The legendary League of Legends star Faker has been named in the TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026 list. This inaugural list highlights the best of the best in sport, of which Faker is one.
Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok has been the undeniable “GOAT” of League of Legends Esports, if not Esports, for some time now. This inclusion in the inaugural list puts him alongside a number of fellow greats. From football royalty in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, F1 stars like Lando Norris, to LeBron James.
Faker is not only on the list but also included under the “Icons” banner, which includes LeBron, Messi, Caitlin Clark, and Nikki Hiltz. It’s a big moment for Faker, and an incredible list to be part of.
Faker, a Sporting Icon
“The Unkillable Demon King,” as TIME notes, is a six-time World Champion with his side T1. He was also inducted into the Esports League of Legends Hall of Fame, the first to be inducted. But despite this long career, Faker remains one of the greats and is still actively performing at the top level for T1.
Faker is the only Esports person in the TIME list, and it’s hard to deny that his inclusion isn’t justified. He has always transcended Esports. In his home of South Korea, he was voted as the fifth most influential and famous person in the country.
Faker is 30 now, but having signed a contract with T1 till the end of 2029, his career isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. With another year of major tournaments, from MSI, the Esports World Cup, and Worlds still to play for, Faker could end 2026 with even more trophies to his name.
Locke was just officially revealed by Riot Games, who have taken no time at all to also drop his full kit. Rumoured for some time that he was an AP mid-lane Assassin, things have become a lot clearer now.
With a focus on setting up the attack, rather than pressing R and hoping for the best. Locke is set up to be an interesting champion for people to master. With him being the only new champion coming to League of Legends in 2026, there will be a lot of people interested in what Locke can bring to the Rift.
Locke Abilities
Passive – Silver Stake
What it does: Locke pins enemies’ souls with his attacks, dealing bonus magic damage On-Hit, increased based on the enemy’s missing Health.
How it works: A simple passive, dealing heavy bonus magic damage on-hit.
Q – Ritual Nails
What it does: Locke readies a set of Soul Nails to throw forward, dealing magic damage and marking enemies hit. The nails apply a slow based on stacks. Attacking the enemy consumes the Soul Nails, dealing magic damage per stack. Restores a portion of cooldown and mana for unspent Nails.
How it works: Locke’s key ability, and while it has a short range, it can travel through enemies. This will be his key trading tool; damage scaling on Ritual Nails will likely determine how strong Locke is.
W – Soul Ignition
What it does: Locke releases his own seals, gaining Move Speed decaying over time. While this effect is active, he suffers % health true damage per second but heals back a portion of the damage taken, plus an additional amount based on missing health and time passed. The seals remain unbound for a few seconds and can be Recast to end early.
How it works: Soul Ignition is the primary way Locke will punish his enemies. While the damage numbers to him will dictate how good this is, the burst of move speed is likely to guarantee a good few extra auto-attacks.
E – Ashen Pursuit
What it does: Locke blinks to a location, dealing magic damage around him. After, his next attack dashes to his target, dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. Each of these hits consumes Soul Nails. Cooldown resets on takedown.
How it works: Combined well with his W, Ashen Pursuit is going to be what makes Locke so difficult to get away from. His kit, ultimately, is like Vayne, if she were designed in 2026.
R – Purgatory
What it does: Locke kicks a binding artefact to a location that opens on arrival, shooting chained Soul Nails at enemies in the area, dealing magic damage and slowing. Marked Champions that are brought below a threshold are pulled inside and killed. If a champion is executed, the duration of the binding is reset on other affected champions. After a few seconds, the artefact seals itself and is left on the ground if a Champion was sealed. If Locke picks up the artifact, he permanently increases the execution threshold and refunds a portion of his current cooldown for each Champion sealed.
How it works: The final part of his kit is Purgatory. A deadly ultimate that scales, making him an ideal snowballing champion. This could also make him a glass cannon, especially when you consider his very minimal forms of “support” lacking crowd control outside of a minor slow.
Locke, like any new champion, will get the usual series of buffs and nerfs post-release, but he feels like an interesting champion so far. His kit makes him appear to be a solo-queue demon, rather than a pro-play champion, but time will tell.
Riot Games has given us the first look at the next champion coming to LoL, Locke. Making a debut in a new “Back from the Brink” cinematic trailer, Locke fights alongside Vayne in a highly stylised trailer.
