Patch 26.2 Notes

Faelights and Vision

We've read a lot of feedback about these changes, but at this point we're still gathering data and analyzing these change’s impacts on how games are playing out. We’re hesitant to make large system changes at this time while everyone is learning how to navigate these changes, but right now we’re seeing the way everyone is playing around these updates rapidly evolve across all skill levels/ranks as all of you have more time to get reps in with them. That said, jungler impact and general vision uptime are both topics we're watching closely, and we're considering options to address them in 16.3.

Snowballing and Game Length

For the most part, our metrics around snowballing have come in and they're not looking any higher than last season (and for average play are lower). This is pretty much the same across every region. Game time is also looking slightly longer in each region, and even more so given that the game starts earlier.

At the same time, players have reported that games feel a lot faster. We’ve looked into this a bit and have a few hypotheses:

• Less downtime with more frequent minion spawns and homeguards can contribute to feeling like there's constant action happening.
• Hitting towers and getting those chunks of damage from crystalline overgrowth both feel more rewarding (and more confronting on the receiving end), so it feels like progress is being made faster, even if it's not actually that much faster.
• Barons are being taken earlier, since they're spawning at 20 minutes again. That said, Baron takes are a bit weaker than they were before (gives +150G instead of +300G), so games don't typically end after the first Baron push. Players have often associated the first Baron take with the game being over, but that is proving to be a bit less of the case this Season.

For now, we're not going to make any changes to Snowballing and Game Length, but will continue to monitor how things play out.

Aegis of Valor

Aegis of Valor has landed in a pretty good spot and we have resolved a bug that was affecting <2% of cases where players would be eligible for Aegis, but not receive it.

We’ve heard a lot of the concerns about abuse cases here, but the best thing to do for Aegis is always going to be to try to win the game. We will continue to evaluate disruptive behavior and players will continue to not be eligible for Aegis if they AFK the game.

Role Balance

We're going to hold a little bit on taking a definitive stance on which roles are most and least powerful, as we don't feel any are so out of line that we need to act now. There’s been a lot of debate on which roles and most and least powerful.

There are a lot of things we think require some time for players to learn, adapt to, and optimize, but so far, we've been pretty happy with how the game, especially in the mid-game which feels a bit more strategic; should I greed tempo to get an Overgrowth proc here, or should I push next wave to try and get that turret chunk for gold.

One of the other things that we think has been working well is how each role feels a lot more individualized and distinct. When a role feels powerful, we want it to feel powerful for a unique reason, not just because it has more gold, and we feel pretty good about how that’s trending. (eg. Top being higher level, Bot having more items, Support controlling vision, Mid having a lot of broader impact, Jungle controlling objectives, etc.)

Tower Durability

While we've seen many comments about turret squishiness, early metrics aren't suggesting any urgent issues for now. First towers fall at a similar time relative to lane start as they did last year, and later towers fall somewhat later than before (while rewarding partial pushes with Crystalline Overgrowth and Plating gold). There are of course many factors besides the tower destruction timestamp, so we'll revisit this as we get more detailed data over 26.2.

Support Quest Usability

We’ve seen feedback that it’s confusing to switch control ward hotkeys mid game and it’s disruptive for control wards to move from your inventory to the new quest active slot halfway through a match. It’s also been mentioned that it’s annoying to have to start a game in order to change this new hotkey. And we 100% agree. So to address these issues, we’ve included a few fixes in this patch and another coming in the following one.

• First, you can now double bind the role quest slot. So you’ll be able to set your preferred hotkey to both the role slot and the item slot where you used to hold it in your inventory.
• We’re also adding the role quest hotkey to the client keybinds menu so you can make your changes before you hit the rift.
• Finally, in the following patch, we’re moving control wards to the support role quest slot at the start of the game instead of halfway through the match when the quest completes. This change should allow support players to more easily build up muscle memory.

Aatrox

Aatrox has struggled to find a place on the Rift in the new season with split pushing on the rise and fewer chances to flex his team fighting strengths. We're giving him some additional power this patch, primarily in the jungle, where his growing audience has been kneecapped, as well as in the top lane where he could use more ways to benefit from experience. We hope this satiates Aatrox players, especially those with Endless Hunger.

