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Rek’Sai just got nerfed for the 9th straight time, and more changes are coming

This champion seems hard to solve.

Riot Games

First added to the Public Beta Environment in November 2014, Rek’Sai was officially added to the League of Legends champion roster as a part of Patch 4.21, on December 10 2014. Since then, the Void Burrower has been nerfed nine straight times, with only one small buff to her tunnel cooldown included alongside one of the nerfs.

With the release of Patch 6.18 notes Wednesday and Rek’Sai still running rampant in the competitive meta (picked or banned in 76 percent of games this season), guess what? Another nerf is here, this time targeting her tankiness!

General

BASE ARMOR 28.3 ⇒ 24

ARMOR GROWTH STAT3.75 ⇒ 3.4

In the patch notes, the team said part of the problem with Rek’Sai as that she’s been recently positioned as an offensive tank instead of a Fighter.

In the months following release, however, our balance work on Rek’Sai de-emphasized her damage threat in favor of her team utility strengths. Her optimal playstyle settled into the Vanguard (offensive tank) space, and that identity mismatch has caused a lot of player frustration. So, when Rek’Sai’s competitive dominance put her on the balance radar, we resolved not to make the same mistake twice.

With that in mind, one obvious question comes up: will Rek’Sai be shifted more towards a Warrior-based attack damage build rather than the currently favored Cinderhulk-based tank build?

The question was posed on the boards, and lead champion designer Riot Meddler responded.

We're planning on doing some work on Rek'Sai to shift her back towards a more damage focused champ. That'll likely involve transferring utility or tank power into damage, or at least pushing her towards more damage focused itemization. Details on that haven't been figured out yet.

[...]

Diver's [sic] should be the better fit. Some CC, but less focus on team initiation power and more on personally killing stuff.

So get ready for a more dangerous, more killable Rek’Sai. And get ready for a very different jungle pool at Worlds.