Locke is due for release on the Rift on June 24th. He will take on the role of a mid-lane AP assassin. Similar in gameplay style to Diana or Ekko, though with an entirely unique kit.
The champion has been rumoured for some time, with a fair few leaks on X from the start of 2026. He has also been officially confirmed now by Riot, with Head of League Studio Andrei “Meddler” van Roon noting he’s perfect for “fans of assassins that offer high burst, if you get your setup right.”
It’s worth flagging: per a Reddit comment from Meddler, there will only be one champion released in 2026 overall, and that’s presumably Locke. So if you’ve been patiently waiting for a new face on the Rift, this is your moment.
Locke’s Abilities and Playstyle
Riot has kept ability specifics close to the chest, but the design intent is clear: Locke is a conditional assassin whose damage ceiling is high but gated behind proper execution. Think less “jump in and hit R,” more “set everything up perfectly, then absolutely delete someone.” That framing puts him in the same conversation as champions like Zed or Akali, where mechanical depth separates the player who pops off from the one who just feeds.
From earlier leaks, we do have a rough idea of what his kit involves. His Q is a skillshot called “Soul Nail,” involving tossing a giant nail forward. His second form, which is still unclear, also involves nails spinning around him during the transformation.
There’s also a “sealed artifact” interaction hinted at in leaked footage, though the full details of his abilities remain unclear. Executive Producer Paul “Pabro” Bellezza described Locke as “slinging nails and taking names.” It’s a vibe.
Locke’s Launch Skin
Locke’s debut in Patch 26.13 will also feature a launch skin from the popular High Noon line, and he’ll share this thematic release with Akshan, who is also receiving a High Noon skin in the same update. Launching with a High Noon skin on day one is a solid sign that Riot has confidence in the character commercially, and it means you won’t have to wait around if you fancy picking up a cosmetic right away.
The League of Legends Patch 26.12 Preview is here, and it’s a big one as the game prepares for Act 2 and MSI. 26.12 will see 15 changes to champions, which will be the near sole focus of the patch. Full details from Riot Phroxzon on X.
On 26.10, we made some adjustments to Lee Sin that gave power back to some of the fun elements in his kit that lost a lot of power over the years (namely the amounts of dashes he has access to, etc.)
This made Lee Sin a pretty strong champion in higher levels of play again and in a way that we think is fantasy aligned for him
However, the magnitude is a bit too much, so we’re pulling it back slightly
We’re happy with the shape of the changes and how it’s affected his power curve though
Some of the slow stacking changes to Hwei were a lot more power impacting (negatively) than the buffs that he received in the positive direction
As a result we’re adding a bit more power back into his utility aspects that allow him to be a jack of all trades, rather than just being a master of none
Tristana, has a bit of room in bot lane and especially in the midlane where changes to the role quests (that favor a bit more utility/roaming > farming) have been a bit unfavorable there
One of the changes that impacted her negatively was adding a mana cost to Q and so we’re adding a bit of that back to give her a bit more pushing power
This is especially impactful because of Tristana’s low base and scaling mana pool
Ryze is a bit too durable, especially in the early game and he often wins lanes/gets push by simply autoing champions and hitting them with guaranteed damage through W’s, E’s and autos
Ryze will still be on the durable side, especially with his early catalyst purchases, but these nerfs are intended to make him work a bit harder for it
System
Teleport
Especially in Pro play recently, we’ve been seeing some usages of Teleport at very short ranges to prepare quite large shields for tactical usages in combats (such as objective fights)
While this is a cool usage of the spell, it’s a pretty unintuitive behavior and we want to skew its usage to be better to use for its cross-map and “joining fights” capabilities
As a result, we’re reducing the duration of the shield and increasing the shield amount by a bit to compensate
Mid Meta
For average play, AP Xin Zhao has been tearing up the rift with a lot of his power budget in healing, especially in the early lane, creating some pretty uninteractive lane states.
We’re tapping this down, as well as some of the top-end healing in the later game.
Otherwise, a few adjustments to the champions who have a bit of room in Solo Queue, like Hwei, Sylas, Syndra and nerfs to some of the top end, like Cassio (who really benefited from Deathfire Touch being added), Ryze and Ori, who have been strong for pretty much the whole season.
