Qiyana and Gnar getting some love in League Patch 11.1 preview

The changes are tentative since they won't go live until early January.

Image via Riot Games

Even though the dust hasn’t settled yet for today’s League of Legends hotfix, Riot already has plans in store for Patch 11.1.

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Gameplay design director Mark “Scruffy” Yetter previewed a slew of tentative changes today that should hit the Rift after the holidays. And the underwhelming Qiyana and Gnar made it on the buff list, while Master Yi, Fiddlesticks, and Pantheon will receive slight nerfs.

Even though burst items have proven difficult to balance, Qiyana’s still struggling in the current meta. The Empress of the Elements’ win rate is currently hovering around 48 percent in Platinum rank and above, according to Champion.gg. So Riot will pump some power into her base stats, giving her increased health regeneration and base AD.

Gnar is similarly not having a great time in the current patch with a 48-percent win rate in Platinum and above. Riot is greatly improving his Q and E, which may help him elbow his way into the meta. The yordle’s Boulder Toss (Mega Q) is greatly increasing in damage, going from 5 to 165 to 25 to 205. The ability’s slow is also spiking from 15 to 35 percent to 30 to 50 percent. Mega Gnar’s E dash range will change to 675, from 600, and the bonus attack speed from Hop (Mini E) will increase in duration.

Image via Riot Games

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Master Yi’s Alpha Strike (Q) cool down is increasing in the later stages of the game. Fiddlesticks’ W cool down is also increasing by a second at all levels. And Pantheon’s health regeneration is taking a slight hit while his empowered Shield Vault (W) will have less AD scaling in the early laning phase.

Ryze, Xayah, and Karma will also get slight buffs. And brothers Yasuo and Yone will have their passive crit bonus and its AD conversion tweaked to help them be more efficient with itemization.

Since Patch 11.1 is slated for Jan. 6, according to Riot’s patch schedule, these adjustments are liable to change before hitting live servers.


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Andreas Stavropoulos
Staff writer for Dot Esports. Andreas is an avid gamer who left behind a career as a high school English teacher to transition into the gaming industry. Currently playing League, Apex, and VALORANT.