Passive - Deathbringer Stance

• Bonus Magic Damage based on Target Max Health: 4-8% (based on level) ⇒ 4-10% (based on level)

Q - The Darkin Blade

• Bonus Damage to Monsters: 15 ⇒ 25

Ashe

Ashe is underperforming in the new season so we’re here to bring her back up near her former power level. We like that she has a strong affinity for buying attack speed, so we’re just making those purchases multiply a little bit harder.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.5

Gwen

Gwen jungle has skyrocketed in both pickrate and winrate. While we're excited to see her loving the new season and snipping from dusk til dawn, we need to make sure she's not turning all opponents (especially jungle camps) into paper.

Passive - A Thousand Cuts

• Monster Damage Cap: 5 (+10% AP) ⇒ 3 (+5% AP)

Jayce

Jayce jungle (AKA Jungle Jayce) has become extremely popular and is also much too strong. One of those two things is awesome and the other isn’t. We’d like to retain JJ as a viable option in the jungle, but without him dominating the competition. So we’re delivering a light nerf that’s intended to bring him more in line with other junglers.

Q - To the Skies / Shock Blast

• Bonus Damage to Monsters : 50 ⇒ 25

Lillia

Lillia has been in a dream since the changes to Rift. Unfortunately we need to wake her up as it’s become a nightmare for her opponents. We want her to maintain her spot as our premier in-and-out skirmisher in the jungle, but without her prancing out of control. We are looking to nerf her ability to stay topped up as well as bring down some of her late game damage.

Passive - Dream-Laden Bough

• Heal Against Large Monsters: 39 (+15% AP) ⇒ 39 (+9% AP)

Q - Blooming Blows

• AP Ratio: 35% AP ⇒ 30% AP

Malphite

Malphite’s been a frontrunner on the Rift for a while, both in top and in the jungle. We’re actually very happy that he’s found a real audience in the jungle! That said, he’s still overperforming, so we need to bring him down now while still leaving him with two roles to play. To do that, we’re reducing some of his trading and clearing damage while retaining his high durability to physical damage and strong engage power. We’re also hitting jungle a little more as it’s meant to be slightly weaker than his top lane, as opposed to slightly stronger, which is currently the case.

W - Thunderclap

• Monster Damage: 2x ⇒ 1.8x

E - Ground Slam

• Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 60% AP) (+ 40% armor) ⇒ 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 60% AP) (+ 40% armor)
• Mana Cost: 50 ⇒ 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70

R - Unstoppable Force

• Cooldown: 130 / 105 / 80 ⇒ 130 / 115 / 100

Master Yi

Master Yi has been struggling as a result of the changes in the new season. We’re looking to return some of his power so that he can keep up with other junglers and better live up to his full hyper carry potential.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.2 ⇒ 4.5

Q - Alpha Strike

• On-Hit Damage Mod: 65% ⇒ 75%

Nunu & Willump

Nunu & Willump are devouring the competition in the new season, so we’re here to bring them back to a fairer level of power. To do that, we’re reducing a mix of the PvP and PvE power out in their kits to give opponents a fighting chance.

Q - Consume

• Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 ⇒ 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 seconds

W - Biggest Snowball Ever!

• Maximum Damage: 180 / 225 / 270 / 315 / 360 (+ 150% AP) ⇒ 150 / 195 / 240 / 285 / 330 (+ 150% AP)

E - Snowball Barrage

• Damage per Hit: 16 / 24 / 32 / 40 / 48 (+ 15% AP) ⇒ 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 / 42

Sivir

Sivir has become an extremely dominant ADC pick, regardless of whether or not she buys Essence Reaver, so it’s time to bring her down a notch. Since she has very strong wave control and great damage scaling, we’re looking to bring down her top end a little.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Growth: 2% ⇒ 1.6%
• Armor Growth: 4.45 ⇒ 4.0

Smolder

As expected Smolder has become much more powerful with the new Essence Reaver and increased minion counts. Since we’ve tuned our systems to our liking for now, it’s time to take stock of individual champions, Smolder being one. We want to make sure Smolder’s strong late-game damage has durability tradeoffs, even when buying the occasional HP item.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 4.0

Taliyah

Taliyah’s been missing from the jungle as of late and the gameplay changes for the new season didn’t help her, quite the opposite actually. To that end we want to get her rocking and rolling in the jungle again so we’re buffing up her mid game clear speed to help her out.

