Exciting times for LeBlanc mains, as the mid lane Mage is getting her very own Prestige skin in Patch 26.12.
Prestige Sinful Shores LeBlanc is the full name of the skin. And it’s set to feature as the final reward in the Act 2 Battle Pass.
Prestige Sinful Shores LeBlanc
As always with the Prestige skins, it will be unlocked when players purchase the Battle Pass for Act 2. Once you reach the final normal reward, the skin will unlock. The skin is not open to those on the free Battle Pass track.
The new skin features unique spell effects and VFX for all the spells, plus the usual custom recall and Homeguard sprint. The skin also features unique audio for spells balanced around the theme of the skin.
Patch 26.12 will also include new skins for Brand and Hwei set to the same Sinful Shores theme.
Worth noting: after the pass closes, there’s no confirmed return date. Some Prestige skins do eventually come back via the Mythic Shop at 125 Mythic Essence, but that’s not guaranteed, so if you want it, the pass is your safest bet.
The full Pandemonium Season 2 runs until August 12, 2026, so you’ve got a window to work with, but don’t sleep on it too long.
If you want new skins in Patch 26.11, Riot Games has heard you because you’re getting at least seven new skins. A number of these, themed around “Champions if they had a regular job”, sort of feel like April Fools V2 skins, which is always a lot of fun.
Pizza Chef Sion, Pasta Maker Illaoi, Breadsticks Irelia, Spaghetti alla Vel’Koz, Eternal Aspect Leona, Eternal Aspect Diana, and Eclipse Eternal Aspect Diana will be available on May 28, 2026.
Pizza Chef Sion – Pasta Maker Illaoi – Breadsticks Irelia
The three skins will also come with a set of Chromas to go alongside them. There is also a fourth skin in the line, Spaghetti Alla Vel’koz, which we’re sure Illaoi is making in the image above.
Spaghetti alla Vel’koz
The fourth skin in the food series comes for Vel’koz, who is channelling his inner pasta monster. The skin, for those from the UK, feels like it’s inspired by the BBC Spaghetti-Harvest April Fools joke.
Eternal Aspect Skins – Diana, Leona, and Diana
The final three skins feature two directly in the same skin line. As Eternal Aspect Diana and Leona, are joined by Eclipse Eternal Aspect Diana. Diana, in this case, takes on the more premium of the three skins.
If you’ve been running riot on the Mayhem Bridge as Vayne, Tristana, or pretty much any hyper-carry you fancied, patch 26.11 has some news for you. Riot has swung the nerf hammer at a long list of damage-favoured champions in ARAM Mayhem. A bunch of them back to neutral in what feels like a pretty significant rebalancing sweep.
Mayhem’s Carry Club Takes a Hit
The bulk of the Mayhem changes in this patch are nerfs. Mostly targeted squarely at the champions who’ve been dealing a bit too freely. Vayne loses her damage boost (105% down to 100%) and her damage reduction (95% back to 100%), so she’s now fully exposed on both ends.
Same story for Tristana, Fizz, and Xayah, who all drop to baseline across the board. Fizz also loses his 10% Tenacity bonus, which is a quiet but meaningful cut for a champion who loves diving into the chaos and getting out clean.
Fiddlesticks is the one champion getting a buff, with his damage taken and damage done going back to 100%.
One small note, over in normal ARAM, Qiyana is getting a bit of love. Qiyana picks up 20 flat Ability Haste, going from zero to twenty. It’s not the most dramatic buff in the world. But on a champion who really wants to spam her abilities to chain elemental effects, that extra haste adds up
Arena Working in Threes
Three-person Arena is apparently doing well, because Riot isn’t pulling back; they’re doubling down with balance tweaks specifically designed around the format. The big theme this patch is pulling enchanters back in line while giving marksmen a bit more room to breathe.
On the enchanter side, Locket of the Iron Solari takes a significant shield reduction (600-1200 down to 300-900) and now has reduced effectiveness for 20 seconds after you’ve been healed. Mikael’s Blessing, Redemption, and Dawncore all drop their Heal and Shield Power from 16% to 12%. While Wordless Promise loses a chunk of its AP and AH sharing while its cooldown explodes from 10 seconds to 60. That last one is a pretty severe change for a support item that felt like a must-buy.
