A few days ago, the updates for patch 10.6 were announced by Riot’s Head Game Designer for League of Legends, Mark Yetter. The most notable change that will likely have an immediate impact on the meta is the update of several Mage champions for the jungle position. Previously, Riot also mentioned they would look for ways to buff the top lane through the Teleport spell, but with what they are doing, it’s unclear if this is a buff or a severe “blow” to that position.
According to Riot Mark Yetter’s updates, Teleport in patch 10.6 will be as follows:
Cooldown: Changed from 360s (6 minutes) to 420s-240s (7 minutes – 4 minutes) decreasing gradually based on champion level.
Upon completing Teleport, players will receive 30-45% movement speed for 3 seconds based on level.
The objective is to reduce the effectiveness of Teleport for returning to lane, impacting mid and ADC, increasing the ability to split push late game, and using Teleport to intercept.
Essentially, Teleport currently has two main uses: returning to lane quickly to increase or close the power gap with the opponent by pushing minions, taking turret plates, etc. The second use is to create unexpected Teleport situations and win team fights. In solo queue, the first purpose is used more often, simply because you are the lane player, you understand what you need to do with your lane, and Teleport is a useful tool for that.
However, with the Teleport cooldown in patch 10.6 being extremely long, 7 minutes at level 1 and certainly no less than 6 minutes before level 6, it will make positions like ADC and mid unable to hold this spell anymore. When using Teleport, you are accepting to trade the ability to fight for the advantage of controlling minions, and now when that advantage is gone or too difficult to maintain, it’s understandable that players gradually stop using it.
Returning to the top lane position, where most matchups utilize this spell, the excessive increase in cooldown will greatly impact the way lanes are played in this area. The most significant impact will likely be that the “bloodbath” fights at level 1 will decrease significantly, as no one wants to jump in and risk losing a fight only to be suppressed for the next 8 minutes.
Furthermore, with such a large cooldown at early levels, the non-Teleport top lane playstyle may return. When the ability to return to lane is significantly reduced, players either have to hold the lane strongly or win the lane decisively. For champions with weak skirmishing and easily kited in 5v5 fights like Tryndamere, Fiora, Darius, it’s not strange at all to forgo Teleport for an extra offensive summoner spell.
Perhaps Teleport will now only be used in a few team compositions, for certain champions. Champions with strong team fight capabilities like Maokai, Aatrox, Ornn… are likely to continue using this summoner spell to increase surprise elements in their team fight engagements.
In professional tournaments, where players’ warding and communication skills are extremely good, it’s likely that Teleport will continue to be prevalent in the top lane. Meanwhile, in solo queue, it’s very different; if you need to win your lane early or simply want to pressure your opponent, an offensive spell like Ignite or Exhaust will be much more useful than Teleport.