Q - Threaded Volley

• Bonus Damage to Monsters : 20 ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (Note: Empowered Boulder damage is still increased by 80% to primary target.)

E - Unraveled Earth

• Monster Damage Modifier: 190% ⇒ 225%

Varus

Varus isn’t doing very well in the new season so we’re here to lift up his two primary builds, on-hit and AD caster.

Q - Piercing Arrow

• Maximum Charge Base Damage: 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 ⇒ 80 / 160 / 240 / 320 / 400

W - Blighted Quiver

• On-Hit Base Damage: 6 / 14 / 22 / 30 / 38 ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44

Viego

Viego is performing worse this season due to direct adjustments and overall game-wide changes. As a result he needs some power added back in, both compensating some crit scaling that he lost and generally just making him a better fighter.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Growth: 2.25% ⇒ 2.75%

Q - Blade of the Ruined King

• Percent HP On-Hit Bonus Crit Damage Mod: 50% ⇒ 70%
• Active Bonus Crit Damage Mod: 50% ⇒ 60%

Zed

Zed’s recent jungle changes didn't affect him as strongly as we had anticipated, and players have noticed, resulting in a resurgence of pick and ban rate. We’d like to slow his clear and lower his potency, this time with more accuracy now that we have a better understanding of how to tune him in the jungle.

Passive - Contempt for the Weak

• Monster Damage: 1.8x ⇒ 1.2x

In 16.1, we added nine new items. We’re mostly happy with how they landed in terms of users and use cases, but there’s definitely some balance work to be done here. This patch, we’re adjusting Bandlepipes down and Fiendhunter Bolts plus Hexoptics C44 up as we think they’re the furthest off from where we wanted them to be. At the moment we’re also keeping our eyes on some of the other items/cases like the fast powerspike offered by Dusk and Dawn or the distribution of power on Endless Hunger between damage, haste, and omnivamp. The synergy between Diadem of Songs and Echoes of Helia is very cool, but it’s something we’ll be monitoring to make sure that it doesn’t become the only way to build a champion to exist between the mage and enchanter space.

Bandlepipes

The pipes are sounding good on the rift but they're crowding out other support options due to their low price point. While we’re excited for their newfound popularity, we don’t want them to completely steal the spotlight.

• Price: 2000 ⇒ 2300 gold
• Combine Cost: 500 ⇒ 800 gold

Fiendhunter Bolts

Fiendhunter Bolts is doing what it's supposed to do, but it's not quite well enough to get picked over its competition. We’re buffing up a little bit all around on the Bolts to help it hold up better against the other Zeal items.

• Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%
• Damage Multiplier for Guaranteed Critical Strikes: 75% ⇒ 80%
• Bonus True Damage for Critical Strikes: 10% ⇒ 15%

Hexoptics C44

Hexoptics has found a place in some situational builds for longer range champions, but is a bit too niche and a little weaker than needed for it to function for most of the marksman roster, so we’re giving it a general appreciable AD buff and easing the range requirement.

• Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 55
• Distance Required for Max Damage Amp: 700 ⇒ 600

We recently enabled WASD everywhere outside of ranked and have been closely monitoring it across all champions and classes. While it has remained within our overall balance expectations, melee champions on WASD have particularly struggled to perform compared to playing with Point & Click controls. As a result, we are removing the WASD specific adjustment to how fast a player can attack while holding down movement keys for all melee champions, while slightly lowering it for most non-Marksman ranged champions. The majority of Marksman champions have landed about where we wanted so we won’t be making any changes to them at this moment. We'll continue to look at both melee and ranged champions individually to see if they need further fine tuning.

• Attack Delay While Moving for Melee Champions: Removed
• Attack Delay While Moving for Non-Marksman Ranged Champions: Reduced
• Attack Delay While Moving for Marksman: Unchanged (Note: Ezreal, Kai’Sa, and Kindred were slightly reduced)