After 2 weeks of no update due to traffic issues, as stated by Riot Games themselves, finally a fresh patch update for League of Legends: Wild Rift has released. This Wild Rift Patch 2.1a focuses on the upcoming additions in the game, along with some bug fixes or adjustments. Let’s go over the details of this Patch 2.1a Update in League Of Legends: Wild Rift.
New Champion: Katarina – the Sinister Blade
The developers gave us a glimpse of this character when patch 2.1 was announced, and here she is! Katarina – The Sinister Blade is on her way to the Rift!
She is a Noxian assassin of the highest caliber. Eldest daughter to the legendary General Du Couteau, she made her talents known with swift kills against unsuspecting enemies. Her fiery ambition has driven her to pursue heavily-guarded targets, even at the risk of endangering her allies – but no matter the mission, Katarina will not hesitate to execute her duty amid a whirlwind of serrated daggers.
Wild Rift Patch 2.1a: New Skins
Here are all the new skins that will be released throughout the patch in Wild Rift.
- Bilgewater Katarina
- Death Sworn Katarina
- Omega Squad Fizz
- Omega Squad Tristana
- El Tigre Braum
- Super Galaxy Shyvana
- Omega Squad Teemo
New Events
Katarina’s Challenge
This new event will begin later in the patch. It features missions to unlock the new champion – Katarina! More information about this event will be available soon.
Champions Adjustments in Patch 2.1a
Ashe (Buffed – Minor)
With the rise of marksmen, and women, who has a huge amount of firepower, Ashe, who relies mostly on her utility rather than her damage has been on the weaker side. Riot gives her minor buffs to help her catch up on the meta.
- Ranger’s Focus: Cooldown: 8/7/6/5s -> 7/6/5/4s
This buff will make ashe have more DPS (damage per second) since she can use her 1st skill more frequently. This will be most impactful on long fights in dragon lane, especially on teamfights.
Darius (Buffed – Major)
With Akali and Kennen being more popular in the Baron Lane, Darius have been having a hard time. Riot has given him buffs to make his abilities more rewarding.
- Decimate: Missing health heal %: 12% to 36% -> 15% to 45%
- Apprehend: Slow duration 1s -> 1.5s
Decimate buff is definitely a big factor especially in late-game where team fights are everywhere, and of course, Darius’s decimates will also be everywhere. Increased healing means he can stay alive for longer letting him stack his passive before unleashing a bloodbath by his Noxian Guillotine.
Apprehend buff with help definitely him keep up with the mentioned problems; Akali and Kennen. Since he can catch them and stick to them for longer before they outrange him again, giving him room to fight back.
Ezreal (Buffed – Minor)
The recent patch has greatly affected Ezreal and put him in a rough spot. The developers hope to give him the power to go back and be able to compete with the other dragon laners.
- Mystic Shot: Base damage: 20/50/80/110 -> 20/55/90/125
Mystic Shot’s base damage has been reverted, giving back some of his firepowers.
Lulu (Nerfed – Major)
Finally, Lulu is getting nerfed! Despite getting nerfed in the last patch, Lulu has still been dominating both ranked games and pro games and has become a problem. The developers have decided to balance her out and put an end to it, hopefully.
- Base Stats: Base Health: 570 ->530, Movement Speed: 330-325
- Whimsy: Polymorph duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2s -> 1/1.25/1.5/1.75s
- Help, Pix! Shield duration: 5s ->2.5s, Cast range: 7 -> 6
- Wild Growth: Cast range: 8 -> 7
Huge nerf on stats and abilities will make Lulu an average enchanter now. Whimsy nerf has reduced the duration of Polymorph. A good nerf for 2 seconds of not being able to move is too much.
Help, Pix!’s duration has been reduced to half. Huge nerf which will greatly affect her and how she buffs her teammates. Also, the range has been reduced which will give opponents more room to catch her. Similar to the Help, Pix!, Wild Growth’s range has been reduced as well.
Miss Fortune (Nerfed – Major)
Just like Lulu, Miss Fortune has been seeing success both on ranked and pro games resulting in a nerf.
- Base Stats: Base armor: 35 -> 30, Base health regen: 9 -> 6, Base health regen per level: 0.81 -> 0.55
- Love Tap: Love Tap damage vs minions: 100% -> 50%, Love Tap damage vs monsters: 50% (Unchanged – now in tooltip)
Nerfs on base stats is huge and will mostly affect her scaling and defenses making her more vulnerable. Her wave clear has been a problem, and a nerf on passive, Love Tap, will make it weaker, giving room for her other competition to fight back.
