Keeping the champion reworks of League of Legends Season 12 going, Rell, like Olaf, Taliyah, and other champions before her this year, is next in line for a "mid-scope update."
This change comes after the devs admitted they "missed the mark" on her initially.
Rell mid-scope update to be part of the LoL Season 12 champion changes
With an initial release date of December 2020, Rell was another choice in the tanky support champion role. However, unlike others in that same category, namely Leona and Alistar, she couldn't quite rock the solo support engage strategy. Add the fact that once she gets dismounted she struggles to contribute in fights, Rell can be difficult to work with.
All of this has made the Iron Maiden an unpopular pick in both competitive and non-competitive queues with 1.02% and 0.81% pick rates respectively according to stats site Lolalytics.
In lieu of this, the League dev team has made her a "high priority" when it comes to a mid-scope update.
“Rell is a champion we’ve talked about as a possible target for a mid-scope update,” developer Riot Ryan "Reav3" Mireles stated on Reddit. “We think we could potentially smooth out some of [her] issues with an update like that. We haven’t started work on one yet, but she is a champion we feel is fairly high priority.”
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This is largely attributed to Rell not coming out as intended, or as Reav3 put it, having "missed the mark."
"I personally think we missed the mark on her fantasy," said Reav3. "When we were in early development she was a really interesting and cool champion. When she was on her horse she was like REALLY fast, and then she was really slow when on the ground."
The idea behind Rell made the champion "unhealthy" as it forced the support to constantly leave her lane partner behind as she roamed for the majority of the game, leading to it being scrapped in favor of what she is known for now—a lesser version of the aforementioned Leona.
Rell mid-scope update to give her a unique identity
Knowing that Rell is similar to Leona, the League devs are aiming to give the champion her own identity, one that not only puts her away from being a Leona clone and instead is a genuine secondary option to the other tank supports in the game.
"I think we probably need to re-look at her and see if we can push her power elsewhere (not in roaming power) in a way that could give her a more unique identity and separate her from Leona more," stated Reav3. "Ideally, Rell is in a place where people who like Leona also want to play Rell."
As of right now, no Rell changes have been made official but seeing the frequency the devs have had in releasing these mid-scope updates, League players can expect the new-look Iron Maiden to hit the Rift sooner rather than later.
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