Riot Games is preparing targeted adjustments to the bot lane in Patch 26.16 after sustained criticism of the current Mage-heavy meta. Lead Gameplay Designer Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison outlined the direction in a public post, acknowledging feedback from both ranked players and professionals while explaining how the team plans to reduce the gap without erasing class differences.
The rise of Mages in the bottom lane has been one of the more visible shifts in recent months. At MSI the pick rate sat around 20 percent, yet many observers felt their presence was more oppressive than the number suggested. Since then the strategy has continued to grow in popularity across both solo queue and competitive play. Traditional attack-damage carries have struggled to match the early pressure, wave control, and safety that many Mages provide, leading to complaints that the ADC role is losing its identity.
Phroxzon addressed those concerns directly. The team does not want to force professional players to abandon the mechanical skills and positioning patterns they have developed for marksmen. At the same time, Riot wants to keep room for flexible compositions and different forms of skill expression. Completely removing Mages from the lane is not the goal. Reducing the severity of the current imbalance is.
Several concrete changes are planned for Patch 26.16. Support roaming will be hit with a stronger early penalty. The gold and experience reduction for supports who leave lane will increase from 25 percent until level 3 to 33 percent until level 5. The adjustment is intended to make aggressive early roams less rewarding and to keep supports closer to their ADC partners during the most vulnerable phase of the game.
Traditional marksmen will receive a series of targeted buffs. Berserker’s Greaves and Fleet Footwork are both in line for improvements. ADC base magic resist will be increased while magic resist growth is reduced, giving carries more resilience against early poke and burst without making them overly tanky in the late game. The Heal summoner spell is also receiving a buff to improve the lane’s defensive options.
Phroxzon emphasized that Riot is not trying to make the two subclasses feel the same. Mages are expected to keep their earlier power spikes and smoother scaling curves. ADCs should retain later, higher peaks along with sharper highs and lows depending on game state and execution. The focus is on shrinking the size of the early-game gap so that marksmen are not as heavily punished while they work toward their stronger items and levels.
Flattening the differences entirely, he noted, would be a quick way to solve the immediate problem but would also erase the reasons players choose one class over the other. The design goal is to keep distinct identities while making the weaker side of the matchup less extreme.
Additional experimental changes are under testing and may be shared later once the team has more confidence in the direction. The 26.15 patch rundown was also scheduled for release around the same time, though it had been delayed.
The conversation around Mage bot has been particularly loud in professional circles. Players such as Gumayusi have publicly expressed frustration with the current state of the lane and the reduced value of traditional ADC skill expression. Riot’s response shows the feedback is being taken seriously, even if the solution stops short of a full reversion to marksmen as the default bot lane carries.
For solo queue players the changes should make the early game feel less oppressive when facing certain Mage and support combinations. Stronger base magic resist, a better Heal, and improved early items give ADCs more tools to survive the phase where they are most vulnerable. The heavier penalty on support roams should also reduce the frequency of free prioritization elsewhere on the map that often leaves the ADC isolated.
Whether the adjustments are enough will depend on how the numbers land in practice. Mage bot strategies that rely less on early support roaming and more on pure lane pressure may remain viable. The core fantasy of each class is being protected, which means the fundamental tension between early Mage strength and late ADC scaling will continue. The difference is that the magnitude of that tension is being dialed back.
Patch 26.16 is still in preparation, and final values may shift after further testing. The direction, however, is clear. Riot is trying to make bot lane more playable for traditional marksmen without deleting the option for Mages to appear there. The coming patch will show how successful that balancing act is when the changes reach the live game.