Fleet Footwork has dominated the marksman meta in League of Legends for the past several months, and it’s finally being significantly nerfed in an upcoming patch, according to the latest PBE update.
The nerf is very straightforward, turning the flat 30 percent movement speed boost provided by the ability into a scaling 15 to 30 percent boost. This will make the rune much weaker during the laning phase, but by the time late game rolls around, you’ll still be able to use it to bob and weave in between skill shots.
One of the primary pain points surrounding Fleet Footwork is the survivability it provides in lane. The on-hit heal provided by triggering the rune isn’t being affected, and that’s the rune’s most direct boost to survivability. That just means that while one directly gives you health, the speed can still be used to dodge damage, but that only extends your life as long as you can actually dodge abilities.
That being said, the survivability from Fleet Footwork is being indirectly nerfed. If you’re one of those players that still gets hit a lot from abilities, even when triggering the rune, you probably won’t notice a difference.
A 15 percent movement speed nerf is hefty, and it might just be enough to bring other rune options for marksmen back into the meta. Press the Attack is the most likely candidate, as it was recently buffed and is still used by several other types of champions. Lethal Tempo, on the other hand, isn’t really used by anyone. The only few champions that used to use it are attack speed hyper-carries like Master Yi, who now uses Conqueror instead. Lethal Tempo will likely need some work before it’s back in action.
There’s another rune coming out, too, that marksmen will be able to use, particularly burst-damage marksmen like Jhin and Lucian. It’s called Hail of Blades, and it’s essentially a reversed Lethal Tempo. As soon as you enter combat, you receive 50 to 100 percent attack speed for your first three basic attacks, meaning a bonus AD boost for Jhin and just way more damage for Lucian when they need it most.
Just like Lethal Tempo, this rune also allows you to exceed the attack speed cap. Both this new rune and Press the Attack will likely see some more action following the Fleet Footwork nerf, but probably not by that much.
