League of Legends patch 11.16: Nunu is massively over buffed

From snowball to SNOWBALL real quick.

As we near Worlds 2021, game updates will increasingly be steered towards pro play. However, Riot Games came out of the left field this League of Legends patch 11.16 by making Nunu completely overpowered.

In the patch notes, the game developer explained that it’s because the pair have “hit a slump”, and thereby decided to increase their damage output.

Credit: Riot Games

E – Snowball Barrage

Did he really need such a big buff in League of Legends patch 11.16?

In solo queue on patch 11.15, Nunu has a 50.36% in Platinum rank and above according toU.GG, with a low pick rate of 3.3%.

The thing about Nunu however, is that as a champion, he is inherently dichotomous.

League of Legends, Space Groove, Nunu & willump, splash art

“Nunu, it must be a hard champion to track because there’s no other champion in the game… is actually the token troll champion,” T1 content creator and analystNick “LS” De Cesare explains in his patch rundown video.

“Some of Nunu’s losses across all rank tiers is due to inters, and I wonder how Riot calculates Nunu’s win rate when knowing something like that?”

League of Legends patch 11.16 notes summary

In addition, there is a small percentage of Nunu mid lane players that go AP and roam permanently, which LS states is “a very unhealthy thing”. At Master to Challenger ranks, there are also one tricks that have been thriving in the last few patches, even outperforming meta junglers.

Since Snowball Barrage (E) is an ability that can be recast with a low cooldown, the colossal AP scaling damage ratio buff from 54% AP to 90% is downright scary.

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Read the fullLeague of Legends patch 11.16 here.

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