Patch 26.3
Toplane – 26.3
Champions
Riven nerfed
Jayce nerfed
Varus nerfed
Ryze nerfed
Volibear nerfed
Trundle buffed
Yone buffed
Maokai buffed
Tryndamere buffed
Naafiri shows up in pro
Items
Actualizer buffed
Dusk and Dawn less burst more durability
Endless Hunger buffed
Protoplasm Harness worse on best users, better on average
T3 mid quest boots armor/mr nerfed
Runes
Cash Back nerfed
Phase Rush nerfed
Triple Tonic nerfed
Systems adjusted
Champion Bounties
Turret Plates
Faelights and Vision
Hey Friends,
Riot blessed us with the first large patch of the season 16. There is much to discuss, so let’s dive in immediately.
Runes – Cash back and Triple Tonic are objectively worse than the previous patch. Takeaway being, that the nerfs don’t change the choice pattern. If inspiration is your primary or a secondary rune page and the matchup and champion you’re playing, you will still choose between boots/cashback, triple tonic/cookies and cosmic insight.
Phase rush nerf is a bit more problematic as it actively involves skill expression. Now, you will only select phase rush situationally, into matchups that require it (for example Jayce into Darius/Olaf, otherwise avoid it). As phase rush is no longer an easy, default choice, consider if you can potentially run ghost or exhaust and get away with a damage keystone instead.
Systems – Simplest “tldr” of the system changes is the following: repeat kills are more valuable or repeat deaths are more costly. Turrets are slightly harder to raze solo, but quite easier as a team (eg. sieging). Pixel bush control is not as powerful anymore (less faelight vision) and yellow trinket cooldown is nerfed in the early game, back to the old value of 3 mins 30 seconds (210 instead of 170 seconds).
You will want to use your first yellow trinket around 1:35~1:50 timer, so that it covers you on the first jungle downtime after they complete the first full clear and scuttle (in the case that you have priority in lane and enemy jg paths towards you).
Items – Dusk and Dawn is performing slightly worse across the board as the 1st item on most users except marginally better on Gwen, Tahm Kench and Mordekaiser.
Endless Hunger (still a 3rd item choice mostly, sometimes 2nd-4th) is performing well for ad caster style champions, such as Hecarim and Ezreal outside of toplane and Aatrox, Riven, Zaahen, Renekton, Ambessa, Illaoi, Darius on toplane. I think the best users are Aatrox, Riven, Zaahen and maybe Darius as their AD steroids synergize heavily with the “Famine” part of the item which grants bonus ability haste based on bonus ad.
Actualizer is strictly a 3+ slot item and it’s only viable on a couple of champions. It is still mostly a Ryze item, but it does seem to perform decently on Cassiopeia, Anivia, Veigar, Kassadin, Karthus and maybe Orianna. Item is 300 gold cheaper now which makes it quite affordable.
Protoplasm Harness, just like Actualizer, up to this patch was a very niche item (spoiler, it still is) which only champions with built in resistances could maximize. Ironically, this is still the case as those champions will still be the best users by far even though the item is directly nerfed for them (Ornn, Sejuani, Rammus, Leona, Singed, Nasus). I don’t expect any “new” champions to pick up this item as a core item in toplane, but more melee support champions might consider it now.
Volibear, Tryndamere and Trundle will move a bit up or down in the toplane solo queue tierlist, but won’t have much impact on the overall meta game. Riven nerfs are definitely noticeable, but not good enough to dethrone her yet. She is just not blatantly overpowered anymore. Yone buffs are solid, might be worth picking again in solo queue into tanks, Rumble and Aatrox. (bork, shieldbow into IE)
Ryze was already a niche toplaner seen only as a counterpick to champions like Rumble, Gangplank, Teemo, Vlad, Kennen etc. Unless you are quite experienced on Ryze, I’d suggest looking elsewhere for a counter pick as the “juice might not be worth the squeeze” anymore with the current nerfs to W and Phase rush. On the other hand, Maokai saw a nice buff to his Q damage. We still don’t have a big enough sample size to say with confidence how impactful Maokai buffs are (looking like +2% wr). Buffs are probably not good enough to see any competitive play though.
Naafiri has been spotted in a competitive game in LPL. Flandre used it as a counter pick into Varus. While Naafiri is not entirely new to toplane, this showing might encourage other players to explore Naafiri as a potential counter pick to squishier / less mobile toplane champions. Players also seem to experimenting and doing well with the reworked Zeke’s Convergence as the 2nd item (Cleaver into armor stackers), while the 1st item slot is flexible between Voltaic, Eclipse and Ghostblade.
Varus was an absolute menace in 26.2. Varus is basically even worse now than compared to pre buffs as he lost over 3% win rate in 26.3. Varus is strictly a counter pick from now on as you will not have a great time into Jax, Olaf, Yasuo etc. He is still playable into Renekton, Vayne or tanks, though alternatives might be better. On the positive side, Varus core build is finally clear now. Dusk and Dawn looks straight up better than hexplate, so you will almost always build DnD->Nashors->Zhonya/Riftmaker, unless the team composition would force you into an AD build.
Jayce toplane is suffering due to sins of the jungle role. In the tale as old as time, Riot decides to push champions into jungle, that never belonged there, for vague, novel reasons resulting in nerfs that inevitably push the champion out of jungle long term and leave the champion also weaker in the main role. Phase rush nerfs, shifting ranged poke damage into melee form are all big nerfs to Jayce. As the poke setup is strictly worse ( yet still worth playing if the enemy team comp and matchup allow it), the next best setup is the following paradox: while more dependant on Ghostblade mobility than ever, we need to opt into bruiser items more often in order to maximize the buffs to melee form (such as Cleaver and Eclipse). The default keystone will be conqueror, but don’t shy away from electrocute and grasp if the matchup calls for it. Be willing to experiment with ignite and especially exhaust if you’re going for the bruiser playstyle which might allow you to play in melee form without outright dying. Overall, quite a sad time , in a long time, to be a Jayce player.
There are a few “interesting” things happening with competitive department at the moment. Jayce is relegated to low priority due to the whole jungle tomfoolery, the nerfs to phase rush and the champion itself. Rumble and K’Sante trades are still the primary choice in pro play. Teams are also slowly starting to pick up Ornn into Rumble again.
Yorick is pretty much gone from competitive play. Laning phase is easier to bypass than ever and he scales terribly into the late game with ADCs being stronger overall. Kennen is promoted into high priority with the nerfs to Ryze, Jayce and Malphite (in the previous patch). You will still want to avoid playing into Sion and K’Sante, even though that is a lesser concern in solo queue.
Ambessa seems to be emerging as the absolute winner currently as she manages to bypass her weaker laning phase vs common blinds like Rumble, Sion and K’Sante, while the ability to flex her jungle helps her avoid Renekton and other niche matchups. This is why her winrate and priority, to some extent, are quite high at the moment.
Jax is still quite unpopular due to similar reasons I mentioned in the previous post, though I expect to see him picked more often once all major regions start playing best of five fearless. Unfortunately, besides some minor priority shifts between top tier champions, the overall trend remains stable.
Added Maokai and Naafiri to the tier list. Corrected ratings for scaling tanks, Mundo and Ornn (undervalued them previously) and Poppy (good into top tier except Kennen and Rumble). Varus going down to B again due to steep nerfs and I adjusted the tier list for other minor changes. The higher the elo you play in, the higher value champions like Sion and K’Sante will have, but overall they’re not great for climbing as they’re on the early game spectrum side of tanks.
Until next time o7.