this for either lane. As a solo laner, consistently pressuring her opponent through persistent damage and roaming when possible with her speed up. As a support, you use your early control to help your ADC farm up while you throw the enemy off theirs with her damage. Creating an advantage for the Karma and her team.

Something to mention at this time is Karma's reasonably large update currently having a few iterations of change on the PBE. It will change a few aspects to her game play but increases the amount of skills in her arsenal. Their developing her bullying even further by increasing the CDR given to "Mantra" when hitting a champion with her damage. They've added more depth to her W tether by adding a interesting form of sustain and damage amplification for allies. Finally, they've changed some of the base numbers on the shield and completely took off the damage "Mantra'd" Inspire does. While I think it reduces her impact as a solo lane mage, her potential as a support has been amplified. All these changes are subject to change due to them being on the PBE. Here's a more descriptive graphic showing you the numbers from a riot member named @ricklessabandon.

Like Karma, Sion's old game style needed the Riot rework "touch" as it didnt fit the direction League was going anymore. With 2 completely different game styles which built from AP and AD, Sion was oppressive to deal with. In AP, he would simply stun you from medium distance then run up to you and blow his shield up to take approximately 50-60% of your health in the mid game. Roaming the map with mobility boots, he would simply do the same 2 abilities over and over again and chunk someone hard with a lack of counterplay. In AD form, while more healthy then AP, you would see players build him as a sustained fighter who can last a LONG TIME in fights. With the damage amplification, possible infinite base health gain and a life steal amp that when built with life steal could heal him for around 300-500 health per AA in the late game. Yeah both pretty ridiculous right!!!

So...Riot gave him a relaunch and we saw a brand new Sion. The new Sion works as a super tank who plays as a massive brick wall frontline who even after death, comes back for more. He can initiate fights from potentially anywhere on the map with his ultimate "Unstoppable Onslaught". He can then lock them down with his slow and knock up/stun, keeping them in place for a long time. The only ability that has been adapted into his new kit is the W shield. The passive of infinitely gaining health on his old E is now clipped on to his shield and the shield now scales of his HP instead of AP. You see successful Sions nowadays build to be the impenetrable front line who can sustain practically all the damage for his allied team. Fighting to destroy the enemy backline with his base numbers then move back to peel for his allies.

Most people will remember Sona's dominance as a support during Season3. With poke, sustain, speed modifications, damage reduction and AOE stuns, she was contested to be the best support through both soloQ and competitive play alongside Thresh who appeared later into the season. Her main kit problem was lack of interactivity it had with the player. Especially as her only skillshot came from "Crescendo".

Just under a year ago, Riot decided to change that and worked to enunciate on the auras Sona has been known for in her time as a support champion. By emphasising how each individual aura affects a game, they've made Sona into a more interesting and diverse champion. Amplifying her allies damage through a "Hymm of Valor" aura, a small health shield with sustain in a "Aria of Perseverance" aura or a small team speed boost that can help her allies chase or retreat in the "Song of Celerity" aura.

Nidalee saw her change as a lot of players got frustrated at the one damage skillshot that took off nearly all your health at all points of the game. "Javelin Toss" would come at you from anywhere on the map and smite your health bars down. Riot decided to tone that down (as it should have been) and try to bring more attention to the very unused Cougar form. Creating an effective combination that uses both forms of Nidalee to completely utilise all the tools in her kit. By hitting the javelin or an enemy walking over a "Bushwack", it applies her passive "Prowl". Her passive enhances her movement speed and amplifies the damage her first "Takedown" and "Pounce" do on that the target applied to the passive. With her kit working intricately together now, Nidalee has seen her main place in the jungle. Using her tools to be a consistent AP siege threat who can follow up on the javelin to execute her target with Cougar.