Olaf (Nerfed – Major)
He has seen great success on Jungle, especially on Baron Lane resulting in his nerf. Earlier, Olaf almost never lost to 1 v 1. With these nerfs on his base stats, he is weaker, and opponents can take him on now.
- Base Stats: Base armor: 40 -> 35, Base AD: 70 -> 64
- Undertow: Slow: 30/35/40/45% -> 20/25/30/35%, Slow duration: 2.5s -> 2s
Base stats nerf will greatly affect his defensive capabilities, and he will not be able to Ragnarok his way into the enemy team the way he used to.
Undertow’s slow has been a problem and escaping him is impossible without dodging his axes. The duration and slow strength have been balanced making it easier to run away from him. However, it will greatly affect him in the jungle since his ganks will be weaker.
Varus (Buffed – Major)
Varus has not been on the spotlight this past few patches. In this patch, his Piercing Arrow has been buffed, and you know what that means, Lethality Varus, baby!
- Piercing Arrow: Cooldown: 18/16/14/12s -> 16/14/12/10s
Piercing Arrow’s cooldown has been reduced by a whopping 2 seconds, enabling him to spam his arrows more. This buff will make him a threat in the dragon lane and in the mid lane, and it will be raining arrows non-stop.
Vayne (Buffed – Minor)
Vayne has been known for her very strong 1 v 1 and kiting potentinal. However, heavily relying on positioning and attack speed, she has been weak. The developers have decided to buff her up a little to help her catch up.
- Condemn: Damage on terrain stun: 75/120/165/210 -> 105/145/185/225
- Final Hour: Cooldown: 100/80/60 -> 90/75/60s
Condemn stun damage has been increased. A minor buff but it makes landing the ability more rewarding. Final Hour’s cooldown has been reduced in the earlier phases of the game, letting her have more fighting room early.
Xayah (Buffed – Major)
Compared to Lulu. Xayah was not strong at all on her release. Relying on her Bladecaller to deal most of her damage, it was not rewarding as expected. The developers have decided to buff all her abilities and overall damage so she can catch up with her competition.
- Double Dagger: Base damage: 35/65/95/125 -> 50/75/100/125
- Deadly Plumage: Bonus attack speed: 25/30/35/40% -> 35/40/45/50%
- Bladecaller: Cooldown: 12/11/10/9s -> 11/10/9/8s, AD ratio: 0.6 -> 0.8
- Featherstorm: Base damage: 100/200/300 ->125/250/375
Buff on Double Dagger’s base damage will, of course, increase her damage. This will also help her in her wave clear. Deadly Plumage has been buffed as well, which is actually good. Steroids like this, which give free attack speed are really valuable. A small increase means a lot to xayah. It will increase her DPS (damage per second) and gives her stronger scaling.
Bladecaller, her main source DPS, has been buffed and it will greatly affect her positively. AD ratio has been increased from 0.6 to 0.8 which is huge, as well as its cooldown. This buff alone will make her very strong in every stage of the game.
Featherstorm’s damage has been buffed as well. A huge buff that will increase the threat of her ult, and not just be an escape tool.
Item Adjustments
Blade of the Ruined King
- Attack damage: 30 -> 20
- Attack speed: 30% -> 35%
On-hit damage
- Melee: 6% -> 9% of current enemy health physical damage
- Ranged: 6% of current enemy health physical damage (unchanged)
Drain movement speed duration: 3s -> 2s
- This is an indirect buff to melee users of BotRK such as Jax and Master Yi. We can now see these champions rising more into popularity, and even champions that do not suit the item you may be using now.
- Since the recent damage was allocated into attack speed instead, Ashe, Vayne, and Varus are also stronger now since BotRK now synergizes better with their kit.
- Movement speed drain duration has been nerfed by 1 second. This is a huge one since it provides huge value.
Liandry’s Torment
- Ability power: 90 -> 70
- Total cost: 3150g (unchanged)
- Combine cost: 800g -> 950g
Haunting Guise
- Ability power: 35 -> 25
- Total cost: 1450g -> 1300g
- Upgrade cost: 950g -> 800g
Both items were nerfed. Despite cost remaining the same, the Ability Power provided by both items were reduced which made it less efficient.
