Every League of Legends preseason brings its own set of major expectations for the players. The 2026 preseason is shaping up to be one of the most impactful, with some even calling it an overhaul. Riot is focusing on champion identity and team composition as a broader theme.
In this article, we’ll focus on the new item system and what it brings to the game. We’ll also try to understand the update in the context of the previous ones.
From Mythic Chaos to Champion-First Design
To understand the most recent update, we should take a step back and remember how Mythic first came to be several seasons ago and what it meant for the players. The main goal was to simplify first-item choices and give champions clearer power identities. It’s fair to say that it didn’t work out as planned.
Instead, it boxed players in and made them choose predictable upgrades, making the game somewhat boring. In the subsequent seasons, Riot tried to get out of the whole thing by introducing more class-driven item lines, pruning outlier passives, and changing the shop interface.
During 2024 and 25, there were several patches. These focused on building diversity, improving item clarity, and making pacing adjustments to reduce snowballing. All of these combined led to the 2026 pivot that we’re now witnessing.
The 2026 Item System: Goals, Structure, and New Design Levers
The most significant change of the 2026 update is the separation of items into two groups: core items and tech items. Core items are the ones that directly enhance a champion’s natural strengths, and tech items provide situational counters. Such a structure allows players agency rather than requiring mandatory purchases.
There are three major goals of the change:
Increase build diversity without overwhelming players. The system should offer a variety of routes, not dozens of possible paths, if LoL wants to keep attracting new players.
Smooth power curves. Champions can no longer rely on a single, powerful purchase to win. Instead, power should ramp up naturally with consistent gains.
Improve comeback potential. One of the issues players have been complaining about is the early-game spiral, and adjusting item prices and adding anti-burst options will help address that.
Tanks and Engage Champs Become Play-Making Bruisers
For years, tank itemization was the primary factor in staking health and resistance. According to the best crypto sports betting sites, this was noticeable in the betting odds, as they were changed in favor of those staking these features. Experts such as those at CCN claim these sites are the best for making safe, fast wagers from abroad.
The 2026 preseason changes offer sub-archetypes within the tank role instead. There are hard-engaged tanks that have new cooldown-oriented and mobility-boosting options. Peel-focused tanks, on the other hand, receive more anti-burst and anti-dive effects. Meanwhile, bruiser-tanks—champions who blend damage with survivability are in a way a hybrid combining the features of both.
Anti-crit auras, anti-shield tools, vision control actives, and objective-based bonuses are used to push tanks into a more strategic role. Tanks will no longer have a single standard built for the whole frontline. Instead, they can be adjusted to fit the team and its goals.
ADCs and Mid-Lane Carries: Items That Amplify Fantasy, Not Replace It
Marksmen and many mid-mages have had a problem with linear builds. There was one crit item, a damage spike, and a predictable three-item curve. The latest update is made to break up this monotony and give carriers more distinct branching options.
There’s now an option to choose between safer sustain/on-hit lines, high-risk execute-oriented burst builds, or hybrid utility trees depending on matchup and team comp. Mages also gain build options which are tailored around poke, waveclear, scaling burst, or roaming pick potential.
Now, when paths are less clear, carriers can adjust their identity mid-game. For instance, an ADC might pivot from tank shredder to anti-assassin survivor. Similarly, a mage can shift between lane control and all-in teamfight damage. This also makes drafting more flexible, allowing the team to choose a champion and decide its specific playstyle later in the game.
Junglers and Objective Control Rewritten by Itemization
Jungle has been one of the most volatile roles in LoL in recent years. The new update will finally attempt to stabilize it. This is done by adding objective-focused tools and more precise distinctions between gankers, farmers, and tank junglers. Itemization is therefore used to shape how a jungler will be played, a theme throughout the update.
Tank junglers will have more vision and anti-burst activities. These are designed for contesting pits and securing teamfight openings. Farming carries will get scaling-oriented items that reward efficient clears. The outcome will therefore be to have three clearly distinct junglers: tempo gank, farm-to-carry, or frontline engage.
Supports and the Vision Economy Reimagined
Support itemization has gone through a few versions over the last couple of years, and the latest update will further refine this process. Enchanters now lean into proactive shielding and anti-burst tools while mobility enhancements let them reposition allies during fights. Engage supporters will get longer lockdown chains and more teamfight-centric activities. These help initiate or counter frontline dives.
Both of these sub-roles will benefit from an updated and expanded vision economy system. New active items will provide zone control around major objectives, resulting in a support position with a more strategic role in the game.
Winners, Losers, and Meta Predictions
Some of the champion archetypes will have a clear advantage under the new system. This is most obvious for flexible champions such as bruisers, fighters, battle mages, and juggernauts. Their kit allows them to switch from offensive to defensive use when needed. Enchanters also benefit from more impactful utility items. They will mostly be used mid-game.
On the other hand, the champions that rely heavily on cheap lethality won’t do as well after the update. Burst assassins without fallback tools and tanks without play-making tools will now feel outdated.
In general, drafts will now be more modular. This means that instead of picking full team identities in champ select, teams will draft flexible champs.
How Players Should Prepare for the New System
Since the main new quality of the system after the update is diversity, the players have only one way to prepare for it. The best way to go is to experiment and try different paths out until you figure out which one suits you the best.
Testing several builds during the same championship is the most effective way to test the system. Do one for snowballing, one for scaling, and one for countering specific enemy threats, and you’ll see how diverse the setup is. Normal and flex queues are ideal for testing strategies.
Conclusion
The 2026 preseason is more than a usual update. It’s one of the most significant overhauls of the whole game system. It changes how champion roles function and how team strategies develop from the start. Items can no longer be used as rigid power spikes, but more as flexible tools to be used gradually and to express the champion’s specific identity.
Players who understand the meaning of this change will be able to experiment with different paths to test the full potential of this update. New items will invite all the players to redefine their roles from the ground up.