The reasoning behind Zilean's rework could be said to have the same reasoning as Sona. His undeveloped kit while still playable, had a very bland playstyle and lacked player development. Simply press the Q onto a champion, slow or speed up an enemy then revive an enemy from a fatal situation. Bland!! With Riot's input, they created more options and put more importance on his "Time Bombs". His Q is now a skillshot in a small area around him which deals damage in a large around it. This can be thrown on any instance in the game; ally, enemy, minion, monster alike. If hit with another bomb while on a target, any enemies in the vicinity of the explosion are stunned for a level scaling duration. A buff to his movement speed adjustment by giving it level scaling that goes up to 99%. With a few small changes and buffs, he's become more than just a Guardian Angel for his team and can create pressure with his other abilities.

One of the main premises about Viktor in his old state was choice. You had the choice to enhance one of his abilities further to have an extra effect on top of the existing ability. The main issue surrounding that was the fact one enhancement was much stronger and much better than the other 2. His overall playstyle was also weak and was easy to exploit and take advantage off. He got a few changes to his abilities such as a channel disruption on "Chaos Storm" and some stat movement. The main differential came with his passive "Glorious Evolution. You can now unlock every ability evolution for a cost of 1000g with some mana regen and ability power. Every evolution adds more damage, utility and crowd control so you output more in duels and fights. For a total of 3000g, you fully evolve the item which then enhances Chaos Storm alongside the your final ability evolution choice. Viktor is now contested to be one of the strongest mages in the game (when available for play) and mixes both pike and all-in eloquently.

Even in Mao'kai's old state, his numerous disruption tools and team fight potential seemed like a strong kit to have on your team. Unfortunately due to alternative champion options and the awkward way you needed to use "Vengeful Maelstrom", Mao'kai never really became a strong pick. After the Riot bench, we saw a few changes to the tree's functionality which made him into one of the strongest top lane tanks in the game over the last 2 seasons. Mao'kai had adjustments to twisted advance so it worked with the damage scaling off the target's maximum health and Vengeful Maelstrom became a large visible aura around Mao'kai and moved with him. These few changes seemed to bring the tree into the limelight (hopefully he doesnt set on fire) and is now a highly contestable choice in competitive play for the top lane. With his lock down and peel potential, he's valuable at nearly every stage of the game.

The old Soraka always seemed to be around and whenever a meta shifted, people tried her to if she fitted it. Like the other 2 supports in this article, her playstyle and functionality seemed a little basic and had no integration depth. Heal, grant mana, throw a few stars, rinse and repeat, heal everyone. She didnt bring much else and while she fit the role of a healer class, it was still rather boring. After a patch with nerfs in the beginning of Season 4 due to her solo lane appearance, she received a reasonably big rework with changes to every part of her kit. Her passive turns her into an ambulance, her Q is now a medium ranged skillshot that can slow and heals Soraka, a low CD heal which now comes at the cost of Soraka's own health, a circular silence that when stood in for too long snares and the same cross map heal. Her kit seemed to have no punishment and Riot brought these extra bits of functionality to create a risk/reward situation. By using her abilities efficiently, she can make an ally consistently topped up on health, winning all trades and fights they involve themselves in.

One Shot Double Kill from C9 Hai when vs CLG

Gragas used to have some of the largest burst for a champion in the game. With a simple Q and R, he could destroy multiple squishy targets like C9's Hai did in this video here. Now when I think of bursty champions and mages, I dont think of a large drunk brawling man. Gragas thematically didn't fit with the playstyle he was put into. Riot took the fat man into their hands (not literally :O) and adapted him to fit the look he was created in. They lowered the base AP ratios of the barrels to get rid of his unpreventable burst. They added a new mechanic to the "Drunken Rage" where instead of mana regen , he gets a auto attack enhancer which does damage based on their health. Keeping the damage reduction but giving it scaling. His final change comes from the E interaction with enemy instances, adding a stun on hit for 1 second. Overall befitting his Rabble Rouser name as he excels at being in the middle of fights. Building as a tank who can cause a mess of fights and create an uncoordinated situation that him and his team can make use off.

