Welcome Realm Charters!
It’s the last patch before our mid-set, Uncharted Realms, and we’re shipping light changes to keep balance tight and team comp diversity high as you reach your dream rank. The wordcount will be light here, but don’t fret, we can always catch up with one of the many Uncharted Realms info drops below.
Here to chart the unchartable? The following pieces cover the 24 new units, the extensive changes to Dragons (and Treasure Dragons), and of course, all the new explorers trying their hand at cartography.
Large, like Nomsy now that she’s all grown up in Uncharted Realms!
Ezreal isn’t doing well as an item holder or a reroll carry. By adjusting him, we’re allowing Ezreal to cast more frequently and hold items like Rageblade and Statikk Shiv more effectively.
Braum’s shield is pretty big. Last I checked, it hurts to get hit by big things.
Prism’s guide to reroll Kayn.
1. Items: Infinity Edge, Giant Slayer, and Edge of Night or QSS
2. Econ Strategy: Slow roll, keeping above 50 gold to 3-star Kayn, while hopefully hitting Shen 3 and Qiyanna 3 for free!
3. Traits: Assassin 4, Ragewing 3
4. Super Secret Tip: Taking first place will give more LP so be sure to win!
Apparently no one got to Challenger using my Lee Sin guide in the last patch notes. That’s okay—that one’s on me. But if you don’t hit Challenger forcing Lee Sin carry this patch, that’s on you.
Our 8-cost Dragons are over-performing and have become the dominant strategy. Since we plan on nerfing them when we reduce their cost in Uncharted Realms, we shipped some of their nerfs early. We hope this also allows Dragon-less comps to thrive before Uncharted Realms.
At this point, I’m betting that I write about Xayah more than Rakan does. Xayah’s buff last patch got her close to being a viable carry, but she still struggles at one star compared to other carries that can stabilize early boards more consistently.
They say ‘X’ marks the spot, but with these Pyke buffs, the spot’s marked with a ‘X___X’.
Even with these nerfs, the wanderer will surely find a home in many comps—just not every one.
Statikk Shiv has been a sleeper hit all set, with its base damage providing too much early game impact.
Zz’Rot has been thriving as a stall tactic for compositions with minimal frontline units.
Axion Arc should be a better pick than its Blue Battery counterpart when empowering mana-hungry carries, but it’s currently suffering on both tiers due to its difficult use cases. When you take this Augment, think about slotting in carries like Aurelion Sol, Ao Shin, or Zoe to maximize the power— plus, a buff in the form of even MORE mana won’t hurt this Augment.
A few of our generic Augments (Best Friends II and III, Cybernetics, Weakspot) are over-performing across the board, which shouldn’t be the case given how many compositions they work well in.
Scorch continues to unlock Ragewing comps, and with Xayah getting a nice buff, we want to keep the roof of our hottest vertical from lighting on fire. As they say, “we don’t need no water, let the preemptive nerf burn.”
Small, like the space that Guild takes up on the trait tracker with the change below!
The Guild trait is full of talented individuals, including a User Experience Designer who has made their trait tracker take up less space.
Yone has been over-performing slightly. Perhaps it’s because he has two swords? But more likely it’s because he is too strong as a 2-star item holder.
Will Sona carry find her Crescendo during her last patch in Dragonlands? Probably not, but that won’t stop me from giving this baby girl a Mage Cap and a Morellos to celebrate her graduation from the set.
Shyvana's adjustments last patch landed well, but there's a weird mismatch between how you want to itemize her (damage and tankiness) and how you should itemize her (give her a Mana item). Giving her more starting Mana helps reduce that disconnect and lets players itemize her more easily.
Believe it or not, Rocket Propelled Fist has been the strongest Ornn item all set. This is partially due to players forgetting to position around it (consider this a reminder), but also due to the high amount of Health it offers.