Patch 26.2
Toplane – 26.2
Systems pending
Malphite nerfed
Varus buffed
Aatrox buffed
Hey Friends,
Small solo qeue and competitive tier list updates for 26.2.
Systems “pending“. Riot is still unsure about which direction to take regarding the balance of faelights and other systemic changes implemented in 26.1. Therefore, only a small patch to analyze today.
Aatrox received a nice buff to his passive damage (4-8 to 4-10%) which will be felt from level 2 onwards, but do remember that this also increases the healing receives from the passive.
Malphite, while nerfed primarily for jungle, received notable nerfs to toplane as well unlike Gwen and Jayce. With nerfs to E damage and mana cost as well as the impactful R cd nerf (especially for solo queue as it is the only proactive ability malphite has). These changes make me conclude that Malphite will be hurt quite hard with these changes and might receive some compensation next patch if it proves to be too much.
Varus is the biggest winner of the patch. Max charge Q does more damage which is nice, but the W buffs are the biggest reason why. Overall W on-hit damage is increased by 2-6 damage per rank of the ability. No doubt in my mind that this champ is incredibly overpowered right now in toplane and botlane which will make his ban rate skyrocket. Psst, his best performing builds in toplane are Dusk and Dawn + Nashors or Hexplate + Dusk and Dawn if you wanted to try it out!
Competitive high-low priority list remains somewhat similar like last season, but we have niche counter picks lurking from the shadows. Notably, an intriguing trend happening currently is the large drop of the Jax priority overall.
Jax was a very popular, staple choice throughout the season 15 due to some favorable matchups and lane swaps. Nowadays, since toplane is more open to counterpicks than ever and good blind picks tend to neutralize him well we therefore see much less Jax even though he is doing fine in solo queue.
I’ve initially placed Zaahen in the low priority at the start of 26.1 due to concerns about a weak laning phase. While I still believe that to be true, he is still the contesting that “ad bruiser slot” (with Gnar and Aatrox, possibly Jayce if his jungle ban rate goes down at all) that needs to be fulfilled once Renekton and Ambessa become unavailable. His position on the priority list more of a byproduct of the default meta where ad tanks/bruisers are highly contested while midlane is dominated by ap champions most of the time.
Aatrox, in similar vain to Zaahen, will see increased priority due to buffs, while Varus will probably sky rocket to the perma ban status most likely. If Varus does end up open in some rare occasion, you will most likely see him in the botlane. In comparison to solo queue, Varus does not seem to perform very well only into Olaf and Yasuo. Everything else is fair game.
Solo Queue tier list changes include some minor corrections on my part and the summary of direct buffs and nerfs. Mages like Aurora, Vladimir and Cassio rebounded a bit from my the gloomy 26.1 forecast. Malphite got direct nerfs so I noted all the champions who benefit from this indirectly with an orange square (forgot to put one square around Kennen also). Overall, I also rated Akali and Reksai too low in the previous patch. Most ranged champions and Zaahen are very happy with Malphite nerfs.
Until next time o7.