The Plague Rat and The Night Hunter: Why Are They Suddenly Relevant?

With Patch 6.24 just around the corner, there are bound to be buffs and nerfs to the champions that need them right after the pre-season. Vayne and Twitch are just two of the champions that were changed after the preseason ended. Today, we'll be taking a look at what led up to the rise of these champions including changes to armor penetration, the tank meta, and other changes.

Individual Buffs and Nerfs

Vayne

Starting with the first buff to Vayne in Patch 6.15, a bug was fixed on her Tumble where her bonus physical damage would crit separately from her Q, leading to smaller crits. By fixing this bug, the damage could crit together allowing for bigger bursts of damage. They also added an effect on her Q that would allow her to use her extra damage on turrets. This makes turret sieging faster for her, allowing her to compete slightly better versus tower sieging ADCs such as Jinx or Tristana.

Then, the buff that brought Vayne further up the Marksman chain was in 6.17, merely two patches later, where they increase her AD ratio on her Q from 30%/35%/40%/45%/50% to 30%/40%/50%/60%/70%. This change makes any additional AD she picks up much more valuable for her damage. This is why the Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv build was crafted as the main build for Vayne. By building a BF Sword and then the Statikk Shiv, you could have some good damage in the late laning phase and eventually spike your damage in the mid game once you finished your Infinity Edge. 

Twitch

Twitch's first buff in Season 6 was a buff to his Q's attack speed (30%/35%/40%/45%/50% to 30%/40%/50%/60%/70%) when coming out of stealth in patch 6.19. While not pushing him over the edge of unbalanced, this was a very nice buff to sneaking up on the enemy and dishing out damage with his ultimate. However, this is only one factor that brings up Twitch in the preseason.

The Assassin Rework also brought some changes to the Plague Rat, specifically to his Q (Ambush) and W (Venom Cask).

Twitch's Q had several changes made to it. Firstly, his stealth was changed to Camoflage. This means that his invisibility is similar to Evelynn's passive where if you approach someone too closely, you'll be revealed. This eliminates the technique where you would stealth right behind your opponent and deal as much damage as possible to them. To make up for this however, they extended the duration of stealth by 6 seconds at each rank (4/5/6/7/8 seconds to 10/11/12/13/14 seconds) and increased the bonus movement speed received from 10% to 20%. In addition to this bonus movement speed, when he approaches an enemy champion who cannot see Twitch, the movement speed bonus is increased to 30%. This made approaching and ambushing on Twitch much easier.

The W, however, was reworked slightly. Instead of slowing on impact and applying two stacks of his passive, it's a lasting AoE effect (similar to Singed's W) for 3 seconds that applies one passive stack on impact and one stack every second in the AoE. This made skirmishing on Twitch better as well as kiting. This was not a huge change, but it made somewhat of an impact.

Assassins

Along with the changes to Twitch, 9 assassins were updated with new abilities and effects. The main 4: Leblanc, Katarina, Rengar and Talon received the biggest changes and are the biggest pests to ADCs. So why was the Assassin Rework so good for these two ADCs?

Starting with Vayne, she has one of the most slippery kits as an ADC. She can kite and Tumble, use her Condemn against walls to stop divers from getting to her and, most obviously, her ultimate where she can turn invisible for one full second. This makes her very effective in combating these champions in the mid and late game. Her high damage output in the mid and late game also contributes to how she eliminates these targets. If anything, Vayne becomes the assassin once she hits her power spike.

Twitch doesn't have the same tools that Vayne has, but he has the ability to extend his attack range much further with his ultimate. Similar to Caitlyn, this allows him to stay out of range of any divers approaching him while still dishing out major damage. If he plays at this range, his abilities assist him further in keeping these divers away with his new W's AoE and extended invisibility timer on his Q. 

Also coming with this update, Armor Penetration was changed to Lethality. This new mechanic works so that damage that goes through armor is based on what level the enemy is. This makes the Youmuu's Ghostblade into Black Cleaver build much less effective in the early game. This makes ADCs like Lucian, Miss Fortune, Jhin, and Draven have less damage output with this build. This makes the crit builds much better on these ADCs, but strengthens ADCs who struggled against these ADCs. Vayne and Twitch were easily shoved out of lane until this change. This allows them to have much better control over the lane and have a much higher win percentage.

Tank Meta

One of the less talked about changes in the Preseason Update, Strength of the Ages was replaced by Courage of the Colossus. This mastery gives a shield when you hard CC (stuns, knockups, etc.) an enemy champion. This mastery also gives you more shield value depending on how many enemy champions you CC. This has let engage tanks like Poppy, Nautilus, and Malphite rise to the top of the tier list. This mastery lets tanks survive within teamfights and makes them very hard to deal with.

How does this relate to Vayne and Twitch? Vayne has had the identity of a tank buster because of her W passive. Her three hit passive allows her to deal true damage based on a percentage of the target's max health. This makes her very strong against comps that stack health and armor. 

Twitch while not as prominent of a tank killer as Vayne, he has some differences that make him almost as good as Vayne. The extended range on his ultimate and his ability to camoflage really give him the power to stay far from the tanks and take down the Courage of the Colossus shields from a safe distance. Adding a point from before, his kiting ability with his new W also gives him the ability to stay far from tanks. 

Nerfs in 6.24

Now since their power has shown brightly over the past couple of patches, they obviously needed some nerfs to keep them in check. These are very small nerfs that make them slightly less frustrating to deal with while also retaining some strength.

Vayne's Q has been reverted back to the 30%/35%/40%/45%/50% AD ratio from 30%/40%/50%/60%/70%. While this is meant to take away the power given by the Infinity Edge into Statikk Shiv build, a lot of pros have actually adapted the build. Instead now, they are building a Blade of the Ruined King after the core items. As a Vayne main myself, I have tried the Blade of the Ruined King rush vs. Infinity Edge --> Statikk Shiv ---> Blade of the Ruined King. The Infinity Edge into Shiv build is still strong and with Blade of the Ruined King getting buffed to deal 8% of the target's current health from 6%, this item again feels good on Vayne. That, however, does not mean the Blade of the Ruined King build is out of the question. This item when paired with Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv gives you a lot of attack speed to get your W off multiple times during the mid game fights. The build path, however, is your decision to make.

Twitch received two very small nerfs. Firstly, his passive damage has been reduced from 2/3/4/5/6 to 1/2/3/4/5. Secondly, his W had its mana cost raised from 50 to 70. These are mainly early game nerfs in order to keep his damage in check. Due to the fact that W was very mana efficient and his passive did slightly more damage made it so that he dominated trades when using the two in conjunction. These nerfs barely affect his mid and late game so is still a very strong pick.

 

All in all, Vayne and Twitch have been very strong picks for a couple of patches and are most likely to be good choices as long as the tank meta sticks around and lane bullies that built Lethality stay underpowered. As season 7 goes on, more analytical guides like this are to come in the future. Be sure to stay on the lookout for the next one. Otherwise, please use this knowledge to improve yourself as a League of Legends player and enjoy your newfound intelligence on these two ADCs.

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