Riot Games Ships Hotfix for Zeri After Brutal Nerfs in LoL Patch 12.7

Riot Games shipped new nerfs for one of League of Legends' newest champions Zeri on 13th April in LoL Patch 12.7. The nerfs were targeted at her bruiser itemization and Riot made her ultimate spell stack slower and more consistent and even added double stacks upon critical strikes. Ultimately, this was to keep Zeri in check in the esports scene since she was quickly turning into a priority pick in the bot lane.

On 6th April, Riot Games’ Principal Champion Designer August “August” Browning wrote on Twitter, “Zeri the carry is still very *checks notes* strong in pro play...The nerfs hit all builds but should hurt bruiser more than crit.”

However, Riot soon realized that the nerfs were a bit too much and shipped out a hotfix patch to compensate for them in Zeri’s kit. On 15th April, Browning said on Twitter, “I overshot on the Zeri nerfs by quite a bit, a hotfix for her is now live,” while explaining the changes that are now in Zeri’s kit.

Hotfix changes to Zeri

After realizing that it overshot the nerfs, Riot has introduced changes to bring a sense of balance to the Zaunite attack-damage carry’s abilities and sustain in the game. They are:

Base statistics

HP: Increased from 500 to 530

Q - BURST FIRE

R stacks and E refreshes on crit increased from 2 to 3

W - Ultrashock Laser

• Slow duration now lasts 2 seconds and has been changed from 1-2 seconds

• Its Attack Damage (AD) ratio has been increased to 1.4 from 1.2

E - Spark Surge

The cooldown has been reduced from 28-22 seconds to 26-20

Zeri nerfs in LoL Patch 12.7

Initially, before the hotfix, in LoL Patch 12.7, Zeri’s base attack damage (AD), AD growth, and armor were reduced while her health growth was increased. Riot significantly changed her Q - Burst Fire and her W - Ultrashock Laser’s base damage was decreased but its AD and Ability Power (AP) ratios were given a boost. Likewise, the cooldowns of E - Spark Surge and R - Lightning Crash were increased in the early stages of the game.

The following were the stats that were changed in Zeri’s kit:

BASE STATS

• AD Growth 2 ⇒ 1.5

• Attack Damage 53-87 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 50-75.5 (levels 1-18)

• Base Armor 22 ⇒ 20

• Health Growth 90 ⇒ 95

• Health at Level 18 2030 ⇒ 2115

Q – BURST FIRE

• Total physical damage: 10/15/20/25/30 (+110 percent total AD) has been changed to 7/9/11/13/15 (+110/112.5/115/117.5/120 percent total AD)

• Q – Burst Fire now only applies on-hit effects once per cast

• Zeri can now only gain one stack of R – Lightning Crash and one instance of E – Spark Surge cooldown reduction per Q – Burst Fire cast (excluding critical strikes)

• Critical strikes on Q – Burst Fire grants Zeri an additional R – Lightning Crash stack and an additional instance of E – Spark Surge’s cooldown reduction (at most two procs per cast: one for Q upon hitting a champion and another if it crits on a champion)

W – ULTRASHOCK LASER

Magic damage: 40/75/110/145/180 (+100 percent total AD)(+60 percent AP) has been changed to 10/45/80/115/150 (+120 percent total AD)(+70 percent AP)

E – SPARK SURGE

Cooldown: 23 seconds changed to 28/26.5/25/23.5/22 seconds

R – LIGHTNING CRASH

Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds changed to 120/95/70 seconds

Zeri’s stats in LoL Patch 12.7

At the time of writing, the following were the statistics for Zeri in Platinum and higher tiers in Solo Queue, according to U.GG. It is important to note that these figures are after her hotfix went live on 15th April.

• Tier: D

• Win Rate: 43.03%

• Pick Rate: 5.6%

• Ban Rate: 16.0%

• Games Analyzed: 20,319