Due to the inherent design of the champion, Qiyana is a mid lane assassin popular in solo queue but not in competitive pro play, much like Zed, Talon, and Yasuo.
Among assassins, her skill cap is one of the highest. She requires hundreds of games to master, for she’s an intensely mechanical champion with varied combos that requires ability buffering, animation canceling, auto-attack weaving, and precise positioning.
So far, her solo queue win rate for Platinum and above this Season 11 has always remained below 50%, based on U.GG. League of Legends patch 11.18, unfortunately, is going to bring that down even lower.
- League of Legends patch 11.18 pushes jungle Lillia into Worlds 2021 meta
- Vex was designed for anyone who’s ever felt ‘teenage apathy and angst’
Adjustments to Qiyana in League of Legends patch 11.18
Base Stats
- Health regeneration decreased from 9 to 7.5
- Attack speed increased from 0.625 to 0.688
Q – Edge of Ixtal
- Damage dealt to jungle monsters increased from 100% to 125%
- (New) If Qiyana’s target begins a dash or teleport during her E+Q buffer, Q will aim at their last position before dashing/teleporting
- (New) If Qiyana has an E+Q buffered but does not have vision of her target when the cast completes, Q will aim the last position she could see her target in
E – Audacity
- Base damage dealt decreased from 60/90/120/150/180 to 50/80/110/140/170
For the past few patches, Riot Games has been trying to push targeted champions like Ekko and Zed into the jungle. While role and champion diversity is a good thing, many still don’t have a fast enough clear speed to keep up with meta junglers.
Being able to deal an extra 25% bonus damage to jungle monsters isn’t going to suddenly make Qiyana viable anywhere else but mid. The minute attack speed increase doesn’t impact her combo either.
It’s really the nerfs to Edge of Ixtal (Q) that has hit her hard. Audacity not only received a reduction of 10 base damage, it no longer has the same buffer mechanic with Edge of Ixtal.
Why this E+Q nerf to Qiyana’s mechanic will break her
The bread and butter of her kit involves casting Audacity (E), and in the midst of its animation, buffer Edge of Ixtal (Q). Riot Games’ original design meant that Q automatically follows the target that Qiyana locked onto with E.
This auto-targeted mechanic rewards Qiyana players for committing to melee range engages. As much as E+Q damage is guaranteed, she’s also highly at risk in close quarters, which is a fair tradeoff.
What’s more, since Prowler’s Claw can’t be used on minions anymore, there are trades that involve casting Audacity (E) onto a minion to close the gap, which gives her the opportunity to harass ranged enemy champions with Q.
With this League of Legends patch 11.18 nerf, the damage on Q against champions that have dashes or blinks, or are out of vision, is no longer guaranteed. The most tragic aspect of this is that her full combo, which can be done in 0.5 seconds or less at peak level of gameplay, is no longer a reality.
Players will now need to aim Edge of Ixtal (Q) in every instance, and the animation wind up of E+Q lengthens her assassination combo of E+Q+W+Q. Weaving in auto-attacks, another crucial part of her combo, is also more difficult since extra time is spent getting Q’s skill shot to land.
One player on Reddit demonstrated how hard her combo is to pull off now, for ironically, her Supreme Display of Talent ultimate is a displacement that can cause you to completely whiff Edge of Ixtal (Q).
The severity of these nerfs has caused Qiyana to lose her edge as an assassin.
Read the full League of Legends patch 11.18 notes here.
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