Our first official patch of Season 9 is on its way. Though 9.1 doesn't include that many balance changes, it has a few changes that will certainly upend the meta and bring a few underperforming characters into the light. Without further ado, let's delve into the highlights.

Ornn

The Fire Below the Mountain has been a tricky champion to balance for a long time. When strong, Ornn is a must-pick champion that has essentially no weaknesses, but when weak he's not even worth playing. These changes are addressed at reducing the oppressiveness of his laning phase while sharpening his unique edges, in the hopes of getting Ornn into a spot where he can be easier to balance.

In exchange for losing his W shield and severe nerfs to his ult, Ornn now benefits more from the armor and magic resistance he builds, in addition to automatically upgrading the items he buys for free after level 13. He can also upgrade one item for each of his allies, making Ornn a gold-accelerated champion that will dominate the lategame. He won't dominate toplane as much as he used to, but Ornn will still be quite hard to kill later on in the game.

Sejuani

Similarly to Ornn, these Sejuani changes are intended to reduce her "always played or never played" status - however, these changes are a bit of a mixed bag. She lost quite a bit of the free resistances that Frost Armor granted in exchange for some baseline durability and traded a small amount of CC duration for additional damage on her abilities. It's an odd trade-off for a tank champion to have, but Sejuani does still have her ult stun and Q knockup to lean on. It's unclear how Sej will feel following these changes, but the Fury of the North should be significantly stronger in solo queue play.

Vayne

It's a small quality-of-life change, but this change to the Night Hunter is absolutely gargantuan. Reducing Tumble's cooldown by 50% while Final Hour is active means that good Vayne players will be nigh untouchable while their ult is active. Vayne does still have to use the Tumble-enhanced autoattack before the ability can benefit from the decreased cooldown, but unless enemy teams can lock her down during her brief moments of visibility, they'll get absolutely run over in lategame teamfights. Expect to see the Night Hunter rise in priority as a result of these changes.

Kalista

As with Ornn and Sejuani, Kalista has been a perennial thorn in the balance team's side due to how overwhelming she can be when strong, and how underwhelming she is when weak. The changes in 9.1 are aimed at reducing her strengths in coordinated play, while strengthening her ability to function in solo queue environments.

However, these are mostly just straight buffs to Kalista. Additional damage on her Q, on top of receiving a slew of base stat buffs, means that Kalista is now quite effective on her own without the need to be near her Oathsworn. She's not quite as effective at securing epic objectives like Baron thanks to the E nerf, but Kalista still has one of the best initiation ultimates in the game and her W sentinels to provide teamwide value. Accordingly, Kalista's playrate should start going back up, especially in solo queue.

Nasus

The Curator of the Sands has been quietly strong for a long time but is receiving yet more buffs in 9.1 in order to sharpen the edges between his worst and best players. With Siphoning Strike now granting 12 stacks per large minion or monster kill, Nasus should be able to reach crazy amounts of damage a lot faster if he can keep his farm up. It's a small change, but one that makes him significantly stronger.

9.1 won't be changing the meta up significantly, but the beneficiaries of its changes will almost certainly creep up in popularity. All of the champions adjusted above are likely to see increased play, contributing more towards a meta around tanks and tank-busting. It's unclear if pro play will incorporate any of the tweaked champions, but Solo Queue will almost undoubtedly see an influx of Vayne, Kalista, and Ornn players.

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