However, they are still worth-the-buy considering the only thing that made both items too strong is its strong synergy with the rune, Conqueror. The reason why both these items synergize with Conqueror is because of the burn and damage boost it provides while in combat. The burn refreshes the damage boost both provided by the items and Conqueror. Conqueror-Liandry’s Torment abusers are still kings and queens this patch. Abuse them while it lasts!
Free-to-Play Champion Rotation
March 4th, 2021 – March 10th, 2021
March 11th, 2021 – March 17th, 2021
Meta Discussion
Baron Lane
Darius is not the king of Baron lane anymore, for he has been dethroned by Akali. As mentioned before, Conqueror-Liandry’s Torment combo is busted, and Akali uses it pretty efficiently. Akali has has been dominating the Baron Lane for one reason, she has no counter.
She outranges almost every single champion that goes on Baron Lane except Lulu. Her dueling power is not bad as well. The only champions that can go toe-to-toe with her is probably just Fiora and Wukong, and it requires some serious outplaying.
Camille is also on the higher tier in Baron Lane. She scales really well, provides lots of utilities like stuns, slows, and an ult that pretty much secures a kill, not to forget her insane damage output due to her true damage. She also has amazing splitpush potential and and great at flanking. A perfect Baron Laner.
Other champions like Darius, Garen, Fiora, and Wukong are still good for this patch. Ranged bullies like Lulu and Kennen are also on a good spot. The Blade of the Ruined King has sent Jax, Tryndamere and Yasuo to a higher spot, and will most likely be strong this patch. Nerf on Olaf has put him in a lower spot, and would probably make him much weaker and easier to defeat on Baron Lane.
Baron Lane Evelyn is not viable anymore in my opinion due to recent nerfs, even in Mid Lane.
Tanks like Gragas, Malphite and Mundo are still fine to use. Though, they don’t provide the requirements that fulfill a perfect Baron Laner in this meta such as splitpush potentinal, sustain, and high output damage. However, this tanks provide an also valuable utility, which is CC or Crowd Control including knock-ups, and stuns.
Nasus, Singed and Teemo are all very weak and will only give handicap your games. Their kit is just not suited for the current meta, and their kits are really outdated.
Jungle
As another possible Conqueror-Liandry’s Torment abuses, Evelyn comes in strong in this patch along with Graves, Jarvan IV, Olaf and Vi.
Graves still has no absolute counter in the game, and his early clear is so healthy that fighting him early is almost impossible without the help of your team, his invade threat is also high.
Jarvan IV’s buffs last patch put him in a good spot, he is now used frequently in pro games due to his undemanding kit which provides a lot of utility even without getting much gold.
Despite getting nerfed, Olaf still remains strong this patch, though he should be careful especially on the earlier stages of the game for he is much more vulnerable. However, building him tank and maxing Reckless Swing might just solve the problem, since his Undertow has been nerfed.
Vi has not experienced some serious nerfing for a while and sits at a strong spot this patch. She offers strong and easy engage which is very valuable on ganks and teamfights. She also has a strong clear and scales pretty well.
Champions like Lee Sin and Wukong still remains decent despite their past nerfs. Though, they are more tolerable now compared to the past patches.
Amumu, Dr. Mundo, Shyvana, Gragas and Xin Zhao are all in a good spot as well. They might not be broken, but they still provide utilities that a jungler will use. Shyvana’s nerf has set her lower ever since, her early game has been much more weaker thus players abusing it.
Even with the Blade of the Ruined King buffs, Master Yi is still a very risky pick since he can easily be shut down in the early stages of the game. He sits along with Camille who has the same case, and is a budget version of Jarvan IV.
Champions like Jax and Tryndamere has no place in the jungle. Their clear is abyssmal and picking them in the jungle would pretty much result to a lose.
Mid Lane
The Liandry’s Torment nerf may be affecting champions like Aurelion Sol and Orianna but it is not enough to shut them down. They are still in a strong spot along with Corki and Zed. Since these champions shut the two champions mentioned before them down.
Akali, Seraphine, Fizz, Twisted Fate, Yasuo, and Ziggs are all in the same spot along with Varus. These champions are all good picks if you want to win games, they have the potential to carry, have decent waveclear and roam potential, and really valuable sets of abilities. Varus with Tear of the Goddess early and lethality is predicted to be strong and used a lot in this patch, the buff in the cooldown of his ability is designed exactly for this build.
Champions like Annie, Tristana, Gragas, Kennen, Lulu, and Wukong are all decent picks. However, they lack the strong waveclear that all high tier champions have. Expect these champions to have slower early games compared to those of higher tier, though they can still provide value when they come online.
