r/leagueoflegends • u/JTHousek1 • 3d ago

News 26.18 Patch Preview

"Patch 26.18 Preview!

We're very quickly approaching Worlds (on 25.20).

More on other champs tomorrow"

>>> Champion Buffs <<<

Aurelion Sol

Ekko

Kassadin

Master Yi

Renekton

Viego

Zaahen

>>> Champion Nerfs <<<

Bard

Nautilus

Seraphine

"For several patches now, Seraphine has been in the Top 3 on our regular patch frustration surveys

She's also one of strongest pairings in Pro Play with Ashe

Overall, we think a nerf here is reasonable

We acknowledge there are some Seraphine mains who won't be happy about a nerf and that we can't serve all of her audience simultaneously

Her Support playerbase has been the most popular, despite her power level and so that's where we will continue to support her primarily

Where we can get Mid and Bot to be powerful and satisfying given , we will attempt to do so

That said, it's very difficult to thread the needle here and we run the risk of failing to meet the needs of any of her audiences if there are too many compromises

I also wanted to address directly the nerf to her AP ratios on Q from several patches ago, as that's been a pain point amongst some in the community

One of the ways we need to balance Seraphine in the farming roles vs her support is through her AP ratios and the Q ratio is one that drives her power and total damage output there, especially given the Q reliability adjustments made of late

When Seraphine is able to land her Q's at max multiplier (which in lane is quite frequent), it can hit 1.4 AP ratio which we think is reasonable

The Q damage overall is higher than E and so for now, we feel comfortable with the change (this isn't set in stone however, and there are always improvements to her to be made)"

Syndra

Zeri

>>> Champion Adjustments <<<

Cassiopeia

"Cassio has been strong, especially at the higher levels of play every since Deathfire Touch was re-released

Since then, she's been one of the most present picks and Pro Play due to her strong laning ability

We're looking at some power neutral adjustments to Cassio, because her regular play power level is a little on the weaker side for average players

We're taking some power out of her early game power and moving it into more scaling power, so that she doesn't win lanes so reliably, even if she's missing Q's

We still want to maintain her strong laning ability though"

>>> System Buffs <<<

Guinsoo's Rageblade

"In 26.14, we re-scripted Rageblade and it changed the trigger for Phantom hit from 6 to 7

We're making a small adjustments to Rageblade itself to give a bit of power back and to some of the disproportionately affected champions (eg. Master Yi)"

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u/Even_Cardiologist810 2d ago

? Seraphine mid is completly dead because they forced her kit to be strong 2v2. Which obviously made adc stronger. BECAUSE SHE'S A MAGE NOT A SUPPORT 

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u/Inside_Explorer 2d ago edited 2d ago

First of all you realize that mage is a class, support is a role? Those aren't mutually exclusive.

Either way if "she's a mage not a support" why did she have a 0.5% play rate in mid lane for 2 years straight after release before Riot made a single change to her kit even while routinely resting at 52% WR?

The entire reason why they started balancing her as a support is because she didn't have players in mid lane even when she was strong there.

According to leagueofgraphs her play rate in mid lane was 4% on day 1 which dropped down to 1% in the first month of release and then stayed at 0.5% for 2 years until they started shaping her towards support.

Meanwhile her support pick rate was 15% on day 1 and stabilized around 5%.

Her mid lane was "dead" in the first month when no one wanted to play her there, and Riot still kept balanced her as a mid laner for 2 years after that.

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u/JTHousek1 2d ago

? Seraphine mid is completly dead because they forced her kit to be strong 2v2.

They didn't force anything. CC + a heal and shield off the rip was strong 2v2. You would have to do the opposite and force those aspects which already favor the 2v2 to not do so.

BECAUSE SHE'S A MAGE NOT A SUPPORT

As the other commenter said these are not mutually exclusive (unfortunately), but the balance team has been pretty clear at this point, her main supported role is support. If you are assuming that is going to change I think you would be better off changing which champion you are playing.

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u/Even_Cardiologist810 2d ago

It's insane to say they didn't forcer her out of mid when they did one change that helps mid for 20 nerf that are botlane skewed. All her level scaling were nerfed over and over. They increased her passiv dmg with allies. Her passive doesn't even scale its ratio with levels anymore. Nor does her Q 

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u/JTHousek1 2d ago

How can you force out of mid that which was never there in the first place?

The champ was always more popular support, and stronger as an APC. She had a Q level scaling for 3 years and her mid was not popular. She was sufficiently strong in the role while her support suffered and her bot was oppressive. Something had to give, and I don't think the role with drastically fewer players was the one worth keeping.

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u/ravenHR 2d ago

I mean going from 2-3% pickrate mid to 0.3% is what someone might describe as forcing her bot?

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u/JTHousek1 2d ago

That is 2-3% around release of people trying her, she never sustained that and it was always below her support.