For the marksmen getting some new toys. Infinity Edge swaps 40% crit damage multiplier for a flat 20 extra attack damage (55 to 75 AD). Immortal Shieldbow’s shield ceiling jumps from 700 to 1000, and Statik Shiv now scales up to 160 damage instead of being stuck at a flat 60. Diamond-Tipped Spear and Terminus both get attack speed bumps, too, so ADC Arena builds are getting a lot more to work with this patch.
New Guests of Honor
Three new Guests of Honor arrive in the Arena this patch. Yone brings the Inner Demon quest, where you vote whether your team fights alongside the demon hunters or embraces the demons themselves. Hunters earn gold for every demon team they take down, while demons gain an augment level each time a hunter team is eliminated. It’s a fun wrinkle that makes the lobby’s overall composition matter in a way it normally doesn’t.
Nilah joins with Joyful Delight, cutting the cost of Legendary Item Anvils by 500 gold and throwing in bonus rerolls while you’re on a hotstreak. Vayne arrives with Tools of the Hunt, giving access to a curated set of “tool” augments that fit her kit.
LoL Patch 26.11 Support Changes are big, from changes to the role itself, and to items and champions associated with the role. Riot has clearly put a focus here on what many consider the weakest role.
Let’s take a closer look at the changes and what they might add, or take away from the Support role.
Support Adjustments
Support Adjustments
This patch, we are taking a holistic pass on the enchanter-heavy support meta that has stabilized and stagnated over the course of the year. We have a set of buffs and nerfs designed to promote tanks into the support meta, as well as some minor and major reworks to certain support items and their functionality.
First off, we have a straight buff to Grubs. In line with 26.9’s changes to role quests to open up some amount of roaming and laning flexibility back into the laning phase, we are also buffing Grubs as a destination to roam to for supports.
Summoned Voidmite HP: 60% of Melee Minion ⇒ 100% of Melee Minion
Firstly, we have the most direct changes to the role. The main focus here is on the enchanter supports, often the least impactful, especially in solo queue. The main change here is to help support roam more, which plays into an earlier buff in 29.9 that stopped Supports from being as punished for leaving the lane.
Items and Spells
The spells and items are the key things that are looking to bring the changes to the support role.
Zeke’s Convergence
Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
For the most part, these item changes are buffs. There are a few, like Moonstone Renewer that are nerfs. There is also a nerf to Imperial Mandate, which is almost a totally targeted nerf at Nami. Echoes of Helia is another nerf for enchanters.
Summoner spells will see Summon Aery will get an early game nerf, with a similar impact hitting Aftershock. Though Guardian is getting a buff.
Overall, these changes are good for Support. The nerfs are hyper-focused on a few niche champions. We rarely see so many changes targeted at one specific role, and while no champions have been hit (a small nerf to Brand’s armour), it’s a lot of changes to items and summoner spells.
It will be interesting to see how these changes actually flow once live on the servers.
Riot has dropped a dev blog outlining some pretty significant changes coming to ARAM Mayhem when Season 2 Act 2 kicks off in Patch 26.12. And there’s quite a bit to unpack.
Riot also confirmed that ARAM Mayhem is staying until at least the end of 2026.
Traits are out
The biggest change is that Traits are being phased out entirely. Riot’s reasoning is fair enough when you read it. Traits were causing everyone’s builds to blur together; the bonuses were outshining the actual champions. As a result, individual Augment picks felt a bit rubbish on their own without the Trait backing them up.
Some fan-favourite Traits like Stackasaurus aren’t disappearing. Though, they’re just being converted into standalone Augments, so you get the fun stuff without needing to chase a two-piece combo.
New Augment types are taking their place
Two new categories are being introduced. First up are Ability Augments, which are exactly what they sound like. These latch onto a single ability and go absolutely feral with it. Think Multishot firing extra bolts on every spell cast, or Chain Reaction turning knockups into a chaotic chain of collisions and bonus damage. The aim is to make your Augment feel like it’s actually built around your champ rather than just slotting into a universal build.
The second type is Quest Augments, which give you a goal to work toward in-game for a payoff that fits your playstyle. Quest: Tooth Fairy rewards burst damage by making enemies drop teeth (yes, really) that stack Lethality and Magic Pen. While Quest: Support Main lets healers and shielders keep their whole team ticking with extra Health Regen. Both sound like a good time.
Riot’s take on balance
Riot also addressed the whole “these don’t look balanced” thing head-on, which is refreshing. The short version is that they’re aiming for fun over strict balance, but they want every champ to have a viable build path and no single build to just auto-win games. Expect more frequent Augment rotations and additions rather than constant number nerfs.
