Major Alexander

Patch 26.23 Preview! It's the second last patch of the year and we're continuing to adjust champs that have had adverse effects from Pro Play and tap down a few strong champs for regular play that have been on the higher ratings for frustration surveys Voltaic Cyclosword - After nerfing Bastionbreaker a few patches ago, we also think Voltaic is slightly too strong currently - There need to be powerful Assassin first items! And Voltaic competes against things like Umbral, Hubris, Profane Hydra, Youmuus, which we think could see more representation in the environment - Even then, it's still a little too strong, so we're looking to tap it down a bit Yi, Syndra, Leblanc - Yi and Syndra continue to be champions that rate highly on our frustration surveys - Yi for regular play and Syndra and Leblanc for the higher levels of play - Syndra got a nerf a few patches ago and it was not super heavy by intention, so as to not go further than we need to, but we think she could use another tap down this patch Mel - So far, Mel has landed in a pretty stable spot, with a decently low banrate (touch wood) - That said, at this power level, we aren't really able to test our hypothesis of whether she is less frustrating when she's at a power level, so we're giving her some buffs to let her sit at a normal power level for a champion of her type of shape and mastery curve - She shows a bit of a bot skew, similar to many other mages that have been inhabiting bot lane recently - This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but just something to watch Buffs - Of the interesting buffs, many of the historical Pro staples are receiving buffs this patch to round out the year for average play - These include champs like Azir, Galio, K'Sante, Ezreal, etc. - Many of these champs feel pretty weak, even in the highest levels of Solo Queue, because they just don't thrive as much in non-coordinated environments (Ezreal a bit less so)