League of Legends’ Seraphine rework is so divisive it has a hashtag

pcgamesn.com:

I’m a Seraphine main in League of Legends. There, I said it. Alongside Senna she’s one of my most-played champions ever, effectively replacing my poor OTP, Sona, upon release. Having played her in a variety of different combinations with my lane partner, she remains one of the more powerful enchanter supports alongside mainstays like Soraka or Janna. Riot has seen her survive and thrive as a support, and has elected to rework her abilities to align with that role – a decision that has proven controversial.

Dropping with League of Legends patch 13.21, Sera’s rework aims to kill off her ability to be played in the MOBA’s mid and ADC roles, orienting her entirely towards being a support.

Lead gameplayer designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison claims that this is because “through their pickrate, Seraphine players have expressed their desire to play her in the support position.” While he highlights that “this doesn’t mean that we’re making mid/bot Seraphine dead,” he explains that Riot is “trying to narrow the gap between them.”

The main changes are to her Surround Sound (W) and Beat Drop (E), with the former providing a better shield, and the latter doing more damage and having its cooldown reduced. Additionally, her High Note (Q) also has better AP scaling and a slightly shorter cooldown. It also initially dropped quicker (1,400 instead of 1,200), but that buff has already been removed.

The changes have already proven divisive, with one player asking “Are the current changes final? A lot of peopled liked the faster Q missile speed buff but it was just reverted. Plus the W mana cost nerf along with the base mana nerf is a bit rough. Will there be follow up for her if she ends up bad?”

In response, game designer David