ARAM: Mayhem isn’t going anywhere either. Riot Games confirmed they’re already planning content for the rest of this year and into next.
Patch 26.11 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
Role Quest Adjustments
Buffing the Role Quest reward as a minor follow up on the change in 26.9. We felt this reward landed a bit soft, but we think it does good things for the shape of the game by allowing mid laners their own special form of scaling.
Mid Role Quest
Bonus AD and AP: 6% ⇒ 8%
Support Adjustments
This patch, we are taking a holistic pass on the enchanter-heavy support meta that has stabilized and stagnated over the course of the year. We have a set of buffs and nerfs designed to promote tanks into the support meta, as well as some minor and major reworks to certain support items and their functionality.
First off, we have a straight buff to Grubs. In line with 26.9’s changes to role quests to open up some amount of roaming and laning flexibility back into the laning phase, we are also buffing Grubs as a destination to roam to for supports.
As a pretty "behind the scenes" unique that most of us just expect to work, Dream Maker is getting a mix of adjustments to help it perform in a more generally functional way that should pan out to be a nerf in most situations, but will definitely be a buff in others.
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction is being adjusted from only affecting the literal first instance of damage (i.e. the first tick of a DoT, or the first instance of an on-hit damage from an incoming basic attack) to affecting the first cast source (i.e. the entire DoT, until it runs out of flat damage reduction.)
Purple Bubble Damage is changing from mostly an on-hit effect to an on-hit or on-ability damage cast source effect with AoE penalties. (i.e. If Ezreal Ult triggers the Purple Bubble, it will apply to that entire Ezreal Ult but with reduced AoE efficacy. See Nami E for a similar example.)
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
Moonstone Renewer
Moonstone will no longer double dip in both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver. This is mostly a nerf, but will occasionally be a net positive when opponents have Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver.
As a mathy example, this means that if you have 50% Heal / Shield Power, and heal one ally for 100 * 150% from Heal / Shield = 150, on 26.10 it would then bounce 150 * 30% * 150% = 67.5 healing to another ally, whereas now it will only bounce 150 * 30% = 45 healing.
Fixed various bugs, including no longer double dipping on both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver
Bounces now prioritize lower health allies
Imperial Mandate
An item that was completely bound to Nami because of outsized synergy with her E, Mandate is getting reworked to better fit into a niche for utility casters who want to help their team out with more crowd control rather than healing/shielding or personal damage. We look forward to seeing you figure out new optimal users!
NEWUnique – Control: Gain 15 Ability Haste for your abilities with Immobilizing effects
NEWUnique – Command: On immobilizing an enemy champion, mark them as 6% Vulnerable for 4s (Vulnerable enemies take % increased damage)
Echoes of Helia
A straightforward nerf for enchanters.
Damage Stored: 35% ⇒ 30%
Locket of the Iron Solari
And a straightforwards buff for tanks.
Armor and Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 30
Knight’s Vow
For Knight’s Vow, we’re pushing the unique effect rather than generically buffing its stats or gold cost.
Damage Redirection: 12% ⇒ 14%
Heal: 10% ⇒ 12%
Zeke’s Convergence
Zeke’s is getting a QoL improvement for any users who might be casting their ultimate from long range—such as Leona and Nautilus.
Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
Brand has been toeing the line in bot for a while now, and this patch has well and truly crossed over, so we’re targeting that lane with a nerf to his base armor.
Diana’s feeling a bit underwhelming in the jungle after her previous adjustments due to the Dusk and Dawn changes. So we’re giving her a little more moon-power in the jungle to return her to her former glory.
Now that the dust has settled from 26.9’s Dusk and Dawn reshape, we’ve uncovered that Ekko has room for a compensation buff as he is no longer completely bound to just buying that item for his power.
With the ranged minion aggro pull removed last patch, Heimerdinger mains ended up with some degraded functionality around how turret ranges interact with minion ranges—in the sense that ranged minions outrange Heimer’s turrets and he had no way to pull them into their range. This makes for a pretty miserable experience where you just watch as your turrets tank minion autos without attacking back.
Additionally, it was brought to our attention that his Evolution Turrets sometimes fail to follow up on his Storm Grenade when they lose vision of the target too quickly due to minor timing fluctuations around vision and turret logic, so we are increasing the vision duration slightly to resolve that.