Top Lane Meta
Aatrox has been generally a little on the weaker side, especially for higher levels of play, and so these changes are targeted at rewarding him for matchups where he’s already favored and able to get sweet spot hits off more reliably.
Gwen is also being buffed a bit with her early laning strength (which we walked back pretty significantly in an earlier patch). With K’Sante rising in priority (from DHelm buff and other meta shifts), we’re also positioning Gwen as a good pick into these tanky Sion and K’Sante style picks.
Similarly, Jax is getting more throughput in early trades both in regular matchups and in some of the matchups that favor short trades (eg. ranged matchups).
Overall, we expect the Top meta to have a few more fringe and counterpick options available.
Exciting times for LeBlanc mains, as the mid lane Mage is getting her very own Prestige skin in Patch 26.12.
Prestige Sinful Shores LeBlanc is the full name of the skin. And it’s set to feature as the final reward in the Act 2 Battle Pass.
Prestige Sinful Shores LeBlanc
As always with the Prestige skins, it will be unlocked when players purchase the Battle Pass for Act 2. Once you reach the final normal reward, the skin will unlock. The skin is not open to those on the free Battle Pass track.
The new skin features unique spell effects and VFX for all the spells, plus the usual custom recall and Homeguard sprint. The skin also features unique audio for spells balanced around the theme of the skin.
Patch 26.12 will also include new skins for Brand and Hwei set to the same Sinful Shores theme.
Worth noting: after the pass closes, there’s no confirmed return date. Some Prestige skins do eventually come back via the Mythic Shop at 125 Mythic Essence, but that’s not guaranteed, so if you want it, the pass is your safest bet.
The full Pandemonium Season 2 runs until August 12, 2026, so you’ve got a window to work with, but don’t sleep on it too long.
If you want new skins in Patch 26.11, Riot Games has heard you because you’re getting at least seven new skins. A number of these, themed around “Champions if they had a regular job”, sort of feel like April Fools V2 skins, which is always a lot of fun.
Pizza Chef Sion, Pasta Maker Illaoi, Breadsticks Irelia, Spaghetti alla Vel’Koz, Eternal Aspect Leona, Eternal Aspect Diana, and Eclipse Eternal Aspect Diana will be available on May 28, 2026.
Pizza Chef Sion – Pasta Maker Illaoi – Breadsticks Irelia
The three skins will also come with a set of Chromas to go alongside them. There is also a fourth skin in the line, Spaghetti Alla Vel’koz, which we’re sure Illaoi is making in the image above.
Spaghetti alla Vel’koz
The fourth skin in the food series comes for Vel’koz, who is channelling his inner pasta monster. The skin, for those from the UK, feels like it’s inspired by the BBC Spaghetti-Harvest April Fools joke.
Eternal Aspect Skins – Diana, Leona, and Diana
The final three skins feature two directly in the same skin line. As Eternal Aspect Diana and Leona, are joined by Eclipse Eternal Aspect Diana. Diana, in this case, takes on the more premium of the three skins.
If you’ve been running riot on the Mayhem Bridge as Vayne, Tristana, or pretty much any hyper-carry you fancied, patch 26.11 has some news for you. Riot has swung the nerf hammer at a long list of damage-favoured champions in ARAM Mayhem. A bunch of them back to neutral in what feels like a pretty significant rebalancing sweep.
Mayhem’s Carry Club Takes a Hit
The bulk of the Mayhem changes in this patch are nerfs. Mostly targeted squarely at the champions who’ve been dealing a bit too freely. Vayne loses her damage boost (105% down to 100%) and her damage reduction (95% back to 100%), so she’s now fully exposed on both ends.
Same story for Tristana, Fizz, and Xayah, who all drop to baseline across the board. Fizz also loses his 10% Tenacity bonus, which is a quiet but meaningful cut for a champion who loves diving into the chaos and getting out clean.
Fiddlesticks is the one champion getting a buff, with his damage taken and damage done going back to 100%.
One small note, over in normal ARAM, Qiyana is getting a bit of love. Qiyana picks up 20 flat Ability Haste, going from zero to twenty. It’s not the most dramatic buff in the world. But on a champion who really wants to spam her abilities to chain elemental effects, that extra haste adds up
Arena Working in Threes
Three-person Arena is apparently doing well, because Riot isn’t pulling back; they’re doubling down with balance tweaks specifically designed around the format. The big theme this patch is pulling enchanters back in line while giving marksmen a bit more room to breathe.
