Yuumi Rework Season 13
Yuumi has been a dominant Support ever since her release in 2019. During this time, she has seen some more minor buffs and nerfs to adjust her to the never-ending changes Riot makes to the game.
However, Yuumi’s unique attachment mechanic makes it somewhat hard for Riot to nerf or buff her into a position where she is not too strong and not too weak. In 2023, Riot is going to rework Yuumi. You can find their initial news article about the upcoming changes here.
Riot wants to tackle a few things:
- Make laning against her less potent. Her trading is very hard to deal with and she has somewhat unlimited health, unlimited sustain and tons of damage.
- Make laning with her more fun. Laning with a Yuumi is quite boring and difficult (depending on what type of Yuumi you’re dealing with) as it is usually a 1v2 lane.
- Reduce her AFK nature. While they haven’t exactly stated this, it is clear that they will attempt to reduce her AFK nature and make the player more active in lane.
Yuumi’s core mechanics will remain, but she will rely less on poke and damage while focusing more on healing and sustain. This is a good change for players playing against Yuumi, as her laning phase is extraordinarily dominant and quite frustrating to play against due to the large amount of poke and sustain she has.
While Riot hasn’t really discussed anything specific about the changes coming to her this year, they’ve noted that they want to still have her as an easy-to-learn Support with her main focus being on supporting her allies by giving them heals and shields rather than a poke heavy Support.
Riot Update: 26th January 2022
Wanted to give a bit more context on why we’ve chosen the newer player direction for Yuumi.
At time of writing, Yuumi is in Top 3 most performant champions for true new players [not smurfs], while in Top 20 most popular.
Simultaneously, she’s a top Pro support.
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) January 26, 2023
My Thoughts
It is hard to really describe what I feel about these potential changes, because Riot hasn’t given much detail away. I want them to change her, so players do not get a “get out of jail free card” and climb just because they’re playing Yuumi. It is easier to climb on Yuumi than many other Supports because you can just attach yourself to anyone on your team who is fed.
Furthermore, a bad Yuumi who sits on her ADC all day isn’t good for the game, so getting players to be more active will be much better.
I think it’s going to be hard for Riot to make a balanced Yuumi as she will always have the weakness of just attaching to the carry and going “afk”. So I am excited to see what they do to her.
Final Points
Riot has given little to no information regarding the changes coming to Yuumi this year, but it’s totally ok! We will keep this article updated with more information as and when we learn about it.
