Camille, Poppy nerfs target overperforming top laners

In the time between Worlds and the start of the Spring Split, the solo queue meta becomes a bit of a wilderness. Without pro play to guide champion choices, a whole lot of stuff you otherwise wouldn’t see gets played (looking at you, Nasus and Garen).

In the top lane, however, two champions have been consistent presences for the past few weeks: Camille and Poppy (who has been around for significantly longer than that). Both champions are getting nerfed in Patch 7.1, in an attempt to reduce their power in the top lane.

First, Camille. She currently sits at a 50.14 percent win rate, according to Champion.gg’s data of ranked games platinum and above, which is absolutely ridiculous for a first patch after release. Granted, it was a longer patch cycle than normal, and we saw her win rate rise over the past few weeks, but she has an absolutely stacked kit and it was clear from the beginning she was overpowered, with a 23.86 percent ban rate.

In terms of nerfs, she’s getting a few. From the patch notes:

Camille needs to give opposing teams a chance to cut her legs out from under her before she cuts them up. With her legs. At the moment, she’s too durable for that to be a reliable response, so we’re dialing that back a bit. Camille’s teamfight utility is providing her too safe of a fallback, meaning she doesn’t need to do that much diving for a diver. With a little less utility, we hope to require Camille to play a bit more aggressively, opening her up to focused fire (which should be easier against the new, less tanky Camille).

Camille’s getting nerfs on four different fronts. Her health per level has been decreased by 10 (95 to 85), while her passive shield duration has been decreased from 1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds to a flat 1.5 seconds.

In terms of her active abilities, Camille’s E (Hookshot) now has a “slightly increased radius” of revealing her when she’s using the ability from Fog of War. Lastly, the knockaway speed on non-targeted enemies from her ultimate has been increased, but now the stun only lasts until the target lands, instead of one second.

Camille’s certainly been a problem, but Poppy’s been one for a much longer time. A staple in pro play last year, her win rate has been above 51 percent since 6.22 with play rate rising from seven percent to over nine percent. How hard she is to kill has become a recurring joke within the League community:

The biggest problem, Riot’s balance team says in the patch notes, has been Poppy’s ability to duel. She’s intended to be a team-fighting tank, so taking on other enemies 1 vs. 1 consistently isn’t ideal.

Tanks should excel when locking up multiple targets in a teamfights, not when smashing laners 1-on-1. Poppy has been doing both recently, and that’s not cool.

To combat this, Poppy’s passive and ultimate are being nerfed. Her passive, which allows her to pick up a shield, will now last three seconds instead of five. The immediate “Snapcast” damage on her ultimate, Keeper’s Verdict, has been halved.