Riot believes League of Legends 'mage bot' strats are "healthy diversity" and "need to be viable"

Riot Games has pulled planned Brand buffs from the upcoming League of Legends patch 26.14 due to "concerns around mages bot," but says it's still committed to supporting the divisive strategy as a viable way to play the MOBA. In a preview post covering the new update, Lead Gameplay Designer Matt 'Phroxzon' Leung-Harrison explains the team's current feelings on the importance of allowing mage champions to oppose traditional ADC options in the bottom lane, and frankly, I'm glad to hear its reasoning.

"We know this is a contentious topic," Phroxzon says of mages going bot lane. The idea of trading out your classic carry picks for a mage isn't new, but its prominence in the ongoing MSI 2026 tournament has thrown the strategy into the center of conversation. The matchup can be a rather frustrating one for some of the standard bot lane picks, but I'm hugely in favor of shaking up the traditional meta. As someone who plays and watches both League of Legends and Dota 2, the latter's more flexible team compositions are something I've always wanted to see more of in LoL.

Phroxzon seems to agree, stating that Riot sees "mages bot as creating healthy diversity for the bot lane experience overall, even though for some traditional marksmen, they can be quite frustrating." He points out that there is still a "roughly four-to-one ratio of traditional marksmen to mages," but says this alternative option existing lets players "experience a mix of games at high intensity (eg. playing ADC against Rengar/Talon and mages bot) and also games that are more comfortable and low threat (maybe Ivern jungle)."

"Too much intensity or too little intensity would make the game unfun in the long run," Phroxzon adds. I fully agree here; when I've found myself drifting away from League, it's always been because things felt too formulaic and stale. He then suggests, "Mages bot also need to be viable picks to allow teams to undoom themselves in champ select for an AD-mid pick like Zed/Yone/Yasuo."

Anticipating your next question, Phroxzon continues: "That said, mages bot have pretty high win rates (often the highest), so aren't they overpowered?" He acknowledges that they are "definitely strong for several reasons," but then suggests that "win rates don't tell the full story."

While the simpler mages "have quite shallow mastery curves," he explains, ADCs "are typically harder to play but also reward that mastery depth more, meaning their win rates are relatively suppressed compared to mages bot." That doesn't mean high-level mages are weak (pro play shows this isn't the case), just that playing a mage is "often more forgiving and can be more tolerant of matchup."

Tempo also plays a big part in the mage-bot matchup; typically, they can get online faster with just a couple of items compared to the three or so that ADCs tend to require. However, the trade-off is that the mage's team needs to take advantage of that power spike and end the game quickly before their opponents can catch up and outscale them.

"ADCs also have accelerated three-item spikes in this season (compared to the other roles) due to bot quest," Phroxzon remarks. He gives a couple of examples, such as Ori with Yunara or Lulu in bot lane needing to look to win with two to three items, or "AD mid plus Ziggs and engage bot" having a similar requirement to end fast while its advantage lasts.

The decision to hold off on those Brand buffs for now certainly isn't the end for this topic, or a sign that Riot is fed up with seeing mages move into the bot lane. "A nuanced conversation that I'll dig into more in a video later," Phroxzon concludes. For the time being, he recommends countering with champions that boast dodge skills, who can "have strong 2-3 item spikes and outscale," such as Ezreal, Sivir, or Zeri. As long as Riot keeps players thinking carefully about their strategies right from the champ select screen, I'm in favor of it.