One of the biggest factors helping League of Legends grow into one of the biggest games in the world and sustain its massive popularity has been the frequent addition of new Champions into the game. Recent characters like Vex and Zeri have brought fresh new ideas to the long-running game and Riot's schedule of consistently producing new unique characters has helped the game to maintain a feeling of freshness with each new update. Now, following the release of the newest Champion Renata, a Riot employee has revealed multiple nerfs already coming for the character.
Riot Games first revealed Renata Glasc as the newest member of League of Legends' nearly 160 character cast early in February, portraying her as a noble from Zaun focused on buffing her allies using her assortment of chemicals while locking down her enemies. Many fans were quick to draw comparisons between Renata and the chem-barons from Riot's popular animated series Arcane, however, she herself does not appear in Arcane. Now, with Renata seeing success following her release, Riot Games game designer Blake Smith shared a set of small nerfs hitting the champion.
The post on Smith's Twitter shares some areas Riot is looking to address with Renata as League of Legends' newest champion has seen solid winrates since her launch with those numbers expected to rise. Renata will be losing half a point of her innate scaling Armor per level, adding up to 9 less armor when the Champion reaches Level 18, as well as cutting the scaling on her passive with the bonus percent-health damage stopping now at 3.5% at Lv 11. Renata players will also see an increased cooldown on her W along with reductions in the damage timer and health granted on reviving an ally.
The introduction of two recent characters from Zaun with both Renata Glasc and Zeri hailing from the 'undercity' has many fans speculating on their place in Arcane. Renata is positioned as a chem-baroness, a member of the elite group of nobles who act as Zaun's leaders, while Zeri hails from Zaun's working class. The two characters share similar thematic similarities with many of the ideas present in Arcane and fans have speculated that either of the two may appear when Arcane's second season releases.
The release of both Renata Glasc and Zeri early in the year heralds in what looks to be another major year for Riot Games. Fresh off the massive success of Arcane, Riot is just starting to see the fruits of the company's 'Riot Forge' initiative with Ruined King surprise launched in November and more spinoffs set to come with Song of Nunu set to release later this year. Coupled with the confirmation of Arcane's second season and major projects in the works for League of Legends like the highly-anticipated Udyr visual upgrade, 2022 looks to be an exciting year for League of Legends fans.
League of Legends is available now for PC.