Patch 7.0a changes

Update history and meta predictions

Numbers are transcribed from the official Riot patch notes; the commentary is ours. This page covers patch 7.0a (added 2026-05-28).

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Meta analysis (patch 7.0a, AI-written forecast)

Patch 7.0a nerfs the early-game picks Nidalee, Smolder and Zilean, which reins in early snowballing. Vayne's damage nerf and the Spear of Shojin and Psychic Projector nerfs reduce the impact of bruisers and health-scaling mages. The Runaan's Hurricane price cut is an indirect buff to multi-target marksmen.

FizzPatch 7.0a

Buff

Urchin Strike Targeting logic optimised so Fizz recognises enemies along the dash path more accurately, reducing cases where damage was missed. Enemies standing in the path could be skipped entirely, closing the gap without the damage that was supposed to come with it. With the detection tightened up, diving onto the intended target now behaves the way the player read it. Fizz wins by chaining abilities quickly into a kill, so cleaning up the entry to that combo changes how many attempts convert.

SmolderPatch 7.0a

Nerf

Super Scorcher Breath Cooldown: 4.5/4/3.5/3s → 5.5/5/4.5/4s Achooo! Sneeze blast damage reduced. One more second of cooldown at every rank slows both his stacking and how often he can act in lane. Smolder's whole appeal is how much stronger he gets as stacks pile up, so fewer casts early pushes back the point where he becomes a threat. The sneeze blast on Achooo! hits for less as well, which weakens his wave clear and his poke at the same time.

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ArenaPatch 7.0a

Adjust

Arena Champion balance: Ryze, Vayne, Nidalee, Rengar Augment and item stats adjusted Arena runs short, repeated fights in 2v2, where differences that go unnoticed on the Rift decide rounds, so the mode gets its own tuning pass. This one touches four champions plus augment and item stats, which can shift both the standard buy order and augment priorities. This note does not list the resulting values, so check them in game.

ZileanPatch 7.0a

Nerf

Chronoshift Cooldown: 90/80/70s → 100/85/70s Cooldown reduction when the rune's revive effect does not trigger: 15% → 10% Chronoshift gains 10s of cooldown at rank 1 and 5s at rank 2, with rank 3 unchanged at 70s. Through the mid game, where fights come one after another, Zilean gets fewer guaranteed saves, so choosing who to spend it on carries more weight. The refund when the revive does not fire drops from 15% to 10% as well, which raises the cost of casting it speculatively as insurance.

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Psychic ProjectorPatch 7.0a

Nerf

Conversion AP gained: 5% of bonus HP → 3.5% Converting 1.5% less bonus HP into AP flattens the payoff of stacking health for damage. Since it scales off bonus HP, the more health items are stacked the larger the absolute loss, so the gap widens the longer the game runs. Pairing durability with damage in one item still works, but matching the old output now takes a separate source of AP in the build.

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ARAMPatch 7.0a

Adjust

Ultimate Spellbook ARAM New augments: Killer Instinct, Hit Combo, Origin: Lethal Tempo Several existing augments adjusted Gwen's damage output adjusted Three new augments shake up an order of picks that had settled into a routine, which makes even the first selection worth rethinking. Several existing augments are retuned as well, so what used to be the safe default may no longer be the strongest choice. This note does not list the resulting values for the new or adjusted augments or for Gwen, so check them in game.

NidaleePatch 7.0a

Nerf

Pounce (Aspect of the Cougar) Base damage: 80/115/150/185 → 65/100/135/170 Cooldown refund when used on a killed or marked target in cougar form: 2/1.75/1.5/1.25s → 2.75/2.25/1.75/1.25s (nerf) Pounce loses 15 base damage at every rank, so closing in and finishing the job in cougar form takes longer. The cooldown line is listed as a nerf as well; rank 4 stays at 1.25s while ranks 1 through 3 cycle more slowly than before. Nidalee's pattern is to pounce in, land a string of hits and leave as one motion, so early ganks and jungle chases will come up a hit short more often.

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Bug FixesPatch 7.0a

Adjust

Bug Fixes Morgana and Renekton tag corrections Unshakeable bug fix, among others Tags are the classification labels attached to champions and abilities, so these corrections do not change any ability values. Unshakeable is a Resolve path rune, and if its behaviour had been off, the reasoning behind taking it may change now that it is fixed. This note does not go into detail on the fixes, so confirm the behaviour in game.

VaynePatch 7.0a

Nerf

Tumble Bonus damage: 40/50/60/70% AD → 35/45/55/65% Final Hour Bonus AD: 20/30/40 → 15/25/35 Tumble loses 5% AD of bonus damage at every rank and Final Hour gives 5 less bonus AD, so her empowered attacks close fights out more slowly. During Final Hour both cuts stack, which makes her ultimate window noticeably lighter. Vayne's identity is grinding a single target down, and with more attacks needed to finish the job, her positioning and timing have to be that much cleaner to stay in range.

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ARAMPatch 7.0a

Adjust

ARAM Respawn time on death at the 15 minute mark: adjusted to 50s Damage dealt adjusted for Evelynn, Sivir, Fiora, Vi, Zed and Akali With the respawn time spelled out, it is easier to judge how long a dead player is out of the fight after 15 minutes. In ARAM that gap converts directly into tower and Nexus pressure, so counting down an opponent's wait before committing to a fight is worth doing. Six champions have their damage output adjusted, but this note does not state the direction or size of each change, so check them in game.

Radiant VirtuePatch 7.0a

Nerf

Guiding Light Healing per second: 3% of max HP → 2.5% Losing 0.5% of max HP per second cuts the total damage the effect can absorb while it runs. Because it scales off max HP, champions stacking health lose the most in absolute terms, so durability-focused builds feel it hardest. Fights that used to be held by activating it and standing firm can now simply be lost, which argues for pressing it a beat earlier than before.

Spear of ShojinPatch 7.0a

Nerf

Base Stats AD: 45 → 40 Dragonforce Basic ability haste: +25 → +20 Five less AD and five less basic ability haste trim damage and rotation speed at the same time. Spear of Shojin earns its slot by letting a champion cast repeatedly, so the haste loss shows up directly in how many abilities fit into one fight. With less on offer for the same gold, even ability-based fighters can reasonably put durability or another damage item first.

Runaan's HurricanePatch 7.0a

Buff

Cost: 3000 gold → 2900 gold A 100 gold discount. The amount is small, but this sits in the price range marksmen buy first or second, so it can pull the purchase forward by a single recall. Runaan's Hurricane covers wave clear and hitting multiple targets in fights, and finishing it sooner means taking lane priority back sooner. The effect itself is untouched, so the late game is unchanged; the difference shows up in the mid-game games where that one earlier recall lands.

What the Patch Archive Covers

515 recorded changes across 26 versions, from 6.3 through to the current 7.2d. It is built for tracking how often a single champion has been buffed or nerfed.

Some patches move far more than others

The largest is 7.2 with 175 entries — the patch that rebuilt boots and introduced tier 3. Others run to a handful of lines, so the version numbers alone say nothing about how much the meta shifted.

Of the 515 entries, 182 are champion changes. The rest cover items and runes, ARAM and Arena tuning, ranked seasons and system-level work.

What the meta prediction is worth

Selecting a version also brings up a meta prediction for that patch, 26 versions in all. It is an AI-written read rather than measured data; the tier list is where you check what the win rates actually did.

Counts reflect the patch data bundled with this site. A new patch takes a short while to appear.