Massive META Shake Up – League Patch 26.9
Systems
Role Quests (progress and rewards) adjusted
Minion waves adjusted
Champions
Gragas buffed
Ambessa nerfed
AD Kennen buffed
Shyvana adjusted
Tahm Kench buffed
AD Teemo buffed
Udyr adjusted
Warwick buffed
AP Xin Zhao buffed
Items
Axiom Arc nerfed
Doran’s Bow NEW
Doran’s Helm NEW
Dusk and Dawn adjusted
Endless Hunger buffed (melee)
Gluttonous Greaves NEW
Hubris adjusted
Opportunity removed o7
Statikk Shiv reworked
Voltaic Cyclosword reworked
Runes
Deathfire touch “NEW”
Stormraider’s Surge “NEW”
Phase Rush removed
Arcane Comet adjusted
Hail of Blades adjusted
Hey Friends,
League Patch 26.9 is finally here!
We got a massive patch to cover today, so strap in! Keep an eye out for the upcoming posts about top lane tier list changes and the new, exciting builds. Currently, there are a lot of impactful bugs flying around which will mislead a lot of statistics.
System adjustments
Quests received changes to the progression and the rewards. First, now the entire length of the lane (outside of the base) will count towards the passive quest progression (You are no longer punished when dealing with proxying). Recalling from 26.9 will disable the passive points generation for 12 seconds. This means that you are losing out on ~20 quests points every time you recall (the passive point generation will reactivate for most champions just above the tier 2 tower). Functionally, this is not a big deal as it won’t be the primary driver of your decision making anyway, though it further disincentivizes recalling more often than you need to.
Second, Roaming is now straight up better overall. From level 3, you can now “bank” roaming time, without losing quest progression. In practice, this means that every 2 minutes you spend in your primary lane, you can spend 1 minute roaming. This change implies that opening a different lane from base, invading and roaming is much more viable strategy now- assuming you do it on good wave states without sacrificing your own lane.
Experience changes to the top lane quest reward mean that you are now incentivized to participate in teamfights or skirmishes more (+80 flat exp on a takedown) in order to offset the nerf to overall experience gain (-1.5% from all sources). Keep in mind that these bonuses are unlocked only once you finish your role quest.
Lastly, minion changes, while minor, will further help with setting up roam timers. Wave will be easier to stack and they will bounce slower naturally.
I’m quite excited to see how these changes will affect the pro play dynamics. Lower restrictions, that kept players locked in lane, will open up more strategic choices for teams in the first ~12 minutes of the game.
Champions
Ambessa received her first real nerf and it’s already showing in the statistics, though it is too early to say how much exactly. These types of nerfs- like increasing R cast time will take players a while to adjust. I wouldn’t be surprised if Riot walks back a bit on the cast time or compensates the champion in the next patch.
Gragas will be quite sad with the removal of Phase Rush, so Riot gifted him a durability buff to W. Since u are maxxing W last in most games and matchups it won’t be very noticeable overall. Gragas will continue to struggle into tankier lane matchups even more now as SRS (Stormraider’s Surge, which is replacing Phase Rush) is harder to activate due to 25% max hp threshold. His builds are unclear and his laning phase leaves much to desire against most matchups in the top lane.
AD Kennen (crit focus) is the most likely buffed meme build to see any play on the patch. Shyvana is still horrible, Tahm Kench receives some nice buffs, though they are better for support. AD Teemo will never be better than AP due to short range and low mobility. AD udyr will maybe see some play in the jungle, but toplane I just don’t see it being better than the similar playstyle champions like trundle (which are quite bad anyway). AP Kennen is still king– I just don’t see a good AD Kennen (especially with crit focus) build at the moment.
AP Xin Zhao is receiving some insane buffs this patch. It remains to be seen of it’s viable enough for the apex tiers of solo queue or even competitive play. If you want to have a bit of fun- the best build should be Dusk and Dawn into Nashoors/Rageblade/Riftmaker. Maybe it’s good enough to be used as a counter to champions like Jayce or Vayne in the laning phase. Warwick is a champion that also benefited this season a bit from the Dusk and Dawn, though this buff won’t improve him too much (passive and the DnD).
