League of Legends patch 26.13 is finally dealing with its Senna problem

Of all of League of Legends‘ 170+ champions, few have caused as many balancing headaches as Senna. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen The Redeemer rise and fall from prominence over the years, and her passive, Absolution, must be one of the MOBA’s most-tweaked at this point. Well, Senna’s turned into a soloq monster once again, and Riot Games is coming in with some hefty nerfs in League’s latest patch.

“Senna is the big winner of the Season 2 changes,” League of Legends’ Lead Gameplay Designer Matt Leung-Harrison notes on X. “[She’s] synergizing well with Doran’s Helm (gets a lot of effective health from her Q heal synergizing with the resists) as well as getting a lot of stats from Jack of All Trades. She also synergizes well with Stattik Shiv on-hit, and we’ve made the decision to not support this interaction (Q CD reduction on-hit), even though it is pretty cool.”

Basically, Senna is too tanky for how much damage she’s able to pump out. Alongside the removal of the Stattik Shiv interaction, Senna’s soul drop rate for minions and monsters she kills has been cut in half, down to 5% from 10%. Conversely, the spawn rate on creatures she doesn’t last hit has been upped from 28% to 32%. Compounded with the incoming nerf to her crit damage ratio, which impacts her scaling, alongside the slight reworking of Doran’s Helm’s stats, Senna’s about to lose a fair amount of juice at all stages of the game.

Riot has historically struggled to balance Senna’s duality as both an ADC and a support, and these changes could push her back to being played as the latter. Considering Senna currently rocks a massive 54% win-rate and an 18.8% pick rate in Emerald and above – the highest in their respective categories according to U.GG – it’s probably for the best. I’m personally sick to death of playing against her most games, but I’m a Rell savant so the distaste tracks.

Elsewhere in League of Legends 26.13, Phroxzon says the team is aiming to make “some of the fringe picks a little more viable” heading into MSI. Aphelios, Kindred, LeBlanc, and Qiyana are all set to benefit from buffs – Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok LeBlanc, anyone? On the other side of the coin, Bard’s Meep damage has finally been curtailed, making it a big day for anyone who has personally been impacted by The Wandering Caretaker near-soloing them with Dead Man’s Plate. The likes of Brand, Cassiopeia, and even Rek’Sai have failed to avoid the nerfhammer this time around.

The final thing of note is that Imperial Mandate’s getting another buff, following its rework on 26.11. While its flat AP is down, it now provides even more Ability Haste on immobilizing abilities, and champions made vulnerable now take an extra 1% damage. On paper, it doesn’t look like much, but considering just how much haste it gives to champs with immobilization tools in their kits, especially midlaners like Galio, Twisted Fate and Lissandra who it’s already seeing play on, I can see it becoming a problem in the near future.

LoL patch 26.13 is set to arrive next Wednesday, June 24. So make sure you soak up as much Senna LP as possible before she ends up back in support purgatory. Also, Bard players, tell your Meeps you love them.