Patch 9.4 expands on the changes wrought by patch 9.3, tweaking crit itemization and removing the last few competitive outliers from the scene. Though light on changes, there's still plenty to talk about, so let's get right down to it!

Urgot

After Irelia, Akali, and Aatrox all took nerf bats to the face, Urgot remained as the last OP champion in the game. The slight nerfs he received in 9.2 weren't enough to get the Dreadnought out of the spotlight, but his changes in 9.4 may be what finally removes him from the champion pool.

An increase to Corrosive Charge's (Q) mana cost, as well as a cooldown increase on Purge (W), are huge changes that affect Urgot's ability to poke opponents out of lane or sustain through their harass. Without Urgot's ability to cast Purge and ignore his opponent's damage, it'll be immensely easier to fight him when his shotgun knees are down, opening Urgot up to actual losing lanes. He'll still have range advantage and his ultimate's execute, but Urgot's reign over toplane may finally be over.

Lucian

The Lightslinger is another champion who received nerfs in 9.2, but who could largely ignore them. Despite the changes to Ardent Blaze (W), Lucian was able to keep up the W max strategy and poke opponents down, while stacking up Manaflow Band for later in the game.

As with Urgot, the nerfs in 9.4 will probably be the nail in the coffin for Lucian. Another bump to his W's mana cost, in addition to a pretty hefty damage nerf, will force the Lightslinger away from his poke strategy and back towards the all-ins he's known for. With crit marksmen coming back into the meta, Lucian is likely to be crowded out of the botlane, unless heavily built around. He's likely to remain as a niche pick, but his days of dominating the opposition might be over for now.

Karthus

It looks like a small change, but Karthus is taking a pretty substantial hit this patch. Even a small reduction in Lay Waste's (W) damage is huge, given how often Karthus casts the spell. It's unlikely to drive him entirely from the meta - he still has insane damage on his ultimate, after all - but it's enough to reduce his jungling clear time and how much harass he can do in lane.

Yasuo

The Unforgiven received a few compensations buffs back when Infinity Edge got reworked. Now that IE has been reverted, Yasuo's gotten a huge power up that's brought him to near pick-or-ban status in casual play.

These changes are a partial revert of the buffs he got back in the day - and while they won't do anything to decrease his popularity, they will certainly make him easier to deal with.

Zed

Zed's been in a pretty rough spot ever since the Reaper of Shadows passive got added to his ult. Zed was essentially forced to try and ult the target with the highest AD in every fight, regardless of whether or not they were the best target, and this limitation caused the Master of Shadows to almost disappear.

9.4 is ironing out this problem with Zed by removing the passive from his ultimate and giving power back in a few different ways. A decreased cooldown on his W gives him a little more lane safety, while an increase to his attack speed will help with his splitpushing. Meanwhile, the Q change will partially offset the loss of AD from his ultimate, especially if Zed can land multiple shurikens on the same target. It's not likely to put the Master of Shadows back on top of the meta, but these quality-of-life buffs will certainly make him a better pick.

Conqueror

Though intended to give bruisers sustained damage, Conqueror ended up being too good simply because of how easy it was to stack up. Staying in combat with minions virtually guaranteed that its users could activate the effect at a moment's notice, instantly receiving a huge amount of stats that few could deal with.

The changes in 9.4 have made Conqueror less about preparation and more about extended trades. Not giving full value until fully stacked means that Conqueror users will have to commit to longer fights or miss out on Conqueror's true damage conversion and healing. Some users, such as Yasuo, are likely to drop the rune entirely in favor of something that gives more upfront damage. Meanwhile, other Conqueror users that already favored sustained damage will take a slight hit, as there's a little more counterplay to this iteration. It's not likely to shift the needle too much, but this iteration of the ability is significantly better.

Overally, 9.4 further reinforces the crit marksmen/enchanter/tank meta that we've entered by weakening strong solo laners and oppressive champions. The nerfs to Conqueror, Urgot, and Lucian will likely completely remove the early game-centric strategies that have been occasionally seeing play in favor of more scaling champions and full-on teamfights.

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