League of Legends Patch 26.16

PCAzirBuffShare

We are continuing to monitor Azir, especially as players continue to pick up Press The Attack as his optimal keystone. For now however, we are going to give him a moderate buff to his laning to help him out.

PCCamilleBuffShare

With roaming supports all the rage, Camille has been queen. We are simultaneously looking to nerf her support roaming power while keeping or (hopefully) actually buffing her top lane. This means trading the raw all in power behind her passive shield early game in favor of significantly lowered cooldowns for better repeatable trading.

PCGwenBuffShare

Gwen has remained slightly weak since her nerfs earlier this year. We are buffing her passive sustain back up towards where it has previously been, which should help her be a powerful threat in some of her stronger matchups without making her feel uncounterable.

PCKennenBuffShare

With the reshape to Hextech Rocketbelt to prevent it from becoming the ubiquitous mage legendary, Kennen came out behind the pack. We are buffing him to compensate, making sure he is rewarded well when he does find the right flanks for those huge team-deleting ults.

PCNasusBuffShare

Nasus has been a distinct jungle pick that we think is pretty exciting to see; however his top lane has lagged very far behind. We are adjusting his Q stack generation to bring these two roles closer to each other in raw power.

PCBel'VethNerfShare

Bel'Veth has come out with the scaling curve of Kayle and Aurelion Sol. Her power is rapidly growing across all skill brackets and given her early game is already quite weak, we've opted to make her late game a bit less sharp.

PCPoppyNerfShare

Poppy is meant to be a tank whose gameplay has leaned too far into early game snowball fighter, to the point she's choosing Hail of Blades and Sundered Sky over more tank runes and items. We're looking to shift power out of her early game AD fighter pattern and enable her tank pattern by significantly increasing her scaling with durability and giving her enough mana growth that sustained combat doesn't immediately run her out of resources.

PCBerserker's GreavesBuffShare

Berserker's Greaves have been sitting at a particularly low state of power for a while now, and with the state of AD champions in both bot and mid, we feel this is the right time to buff them.

PCBlack CleaverBuffShare

Black Cleaver has become a Smolder / Senna item more than a core AD fighter item. We are re-adding the Melee / Ranged split on the move speed effect to buy space to buff it for AD fighters without pushing it over the top for its ranged user base.

PCEclipseBuffShare

Eclipse has similarly fallen behind as an option for AD champions as a high ticket early AD item that isn't in the Lethality space. We feel it has clear space for a buff.

PCRunaan's HurricaneBuffShare

Runaan's Hurricane has lost all of its core users over the course of the year as ADCs have moved to a wider variety of AS Crit itemization. We are buffing its unique effect and movespeed to help players capitalize on the positioning requirements of that unique effect.

PCSpellslinger's ShoesBuffShare

Along with Chainlaced Crushers' change, we are buffing Spellslinger's Shoes to further affect mid vs bot mage balance.

PCSterak's GageBuffShare

Sterak's Gage has also lost its position as the premium juggernaut / diver teamfight item, with Guardian Angel taking its place. We think Sterak's is a much healthier fit for these champions to take.

PCSundered SkyBuffShare

Sundered Sky, on the other hand, has been the meta dominant AD fighter item for the last year. While we do find it exciting to see when players manage to chain its triggers through a teamfight and barely survive risky engages, we think it's a bit too performant when optimized to the point where it's healing for more than even lifesteal based items.

PCTiamatBuffShare

Tiamat has ended up in a state where even if you are buying a Hydra item, it's optimal NOT to purchase it until you have all the other components. That's pretty lame, yo.

PCChainlaced CrushersNerfShare

We continue to feel that defensive boot optimizations in mid lane stifle action. Since we are looking to shift mage power back from bot lane to mid lane this patch, we are also taking the time to nerf down mid lane counter itemization against mages.

PCSunfire CapeChangeShare

Sunfire Cape has remained a powerful item in League, both in purchase and winrate, but players have repeatedly called out dissatisfaction with the item because of how directly it's compared against Hollow Radiance. We are upping its cost to match Hollow Radiance and shifting its power towards PvP damage to give the item more comparable advantages.

PCGameplay & MechanicsBuffShare

Finally, next to the changes to boot rewards in midlane, we are also adjusting MR for all ADC champions to help them out against mages early game. We also hope this will help a few of them in mid lane, where we believe a healthier pool of AD champions (including potentially Akshan and Tristana) will also help create a more diverse jungle meta beyond AD fighters.

PCJungleChangeShare

Speaking of a more diverse jungle Meta, we are adjusting the way jungle pets scales to help mage and tank junglers against the current AD fighter meta.