The full League of Legends patch 26.10 preview is here, and I fear Naafiri still has that dog in her

Since the latest League of Legends patch went live, I’ve lived in abject fear of Naafiri. She’s mobile, does a ridiculous amount of damage with the reworked Voltaic Cyclosword, and as soon as you think you’ve got her on a leash, she pops her W and slips away. Riot Games has unveiled its full Patch 26.10 preview for the MOBA, and it looks like, despite being nerfed, Naafiri is a dog that will continue to have its day on the Rift. The patch is also set to revert a 2014 change to Lee Sin’s Safeguard, while offering some love to the likes of Galio and Ambessa.

Though The Hound of a Hundred Bites is due for a nerf in the upcoming League of Legends update, as shared by Lead Gameplay Designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison, she’s only going to be taking a 10% hit to her passive monster damage, while her W is going to be significantly more costly to use mana-wise early on in the game. Naafiri’s W was already on a very long cooldown early, but it does mitigate how many spell rotations she’ll be able to fire off in a fight.

The reasoning for the relatively light tap is sound, however. As Phroxzon explains, Riot’s “taking care not to overly nerf” her, alongside fellow Cyclosword savant Zed, as it’s likely that the studio will adjust the item itself in the future. The dev acknowledges that the pair will probably “continue to be strong” on 26.10, but I agree with Phroxzon that it’s better than giving them the ol’ Riot special.

Naafiri has progressively become more problematic in recent patches, but the changes to Cyclosword on 26.9 pushed her over the top. She’s currently sitting with a near-30% ban rate in the LoL ranks, even at higher ELOs as per U.GG, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who hates playing against her. Naafiri’s also seeing play across three different roles: Top, Mid, and Jungle, though it’s in the latter two where she’s proving popular. Naturally, when a champion becomes this strong in the draft, it’s time for an intervention. With the passive nerf, I can see her already-slow Jungle clear becoming that bit worse, but how much that will impact her popularity in the role remains to be seen. For now, I’ll either continue perma-banning her, or lock in Nocturne and invade on cooldown.

Of course, there’s plenty more coming in LoL 26.10. As noted, Zed’s also taking one for the AD assassin team, losing damage on both his E and passive. Meanwhile, Anivia’s base armor and armor scaling are down, Shyvana’s HP scaling and W cooldown have been nerfed, and Ashe is losing some of her Q AD ratio. It’s not all nerfs here, though.

The death of Phase Rush Galio has left him in a tough spot. To help with those early trades a bit more, everyone’s favorite gargoyle is seeing his Q cost drop, while his E now scales better with AP. His ultimate, Hero’s Entrance, has actually been changed to scale with magic resistance, rather than damage, cementing his identity as the premier anti-mage tank. The big benefactor from the patch is Ambessa, who’s getting some hefty compensation for the fact her ultimate is now considerably easier to dodge. With more damage on her Q early, alongside more healing from her ult passive, she could yet become a menace in the right setup.

Perhaps my favorite change on the patch is that to Lee Sin. Back in February, game designer David ‘Phreak’ Turley revealed Riot was considering removing the shackles it had placed on his Safeguard ability back in 2014’s Patch 4.5, which nearly doubled its cooldown when leaping to non-champions, and removed the shielding he got from hopping to minions and wards. As of 26.10, this has been reverted, albeit with a small, yet valid nerf to how large-a-shield he gets. His E AD ratio has also been knocked down by 10%, but this is a worthy trade-off for increased survivability. Another major change here is that his ultimate now sends the enemy’s body flying, even if it kills them – a tweak I’ve often begged for after inadvertently fluffing a flashy multi-champ knock-up play.

All-in-all, despite not being happy about the prospect of continued Naafiri dominance, and a possible Ambessa resurgence in my ranked games, it’s a decent patch. I’ve had plenty of fun testing out some of 26.9’s alt builds, but it looks like I’ll be trading AP Xin Zhao for Lee Sin when 26.10 arrives on May 13.