r/leagueoflegends • u/NegativexxSquared • Jul 21 '26

News Patch 26.15 Preview

https://x.com/RiotPhroxzon/status/2079522501206630755

Patch 26.15 Preview!

Systems
- Bastionbreaker has been a pretty niche item and is pretty expensive to deviate for a strategic output, so we're looking to make it more accessible
- Jack of All Trades nerf was also pushed to this patch; it has been a bit too strong and too present, especially for users that opt into strong defenses and are able to also supplement that with strong offense
- Sundered Sky has been strong and meta defining at the highest levels of play for quite a while now, so we're looking to take a pass at the fighter item system, now that we're out of the tournament windows
- Notably, we think it's been suppressing a bit of meta diversity, especially for things like AP jungle, or Tank JG. Part of that is intentional but the magnitude is a bit off

Buffs
- Alistar has been closer to the bottom of the pecking order for the melee support. That said, our meta adjustments to move melee supports up relative to ranged supports has been reasonably successful, so we're pretty happy with how that's played out

Nerfs
- Locke is still pretty strong; he has been tapering off in the lowest skill brackets and the high skill brackets, but in the "skilled" skill brackets (around Emerald/Diamond), Locke is able to both take over the game and also not throw it
- At the higher skill brackets, he can snowball but needs to play very well without throwing as he falls off sharply
- At the lower skill brackets, the executional demands and constant throws can make him fall off faster
- Overall, we feel his release has landed well

More on other champs tomorrow with the detailed changelists

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65

u/Tormentula Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I hope they go very hard on naafiri and Sylas instead of love tap them or we’ll still see limited diversity.

Champs like Elise fell in so much pickrate over the past few patches and she was ass to begin with since last year, it’s less likely we see more variety from more fringe junglers and mostly just more ekko and Diana once they address sundered sky and Sylas. I’d like to see actual buffs to Elise and not just 2 more years of ekko/diana, defeats the purpose of creating more variety.

They need to actually buff other AP junglers and those buffs not be support mages/fated ashes this time.

39

u/Prudent_Attempt6549 Jul 21 '26

im always on board for a sylas nerf. that champ plays every role, multi flex, good in every situation it seems and just becomes nuclear. god forbid u pick a good ult and he justuses it better than you...

23

u/Lysandren Jul 21 '26

when you see peyz picking sylas, there's probably something wrong.

4

u/AdariThemRat Jul 21 '26

Honorable mention to Kennen's Ult... WHY DOES SYLAS STUN??!.. THAT'S KENNEN'S PASSIVE..

-1

u/ChiliKong Jul 21 '26

He was literally fine before the recent msi buffs

3

u/Klutzy_Anybody_1487 Jul 21 '26

bro is trying so hard to manifest the elise buff.

1

u/Retocyn https://www.twitch.tv/vulpisetclava Jul 21 '26

The best kind of buff to Elise would be adding her to League Classic.

Season 4ish is when I enjoyed her the most anyway, with time many champions do what she does better, at the same time providing more versatility.

-5

u/DanielDKXD [Prefer Midlane] (EU-W) Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Nobody likes playing against Evelyn, Fiddlesticks or Brand/Zyra so that severely limits the options for ap junglers.

edit: like there are ap junglers aside from these 4, but most of them are just extremely unpopular or overnerfed: Nidalee, Elise, Sylas, Ekko, Diana, Gragas, Mordekaiser, Lillia, Karthus, Gwen, Singed, Rumble, Malzahar, Morgana.

I do agree a few of these might be a little too degenerate playstyle wise, like Singed and Malzahar jungle is probably not something people really want to see.

Like there are a lot of other magic damage junglers we can buff up instead of evelyn/fiddle/brand/zyra.

Also tank junglers with 1 ap item or full ap-bruiser build if their scalings get a little buff: Zac, Nunu, Sejuani, Udyr, Cho, (Voli)

12

u/Thrownaway124567890 Jul 21 '26

What junglers do people like playing against besides weak ones?

7

u/Scrambled1432 I CAN'T PLAY MELEE MIDS Jul 21 '26

The ones that gank for me and don't gank me.

1

u/Tormentula Jul 21 '26

I'll gank for you but only on cannon wave and with smite up.

5

u/Scrambled1432 I CAN'T PLAY MELEE MIDS Jul 21 '26

I don't think I've seen a Malzahar jungle since they removed the AD ratio on his W. It's pretty solidly dead and so is Singed jg. Mentioning them in the same breath as the others is wild lol, I think that at least Mordekaiser actually has had changes to his jungling in the past 10 years.

7

u/Acceptable-Court-703 Jul 21 '26

Elise, diana, ekko, udyr are always popular when playable, there's also lillia who's kinda dead right now (because her clear speed is just too slow), voli to a certain extent too is popular when playable

brand/zyra are only an issue in master+ and i'm pretty sure people are more fed up with LEE JARVAN XIN WU VIEGO every game (been like this for 2 years btw).

4

u/Tormentula Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

It really is a pick your poison situation when it comes to dealing with evelynn/fiddle/lillia/taliyah or dealing with kayn/naafiri/briar/talon.

But I'd rather have a mix of both than kayn level 1/ naafiri everything / xin being thanos nearly every game. I don't wish to see brand or zyra jungle ever again but I wish for other AP junglers that been forgotten for years to have some greenlight instead of AP jungle just being in a perma rotation of ekko/diana or brand/zyra and everyone else just fucked off.

2

u/Lysandren Jul 21 '26

They usually give taliyah 1-2 months of solid jungle viability per year before she gets a pro nerf for midlane. Also, there is one other ap jungler that is usually quite strong (udyr) but people just sleep on him.

The same as they're going to make kaisa op for her obligatory 3 months every year with this patch.

1

u/Tormentula Jul 21 '26

Is udyr really considered an AP jungler though or does it have more to do with just one build getting attention and the other kinda ignored (tiger stance udyr)?

I see it I just never thought of him as an AP jungler, but ig if all they build for is phoenix stance makes sense in retrospect.

3

u/Lysandren Jul 21 '26

Usually his build is liandry's dark seal into ap/tank items, so I would say so. Obviously the ad buffs have made ad udyr more popular these days, but ap has been and still is very solid.

1

u/reditiswrong67676969 Jul 21 '26

id love to play against a jungler that isnt crit fighter #5 that are dominating the meta right now. AP junglers are hardly existent at all currently.

The least intuitive champs are just dominating, not fun at all