On the enchanter side, Locket of the Iron Solari takes a significant shield reduction (600-1200 down to 300-900) and now has reduced effectiveness for 20 seconds after you’ve been healed. Mikael’s Blessing, Redemption, and Dawncore all drop their Heal and Shield Power from 16% to 12%. While Wordless Promise loses a chunk of its AP and AH sharing while its cooldown explodes from 10 seconds to 60. That last one is a pretty severe change for a support item that felt like a must-buy.
For the marksmen getting some new toys. Infinity Edge swaps 40% crit damage multiplier for a flat 20 extra attack damage (55 to 75 AD). Immortal Shieldbow’s shield ceiling jumps from 700 to 1000, and Statik Shiv now scales up to 160 damage instead of being stuck at a flat 60. Diamond-Tipped Spear and Terminus both get attack speed bumps, too, so ADC Arena builds are getting a lot more to work with this patch.
New Guests of Honor
Three new Guests of Honor arrive in the Arena this patch. Yone brings the Inner Demon quest, where you vote whether your team fights alongside the demon hunters or embraces the demons themselves. Hunters earn gold for every demon team they take down, while demons gain an augment level each time a hunter team is eliminated. It’s a fun wrinkle that makes the lobby’s overall composition matter in a way it normally doesn’t.
Nilah joins with Joyful Delight, cutting the cost of Legendary Item Anvils by 500 gold and throwing in bonus rerolls while you’re on a hotstreak. Vayne arrives with Tools of the Hunt, giving access to a curated set of “tool” augments that fit her kit.
LoL Patch 26.11 Support Changes are big, from changes to the role itself, and to items and champions associated with the role. Riot has clearly put a focus here on what many consider the weakest role.
Let’s take a closer look at the changes and what they might add, or take away from the Support role.
Support Adjustments
Support Adjustments
This patch, we are taking a holistic pass on the enchanter-heavy support meta that has stabilized and stagnated over the course of the year. We have a set of buffs and nerfs designed to promote tanks into the support meta, as well as some minor and major reworks to certain support items and their functionality.
First off, we have a straight buff to Grubs. In line with 26.9’s changes to role quests to open up some amount of roaming and laning flexibility back into the laning phase, we are also buffing Grubs as a destination to roam to for supports.
Summoned Voidmite HP: 60% of Melee Minion ⇒ 100% of Melee Minion
Firstly, we have the most direct changes to the role. The main focus here is on the enchanter supports, often the least impactful, especially in solo queue. The main change here is to help support roam more, which plays into an earlier buff in 29.9 that stopped Supports from being as punished for leaving the lane.
Items and Spells
The spells and items are the key things that are looking to bring the changes to the support role.
Zeke’s Convergence
Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
For the most part, these item changes are buffs. There are a few, like Moonstone Renewer that are nerfs. There is also a nerf to Imperial Mandate, which is almost a totally targeted nerf at Nami. Echoes of Helia is another nerf for enchanters.
Summoner spells will see Summon Aery will get an early game nerf, with a similar impact hitting Aftershock. Though Guardian is getting a buff.
Overall, these changes are good for Support. The nerfs are hyper-focused on a few niche champions. We rarely see so many changes targeted at one specific role, and while no champions have been hit (a small nerf to Brand’s armour), it’s a lot of changes to items and summoner spells.
It will be interesting to see how these changes actually flow once live on the servers.
Riot has dropped a dev blog outlining some pretty significant changes coming to ARAM Mayhem when Season 2 Act 2 kicks off in Patch 26.12. And there’s quite a bit to unpack.
Riot also confirmed that ARAM Mayhem is staying until at least the end of 2026.
Traits are out
The biggest change is that Traits are being phased out entirely. Riot’s reasoning is fair enough when you read it. Traits were causing everyone’s builds to blur together; the bonuses were outshining the actual champions. As a result, individual Augment picks felt a bit rubbish on their own without the Trait backing them up.
Some fan-favourite Traits like Stackasaurus aren’t disappearing. Though, they’re just being converted into standalone Augments, so you get the fun stuff without needing to chase a two-piece combo.
