League of Legends Patch 26.17 Preview: Vayne Top Nerf, LeBlanc Buff, and More

Patch 26.17 is coming to League of Legends on Wednesday, August 26, bringing another wave of changes that will give players more to adapt to as the meta continues to evolve. Let's take a closer look at what Riot Games has in store for the upcoming patch.

Vayne's Top Lane Dominance Under the Microscope

Vayne is the star of this patch, although not for the best reasons if you're playing her in the top lane.

According to Riot, she has been performing particularly well at high levels of play, where her combination of a strong laning phase, a tanky build, and her scaling leaves opponents with limited options to counter her.

The goal is to weaken her laning phase while giving her opponents slightly more health to work with during trades and gank attempts.

Nasus Adjustments 

After the last patch's adjustments to Nasus, the League of Legends team has been closely monitoring his performance as they work to address the disparity between his roles and restore his stacking power in the top lane.

However, the changes pushed Nasus too far in the opposite direction. In this patch, Nasus will have some of his overall sustain reduced, making it more challenging for him to reach his desired stack counts by lowering his passive [Soul Eater] lifesteal.

LeBlanc, Yasuo, and Yone Buffs on the Way

In Patch 16.17, Yasuo and Yone will be getting more incentives to build more Crit items, especially on the first item. The goal is to help both champions scale more effectively while addressing their itemization gap in the long term.

As for LeBlanc, she has been significantly affected by the changes to Statikk Shiv, making it more difficult for her to clear waves. Now, Riot is giving her a small buff to level the playing field, while trying not to make her overpowered in any particular skill bracket.

Patch for Small Revisions

Patch 26.17 comes to adjust small things in certain champions' kits rather than changing the current meta. The AP bot meta will still be a reality as Riot Games believes it adds long-term variety to the role. 

All information about LoL Patch 26.17 was taken from an X (Twitter) post made by Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends. If you'd like to have a look at the complete list of changes, make sure to check out the post!

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Featured Image Credits: Riot Games // League of Legends

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