Trending
Riot Games released the full patch 26.14 preview for League of Legends. It is another small patch of champion balancing, item changes, and systems adjustments.
Riot seems pleased with how things are going post-MSI, so patch 26.14 will focus on nerfing some champions performing too well and buffing a few weaker champions.
This patch will also contain Blue Buff changes, several item changes, and rune changes. They will continue to watch the rising meta of mage bot lane champions.
Champion Buffs
Five champions are receiving buffs in LoL Patch 26.14:
- Azir (Bug fixes)
- Corki AD Growth: 2 - 2.5 R passive cooldown reduction on auto: 2–4s → 2–6s
- Mordekaiser R stat steal: 10% - 13% E damage: 60–120 (+40% AP) - 60–140 (+45% AP)
- Nami E damage increased from 20–60 per hit to 20/35/50/65/80 per hit
- Yunara AD Growth: 2.5 - 3
Champion Nerfs
Five champions are being nerfed down:
Garen
- Ultimate base true damage reduced
Jayce
- Reduced movement speed after form swap
- Lower defensive stats in Hammer Form
Locke
- Q damage reduced Lower bonus
- Q stack damage
- Reduced recast window
- W grey health cap lowered
Senna
- Reduced critical damage modifier
- Lower AP scaling on Q slow and healing
Seraphine
- Q AP ratio: 50% → 40%
System Changes
Buffs
Blue Buff
- Ability Haste now scales with level:
- Level 1: 10 AH
- Level 6: 15 AH
- Level 11: 20 AH
Nerfs
Hextech Rocketbelt
- New build path
- AP reduced from 70 to 60
- Health increased from 300 to 350
- Active cooldown increased from 40s to 50s
Immortal Path (Gluttonous Greaves Mid Quest Upgrade)
- Damage bonus: 5% → 4%
- Healing/Shielding/Regen bonus: 15% → 12%
Jack of All Trades
- Adaptive stats reduced at both 5 and 10 stacks
Protoplasm Harness
- Cost increased to 2600 gold
- Early bonus health and healing reduced
Why Are Mages Bots Still a Thing?
Phroxzon explained why mage bots continue to persist rather than getting cleaned out. Briefly, Riot views them as valid diversity in bot lane; they see about a four-to-one ratio of conventional marksmen to mages played and want players to experience both high-pressure games and “chill” ones rather than feeling stressed every game.
Mage bots also help teams “undoom” drafts if the enemy picks a locked-in AD mid such as Zed, Yone, or Yasuo.Critics immediately pointed out that mage bots often have the highest win rates. But Phroxzon explained that statistics alone are deceiving. Easy-to-play mages such as Brand, Veigar, or Swain have fairly shallow power curves, gaining maybe three to four percent win rate after about fifty games while starting extremely high on game one. Most people playing mage bots haven’t climbed their curve very far.
It’s like laning against an autofilled Malphite in the top lane; he has a very high skill floor. ADCs have steeper curves that reward players who climb them, which brings down their average win rates.Phroxzon also noted that there are some built-in balance levers. ADCs have faster three-item power spikes this season because of the bot lane quest, so mages are likely early and outscale them late.
Mage bots also force you to make a comp concession of sorts, like going all-in on an Orianna plus playmaker bot like Yunara or Lulu that needs to 2- or 3-victory. If mage bots are giving you trouble, Phroxzon recommended Ezreal, Sivir, or Zeri because they can dodge skills and are just better at scaling. He’ll have a more in-depth video about it soon.
DON'T MISS:
