Another fortnight, and Patch 26.17 brings a new round of changes to ARAM, Mayhem, and Arena.
ARAM: Mayhem
The fighter buffs are still coming, as Riot looks to nail down how to get the best out of them. Two new Augments this patch, both aimed squarely at the “dive in and refuse to die” playstyle.
Ultra Hydra is one of the key new ones. Finish any Hydra item, and you’re handed a free Tiamat on top. Then there’s the quest: pick up Ravenous, Profane and Titanic Hydra, and you unlock Ultra Hydra as the reward.
Upgrade Death’s Dance is the other one, and slightly more chill of the two. You get 250 gold up front, a slice of incoming damage spread out over 3 seconds instead of landing all at once, and a chunky instant heal every time you score a takedown. It should give fighters that bit of extra sustain, while also stopping them from getting crushed by early burst damage.
On the nerf side, Riot’s gone after the ADC Augments so fights are getting a second buff almost. Critical Missile fires fewer missiles at the top end. Tripleshot now prioritises enemies near your main target rather than pinging off into the void. And Double Tap got shunted from Gold up to Prismatic. The effect’s untouched, but now it’s eating your Prismatic pick, so you’re paying for it in what you give up. Upgrade Infinity Edge also quietly lost its crit chance, while Upgrade Ravenous now cleaves minions and heals a touch more.
Arena
Arena’s going back to alternating patches and will land on odd-numbered ones in the future. So no balance pass every fortnight anymore; instead, the builds are going to be left to sit each month. That said, we do have one this week!
Kled’s remount cooldown drops from 12s to 5s, and Garen’s W actually hands out resists worth caring about now. LeBlanc’s R cooldown got taken down a fair whack, while Gragas, K’Sante, Renekton, Senna, Tahm Kench and Teemo all got nudged up too. Heading the other way: Ambessa eats a real nerf across her E and R, while Zilean and Vel’Koz both had their ult cooldowns pushed up.
On items, anti-tank is back on the menu. Lord Dominik’s and Mortal Reminder both got big AD bumps, and Serylda’s penetration climbed. Meanwhile, the enchanter healing items (Ardent Censer, Redemption, Staff of Flowing Water) had their Arena-specific heal and shield power stripped back to the base 10%, so sustain takes a small haircut.