Patch 26.22 Preview

“There are a few Aurelion Sol players who enjoy maxing W second, but most ASol players max E second, even though it's weaker

This is mostly the intuitive thing to do, but is quite a bit weaker than the alternative

In an ideal world, these would be balanced against each other so both playstyles feel powerful” — Riot

“We've been trying to fine tune Locke's strengths and weaknesses post release and don't think it's too far off

One place we think is a bit off though is how much damage he gets, especially early from his Q, so there's a decently sized nerf here (keep in mind that this stacks up to 3x and is increased by 40% for 3 stacks to be ~30 dmg nerf at max)

The other place that we think is a bit off is Locke's W Movespeed

This nerf will make the spell a bit more windowed while trying to retain satisfaction while it's active and making it a bit more costly to spam while running around the map

base damage of Soul Nail stacks consumed reduced:” — Riot

“Mel's mini-update will be Live on Patch 26.22

When we released Mel, we intentionally went for a new ability that was pretty ambitious; we like to try to push the boundaries with new champions and mechanics to give players new puzzles to solve with each release

After being on Live for a while, it's clear that many players feel that Mel's reflect was too frustrating to play against

There are things in League that are allowed to be frustrating, as that can create a feeling of triumph when overcoming it and challenging players to grow, but there are some things that are too frustrating even given those upsides

Realistically, every champion should have something that they do uniquely that other players might feel is frustrating

So we're reworking Mel's W to keep the feeling of destroying projectiles, but not have it hard counter some subsets of the roster

We tried many versions of Mel's W that tried to retain the reflect, but we couldn't find one that would hit the mark for Mel players and would be satisfactory for opponents

We know this is disappointing for Mel players and we're sorry we couldn't uphold this end of the contract with you all

That said, we hope this will allow Mel to be balanced at relatively higher resting power levels and be more effective for Mel players” — Riot

“We're trying to give a buff to Naafiri mid (at least with the Q heal that's more impactful there vs when she's jungle clearing)

Overall, we think she's close to being appropriately powerful, so not trying to go too hard here” — Riot

“Rumble has been one of the strongest champs in Pro Play, but now that Pro Play patches are done, we're giving him a bit of power, as it's not like he's overly strong in Elite play either” — Riot

“Shen is decently strong in Top lane and Support, but we also think his jungle could be a bit stronger too

It's a playstyle that players have found fun, so we're throwing it a bit of a bone” — Riot

“Our previous Smolder buff was a bit less impactful than intended, so we're giving another follow-up buff

He's been a bit weaker, especially after the adjustments to Deathfire Touch” — Riot

“Viktor's nerfs last patch overshot a bit, but we're happy with the power redistribution to make his mobility (base movespeed) a bit worse

This emphasizes his weakness of walking around the map unassisted, but in return pays for the power budget of his strong laning and good scaling

As a result, we're not looking to revert either of his patches from last patch but give him power back in some of that scaling power” — Riot