New Augment types are taking their place
Two new categories are being introduced. First up are Ability Augments, which are exactly what they sound like. These latch onto a single ability and go absolutely feral with it. Think Multishot firing extra bolts on every spell cast, or Chain Reaction turning knockups into a chaotic chain of collisions and bonus damage. The aim is to make your Augment feel like it’s actually built around your champ rather than just slotting into a universal build.
The second type is Quest Augments, which give you a goal to work toward in-game for a payoff that fits your playstyle. Quest: Tooth Fairy rewards burst damage by making enemies drop teeth (yes, really) that stack Lethality and Magic Pen. While Quest: Support Main lets healers and shielders keep their whole team ticking with extra Health Regen. Both sound like a good time.
Riot’s take on balance
Riot also addressed the whole “these don’t look balanced” thing head-on, which is refreshing. The short version is that they’re aiming for fun over strict balance, but they want every champ to have a viable build path and no single build to just auto-win games. Expect more frequent Augment rotations and additions rather than constant number nerfs.
ARAM: Mayhem isn’t going anywhere either. Riot Games confirmed they’re already planning content for the rest of this year and into next.
Patch 26.11 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
Role Quest Adjustments
Buffing the Role Quest reward as a minor follow up on the change in 26.9. We felt this reward landed a bit soft, but we think it does good things for the shape of the game by allowing mid laners their own special form of scaling.
Mid Role Quest
Bonus AD and AP: 6% ⇒ 8%
Support Adjustments
This patch, we are taking a holistic pass on the enchanter-heavy support meta that has stabilized and stagnated over the course of the year. We have a set of buffs and nerfs designed to promote tanks into the support meta, as well as some minor and major reworks to certain support items and their functionality.
First off, we have a straight buff to Grubs. In line with 26.9’s changes to role quests to open up some amount of roaming and laning flexibility back into the laning phase, we are also buffing Grubs as a destination to roam to for supports.
As a pretty "behind the scenes" unique that most of us just expect to work, Dream Maker is getting a mix of adjustments to help it perform in a more generally functional way that should pan out to be a nerf in most situations, but will definitely be a buff in others.
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction is being adjusted from only affecting the literal first instance of damage (i.e. the first tick of a DoT, or the first instance of an on-hit damage from an incoming basic attack) to affecting the first cast source (i.e. the entire DoT, until it runs out of flat damage reduction.)
Purple Bubble Damage is changing from mostly an on-hit effect to an on-hit or on-ability damage cast source effect with AoE penalties. (i.e. If Ezreal Ult triggers the Purple Bubble, it will apply to that entire Ezreal Ult but with reduced AoE efficacy. See Nami E for a similar example.)
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
Moonstone Renewer
Moonstone will no longer double dip in both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver. This is mostly a nerf, but will occasionally be a net positive when opponents have Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver.
As a mathy example, this means that if you have 50% Heal / Shield Power, and heal one ally for 100 * 150% from Heal / Shield = 150, on 26.10 it would then bounce 150 * 30% * 150% = 67.5 healing to another ally, whereas now it will only bounce 150 * 30% = 45 healing.
Fixed various bugs, including no longer double dipping on both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver
Bounces now prioritize lower health allies
Imperial Mandate
An item that was completely bound to Nami because of outsized synergy with her E, Mandate is getting reworked to better fit into a niche for utility casters who want to help their team out with more crowd control rather than healing/shielding or personal damage. We look forward to seeing you figure out new optimal users!
NEWUnique – Control: Gain 15 Ability Haste for your abilities with Immobilizing effects
NEWUnique – Command: On immobilizing an enemy champion, mark them as 6% Vulnerable for 4s (Vulnerable enemies take % increased damage)
Echoes of Helia
A straightforward nerf for enchanters.
Damage Stored: 35% ⇒ 30%
Locket of the Iron Solari
And a straightforwards buff for tanks.
Armor and Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 30
Knight’s Vow
For Knight’s Vow, we’re pushing the unique effect rather than generically buffing its stats or gold cost.
Damage Redirection: 12% ⇒ 14%
Heal: 10% ⇒ 12%
Zeke’s Convergence
Zeke’s is getting a QoL improvement for any users who might be casting their ultimate from long range—such as Leona and Nautilus.
Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
Brand has been toeing the line in bot for a while now, and this patch has well and truly crossed over, so we’re targeting that lane with a nerf to his base armor.
