While Ambessa first made waves in Arcane, the fearsome Matriarch of War is now causing a real stir in League of Legends. While any new champion is a hot topic in the weeks following their release, Ambessa has been the subject of more conversations than usual due to how crushing she is in the hands of the MOBA’s best players. Now, LoL’s chief of champions and game balance has admitted that she needs taking down a peg, and Ambessa nerfs appear to be on the near horizon.
We’re approaching the one month milestone of Ambessa’s life in League of Legends. For any new character, this is around the time that the MOBA’s most dedicated players (or potentially, in this case, the most enthusiastic of Arcane fans) begin to really master their kit and show them at the peak of their powers. In Ambessa’s case, that peak is seemingly a little too high. Despite being a relatively tanky champion with the ability to pop a shield that can soak up damage, she also boasts plenty of attacking firepower and is incredibly mobile too.
While play rates for any fresh champion are usually pretty high, Ambessa’s potency has led to her being the number one pick for toplaners since she released in early November. Her win rate overall isn’t excessively high, but as you climb the LoL ranks her ban rate skyrockets to well over 50% in Gold and above, according to stats from OP.gg. In the right hands, she can be a real powerhouse – something Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison, LoL’s lead gameplay designer, has acknowledged.
“We know Ambessa is too strong when people have learned her at the moment; wanted to get a clean read on her power and optimizations before nerfing her, otherwise it can be challenging to understand how her mastery curve is shaking out when it’s also conflated with power adjustments,” Phroxzon says in response to fans discussing the current meta on Reddit. “We’re pretty sure she’s balanceable but will just need a little bit of fine tuning to get her into a good spot.”
While Phroxzon doesn’t say exactly what aspects of Ambessa’s kit will be the target of any balance changes, the most likely outcomes are a nerf to her mobility or the efficacy of her Repudiation ability, which grants her that damage-deflecting shield.
While we wait for more details on how Riot plans to balance Ambessa, take a look at our LoL tier list to see which other champions are dominating right now. Alternatively, here are some other great free PC games that are always worth jumping into.
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