Riven changes for LoL Patch 9.19 reverted after community backlash

The controversial changes to Riven for the League of Legends Worlds 2019 patch, aka Patch 9.19, have been reverted after community backlash.

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Riven was set to receive a massive overhaul to her kit in Patch 9.19 in the initial notes drafted by League’s Lead Gameplay Designer Mark ‘Scruffy’ Yetter. The initial changes were meant to give her ultimate, Blade of the Exile, a significant buff.

The changes were not well received in the community, and have been reverted just days later. However, Riven will still be getting some showtime on the patch notes just before Worlds, albeit with a toned down set of changes.

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Scruffy tweeted out the full patch preview on September 16, saying that there were “a few changes” to his initial list earlier in the week.

Instead of the increased base damage to her ultimate, and more AD scaling on her W, Ki Burst, Riven will be receiving cooldown changes to her Q and E. 

• Read more: Riven’s confusing buffs for Patch 9.19

Her Q, Broken Wings, will now have a 13 second cooldown at all ranks, up from 12 seconds on Patch 9.18. 

To compensate for this slight nerf, her E, Valor, has had its cooldown slashed from 14 seconds to 12 seconds at rank one, and from 10 seconds to eight at rank five.

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This makes maxing Riven’s E second, or even first, a lot more viable than it was before, given the significant buff at rank five.

The changes have not touched any of Riven’s damage numbers or base stats, which should make the community calm down a little bit in regards to the playmaking champion getting buffed right before the biggest event of the year.

• Read more: Yasuo designer no longer working on LoL

A Reddit thread made by user ‘NeroWhitePanda’ regarding the initial buffs made the front page of /r/leagueoflegends on September 12, garnering over 1300 upvotes and thousands of comments. 

‘PickCollins0330’ joked about “the mental gymnastics (Riot) do to try and make this buff not sound stupid,” while others mentioned the fact that Riven is getting a skin soon, so she has to be buffed. “Skin took six months to make, we must sell it at all costs,” ‘SuperSkills10‘ wrote, mimicking a robot.

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Patch 9.19 isn’t exclusively Riven changes though. 27 champions are listed on Scruffy’s change list, including huge nerfs to Karma and Yuumi, and significant buffs to Annie and Ornn. Aatrox will also be receiving some love after being gutted in Patch 9.18.

• Read more: All qualified teams for Worlds 2019

While the meta has focused around some of the game’s newer champions, Riot seems to be looking to tone down their impact before Worlds. A huge patch like this should make for interesting viewing come October, when the pros get to show off their experiments on stage in Europe.

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Patch 9.19 is expected to drop on September 24, just a couple of weeks out from the League of Legends World Championship. All games at the prestigious tournament will be played on this patch, so it’s one update you won’t want to miss.