The Most Buffed Champions in the history of LoR

The article about the most nerfed champions in the game was a success, and of course I couldn't miss the opportunity to bring a follow up for it, right? This time, I'm here to show you guys the most buffed champions. Quick reminder that at the moment I'm writing this article we are in patch 3.9, so I can't talk about the buffs in patch 3.10, which will be released on the 29th of June. However, as a preview of the patch was released, I will count the buffs that are to come in it.

Another reminder is that I didn't count for buffs in champions such as Aphelios and Miss Fortune, who had their nerfs reversed. Such changes can't be considered as buffs, as these champions were that way originally, were nerfed then reversed. The buffs I took into account were the ones in which the champion got something positive which they didn't have originally.

And, again, I won't explain in detail the champions with only 2 buffs, because there are a lot of them and the article would get very long if it went into detail about each one of them, so I'll focus on the ones with 3 buffs onwards.

Without further ado, let's go to the ranking:

Ashe

Level up condition altered: from freezing 5 enemies to 4.

Level up condition altered: from freezing 4 enemies to reducing to 0 the power of 4 enemies.

Darius

Health increased from 5 to 6 at level 2

Health increased from 5 to 6 at level 1 and from 6 to 7 at level 2

Garen

Mana cost reduced from 6 to 5

Gained an effect on both levels: When summoned, grants +1/+1 to other allies

Jarvan IV

From 5/3 to 6/4

Level up condition altered: from 4+ allies survived damage to 3+ allies survived damage

LeBlanc

Sigil of Malice: cost reduced from 4 to 3

When leveling up, instantly creates Mirror Image

Lee-Sin

Champ spell altered: from Dragon's Rage to Sonic Wave

Mana cost reduced from 6 to 4 (then increased to 5)

Malphite

Level up condition altered: From 12+ mana in landmarks to 10+ mana

Gained on both levels the effect of stunning an enemy when played

Nocturne

Level 1 effect remains on 2

Level 2 effect also activates when allies are summoned

Shen

Power increased from 2 to 3

Buff announced in patch 3.10

Taliyah

From 2/4 to 3/5

No longer needs a landmark on board to cause 2 damage 3 times to her blocker

Udyr

Power increased from 4 to 5

Level up condition altered: from causing damage to the enemy Nexus 7x to playing 3+ Stance Swap

Viktor

Level up condition altered: from playing 8+ created cards to playing 7+ created cards

Hex Core Upgrade: cost reduced from 1 mana to 0

Yasuo

Health increased from 3 to 4

Steel Tempest: cost reduced from 3 to 2

Anivia

I've talked a lot about Anivia in the nerf article, including about some of the buffs she received, but all of them are here: firstly, she lost the ability to block. Then, her skill Glacial Storm began dealing Nexus damage (before it only dealt it to enemies) and lastly, she had a health buff, from 4 to 5.

Heimerdinger

The first buff that Heimerdinger got was in his status: before he was a 1/3 and then he became a 2/4. Though shy, it was a buff that helped the champion, but the second buff he received was quite relevant: before, he only leveled up when you played 12+ power in turrets. With the change, he began to level up with the power sum of tech allies. These include cards such as Adaptatron 3000 and Hextech Handler and make it so that Heimer levels up quicker.

The third buff came with the change from cast to play and also helped this champion level up quicker. Now, as slow and fast spells don't need to be resolved for Heimer to create turrets, it's a lot easier to create turrets and, consequently, level up this champion. Due to this change, Heimerdinger began side-lining in a recurrent meta deck: Heimer/Jayce.

Lux

Lux's case is quite similar to Heimer's in regards to the cast to play changes. The champion now levels up quicker and creates a Final Spark a lot easier.

Speaking of Final Sparks, the spell went through a couple buffs in the past. The first was in its cost, from 6 to 0. Though it looks like a very big buff, it's worth remembering that in the beginning, the spell dealt 6 damage and was burst, so the buff in cost was to compensate for the decrease in damage and the change from burst to slow. The second buff to Final Spark was the possibility of it being played directly to the Nexus in case there aren't any enemy units on board.

Shyvana

Can you believe that Shyvana didn't have Fury when she arrived at the game? Quite odd, considering that she is half dragon.

At first, Riot decided to buff the champ's power, so she became a 4/4, but obviously, that didn't solve the problem. That was until patch 2.5 where the champion was granted the keyword Fury and, to balance it a bit, had her power reverted to 3. With that, the champion got a lot better and started to be played in some decks. Her third buff was in her spell Confront had its cost reduced from 3 to 2.

Taric

Taric needed some buffs to begin seeing play.

First he had his attack increased from 2 to 3, then his health was increased from 4 to 5. As the champion became a 3/5, he started being played in some quite strong decks such as Taric/Pantheon and Taric/Poppy.

The third buff was because of the cast to play change. With that, Taric began having a very powerful interaction with Unyielding Spirit;

Vladimir

Vladimir is a champion who is never in the meta top tiers and because of that, Riot tries to help him, by buffing him a bit. So far, none has made the champion strong, but compared to what he was at the beginning, he is much better.

The first buff that Vladimir got was the possibility of choosing the allies which would be affected by the skill Crimson Pact. Before, everyone who wasn't him were affected and with the buff, it became only the allies to the right of the champion.

The second buff to the champion was on the amount of allies that survived damage that he needed to level up. It was decreased from 6 to 5 allies. Finally, on patch 3.6, the champion got the keyword Fearsome on both his levels.

Hecarim

In LoR's beta, Hecarim was extremely strong and popular, so he had to be nerfed. However, after the nerf, the champion was never the same and disappeared from the meta.

Riot even tried and buffed him 5 times, however, it wasn't enough to bring him back to top tier meta. But enough talk and let's get to the buffs, right?

Firstly he began buffing in 3+ (before it was 2+) power the ephemeral allies and in that same patch, had its champ spell Onslaught of Shadows cost reduced from 3 to 2 and also had his level up condition altered: from having attacked with 8+ ephemeral allies to 7+ ephemeral allies. The fourth buff was on patch 1.2, in which the champion had his power increased from 4 to 5. The fifth buff is set to come in patch 3.10, but will only be revealed on the updated patch notes that will go up this Tuesday (28).

Even though he is the most buffed champion in the game, Hecarim hasn't seen play in the meta game in a long time. Do you think that with this fifth buff that is to come he may come back into the meta? Which other champions need buffs? Who might take over Hecarim's first place? Tell me all about it in the comment section.