Q – H-28 G Evolution Turret
Turret Attack Range: 530 ⇒ 550
Turret Vision Range: 585 ⇒ 650
NEWTurret Range: Turrets now gain 50 additional range against minions if nothing else is in range
E – CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade
Vision of target location: 1 second ⇒ 1.25 seconds
Our Void Walker has been limping around the Rift more than blinking. Stackable tear items have provided an additional cool late-game fantasy option besides pure AP, but his early game has been tougher than usual (in part due to our mid quest adjustment). These changes should help his laning, both in farming and trading.
Quinngle (or Qungle [Kwun-gle]?) has been pretty popular and fun, even in a weak state. We know a lot of you will pick up more tricks and mastery over time, so for now we’re just making sure her clear speed is more competitive without changing burst or dueling. This should help our trusty ranger more regularly undertake dangerous missions deep in enemy territory, whether she’s looking for camps or champs.
The baby dragon has been absolutely blasting his opponents since getting his hands on Deathfire Touch. We’ve had to do an unfortunate number of micropatch nerfs back to back, and we are hopeful this will be the last one we need to do.
Included in these changes are a continuation of the latest nerf’s push towards bringing him back into primarily critical strike builds rather than just Essence Reaver into bruiser, which we think can sit stronger since at the end of the day, a squishier Smolder has more weaknesses to play around, like being burst by enemy spell rotations.
Passive – Dragon Practice
Bonus Magic Damage on Q: 40% * (1 + (Crit Chance *.5 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks (60% at 100% Crit, 66% if you have IE) ⇒ 25% * (1 + (Crit Chance * 1.2 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
Bonus Magic Damage on E: 12% of Passive stacks ⇒ 8% * (1 + (Crit Chance * .6 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
We’d love (fear) a world where Teemo could be equally happy building AP, on-hit, and AD for his new ratios, but as it stands, Shiv is ahead of the pack. By hitting his Toxic Shot AD ratio, we’re confident Teemo with Shiv can land in a good spot without forcing those of you who like other builds (e.g. Nashor’s, Liandry, Malignance) to rely on it. Additionally, hits to his scaling durability should preserve his lane bully identity, while increasing your chance of getting the jump on him!
While AP Xin builds are not OP per se, the sheer amount of healing has been eye popping in an extremely expectation breaking way. Tamping that down with some compensation in the form of sustained damage.
We like a world where Hexplate is satisfying across a spread of archetypes, and serves as a springboard to dive into interesting itemization tradeoffs. However, right now the item makes League less approachable for top laners by letting Vayne and Varus maintain a large proportion of their damage while being a good bit harder to kill. This change should better align expectations opponents have around ranged users building Hexplate, while still presenting as a worthy Experimental choice.
Overdrive: On ulting, 50% bonus AS and 20% bonus MS for 8 seconds ⇒ Ranged: 35% bonus AS and 14% bonus MS for 8 seconds (unchanged for melee)
Heartsteel
Heartsteel has slowly fallen out of favor. With Mundo meta out of the way though, we’re going to revert a nerf from a year ago since we feel the item occupies a really cool (and important) aspect of greedy tank itemization.
Damage To Permanent Health Conversion Rate: 8% ⇒ 10%
Statikk Shiv
Shiv has picked up a neat spread of users—we think it could use more love when it comes to some characters that are more reliant on AD, like Kalista or Kai’Sa. We’ll keep monitoring satisfaction around the new shape of Statikk as Season 2 progresses (should lightning strike twice?)
The Esports World Cup 2026 is heading to Paris, France. Unlike in 2025 and 2024, however, the event will not be held in Saudi Arabia due to the ongoing issues in the region. The event will run from July 6th to August 23rd, spanning seven weeks across 24 titles. The event is planned to be bigger than ever, with League of Legends set to once again feature as a key part of that.
For LoL, EWC is back as one of the biggest events in the LoL calendar. This year, LoL is getting an upgrade, moving to 16 teams from the previous 12. The event will also be a lot less hectic, as the gap between the final qualified teams and the EWC is much larger. Previously, a few teams qualified just days before. It’s also likely that the event being in Paris will make it easier for a number of sides.
Quick Info:
Location: Paris, France
Dates July 6th to August 23rd (LoL July 15th – 19th)
Teams: 16
Prize Pool: $2m
Defending Champions: Gen.G
EMEA
G2 Esports – Confirmed
Karmine Corp – Confirmed
LEC Spring champion/Movistar KOI – TBD
EMEA is one of the first regions to wrap up, with two sides already confirmed via the region’s local qualifier event. The final spot is still up for grabs and will conclude with the end of the LEC Spring Split. The interesting narrative here is that if G2 or Karmine Corp win the Playoffs, then Movistar KOI will take the final EWC place.
