Riot dev talks about the philosophy behind the recent Amumu buffs in League Patch 11.17 

League of Legends' "Sad Mummy" Amumu is much happier now after the recent 11.17 buff. Riot's game designer Azubuike "AzuBK" Ndefo-Dahl explained the actual philosophy behind the decision.

In a recent dev blog, AzuBK discussed Amumu's latest adjustments, explaining Riot's intention to balance the champions in all ranks. However, according to them, it was still a “delicate undertaking," Riot's main goal was to make Amumu one of the most prioritized picks among League of Legends players in the top tier. According to the dev,

“For a long time now, [Amumu’s] barely scraped by in higher-skilled play while also bordering on overpowered for the average player. This is an unfortunate position for players of any champion because it means that your favorite champ becomes less and less powerful as you improve at the game. It can feel like League is telling you that, in order to climb, you need to abandon your champ—and that sucks.”

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: Philosophy behind Amumu's 11.17 changes.➡ Details here: https://t.co/VJNb3s1hgs pic.twitter.com/tfICV49CYI

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) August 27, 2021

Riot has also mentioned that it had to deal with a lot of "tricky factors" to work on this type of change and thus, it has referred to the change as "reshaping" the champion.

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Amumu's win rate has jumped by 3% after the latest buff

Amumu now has two charges for his Q - Bandage Toss (Image via Riot Games)

Riot generally takes three major factors into consideration for keeping relatively weaker champions like Amumu in the top tier.

• Enhancing what League players love the most about a particular champion
• Creating more substantial changes than just typical stat-based tweaks
• Taking risks since that particular champion won't be revisited anytime soon

Since Amumu’s presence in top-tier play has been relatively low, “small adjustments weren’t going to cut it,” according to AzuBK.

The Amumu buffs made the "Sad Mummy" happier by making significant changes to his ability kit. Amumu now has two charges for his Q - Bandage Toss, which give him the extra flexibility he needs to be more impactful in high elo.

The jungler can now farm faster, gank more precisely and become a major threat to the enemy backline during a teamfight. As mentioned by AzuBK, Amumu is no longer a “sitting duck” after casting the first Q, vastly improving his dominance in all segments of a game.

A great idea for a champion that needs reworking because he is overpowered in lower elo and bad in higher Elo is master yi, please give him that treatment. Yi is a cool champion character wise but boring champion to play that isn’t rewarding to climb with.

— Its_Reckoning666 (@IReckoning666) August 27, 2021

According to League of Legends' stat-based website u.gg, Amumu's win rate in Platinum ranks and above jumped from 48.25 percent to 51 percent after the recent buff. If the Sad Mummy continues dominating solo queue, Riot might consider nerfing him down in a future patch.