Master Yi, Gragas receive buffs in Patch 7.2

Master Yi and Gragas, two of League’s older champions, may finally see the light of day after Patch 7.2 applies. Over the years, Gragas has seen his fair share of play in almost every position in the game. We have seen Gragas top, Gragas mid, Gragas jungle, and even Gragas support. But recently, Gragas has felt a little weak compared to other options. Master Yi, on the other hand, has notoriously been a low-elo terror that has rarely ever seen the light of high-level play. Both are getting quality of life buffs this patch. Everybody get excited for an untargetable blade master in your solo queue games.

Of the two, Gragas is getting the smaller set of buffs: a small increase to his base armor and significantly increased healing on his passive (6% of his maximum health per cast rather than 4%). While these buffs may seem relatively harmless, this should help Gragas sustain himself through the jungle a little bit more, allowing him to recklessly toss his massive body into lanes with full health.

These changes seem angled more towards the jungle, but, with the current top lane meta, anything is possible. A lane Gragas building Iceborn Gauntlet and Spirit Visage could potentially be pretty scary. A tank that essentially never runs out of health: Dr. Mundo, but useful. Keep an eye out for Gragas in your games, and be sure not to instantly assume that he is going jungle when you see him get picked up on the enemy team.

While everyone should totally be excited about Gragas buffs (I know I am), the real terror here is Master Yi. Double Strike, his passive that allows him to hit twice after a certain number of basic attacks, has seen a minor rework. If the first hit of Double Strike kills its target, the second hit will seek out a nearby enemy to smack. Riot is comparing this to the way that Lucian’s passive works.

Meditate will also see a few changes. If Master Yi activates meditate while his E, Wuju Style, and/or his ult, Highlander, is active, their durations will be paused until he exits meditation. If that wasn't scary enough for you, Master Yi will now grant one basic attack stack towards Double Strike per second for every second that he is meditating.

You should probably never try and duel Master Yi, but now, maybe just stay away from him until you have a small army with you. The Lucian style buff to his passive is scarier than you think, allowing Yi to easily fight multiple opponents at once without fear of losing damage. Similarly, Yi will now exit his meditation stronger than he entered it. Gone are the days where Master Yi had to decide if he wanted to meditate through the last few seconds of Wuju and Highlander. When he pops into meditation, look for a buddy, because when he emerges, his passive will be that much closer to taking you out.

Will we see Gragas re-enter into the competitive scene after these changes? Probably. How about Master Yi? Doubtful. Both champions still have the same core strengths that they had before these changes, and ultimately Gragas brings a lot more to a disciplined team than Master Yi does. While we may have to wait for (another) Master Yi rework before he sees consistent competitive play, I wouldn't be surprised if he started seeing more bans in solo queue. Beware the one-trick Master Yi players.