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When we think about top lane, we spend most of our time focusing on the negatives. Bad Old champions like Cho’Gath, Singed and Garen. Well ... bad news friends, all three of these goobers and more are seeing buffs in this patch. Brace yourself. This isn’t a fun one. Or maybe it is, if you like these champs.
Cho’Gath
Poor Cho has had an odd history with buffs and reworks. He desperately needs more love but isn’t bad enough to warrant a full rework yet. But not today. Today, Cho’Gath gets a brand new ability. (Well, sort of.)
Cho’s E, Vorpal Spikes, is no longer a bland toggle ability meant to add some extra damage. Instead, Cho’Gath’s next three abilities will shoot spikes out of him, damaging and slowing every target hit. There is now a mana cost with it as well as a cooldown, but it does significantly more damage (including maximum health damage that scales with his Feast stacks) and even grants Cho’s some extra range on his basic attacks.
His W and Q also got some love, with Rupture costing significantly less mana and Feral Scream silencing for longer.
This should help revitalize the old boy and push back his need for a rework a little longer.
Fiora
Fiora has been a little too good as of late, so they are slowing her down with some changes to her passive.
Duelist’s Dance, Fiora’s passive, has had the maximum movement speed bonus lowered significantly. Because of this change, Grand Challenge will no longer grant extra movement speed while next to the targeted champion.
Garen
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You know how much you love it when the enemy Garen starts getting all of his health back? I know I do. Well, lucky for us, Garen is now getting a Dr. Mundo treatment.
Out of combat, Garen’s passive, Perseverance, will now regenerate eight percent of his life at level 11. This is actually two percent less than his late game generation previously, but it will happen at level 11 instead of 16. The timer determining when he is out of combat will also now proc at only three seconds at level 11. As an added bonus, Garen will now regenerate even more health when he is below 50 percent health.
Garen’s W, Courage, now also grants him additional reduction for the first second of use. His E, Judgment, is also getting a slight buff to its ratio.
Singed
Singed is back with a whole new passive. His old passive, Empowered Bulwark, has been replaced with Noxious Slipstream. Instead of gaining health based off his mana, Singed will gain extra movement speed when running next to enemies. Yeah, like Mario Kart. Unlike the Italian plumber’s favorite pass-time, Singed can only drift past a specific enemy once every 10 seconds.
Singed’s Q, Poison Trail, also got some love. The ratio has been upped while the base damage has gone down slightly. The clouds themselves are now bigger to better indicate when you will get sick by standing in them.
Mega Adhesive, the W, has a reduced duration but now grounds units inside it. Enemies also stop being slowed the moment they exit the area, not a second after. The slow on Mega Adhesive has also been nerfed significantly, now being at 40 percent for all ranks.
The cost for Fling has gone down in the early levels, and Singed’s Insanity Potion now only costs 100 mana and grants a few extra bonus stats numerically speaking.
Yorick
After his excellent rework last year, Yorick is finally getting a little bit of balancing love this patch.
The Mist Walker base damage has been lowered in the early game and slightly buffed in the late game. However, they now do not dilly-dally after landing from their leaps, attacking the target immediately. They can now also jump much farther and graves have a wider range before de-spawning.
Yorick’s ultimate, Eulogy of the Isles, is actually receiving quite the buff. The late game cooldown is being lowered significantly, while the late game base health of the Maiden is getting a buff of 1000, totaling up to 4000 health. This should help Yorick remain a spooky, ghost man far into the mid and late game.