The keystone Lethal Tempo might return according to Riot but with significant changes.
One of the biggest and most significant changes in League of Legends in 2024 was the removal of Lethal Tempo. It was removed in the Mid Season update along with the removal of the Predator keystone and other item changes.
That said, why was its removal so significant? Simply put, it was the most overpowered keystone in the game. The keystone provided stacking Attack Speed to its user resulting in 30% − 96% for Melee and 21.6% − 48% bonus Attack Speed based on level.
Attack Speed as a stat is very lucrative for most champions in the game. Not only that, it scales very well as the game progresses. So, what happens when you give a champion 1000’s of gold stats for free? You get some pretty overpowered champions.
Champions like Zeri, Yone, Kalista, and Kai’Sa were a few of the strongest champions in the game thanks to Lethal Tempo. Additionally, it overshadowed most of the other keystones in the Precision tree. Thus in Patch 14.10 Riot finally decided to remove the problematic keystone. It was overwhelmingly praised by the League of Legends community (apart from the ADC mains) and finally balanced some of the most problematic champions in the game.
That said, Riot has announced that they are looking to bring back Lethal Tempo in the future. So, let’s talk about it.
Read More: Riot Says 95% of LoL Legendary Items are Getting Nerfed in 2024
Lethal Tempo Returns
In a recent interview, the Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends, Riot Phroxzon announced that Riot is planning to bring back Lethal Tempo to the game.
In the interview, Riot talked about Lethal Tempo and how it affected the balance of the game negatively. According to Riot, certain characters felt like they were too reliant on the Keystone, and it shaped the champion’s identity rather than their abilities, especially in the early game.
Thus, Riot is looking to implement an updated version of the keystone that isn’t overpowered as before but still feels powerful. As for how they would achieve it, we do not know yet.
However, with Preseason 2025 ever closer we will be getting that information pretty soon.
