If you’ve been looking to play Samira in your League of Legends solo queue games, then you probably haven’t had too much luck. Samira has a 75.5 percent ban rate in ranks Platinum and above right now, according to League statistics site U.GG.
In the Silver and Gold ranks, she does see more playing time on Summoner’s Rift with lower ban rates of 59.7 percent and 69.9 percent, respectively. But these numbers are still high—and for good reason. She’s been one of the stronger AD carry champions since her release on Sept. 21.
Samira’s kit simply gave her too much early-game safety and mobility due to her Blade Whirl and Wild Rush abilities. Paired with a good support, she could jump into the action, deal a good amount of damage, and block incoming attacks with her W.
Luckily, Riot Games sent out some nerfs to Samira in Patch 10.21 that increased the cooldown on her Wild Rush ability while also decreasing the bonus attack speed the ability granted on cast.
This should make some people play a little bit more conservatively during the early game, giving the opposition a chance to knock her down a peg with some ganks before she’s able to level up her ultimate ability, Inferno Trigger.
But Samira should still remain strong, especially after level six. Her ability to negate all projectiles with Blade Whirl gives her a quick way to escape an engage gone wrong and her ultimate can provide plenty of healing to take down a couple of enemies, while staying alive in the process.
This situation started happening once Aphelios was released.
The ADC became a major issue in both solo queue and competitive play following his release in December 2019 and popularized the “200 years” meme, which originated from Riot Games champion designer Nathan “Lutzburg” Lutz’s response to a Wukong main.
Aphelios continues to have a high presence in both solo queue and professional play. He boasted a 93.6-percent presence during the LCS Spring Split with a 66-percent win rate, as well as a 95.6-percent presence during the LEC Spring Split with a 50-percent win rate.
Aphelios was teased with five weapons that could be switched and controlled by putting one of them in the off-hand slot. The only thing players needed to manage was the number of remaining bullets to be prepared for a teamfight with the most suitable weapon. While his trailer video showcased a situation with multiple weapons, everyone wondered what the differences between weapons were.
Aphelios wiped out the enemy team with all weapon combinations in the trailer, showing how insanely strong he was regardless of weapon choice before a teamfight. His enemies were of equal level and items yet dropped like flies to Aphelios’ abilities.
Usually, champions have some sort of weaknesses built into their kit to allow for counterplay. Aphelios has access to a multitude of effects, such as long range, a slow, a root, lifesteal, high melee-range damage, and much more. While it makes each of his guns feel unique, all of these effects made the champion too good at everything.
