Riot Games has given a preview of what League of Legends players can expect from Patch 26.7.
The upcoming update will bring new LoL April Fool skins and some interesting meta changes following First Stand, the first international esports tournament of the season.
It appears Riot wants to enable more AP jungle and AD mid combos as well as farming supports, despite the new role quests.
Here is everything Riot Games is changing in the MOBA as previewed by lead gameplay designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison.
Riot Phroxzon Thoughts On First Stand Meta
Phroxzon spoke about the current esports meta for LoL and said he was happy with what he saw at First Stand:
“The First Stand meta ended up being quite good; there was significant diversity in every role between classes…
“It really did seem like every lane could carry and balance of objectives vs splitting felt pretty appropriate.”
Phroxzon also highlighted that the role quests have stopped lane swaps and was glad to see that it allowed elite pro players like toplaner Chen ‘Bin’ Ze-Bin to shine.
Though he did also note that there was a lack of teams pivoting to AP junglers and AD mids, a common pairing to keep team comps balanced, and wants to help boost both roles.
The gameplay designer was particularly pleased with the bot lane meta too, claiming there was a good mix of Casters, Hypercarries and Utility as well as fringe picks like Zeri and Kog’Maw due to Fearless Draft.
Phroxzon did admit that ranged supports have began to take over the meta due to a focus from players on completing role quests but claims this is “Not necessarily a bad thing, given that we’ve been in a Melee support meta for many years.”
League of Legends Patch 26.7 Champion Buffs And Nerfs
Champion Buffs
- Cassiopeia
- Kalista
- Rell
- [E] Full Tilt bonus Move Speed increased 10% (increased to 25% when facing empowered ally or visible enemy) -> 15% (increased to 30% when facing empowered ally or visible enemy)
- [R] Magnet Storm damage per tick increased 15/25/35 (13.75% AP) 18.75/31.25/43.75 (+13.75% AP)
Champion Nerfs
- Graves
- Karma
- Nami
- [W] Ebb and Flow bounce effectiveness ratio adjusted -10% (+10% per 100 AP) -> -20% (+15% per 100 AP)
- Ornn
- [P-Temper] Living Forge – Temper Brittle target’s max HP damage reduced 10-18.94% -> 9-16.82% (based on Ornn’s level 1-20, linear)
- Singed
- Veigar
- [R] Primordial Burst cooldown increased 100/80/60 120/90/60 seconds
Champion Adjustments
- Shyvana
- Shyvana has a bit of an unintended interaction with Sylas that will be micropatched tomorrow; essentially, he benefits double from her auto attacks passive (with Sylas’s passive) that makes his attacks do ridiculous damage
- Riot is still taking time to evaluate role viability for top Shyvana and whether it’s reasonably supportable without destroying Jungle role satisfaction
- Riot has also been working on some changes to increase the satisfaction of her Passive, reduce MMR skew, increase counterplay and the satisfaction of her E
- [R-P] Dragon’s Descent – Fury Ultimate Haste bonus adjusted 0.015 Fury per second per 1 Ultimate Haste -> 1% bonus Fury generation from all sources per 1 Ultimate Haste
System Adjustments
As mentioned earlier, Riot is exploring bringing back farming supports by making changes to the Support role quest.
Phroxzon explained the publisher’s thought process, saying:
“A few patches ago, we talked about reducing the negative impact of the support quest to reduce complexity
“We’re going to pull this all the way this patch. This may result in some farming support shenanigans, but then you’re also denying your bot carry their quest progression; we’re giving it a go to see if anything breaks.”
Are you happy with the current LoL meta? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord.
And it seems more Shyvana changes are coming even though Riot released a Shyvana hotfix one day after her VGU.