Credit – EWC
LCK
Gen.G – Direct Invite
Road to MSI winner – TBD
Korea Qualifier (May 25-26) – TBD
Korea Qualifier (May 25-26) – TBD
As defending champions, Gen.G received a direct invite and doesn’t need to bother with qualifiers. The Road to MSI champion claims a second spot automatically. The remaining two come out of the Korea Qualifier on May 25 and 26. The teams in contention are HLE, NS, DK, and T1, with at least one of DK or T1 guaranteed to go through.
LPL
Anyone’s Legel (AGL) – Confirmed
JD Gaming – TBD
LPL Split 2 Champion – TBD
Anyone’s Legend (AGL) topped the China Qualifier upper bracket, beating JD Gaming in the process. JDG took the second spot via the LPL qualifying event. The final spot will go to the LPL Split 2 Champion, which won’t conclude till the 14th of June. A similar scenario to the EMEA could happen if AG.AL or JD Gaming win the LPL Split.
North America
Sentinels – Confirmed
LCS Spring Champion (June 14) – TBD
Sentinels are already in, after a surprise win at the NA qualifying event. The second NA slot goes to whoever wins the LCS Spring Split, which crowns its champion on June 14.
Asia-Pacific
Team Secret – Confirmed
LCP Split 2 Champion (June 7) – TBD
Team Secret Whales won the APAC Qualifier, beating Vietnamese rivals GAM Esports to seal their place. They’ll compete as Team Secret at EWC due to the rulebook requirements for EWC Club Championship points eligibility. The second APAC slot is decided after LCP Split 2 concludes on June 7.
South America
CBLOL Split 2 Champion (June 6) – TBD
SAM Qualifier Winner (June 14) – TBD
South America’s two slots are the last to be determined. The CBLOL Split 2 champion is crowned on June 6, followed by the South American Qualifier, with the second spot decided on June 14.
Tournament Format
EWC 2026 runs a two-stage format across 16 teams.
Group Stage – 4 Groups – Double Eliminations, Best-of-One, with Elimination games played on Best-of-Three. Top two per group advance.
Playoffs – Single Elimination – All matches are Best-of-Three, Grand Final moves to Best-of-Five. Winner secures spot at EWC 2027.
Since Arena was added back to League of Legends, it’s been a popular mode for players looking for something different. In recent weeks, Riot has teased some major changes to the mode, as it looks to capitalise on the popularity.
The headline change is the new Augment Levels system. Augments can now be levelled up from 1 to 3 tiers mid-match, with some reaching a Keystone effect at max level, unlocking entirely new passive abilities on top of their base kit. Over 30 augments debut with the levelling system, including fan favourites like Glass Cannon, Final Form, and Speed Demon. Once you’ve got two levelable augments, you’ll start being offered level-ups in place of new augments, fundamentally shifting how you think about the mid-game draft.
“Once you reach the maximum number of augments, you’ll only be offered augment levels or the ability to tier up an existing augment, allowing you to remove one and select another that is one tier higher.”
It’s a system that opens up a new layer of decision-making: do you spread wide with a varied augment kit, or go deep on two or three synergistic picks and push them to their Keystone potential? The answer will likely differ every game.
New Guests of Honor, maps, and a revamped schedule
Sixteen new Guests of Honor join the roster this season, including Atakhan, Kindred, Shaco, Morgana, and Taric. Each brings a unique passive effect that shapes how the entire lobby plays. Two favourites have also been reworked: Swain now rewards the last teams standing with a prismatic stat anvil at the halfway point. At the same time, Katarina now runs augment tier-ups alongside new offerings during her reign.
On the map front, the new Petricite Grove joins the rotation, a Demacian-themed arena scattered with unexploded mining bombs that roll and detonate on impact, adding an environmental hazard element to positioning. The existing Ancestral Woods and Koipond maps have also been reworked with new interactive elements.
The season’s event schedule is designed to keep Arena fresh well beyond launch:
26.9 Arena Season 2 Launch: No event, time to learn the new systems
26.10 3×6 Arena: Three players per team, six teams total, wider champion diversity
26.13 Bravery: Limited champion select, embrace the random, adapt and conquer
26.14 Swift Arena: Back to 2v2v2v2, faster games, familiar opponents
While Arena is the focus for this patch, ARAM Mayhem remains the most popular mode outside of standard League of Legends. As such, it’s also getting some love in 26.9.