Ahri, Lux and Malphite mid all sit in the same spot. They all rely in hitting their abilities, and in higher levels of play, things are much faster and their abilities are much harder to land. They may work in lower levels of play. However, they have decent waveclear and if you have confidence in hitting your skillshots, they go ahead on picking this champions.
I don’t recommend playing Evelyn mid anymore due to the recent nerfs. However, many players in higher elo still play her for some reason. Maybe they can’t get over or something. But her waveclear is now abyssmal and a majority of mid champion can outroam her due to her slow waveclear. Her roaming is still strong for there are no way to spot her unless she attacks you.
Teemo is not playable. His kit and damage just doesn’t cut it. No form of waveclear except from his ultimate ability which is probably some kind of joke. You can play Teemo if you like giving yourself a hard time or if you just want tumble around the Rift.
Dragon Lane (Carry)
You saw it here first, Ziggs dragon lane will be meta. Upon pro teams seeing him perform insanely well in the tournaments, Ziggs is on his way to be flexed in the dragon lane. Ziggs outranges ALL marksmen, and not only that, he provides things that is provided by a marksman; high scaling, high damage, long range, and ability to destroy turrets. Not only that, but Ziggs also provides insane zoning capabilities and CC.
Seraphine, and Sona are also viable options for the same reason, though Sona is much weaker compared to the two. Lux can also be used as an option but she is far behind compared to Ziggs, Seraphine and Sona. However, some of these mages lack something that Ziggs provides, which is the ability to destroy turrets.
In the tradional ADC meta, Kai’Sa still comes strong seeing the high amount of play both on ranked and pro games. She scales well, has the ability to protect herself due to her shields and invisibility. Insane damage output which is a mixed, meaning she both deals physical and magic damage, so it is hard to itemize againts her.
Other marksmen like Corki, Jhin, Jinx, Miss Fortune also comes strong, but slightly below Kai’Sa. Marksmen like Varus and Xayah have come their way into a good spot as well due to their buffs and are expected to see more time of play, even on the pro scene.
Draven, Ezreal and Vayne are all in a decent spot, but they have weak waveclear and are put in a disadvatange on the early stages of the game. However, they can still work if paired with a good support that fits into their kit such as Draven – Braum, Ezreal – Sona, and Vayne- Lulu.
Due to the BotRK and her personal buffs, Ashe has come to a good spot. Her strength revolve around her utility such as vision, stuns, and slow an because of the BotRK buffs she has now better firepower, giving her so much value.
Tristana is in a bad spot since her damage is lacking and she only excels in the early stages of the game.
Dragon Lane (Support)
Both enchanters and tank supports are meta and all of them can be used. However, some supports are more valuable and efficient in doing their job compared to other
Alistar is the best tank support at the moment. He provides so much value and has all the utilities except shielding (still possible if you buy Solari). Also, he works with any type of team composition. Tank supports like Braum, and Jarvan IV is also in a good spot.
Jarvan IV may sound surprising to you, but this is not a mistake, Jarvan IV support has been seeing some play in pro scene for 2 reasons;
- As mentioned before, he provides utility even without gold
- His Demacian Standard works with Summon Aery rune giving shield to allies that come near it.
Rakan is in a pretty decent spot. He is a mix of a tank and an enchanter since he engages teamfights and soaks some damage and also provides utility. But for some reason, he struggles to find victories in the game and is ought to have a buff.
Other tanks supports like Gragas, Blitzcrank and Malphite can also be used but they are just cheaper versions of the previously mentioned tank supports.
After being nerfed, Lulu has been dethroned as the best enchanter by Seraphine. Seraphine provides so much utility and waveclear to help any kind of ADC. Also, her ult can be game-changing and is not hard to land. She works with any kind of team composition just like Alistar.
Lulu is still in a good spot along with Janna and Sona. They all serve their purpose well, and has no clear counter at the moment.
Annie and Nami provides decent utility. However, they are not as good as the previously mentioned champions. They can still be picked but there are just better choices.
The worst enchanter to play in this meta is non other than, you guessed it right, Soraka.
She uses her own health to use her abilities and she does not have that much health, to begin with. Along with that, she provides lackluster utility which is only healing, the silence which can be a root, and uhh, heals. She is very vulnerable in every phase of the game but she can still work with proper positioning and a good team.
That’s all about the League of Legends: Wild Rift Patch 2.1a update! Best of luck with your games, and have fun!
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