League devs promise Enchanter top nerfs as strategy creeps up to 60% win rate

Janna and Karma and Zilean, oh my! Out-of-the-box Enchanter picks are dominating top lane in early Season 12, even creeping towards a lofty 60% win rate, but don’t worry ⁠Summoners — the League of Legends devs are on the case, and nerfs are coming.

Ancient League of Legends tech ⁠— enchanters playing top lane and totally abandoning the role ⁠— has reared its ugly head again early in Season 12.

This version is even nastier, however. The “cheese” tactic, first originated by former LCS top laner Lourlo, sees champs like Janna, Karma, and Zilean take smite in the northern solo lane and sacrifice the role entirely to support junglers, help defeat creatures and win skirmishes.

It’s revealing fundamental flaws in LoL’s balance.

Not to worry though ⁠— Riot Games are on the case. The devs have seen enchanter win rates skyrocket (nearly 60% for Janna now) and are now planning nerfs.

⁠The League of Legends developers were first tipped off by a swathe of Reddit posts complaining about the tech, along with our own coverage right here on Dexerto, as well as champ win rates skyrocketing.

Janna especially has been a major beneficiary of Season 12’s out-of-meta role-swap, with the Storm’s Fury fast approaching a 60% win rate in ranked lobbies.

Riot Games developer Matt Leung-Harrison confirmed his team is already working on solutions, and apologized for not acting sooner. On February 2, the design lead said: “We’re aware that players are disappointed to not see a fix for roaming enchanter tops for [patch 12.3, which just went live].”

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“It’s something we’ve been prioritizing trying to solve. If we’re able to gain confidence in a solution, our priority will be to try and get it out, but no plans yet.”

One solution Riot has already tested is limiting each League of Legends team to just a singular support item per match ⁠⁠— one on each side ⁠— but they scrapped the idea after they saw how powerful it could be for ranked trolls.

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“Players will just buy support items to troll or hold actual supports hostage,” Leung-Harrison explained, adding if players have any ideas he’d “love to hear them.”

Until these promised nerfs come through, Enchanters top is certainly a viable option, especially if you want to win ranked League of Legends games. Just be sure to pick the right champions ⁠— not all enchanters are made equal.

Janna is the standout favorite for the play style, but if she’s banned or has been picked support instead (a reasonable place for her to land, let’s be honest), other champion picks like Karma, Zilean, Lulu, Rakan, Taric, and Bard have all emerged as viable options for the Season 12 strategy too.

“The way it works is basically to have the threat of invading enemy jungle with smite while aiming to get your mid and bot lane exponentially ahead in gold and items,” Lourlo explained to Dexerto.

• Read More: Lourlo explains why LoL enchanters are taking Smite top lane

He continued: “You just spam ganks, taking summoners, and denying as much as possible from the other lanes while marking the jungle for your laners.”