League of Legends is removing the long standing support item minion penalty in the upcoming Patch 26.07 — expected to be live on April 1st. The item will therefore no longer give reduced gold from minions after supports reach a certain number of CS killed. This change could lead to a massive meta shift for the entire botlane.

The penalty has been a staple in the support role since 2019 to push support towards champions and playstyles that empower their team over trying to become the carry themselves. By giving the support less gold from minions, champions who require less gold and have more utility — instead of outright more damage — have been in the meta more often than damage-heavy ones. Champions like Nami, Thresh, Sona, and Bard are all champions who don't require a lot of gold to still be able to support the team.

But this change might not impact supports alone; it could also lead ADCs to take more of a supportive role as well. As supports can now gain as much gold as ADCs, the role could shift towards more carry champions that rely on damage rather than utility, like Pantheon or Xerath.

Until Patch 26.07, the penalty you got from the support item would make it so if you killed a minions with the support item you would start gaining less gold from them. Before the 5 minute time it would reduce gold from minions by 80% and after 5 minutes it would reduce gold by 50%-80% depending on how many minions you killed.

The penalty was added in the past because of funnel strategies that became meta with solo laners like Taric-Yi, and Kharthus-Nunu, where the solo laners would buy and equip the support item to give the carries gold from the wave.

With the penalty being removed, some old strategies are likely to come up. Botlane combos like Senna-Sion or Seraphine-Lux will likely become much stronger with the penalty being removed. Sheep Esports reached out to Challenger peak player Bardinette, a player known for his toplane Bard and his unconventional playstyle, to learn more about unique strategies and possible changes to the meta with the support item penalty being removed. “Support not being shackled by this penalty opens up so many possibilities for botlane metas. That's why I started playing ADC Bard,” said the player.

League players have grown accustomed to the support item penalty, and its removal could prove challenging for some. We’ll likely see many new strategies come up in the next few weeks, however it remains to be seen how the meta will fully adapt. What’s almost entirely sure is that the botlane will become more experimental and dynamic than we’ve seen in a long time.