Naafiri has had a great debut patch in League of Legends! The Hound of a Hundred Bites has kept her promise to be an easy-to-learn assassin, while offering an appropriate degree of counterplay to her opposition. Riot's close observation of the Darkin wolf now led them to believe that she is in a balanced state, which is why they are pulling her planned nerfs from patch 13.15.
Players were excited for Naafiri for many reasons. The Darkin species is one of the most popular among the League of Legends community, and your new favorite wolf girl adds to the rather short list of Darkin champions. Apart from that, she is easy to pick up despite being an AD assassin, a class notorious for being mechanically difficult.
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After a strong start, Riot's balancing team expected Naafiri to improve significantly in her statistics, as every new champion does once players learn how to play them. However, this effect does not seem to have taken place as much as they were expecting, which made Riot scrap the nerfs planned for the hound on patch 13.15.
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In a statement on Twitter, Riot Champion Design Manager Stephen 'Raptorr' Auker shared the reasoning behind Naafiri's proposed changes and why they were scrapped again. "Earlier this week we said to expect nerfs, but that was anticipating that her win rate would continue to grow," Raptorr explained in his tweet. He then reiterated that her win rates stabilized earlier than expected, and Naafiri finds herself at a healthy 51% win rate in average ranks.
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With Naafiri also sitting at roughly 49% win rate in elite ranks, the need of nerfing the Darkin wolf is no longer given. Raptorr also explains that she will not receive jungle buffs despite her poor showing there, as Riot wants to focus on making her shine on the mid lane.
No Naafiri nerfs for 13.15!
— Stephen Auker (@RiotRaptorr) July 26, 2023
She's stabilized into a good state over the last few days so we will not be making adjustments. pic.twitter.com/LBHHVAncXa
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