In 2025, League of Legends was objectively at its most balanced state ever. However, many people ended up finding it too bland, perhaps even repetitive. Streamers regularly complained about changes being too minimal and too safe. The 2026 announcements look to finally be the big changes that Riot promised.
In the history of League of Legends, preseason was always the time for big changes. In 2015, Riot reworked the entire Summoner’s Rift and the masteries, and in 2016, overhauled ADCs and added keystone masteries. 2017 saw changes to assassins and supports, 2018 had Runes Reforged, and so on.
Between a new vision system, the brand new Mythic items, and jungle reworks, the beginning of a new season usually meant a few weeks of experimenting with completely new tools. Who can tell whether jungle Garen with Hexflash is awful or the new genius pick when the rune just came out? More often than not, players simply needed to try it out for themselves.
From 2022 onward, though, we’ve no longer had this level of massive changes. With two major patches each year, the player base asked for more stability. Players even regularly asked for the game to be put in stasis.
2025 was the result of that. Riot announced big changes, and sure enough, the map changed at the start of the year. Thematic seasons, Atakhan, Feats of Strength, and the Noxus rift; these were the big changes. Or so they seemed. It turned out that they didn’t affect the players’ fantasy enough.
Riot struck a really good game balance in the second half of 2025. The game is balanced. Yet ironically, after 15 years of constant complaints about a bad balance team, it turns out that a vocal part of the community (streamers and their fanbases) doesn’t want that either. There appears to be no way of pleasing LoL fans.
Demacia, the theme of League of Legends in 2026. Image Source: Riot Games
2026 is coming, and Riot agreed that it was time major updates returned. There’s going to be a lot of changes affecting every champion but this time, through gameplay. The formula that Riot is trying to strike is to give enough new tools to keep players excited over a longer period of time, while still maintaining a foundation that feels stable.
2025 failed to provide the former. There were new things, but these got solved mere weeks into the year. On the other hand, 2021 was uncomfortable for the latter. Too much changed at the core of the game. That meant no stable footing left to try new things from.
This is where role quests come into play. Role quests have a threefold interest.
All this innovation isn’t exhausted in mere weeks. At the same time, one can still play their favorite champion the way they always did.
The other step in that direction is the items.
Riot is adding 9 new items in 2026, as well as returning or reverting 7 old ones.
Starting with Runes Reforged in Preseason 2018 and continuing with Mythic items, players often complained about a systemic creep. Too much of the damage came from runes, or items. Certain builds felt like playing the item, not the champion. Sunfire, Goredrinker, Twin Shadows – GLP, Feral Flare, Divine Sunderer… Each of these items once felt like it defined the champion’s playstyle more than the champion did.
Therefore, in 2025, Riot shifted the focus back to champions to address the feedback. Today, most of the crit items exclusively give stats – and the rest of them mostly do.
| Item | Stat line | Additional effects |
|---|---|---|
| Infinity Edge | AD, Crit Chance, Crit Damage | None |
| Phantom Dancer | Attack Speed, Crit Chance, Movement Speed | None |
| Lord Dominik’s Regards | AD, Armor Penetration, Crit Chance | None |
| Essence Reaver | Ability Haste, AD, Crit Chance | Mana regen that is seldom considered |
These items are awesome: they let ADCs pick what they need to support their champion, and they enable diversity. However, they’re not exciting, the community said. Players simply pilot their champion, and these give the tools to best answer the situation.
By comparison, an item like Heartsteel makes players change the way they play, for a clear and audible payoff. Heartsteel is known for being particularly satisfying, despite generally being on the weaker side.
Ezreal, already wondering which item he’ll break this time. Image Source: Riot Games
The new and returning items play an active role in the gameplay, more like the way Heartsteel does. Items like that allow players to stick to the champions they like, and try new and exciting things. This first applies in the intended ways – on Sivir, should one get the Emblem of All-Inning, or Snowbow?
However, after that, it also opens the floodgates to crazy ideas. What if players would try this new Sheen on-hit item on champions it shouldn’t belong on, like Shyvana or Kai’Sa?
This gives novelty and replayability – on a hopefully stable basis.
This paints the picture of a far more interesting and fun League of Legends for 2026. Every good element of gameplay from 2025 stays – the game is shining through its champions and these aren’t changing. However, every champion will be playable in more ways and have a deeper power fantasy. Every champion will have more paths to explore when one gets stale.
Above all though, the role quests and item changes create explosive gameplay moments. These crazy moments are what we play League of Legends for, those that we remember beyond the victory or defeat screen. Putting the focus back on these will make League of Legends much more exciting in 2026.
Riot Games is also bringing in many more changes for the next year. The WASD control scheme, the ranked changes, a rework to turrets and pushing, changes to objectives, and much more. In 2026, League of Legends is finally changing.
Featured Image Source: Riot Games
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