“League of Conqueror” is a phrase to indicate that most powerful champions in League of Legends abuse this overpowered rune.
In the 2020 preseason, Riot Games made some changes to Conqueror by removing its ability to deal true-damage and buffing its regeneration. In theory, it was supposed to be a reasonable adjustment to the rune, because it would reduce the crazy amount of damage that it is applying. Bruisers would be more effective at healing and sustaining longer fights, but overall, they were aimed to be countered more easily. But things shifted in an unexpected way.
Conqueror becomes too easy to use with the new stats (adaptive force and healing) and that is why most champions can always have it as their keystone and still be very strong. With Con, your character basically owns a big item with perfect damage and healing stats, which also interact with one another pretty well. This means just by having Conqueror as your keystone rune, you would already have a big advantage over your opposition.
This also forces your enemies in later games, to match the Conqueror runes which create a Domino effect, when every player in the game goes for the same rune. The term “League of Conqueror” mocks at the fact that the rune gained increased popularity after it was nerfed.
As a resolution, Riot Games had to apply more pressure to nerf Conqueror, more notably on ranged champions. On Patch 10.13, they increased the number of maximum stacks from 10 to 12, in order for champions to get the healing effect. This change immediately made this Keystone on ranged champions very unviable, on very rare occasions do we see this Keystone used on ranged champions, like Ezreal.
“League of Conqueror is finally over!” – some might think, but the problems with the rune still persist and will not be solved that easily. According to Champion.gg, 7 out of 10 most viable champions in the top lane at the moments, synergize very well with it. This proves that the rune is still very strong.
Basically, the nerfs from Riot Games would only lower your chances to run this Keystone if you are not a bruiser, but the strong stats of the rune remains the same, a lot of damage and healing makes you very difficult to kill, even with a damage-oriented build. It might not be everywhere in the game, but Conqueror is still the number one choice for Bruisers. Another problem for Conqueror is that if the champion you are playing is “Conqueror-Able” and you play it well enough, you can give up another great Keystone such as Aftershock or Grasp of the Undying to easily out-trade your opponents.
So has “League of Conqueror” disappeared for League of Legends? The answer is certainly “no”, you might be seeing less and less of it but it is still very popular in the top lane. Maybe in the future Riot Games will make more adjustment to it, at least to the healing, to make Conqueror actually balanced.