League of Legends' Yuumi rework is even more annoying

League of Legends has revealed the details and new skills coming with the Yuumi rework and it seems she'll be as annoying as before.

Yuumi Rework

The Yuumi rework has been teased months ago, following playerbase consensus that the champion is obnoxious to be with or against. Riot Games Lead Designer Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison revealed on Twitter the details of the changes, some extra context, as well as the Yuumi rework release date.

Tim “Riot Truexy” Jiang, Game Designer on the Summoner's Rift Team at Riot Games, is in charge of the Yuumi rework. He's experienced in this field as he has contributed to multiple reworks over the years for Ahri, Brand, Lucian, Rammus, Xin Zhao, Swain, and Syndra. He also is credited for the Champion Durability update that affected literally all champions (except Thresh) last year, as well as several in-game items.

The community was quick to latch on the fact that Yuumi can still be untargetable and the machanic has remained largely the same. For this rework, it seems Riot Truexy instead looked into Yuumi's healing and ability to root the entire enmy team, the latter of which has been completely removed from her kit

Yuumi Rework Skills

Base Stats

Health Growth: 84 >>> 69
Base Mana: 400 >>> 440

Passive – Feline Friendship

When Yuumi's spells or attacks affect champions, she heals herself and charges a heal for her allies. If she Attaches within the next 4s, she brings the heal to her ally. While Attached, this effect automatically occurs.
While Attached, Yuumi builds Friendship whenever her Ally kills champions and minions.
Each ally has their own unique Friendship score. While attached to her Best Friend, her abilities gain bonus effects.
Cooldown: 20-10s (levels 1-11)
Heal Amount: 20-105 (+15% AP) levels 1-18
While her Passive is ready, Yuumi's Auto Attack range is increased by 50.

Q – Prowling Projectile

Yuumi fires a missile that Slows the first enemy hit. If cast while Attached, Yuumi can control the missile for a short period before it becomes Empowered, greatly accelerating and Slowing enemies by an increased amount.
Best Friend Bonus: The Slow will always be empowered and hitting enemy Champions also grants 10/12/14/16/18/20 (+10% AP) On-Hit damage to her ally for 5 seconds. This
damage is increased by up to 75% based on her Ally's Critical Strike Chance.
Cooldown 7.5/7.25/7.0/6.75/6.5/6.25s
Mana Cost: 50 at all ranks
Base Damage 60/90/120/150/180/210 (+20% AP)
Base Slow Amount: 20% decaying over 1s
Empowered Slow Amount: 55/60/65/70/75/80% for decaying over 2s
Empowered Damage 80/140/200/260/320/380 (+35% AP)
Missile Width: 65 >>> 55
Reveals targets hit by the ability

W – You and Me!

“Yuumi attaches to an ally and is untargetable (except for towers). Any immobilizing effects on Yuumi puts her W on cooldown. While on your best friend, Yuumi gains an additional amount of Healing and Shielding power while also granting the ally a small amount of health on-hit.”

Adaptive Force to Yuumi/Ally: Removed
No longer counts as a “Positive Boon” for Summon Aery
Best Friend Bonus: Yuumi gains an additional 10-20% Heal & Shield Power (based on Ally level) and her Anchored ally gains 3/5/7/9/11 (+4% AP) On-Hit healing. This is affected by Yuumi's Heal & Shield Power.

E – Zoomies!

“Yuumi now shields herself and gains some attack speed and move speed. If she is attached to an ally, these effects are applied to them and also restores some Mana to them.”

Now Shields allies instead of Healing
Cooldown 12/11.5/11/10.5/10s
Mana Cost 80/90/100/110/120
Shield Granted 90/120/150/180/210 (+30%AP)
Move Speed: 20% while the Shield persists.
Attack Speed: 35% (+8% per 100 AP)
Restores 20/24/28/32136 Mana to her Anchor (not herself), increased by up to 100% based on their missing Mana (30% to 80% missing mana).
No Best Friend Bonus, all allies can be saved by Yuumi.

R – Final Chapter

For 3.5s, Yuumi fires 5 magical waves that affect enemies and allies. If cast while attached, Yuumi can steer the waves to follow her mouse.
For Ally Champions, the waves heal. The heal is increased by 130% on her Best Friend.
All excess healing is converted to a shield, lasting 3s after the ability ends.
For all enemies, the waves deal damage and apply a stacking slow.
Cooldown: 110/100/90s >>> 120/110/100s
Damage Per Wave: 60/80/1 (+20%AP ) 75/100/125 (+20% AP)
Heal Amount Per Wave: 35/50/65 (+15% AP)
Slow Duration: 1.25s
Slow Amount: 10% + 10% additive per wave hit (max 50% slow)
Best Friend Bonus: Waves also grant Yuumi's Best Friend 20/40/60 (+10% AP) Armor and Magic Resistance for the duration of the spell.

Yuumi Rework Release Date

The Yuumi rework is currently live on the League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) server. As per Riot Phroxzon, the rework is slated to hit live servers on patch 13.5, which is just less than two weeks away.

Riot Phroxzon: “We want Yuumi to be easy to learn and hard to master.”

Riot Phroxzon provided more context on the changes to Yuumi, as well as what the motivations behind were.

He first pointed out the current sources of resentment towards the live version of Yuumi. There were two main problems he outlined, the first being Yuumi as a frustrating lane opponent, especially when the player optimizes their playstyle. Live Yuumi was also incredibly dominant in professional play. The changes were aimed at hitting these two problems, which will in turn make her better for average play.

Another frustration that the playerbase has towards the cat is her untargetability, and Riot Phroxzon is aware. “Yuumi's untargetability can be frustrating, but we think it's required for her to succeed on her goals,” Riot Phroxzon wrote. “Playing difficult champions that teach lessons the hard way is a great way to get better, but some players aren’t looking for that and just want to have fun with friends.”

The goal was to make Yuumi a “great champion to bring a new friend into the game” as well as a great duo experience. This approach towards newer players will also reflect in Yuumi's price, which will be 450 Blue Essence despite her relatively recent release.

“We still want Yuumi to be easy to learn and hard to master, with points of mastery even after your 1000th game (and we have tried our best to retain those), we just want those points of mastery to not be best optimized in Pro Play,” Riot Phroxzon added.

He summarized the changes and the new Best Friend mechanic in several points:

Q will be more dodgeable
Her healing is tied to landing her Q
Her ultimate no longer roots
Her best ally to sit on will be her lane partner and incurs cost for swapping to fighters or assassins (or mobile allies)

Yuumi Rework Thoughts

Seeing that Yuumi can still become untargetable (and will probably stay untargetable for longer at a time), the main gripe of the cat-haters have not been addressed. Nonetheless, this mechanic is what makes Yuumi unique out of the pool of over 160 champions in the game, and the emphasis of her being a “beginner” champion will at least make her presence in professional play a bit less for more enjoyable watches for the viewers.

There are also a lot more areas that the devs can tweak in the reworked version of Yuumi compared to the live version. One of the vexations that the League devs have voiced out before is how hard Yuumi is to balance due to less “levers” that they can pull and change when it was called for.

The Yuumi rework also brings in a lost mechanic in the game – the ability for a champion to grant mana to an ally. Previously, this was seen in an old version of Soraka, and is now only possible with the Clarity summoner spell. Opinions of this returned mechanic has garnered divisive opinions in the playerbase, but they're gonna have to wait a couple weeks to try it for themselves.