In Xerath's old state, there wasn't any bad points that you could particularly look at apart from the deprivation of one ability to increase his other abilities ranges. Xerath has the theme of being an extremely long ranged mage who is unparalleled in that area. Riot took that information into consideration when developing his kit again. Making him an all skillshot champion, they added the range element to all of his abilities to stay to the theme. Updates came into every ability to apply the range element. His passive was adapted from the armour scaling passive to a mana supplement off auto attack onto an enemy instance. "Arcanopulse" has stayed the same apart from the range adaptation. His W has now become a circular blast which slows. His E is a directional skillshot that stuns for a length that depends on the distance travelled. Finally, "Rite of the Arcane", grants the player 3 shots that can go as far as 5600 range away while immobilizing himself. With a few integrations of his old kit in the extended range and immobility on the ultimate, Xerath has become a strong mage in the mid lane. Can out poke mostly any opponent in terms of range and has seen contention in the competitive scene for the siege potential he brings to compositions.

Ryze has only just got his update and there's been multiple views on its end result. It does bring an aspect of creativity for the Ryze player as before it was like you could roll your head over the keyboard and still have effect on Ryze. To contrast, with the addition of a skillshot and the base take away of CDR, people feel like his new kit has become clunky and has lost the feel that Ryze used to give when played. So pros and cons to the change. To list the main changes; His "Overload spell is now directional skillshot that deals damage to the first hit from being an on-click.

"Spell Flux" instead of bouncing between multiple targets now explodes out from the initial target hit and comes back to them. Finally, Ryze's passive "Arcane Mastery" still has the mana scaling to it but now has a charge system clipped onto it. At 5 charges, Ryze will supercharge, gaining a mana shield and significant CDR to all of Ryze's other spells. So while the kit in practice has more depth, some players feel the playstyle has lost something of what the old Ryze had.

Ashe's reworked kit has only just hit the live servers with patch 5.9 and with only a few days for players to try and sink their teeth into it, we can't really judge its success too much! Ashe is classed as the utility ADC, who you bring into a team composition when your initiation is lacking and need potential kiting. Riot's reworked abilities involve; Her new passive brings in her old toggle Q which slowed targets on hit. Her auto attacks now critically strike all the time for a modified version of the critical damage modifier. Her new Q "Ranger's Focus" increases her attack speed by a scaling percentage. If she has auto attacked 5 times and gained full focus (a passive on the ability) she can activate the Q to fire a flurry of 5 arrows alongside the auto attack. These flurries deal a percentage of the original auto attack. The only other mentionable change comes from "Hawkshot", gaining global activation to anywhere on the map. In the early playing as it and against it, Ashe has gained a lot of momentum in the early game and has become one of the strongest traders. While a little strong, it's gave Ashe a new identity and a way to impact the Rift differently.

Apart from a few mishaps here and there, I dont think you can dispute that the changes Riot has made were bad. While it was sometimes a little bit clunky and probably needed extra modification later on to improve the original, the to-live product is never too bad. They've concentrated on champions have need updates because of the lack of player integration. There's been adaptations to adjust a champion's abilities so it fitted the champion's feel and theme. There are healthy corrections so a champion who had an unhealthy playstyle can be fixed up. Finally, there's the outdated kits who need the change so they can keep with the game's consistent evolution.

The reasoning behind these changes are never questionable and while some players will feel reminiscent for some of the old playstyles (I'll admit it too, blowing people up with Gragas ultimates was fun), it's just to keep the game healthy and current. The game is consistently improved upon with the map, items etc. I believe that mostly every champion update to hit the live patches has been a success and his diversed the champion's playstyle from their original unbefitting one. We see a lot of the reworked champions in competitive play now (Mao'Kai, Gragas, Sion, Nidalee) and I think that's one of the best methods to determine its success. There are still updates coming and I personally trust that Riot will do a good job on them as these champions are examples of excellent development.

I hope you enjoyed the read and continue to like my work!

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