Diana’s feeling a bit underwhelming in the jungle after her previous adjustments due to the Dusk and Dawn changes. So we’re giving her a little more moon-power in the jungle to return her to her former glory.
Now that the dust has settled from 26.9’s Dusk and Dawn reshape, we’ve uncovered that Ekko has room for a compensation buff as he is no longer completely bound to just buying that item for his power.
With the ranged minion aggro pull removed last patch, Heimerdinger mains ended up with some degraded functionality around how turret ranges interact with minion ranges—in the sense that ranged minions outrange Heimer’s turrets and he had no way to pull them into their range. This makes for a pretty miserable experience where you just watch as your turrets tank minion autos without attacking back.
Additionally, it was brought to our attention that his Evolution Turrets sometimes fail to follow up on his Storm Grenade when they lose vision of the target too quickly due to minor timing fluctuations around vision and turret logic, so we are increasing the vision duration slightly to resolve that.
Q – H-28 G Evolution Turret
Turret Attack Range: 530 ⇒ 550
Turret Vision Range: 585 ⇒ 650
NEWTurret Range: Turrets now gain 50 additional range against minions if nothing else is in range
E – CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade
Vision of target location: 1 second ⇒ 1.25 seconds
Our Void Walker has been limping around the Rift more than blinking. Stackable tear items have provided an additional cool late-game fantasy option besides pure AP, but his early game has been tougher than usual (in part due to our mid quest adjustment). These changes should help his laning, both in farming and trading.
Quinngle (or Qungle [Kwun-gle]?) has been pretty popular and fun, even in a weak state. We know a lot of you will pick up more tricks and mastery over time, so for now we’re just making sure her clear speed is more competitive without changing burst or dueling. This should help our trusty ranger more regularly undertake dangerous missions deep in enemy territory, whether she’s looking for camps or champs.
The baby dragon has been absolutely blasting his opponents since getting his hands on Deathfire Touch. We’ve had to do an unfortunate number of micropatch nerfs back to back, and we are hopeful this will be the last one we need to do.
Included in these changes are a continuation of the latest nerf’s push towards bringing him back into primarily critical strike builds rather than just Essence Reaver into bruiser, which we think can sit stronger since at the end of the day, a squishier Smolder has more weaknesses to play around, like being burst by enemy spell rotations.
Passive – Dragon Practice
Bonus Magic Damage on Q: 40% * (1 + (Crit Chance *.5 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks (60% at 100% Crit, 66% if you have IE) ⇒ 25% * (1 + (Crit Chance * 1.2 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
Bonus Magic Damage on E: 12% of Passive stacks ⇒ 8% * (1 + (Crit Chance * .6 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
We’d love (fear) a world where Teemo could be equally happy building AP, on-hit, and AD for his new ratios, but as it stands, Shiv is ahead of the pack. By hitting his Toxic Shot AD ratio, we’re confident Teemo with Shiv can land in a good spot without forcing those of you who like other builds (e.g. Nashor’s, Liandry, Malignance) to rely on it. Additionally, hits to his scaling durability should preserve his lane bully identity, while increasing your chance of getting the jump on him!
While AP Xin builds are not OP per se, the sheer amount of healing has been eye popping in an extremely expectation breaking way. Tamping that down with some compensation in the form of sustained damage.
We like a world where Hexplate is satisfying across a spread of archetypes, and serves as a springboard to dive into interesting itemization tradeoffs. However, right now the item makes League less approachable for top laners by letting Vayne and Varus maintain a large proportion of their damage while being a good bit harder to kill. This change should better align expectations opponents have around ranged users building Hexplate, while still presenting as a worthy Experimental choice.
Overdrive: On ulting, 50% bonus AS and 20% bonus MS for 8 seconds ⇒ Ranged: 35% bonus AS and 14% bonus MS for 8 seconds (unchanged for melee)
Heartsteel
Heartsteel has slowly fallen out of favor. With Mundo meta out of the way though, we’re going to revert a nerf from a year ago since we feel the item occupies a really cool (and important) aspect of greedy tank itemization.
Damage To Permanent Health Conversion Rate: 8% ⇒ 10%
Statikk Shiv
Shiv has picked up a neat spread of users—we think it could use more love when it comes to some characters that are more reliant on AD, like Kalista or Kai’Sa. We’ll keep monitoring satisfaction around the new shape of Statikk as Season 2 progresses (should lightning strike twice?)
