The League of Legends bot lane meta has shifted dramatically over the last few months, with AP mages taking over the traditional ADC role, and now developers are preparing to step in.
Ahead of League’s Patch 26.16, Riot’s balance team explained that while the strategy adds variety to the game, it has started pushing traditional ADCs too far out of the spotlight. The upcoming patch will include targeted buffs for marksmen alongside nerfs to support roaming, to preserve mage bot as a viable option without letting it dominate both professional play.
Quick Summary
- Patch 26.16 will buff ADCs while nerfing support roaming.
- Devs say the mage bot lane meta has swung too far.
- Berserker’s Greaves, Fleet Footwork, Heal, and ADC MR are receiving buffs.
- Increased support roaming penalties aim to keep marksmen viable in bot lane.
Patch 26.16 plans to curb mage bot meta with major ADC buffs
According to Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison on X, Lead Gameplay Designer, the mage bot lanes were only around 20 percent of picks at MSI 2026, but their priority has increased significantly during recent events like the Esports World Cup and the KeSPA Cup. That trend has also started spilling over into ranked games.
The balance team explained that the current meta is the result of several balance shifts throughout the year. Earlier in the season, ranged supports and Enchanters heavily favored hyper-carry ADCs, prompting Patch 26.11 to buff melee supports while nerfing ranged options. At the same time, players discovered new ways to bypass anti-roaming and lane swap restrictions.
“What resulted was 2 major swings towards roaming supports and away from ADC bot,” Phroxzon said. While the team is happy with mage bot lanes existing as part of the game, it believes the pendulum has now swung too far.
The developers added that they still view ADCs as the primary class for the bot lane and do not want professional players to feel forced into learning entirely different champion subclasses overnight. “We don’t want to force them to suddenly completely swap subclasses by suddenly making ADC and that learnt skill expression unviable, so it’s a fine balance.”
At the same time, they emphasized that flexibility remains an important goal for the game.
“For those who want to learn it, we want to encourage and allow for skill expression of Pros to play a variety of things, resulting in more flexible comps, dynamic lanes, etc., and greater champ variety long term,” he further explained.
What is changing in League Patch 26.16?
Patch 26.16 will focus on targeted adjustments rather than sweeping class-wide changes. The balance team says it does not want to erase the differences between mages and ADCs by giving both classes identical strengths and weaknesses.
Instead, the patch will address the most extreme outliers while preserving each class’s identity. Planned changes include:
- Increased out-of-lane support gold and XP penalties, from 25 percent until level 3 to 33 percent until level 5, making early roaming more costly.
- Buffs to Berserker’s Greaves.
- Buffs to Fleet Footwork.
- Buffs to ADC base magic resist, alongside reductions to magic resist growth.
- Buffs to Heal Summoner Spell.
The developers also noted that they are testing additional experimental changes, with more details expected later this week.
Why aren’t mage bot win rates enough to justify heavy nerfs?
The developers believe Mage bot lane win rates can paint a misleading picture of their true power in regular ranked play. Unlike professional matches, where mage picks often enable roaming support strategies, champions such as Brand, Swain, Ziggs, Veigar, Seraphine, and Xerath typically succeed by winning lane through poke or 2v2 kill pressure.
They also tend to perform well even in the hands of inexperienced players.
“Their winrates as a result, I think, are misleading for their true power level, in the same way that one shouldn’t be alarmed by Malphite having a 52-53% winrate,” Phroxzon said.
Patch 26.16 represents the first step in rebalancing the bot lane for now. The developers say they want to preserve strategic diversity while ensuring ADCs remain the premier choice for the role, without completely shutting the door on mage bot lane strategies.
Q: Will Patch 26.16 make Mage bot lane picks unplayable?
No. The developers have repeatedly said they want mage bot laners to remain a viable alternative. The goal is to reduce their dominance and bring ADCs back to a healthier position, not remove mages from the role entirely.
Q: Which ADCs are likely to benefit the most from the 26.16 changes?
Marksmen that rely on sustained auto attacks and Fleet Footwork, such as Jinx, Caitlyn, Zeri, and Kai’Sa, could see the biggest gains from the item, rune, and survivability buffs. However, the exact impact will depend on the final patch notes.
Q: Are these the final Patch 26.16 balance changes?
Not necessarily. The developers stated that they are still testing additional experimental adjustments and plan to share more details before the patch is finalized, so the final changelist may differ from the preview.
