League of Legends Solo Queue Tier Lists for Patch 26.16:
Patch 26.16 barely touches the champion list and should still move the tier list more than 26.15 did, because the work is being done by systems changes. Here's the thing our own 26.15 data makes obvious: bot lane belongs to mages. All three of the strongest bot laners are mages, and every mage in the lane out-wins every marksman despite being picked a fraction as often. This patch is built to end that, so we expect Jinx, Kai'Sa and Caitlyn to take the lane back, Nasus to climb on the biggest champion buff in the patch, and Graves to lose the jungle.
SEASON 16 - PATCH 26.16 Changelog
Patch 26.16 Tier List Predictions
Predicted God Tier List
Highest Influence | Good In Almost Every Situation | Easiest to Gain LP With
Mid Lane
Xerath
Malzahar
Viktor
Jungle
Nocturne
Briar
Shyvana
Warwick
Top Lane
Garen
Teemo
Nasus
Bot Lane
Jinx
Kai'Sa
Caitlyn
Support
Leona
Thresh
Seraphine
Patch 26.16 Changes At a Glance
Buffs: Azir, Gwen, Kennen
Nerfs: Bel'Veth
Tweaks: Camille, Nasus, Poppy
The changes we expect to matter most aren't on that list: every marksman gains 3 base magic resistance, the Support Role Quest penalises roaming until level 5, and jungle pets now scale harder with ability power, resistances and health. Ten items got retuned as well. Full patch notes recap here.
Where We Think Each Role Lands
Bot Lane
Prediction: the mages are handed the bill, and the marksmen take the lane back.
Start with what our 26.15 data says, because it is stark. The three strongest bot laners were all mages, and it wasn't close: every mage in the lane won more than every marksman, by two to four points, while being picked a fraction as often. The most contested marksmen in the game were sitting under 50 percent. That is the exact imbalance Riot wrote this patch to fix, and they said so in the notes.
The fix arrives from three directions at once. Every marksman gains 3 base magic resistance, from 30 to 33. Berserker's Greaves go from 25 percent attack speed to 30, and 40 to 45 at tier three. Runaan's Hurricane gains move speed and its bolts go from 55 to 65 percent attack damage. Separately those are small. Landing on the same archetype in the same patch, against the specific matchup that has been beating it, they aren't.
So we expect the whole top of the lane to turn over. Jinx is our pick for the top slot, because she was the best performing of the heavily played marksmen and Runaan's is core on her rather than situational, so she banks every one of those buffs. Kai'Sa runs on attack speed, which is precisely what got cheaper. Caitlyn is the most contested pick in the role and has been losing the lane she is supposed to win. Seraphine keeps God Tier as a support, where none of this applies to her.
Jungle
Prediction: the pet change quietly rewrites who the jungle belongs to.
Jungle pets now scale at 16 percent ability power instead of 12, 25 percent of bonus armour and magic resistance instead of 20, and 4 percent bonus health instead of 3. Riot wrote the intent into the notes: help mage and tank junglers against the current attack damage fighter meta. That's a small number attached to a large statement of direction.
Graves is the champion that statement is about, and our data agrees he's vulnerable. He holds the largest pick share in the role while winning the least of the four at the top, which is a placement carried by popularity rather than performance. He wasn't nerfed, and Sundered Sky losing healing hits his archetype rather than him personally. We still expect him to slip. Warwick is our pick to replace him: already rated just behind, and the pet's new resistance and health scaling describes his build.
The two genuine nerfs are straightforward. Bel'Veth loses health growth and 5 percent total attack speed on Endless Banquet [R] at rank three, which is a deliberate cut to the late game that justified her weak start. Nasus loses jungle stacking, from 12 per large monster to 10. Both should give up ground. Nocturne, Briar and Shyvana were untouched and should hold.
Support
Prediction: the roamers get taxed, and the lane-bound enchanters collect.
The Support Role Quest change is the quiet headline of this patch. The minion penalty for being outside bot lane goes from -25 percent until level 3 to -33 percent until level 5, and the bonus progress you used to get from fighting champions instead of last hitting is gone. That's a direct tax on the level 2 and 3 roam, which is the entire game plan for a specific set of supports.
Camille gets hit twice, because she's both the archetype and a champion in the notes. Adaptive Defenses [Passive] goes from a flat 20 percent max health shield to 10 percent at level 1, only reaching 25 at level 19. Riot said they want to nerf her support roaming while keeping her top lane, and the numbers match the words. Poppy's the same story in a different shape: attack damage down from 60 to 56 and Hammer Shock [Q] losing a quarter of its bonus attack damage ratio.
The champions who gain are the ones who never left lane. Nami, Sona and Milio all farm their support item off minions and fight at level 6 rather than level 3, so the quest change costs them nothing and costs their competition plenty. Leona, Thresh and Seraphine should hold the top untouched. Bard is the one we expect to fall hardest, because roaming isn't part of his kit, it's the whole kit.
Mid Lane
Prediction: the top three hold, and this patch pays them.
Mid lane is where the power leaving bot lane is going. Spellslinger's Shoes go from 18 flat magic penetration to 20, and Chainlaced Crushers drop from 30 magic resistance to 25, so mid mages hit harder and the standard counter-buy against them got weaker. It's a two-sided change and it lands entirely on this role.
Our top three here are mages, all untouched, and all direct beneficiaries, so we expect no movement at the top at all. Xerath is the interesting one, because he tops both mid and bot on our data and this patch pulls the two in opposite directions: the mid version gets stronger, the bot version faces 3 more magic resistance on every target. What changes behind them is depth, with Vel'Koz and Anivia the clearest risers on the same reasoning.
The other half of the role is Riot's stated hope for more attack damage mids. Conquering Sands [Q] gives Azir a flat 15 more damage at every rank, which is a real laning buff even if Riot called it moderate. Tristana and Akshan both get named in the notes, and Tristana's magic resistance going from 28 to 33 is the largest single defensive buff in the patch. None of the three should be near the top by the weekend, but all three should be a lot less bad than they were.
Top Lane
Prediction: the biggest champion buff in the patch goes to the champion nobody is discussing.
Siphoning Strike [Q] now banks 4 stacks per minion instead of 3. That is a third more stacks on every minion Nasus kills, on the champion whose entire game is stack count against clock, and Riot paid for it by cutting his large monster stacks from 12 to 10 to push him out of the jungle. He was already rated well in top lane on our data. We think this puts him at the top of it.
Malphite is the one we expect to give way. He finished 26.15 at the top of the lane, but Sunfire Cape now costs 100 gold more and its minion and monster damage modifiers both drop, which is most of what he was buying it for, and the extra gold bites on a champion who needs his second item on time. Garen and Teemo were untouched and should hold either side of Nasus.
Gwen and Kennen are the two we expect to climb out of the bottom of the lane. A Thousand Cuts [Passive] goes from healing 50 to 67 percent post-mitigation with the cap raised from 10-25 to 12-40, which genuinely restores the sustain that made her work. Slicing Maelstrom [R] gains damage, ability power ratio and bonus resistances at every rank. Neither should be a problem champion, but both should stop being a liability.
Everything above is a forecast written the day the patch went live, before a single ranked game had been played on it. The League of Legends tier list hub carries the confirmed rankings once the data lands, and we'll grade every call on this page against what actually happened.
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