Welcome to patch 6.8, the one before mid-season (pre-mid-season?!). We’ll have more than enough time to talk about the specifics of that spicy update, but for the moment let’s ask this question – how do we balance in the face of an impending major update?

As you’d expect, the answer is ‘carefully.’ Knowing that all sorts of changes are coming for mages and their items limits what we can do in the short-term. Why buff a mage item or champion when we’ll be making sweeping changes to the entire class? Alternatively (I’m talking to you, Riven mains), buffing a champion that’s underperforming due to the current landscape is equally difficult, knowing that everything is about to change. Who gets stronger when the update hits? Who’s weaker? Does Zed still kill everyone (probably)? So, instead of talking about what we’re not changing in 6.8, let’s talk about what we are.

If our goal is to be careful, then that means focusing on outliers – either too dominant or too weak – that we don’t think mid-season will impact significantly. We’re toning down some early-game sustain, as well as the main offenders in the ‘Everyone Gets To Be A Tank’ party (Ekko, Iceborn Gauntlet). We’re also showing love to some fan favorites (MF, Rumble) that play particularly well with and against the wizardly warriors to be spruced up next patch.

Mix it all together with a fabulous new Taric and you’ve got yourself a medium-sized patch with just enough excitement to hold you over until a cadre of updated mages waltz up and optic blast you into the next dimension (look out for Malzahar). That’s all for us this patch – we’ll see you around the Rift, playing some new champion named ‘Galio’.

Good luck, have fun.