Developers at Riot Games have clearly seen enough of the current support meta in League of Legends, as evidenced by significant item changes in LoL patch 26.11 that should switch up the power level between engage and enchanter supports.
League of Legends is a game of constant balance changes, and that is being evidenced again as Riot moves to adjust the usefulness of two support champion archetypes. Pro play in particular has at times seen enchanter supports largely prioritized ahead of engage champions, and new item changes should buffer against that trend.
Will item changes nerf enchanter supports and buff engage champions?
What stands out about LoL pach 26.11 is how its variety of item changes across the board are all aligned towards the goal of hitting enchanter support champions with a nerf, while bringing engage options to the forefront once again.
Moonstone Renewer, Imperial Mandate, and Echoes of Helia, each a core support item, are being nerfed in this latest patch. At the same time, tank and engage support items including Locket of the Iron Solari, Zeke’s Convergence, and Knight’s Vow are all being buffed up.
That Riot is delivering these changes across a number of popular support items speak to its desire to generally change up the balance between engage and mage support options in the bottom lane. This isn’t about tweaking the win rate behind one particularly impressive or struggling champion; it’s about a wholesale change in what type of champion is prioritized in the support role.
If that wasn’t enough, engage and tank options Aftershock and Guardian are both being buffed up, while popular enchanter option Summon Aery is being nerfed down.
Why does Riot want to buff engage supports and nerf mage supports?
Delivering a meaningful buff to engage champions while taking a nerf to mage supports isn’t so much about forcing a particular play style on pro players and ranked climbers alike. It’s more towards keeping the game fresh.
Each time Riot introduces new game mechanics or tweaks the balance of its many champions and items, those effects are felt across the rest of the game. In keeping League of Legends interesting for its players over the months and years, it has proven imperative that Riot switch up what’s strong, what’s weak, and what plays best into the game’s current meta.
Nerfing the game’s support enchanters is less about driving players away from a supportive playing style or from signature mage champions such as Nami and Lulu, and more about changing up a running trend of enchanters often being the better option for support players.
Of course, whether or not these changes will have the intended effect remains to be seen. As does what other reverberations might be felt across the game as the changes take hold.
