Look Back at Patch 6.0

Hey friends, David here! We’ve wrapped up Patch 6.0 aka YORDLE UP! This update we tried a lot of new things, and I wanted to take a moment to chat with you all about the changes and what the team has learned before we dive fully into Patch 6.1.

BANDLE RIFT 

Last year was the first time we made major changes to the Rift as you know it, with the introduction of our Hex-Rift and T-Hex. We received a lot of feedback from you all on what you did and didn’t like when it came to us updating the Rift. And heading into 2025 it was important for us to take those learnings and implement them with our second Rift update, Bandle Rift.

You may have noticed that we purposefully pulled back many of the game warping elements from Hex-Rift in Bandle Rift. This was intentional, as we found that the additional chaos, while occasionally generating more highlight moments, made it even more difficult for non-pre made teams to coordinate and for especially new players to find their footing into the game. Ultimately, Summoner’s Rift is meant to represent the pinnacle of competition and the purest expression of a MOBA and going forward we will keep to that goal. This doesn’t mean we are going to slow down the Wild and crazy, just expect that to blossom in game modes.

Additionally we had the durability update this patch, which we’re quite pleased with. We still think we have areas to refine around role balance, which is why we’re focusing on Mages in 6.1. The biggest positive change we saw with the durability update was that there has been a big decrease in one-shot deaths across all roles, and especially for late-game marksmen. We believe this has made it easier for our glass-canon characters to navigate fights in the late game, and find outplay possibilities. Vayne mains rejoice! 

UNBOUND FRENZY 

Unbound Frenzy was our first new mode of the year, and we had a lot of fun creating it. Personally, Jarvan was my favorite, the Demacia trio forever stands tall! When the mode first launched, we saw a lot of you hop in and play with your friends, and we loved watching all your clips from playing.

As we discussed previously a critical element of Wild Rift modes going forward is its “modularity”. In that, mechanics and features from one mode have a chance to get combined and forged with another! In this regard, expect to see some of the crazy abilities from Unbound Frenzy show-up in other modes in the future. The challenge will be how we unlock or how you will progress towards these unbound abilities - that we will save for another time.

The other critical consideration for Game Modes is whether they’ll become Evergreen Modes or remain a Rotating Mode. An Evergreen Mode is something like ARAM, where you can expect light touches on balance and new content dedicated to the mode. On the other hand Rotating Modes such as One-For-All are ones that will “rotate” throughout the season. Determining whether a mode is Evergreen or Rotating often comes down to the following:

• Who is playing the mode 

• When are you playing the mode

• How many games are you looking to dedicate to the mode

For example, in the case of AAAARAM…well I mean Hextech ARAM, but now that we’re in 6.1 it’s known as AAARAM, so let’s call it that. We found that:

• Who: Both Ranked players, non-ranked players, and ARAM players loved it!

• Who: Players especially enjoyed playing AAAARAM as a start or end to their day, either to warm up or to decompress. Additionally, towards the end of the Ranked season, when players have reached their desired ranks, AAAARAM became more appealing as well. 

• How many: Given the quick games of AAAARAM players often got 2~4 games per session.

Putting all of this together, AAAARAM makes a strong case to become an evergreen mode. Through this lens, we don’t believe Unbound Frenzy has made the cut yet and we will continue to monitor it in Patch 6.1 and continue to iterate.

GALIO’S AGEIS 

Something that we’ve been keeping an eye on overall is ranked and your experience climbing the ladder. Some of the feedback we’ve heard from you since we released Wild Rift is that it's frustrating to have a game where you perform well, but you still lose due to your teammates not having as great a game as you. So we introduced Galio’s Aegis patch. It was a Ranked event where we tried out where you would be protected if you perform well and lost, by returning Marks or Hextech Energy.

As we mentioned in our Annual Letter, we wanted to focus on Ranked as a whole, and we felt Galio’s Aegis was a good way to put more agency back into your hands. However, whenever we make any adjustments to Ranked, the most important thing is how you all feel about it. In 6.0, we heard overwhelmingly positive feedback about Galio’s Aegis. In fact, the majority of feedback we did receive was about you wanting us to bring it back more frequently. So at the start of Patch 6.1, Galio’s Aegis we’ll be active for a few weeks, running longer than before. And someone from our dev team will do a mid patch check in after it’s been live to give an update. 

A LOOK AHEAD 

That’s all from us for now, but be sure to keep an eye out for future communications from us throughout the patch. And I’ll be back to reflect on Patch 6.1, before we launch 6.2. See ya on the Rift!