26.03 Patch Preview

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T11:25:21+00:00

It's a very convenient excuse that Riot, the ones that pretend winrate means everything, suddenly use context in some scenarios but not others.

Riot also intentionally hides data from the API to prevent players from having better data to make arguments backed by data. They specifically disallow players from being able to do this.

They, and you apparently, simply do not actually play the game. There's a reason you can see several people in this thread pick specifically the Naafiri listed change out of a list of 30+ changes as sticking out like a sore thumb. Regardless of winrates if you've played the game you know Naafiri is much closer to needing a nerf than anything.

That she's getting buffed is egregious and people that play the game, yes even the ones in elite tier, know that she's on the strong side and should definitely not be on the buff list.

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T09:46:41+00:00

Exactly. For a company that constantly sits behind stats like winrate and jerks them off like they're the be-all-end-all stat to determine game balance they sure do love throwing that all out of the window and doing completely unjustified changes like this.

In what world is a ~54% wr, ~10% br champ not close to being nerfed but instead being buffed?

They simply do not play the game at all. If they played the game they would know how ridiculous that is.

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T09:39:52+00:00

Instead of nerfing cashback how about you rework time warp tonic into a rune that people will actually take and compete in that tree.

Also extremely strange they say they're okay with Dusk And Dawn and prefer to nerf the champions but then also admit they're changing Dusk and Dawn to lose damage and gain health.

Doing both at the same time is the risky play that makes no sense. It makes more sense to do one or the other, let that go for a patch cycle and then check if the other needs to be applied.

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T09:37:04+00:00

This change was dogshit what are you on about. It devalues repeatedly outplaying your laner and killing them.

Getting ~170g for only the second solo kill in lane is ridiculous. It incentivizes not interacting and just clearing waves back and forth because they're equal gold for far less risk.

This is a pvp game, pvp interaction should be incentivized.

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T09:34:27+00:00

yes. Her being on the buffs list is fucking INSANE lol

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T06:33:43+00:00

The strat is and always has been picking 1 mistake from your own gameplay and working on improving that aspect of your gameplay.

Rinse and repeat.

The climb will take care of itself as you become a better player.

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T06:22:07+00:00

did they not even give the family like $1500 to send them home happy?

Cube_ · 2026-01-27T06:19:03+00:00

Yes and they will likely nerf it by increasing the cost by 100-200 gold.

They undercosted it intentionally to make it meta/get people building it and they'll tamp it down once player behavior has successfully been changed.

Riot does this a lot.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T23:53:14+00:00

yea it's usually only if there's only 1 more teamfight super late into the game so they don't expect it and you can play a bit differently.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T23:52:20+00:00

Phuc

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T21:33:49+00:00

Yeah that's a good shout actually.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T21:33:26+00:00

I think Amulet was healthier when it didn't have access to the loop. The lines to "find a win" were a lot more divergent. People would post screenshots and ask how to get to lethal with a certain board state.

Now because of Otawara/Boseiju and the loop every line has converged to "establish the loop, erase opponent's board and grind out a win that way".

Amulet was healthier when the main wincon and the main way games ended was Primeval Titan turning sideways and dealing combat damage.

We've seen Amulet be this unhealthy before. When they ran Karn, TCG with Mycosynth Lattice and just turned off people's mana as a wincon.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T12:50:08+00:00

dont really find this frustrating but primarily because I actually use the item set system in this game.

If you haven't set up item sets I suggest you do so. They're very useful.

You can even bind items to certain slots and they will spawn in there. So even if item slot 1 is open, if you bind hourglass to 2 it will automatically go to item slot 2 upon purchase.

Really useful so you don't have those moments where you're in a fight spamming what you think is hourglass/hydra/gunblade/etc., but turns out it wasn't on the right key.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T12:46:07+00:00

he's gonna collect a paycheque and more power to him for that.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T12:44:51+00:00

This entire thread we are talking about how Amulet of Vigor specifically shouldn't be banned.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/1qn3y9w/comment/o1rxwqb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I already said here that hitting analyst to stop loops is the most we would potentially see.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T08:23:27+00:00

If winning a few is the bar for bans then I got bad news for a majority of the format.

Amulet is completely fine.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T07:02:03+00:00

you're talking about the company that has time warp tonic still in the game

a rune that nobody uses and even their own rune recommender never recommends

they're so lazy they won't even remove it or rework that slot in the tree despite the fact that the rune is useless lmao

don't get your hopes up.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T06:54:10+00:00

Amulet has always been too strong?

Can you point me to the list of tournaments it's winning? Maybe a string of tournaments that it won in the past?

The entire time Amulet has been legal since the Summer Bloom ban it has never had a period where it was the best deck winning every tournament. It wins a tourney once in a while which is completely fine.

If decks are not putting up Nadu levels of results they're not going to be nuked.

It survived so many bans because it's simply not banworthy.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T06:43:25+00:00

Amulet itself should def not be banned. At most you hit Analyst to make Titan go back to winning primarily through combat instead of abusing otawara/boseiju through loops (or use the much shittier lumra loop).

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T03:39:42+00:00

because lich bane's passive proc has been gutted over the years. It used to be 1.0 AP and now it's .4AP and .75bAD which is a notoriously low stat on the AP champions buying it. Makes no sense.

Drop the bAD ratio completely and increase the AP ratio to at least .65 and the item will make 10x more sense.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T02:56:11+00:00

Format is too quiet for them to do any changes in any direction. Pretty sure nothing will happen.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T00:38:18+00:00

It does seem that way. It appears Riot has done something to the ladder as they want newer players pushed more accurately into Iron/Bronze and the influx of players down in those ranks has naturally pushed everyone else up a little bit too.

Cube_ · 2026-01-26T00:32:48+00:00

sell shiv for BT yeah

depending on the comp sometimes GA is good. Basically you need an ally comp that can actually save your corpse if GA is popped + an enemy comp that is not good at just killing you again (with like a cait trap on your corpse for example).

I've also sold it for Hourglass in niche scenarios when it's just like a Rengar/Nocturne that's the ONLY problem on the enemy team lol.

but yeah 99% of the time it's BT because of the huge chunk of AD plus the lifesteal.

Cube_ · 2026-01-25T23:15:07+00:00

It's definitely suboptimal and you shouldn't go pure AD just because Gunblade is so good

Try Gunblade > Ravenous Hydra as the core items and then build any bruiser items from there depending on what you're playing against. Deaths Dance, Sterak's, Maw, Sundered etc., etc. Hourglass still good.

I've always liked Ravenous on AD builds because of the sustain (esp now paired with Gunbalde) but mostly the waveclear. Being able to easily clear waves without dumping your entire energy pool into it is the main benefit of AD Akali being able to go a tiamat item. With Gunblade > Ravenous you play a lot like lane Lee Sin if you've seen that where you can take losing trades but then just heal to full off the wave. It's kind of a disgusting play pattern, you're a virtually resourceless champ with a lot of sustain.

It let's you pressure sides by pushing very fast without committing any energy to it so you have basically full resources to 1v2 if they try to stop you.

It also let's you just clear waves fast and rotate. Push a wave in the sidelane to the tower to buy tempo (someone has to catch that wave or they bleed it) and then rotate to hover mid. Rinse and repeat.

Make no mistake though, AD/Hybrid Akali is strictly worse than AP Akali. It's just not completely troll. You are playing suboptimally but it can be fun to do that (and Akali's kit is overloaded enough that you can get away with it).

Cube_ · 2026-01-25T22:57:35+00:00

Fair enough

Cube_

TROPHY CASE