Ambessa nerf is the only impactful champion change (direct) of the patch.
Items
Axiom arc is losing 3% cooldown refund as a 1st item buy, on takedown. Basically, an irrelevant nerf.
Doran’s Bow is a new aggressive/niche starting item. High risk, high reward item designed for auto attackers. So far the best users seem to be champions like Yasuo and Tryndamere.
Doran’s Helm is a new greedy defensive starting item that will compete with Doran’s shield. This item offers resistances instead of health regen, so you will definitely not take it into poke matchups, but it might be good into bruisers where extra stats can help out. Best users for this starting item are K’sante as his Q gains damage through resistances and Garen– who innately has strong regen (for the matchups where you don’t need regen and would rather have resistances).
Dusk and Dawn lost a few stats, but now heals on the first hit. Item is now shifted even more towards bruisers and sustained DPS, rather than burst. It should feel stronger into low damage opponents, but worse into champions that can burst you or kite well (Imagine Gwen vs Jayce for example). Champions that bought DnD will still buy it regardless.
Endless Hunger now grants 3% more ability haste based on bonus ad. It’s a still major trade off item that most champions can’t afford due to needing more durability (eg. Aatrox likes these buffs a lot, but many games can’t afford buying an offensive item like this that is very feast or famine). It will still only be bought when you are ahead of the game economy or you need to take a risk in order to carry the game.
Gluttonous Greaves are the new boots item. Similarly to Endless Hunger, they are going to be the offensive option you choose when the game is going good. Overall, best users are going to be single target damage champions that can make full use of the omnivamp it grants. Though, they will naturally appear the most in midlane due to the T3 upgrade.
Hubris was never really a toplane item outside of some niche snowballing cases, so the nerf doesn’t matter too much. Opportunity is removed due to lack of identity being similar to other lethality items.
Statikk Shiv rework looks quite flashy and interesting for ADC’s, but I don’t expect to see it being bought much on top lane as it lacks the “oompf” itself (basically other items will feel better standalone). Kayle seems like the best contender for Shiv, though Nashors is probably still superior.
Voltaic Cyclosword is now the premier AD caster archetype item of choice for your burst needs. Some champions you might want to experiment with include Aatrox, Ambessa, Jayce…
Runes
Deathfire Touch is a “new” keystone coming back to the game for the 2nd time since season 6. I’m extremely excited for this keystone as the dot/damage over time playstyle is my favorite thing to do in League. This keystone willeffectively replace aery and comet as the primary choice for any champion focused on the sustained damage playstyle. Champions like Rumble, Smolder, Singed, Swain, Gangplank and many more. Champions that can refresh it often or apply it to multiple champions will be the best users.
Phase Rush vs Stormraider’s Surge. Phase rush was always problematic in the early game as it would allow champions to avoid interacting with their lane opponent way too easily. Stormraider’s is an old keystone that will be replacing Phase Rush as a healthier rune for the game. It’s technically same as phase rush, though it requires a bigger damage threshold to trigger itself making it more fair. I expect many champions to shift away from this keystone towards damage ones, while keeping Stormraider’s as a niche matchup choice.
Arcane Comet now deals more damage based on the distance capping at 750 range. If your champion pokes or casts spells at or above this range- Arcane comet will be the best keystone for you. It’s definitely buffed if you use the keystone under these restrictions. On top lane, I don’t expect many champions to take Comet anymore- outside of an occasional Rumble. Most champions will switch to DFT (deathfire touch) as the premier poke keystone. Gangplank and Malphite might still go Comet sometimes depending on the matchup.
Hail of Blades now grants less attack speed, but it can extend for 1 more auto atack if you use abilities that can reset auto attacks and deals extra true damage per auto attack. Interestingly, there is not many new champions that can make great use an extra HoB (Jax, Fiora, maybe Camille, Zaahen, Rek’Sai though they rely on having more durability usually). Old users like Tryndamere, Cho’Gath will still make great use of the keystone.
Until next time o7.