ARAM Changes:
ARAM’s changes in 26.9 are more focused than Arena’s but still carry a meaningful impact. Hubris has been a dominant component of assassin and snowball-heavy champions for some time. Both the Attack Damage (60 → 55) and Ability Haste (15 → 10) have been trimmed, nudging the item down a tier without gutting its identity.
ARAM Mayhem Changes:
Bard receives a quality-of-life boost to his Caretaker’s Shrine. Both the Move Speed bonus and its AP scaling have gone up, and the shrine’s ammo cooldown drops from 10 to 8 seconds, making him a more reliable and rewarding pick on a map that heavily punishes slow shrine placement. Ornn’s Living Forge passive cooldown now scales with level (90 down to 10 seconds at max), making him far more useful in ARAM’s shorter game times, where the default 120-second cooldown often felt punishing.
Health Relic: The AoE heal on pickup has been increased from 16% to 22% missing health and mana
Prom Queen: Cooldown increased from 25 to 35 seconds.
Grandma’s Chili Oil: Base damage per second goes up (100 → 150), while the bonus damage per burn source and all healing values are reduced.
Upgrade Sword of Blossoming Dawn: The 50% bonus damage to basic attacks against champions has been removed entirely
Overall, it’s a patch focused on Arena, while making meaningful changes to ARAM. The changes to Bard and Orn seem the most standout. Something that maybe needs looking at for other champions that struggle to adapt to the flow of ARAM’s quicker game time.
Riot Games and Discord have put into Beta a major integration between the two platforms. For those on the Beta, you’ll see an increased level of information about what your friends are doing if they are playing Riot games.
The process is incredibly easy, and the payoff is pretty decent. Link your accounts, and you can invite your Discord friends straight into your party without ever alt-tabbing. You can also copy a lobby link and drop it directly into your server, which honestly should have existed ages ago.
Once linked, you’ll also be able to see which of your Discord friends actually play Riot games, so no more “wait, are you on this account or that one?”
It’s rolling out in a few regions first while they iron out any bugs, so if your region isn’t live yet, you can still link your accounts now, and the features will just pop up once it reaches you. Discord integration is currently available for League and VALORANT, with more games coming down the line.
To get set up, you can link through the game client, Discord itself, or your Riot account page. Overall, it looks like a fairly simple process that isn’t too intrusive. It will likely still have some annoying problems, such as friends with multiple accounts or multiple Discords, but that’s their problem.
Discord continues to cater to the gaming community, and this is the next step in that. For those who remember Xfire, Discord is becoming more and more a modern version of that, mixed with TeamSpeak.
The 26.11 patch preview for League of Legends is out. As Season 2 has now been with us for a few weeks. Just six champion changes in Patch 26.11, with Keystones the main priority. From @RiotPhroxon on X Source.
AP Xin Zhao has popped out as one of the most striking and fun champs, but his healing is a bit on the high side, especially when he’s outhealing some of the champs designed around healing.
That said, we still think healing a bunch is exciting and worth supporting, just not at this magnitude.
– After the minion changes in the previous patch, Heimer’s turrets are a bit worse for wear
– We’re giving him a feelsgood QOL change so that his turrets aren’t killed by ranged minions without being able to attack back
– Despite being 550 range on paper, 550 range champions (which are most of them) will still be able to outrange turrets at max range due to the way this range is calculated
– In addition, there is a small increase to the E vision duration so that the Beam actually manages to fire before losing vision in some cases
– For Teemo, he is one of the more powerful Top laners, while also being on the higher end of frustration
– He is also receiving a small buff to Statikk Shiv this patch and so we’re compensation nerfing him with an intent for this to be lightly power down
System Changes
Deathfire Touch
– We’re adjusting Deathfire Touch this patch to deal Magic Damage
– Part of the impetus for this is how strong the synergy is with Black Cleaver and in addition, it feels like more of a magic coded effect
– So we think this strikes a reasonable balance of fantasy fulfilment and practical balance considerations
– Otherwise, we think Deathfire Touch is in a pretty reasonable spot
With the role quests in Season Start, ranged supports have risen to the top of the pecking order.
They’re both the best at multiplying ADCs who are strong currently, as well as benefiting the most from being in lane for role quests.
Roaming also pays a higher systemic cost as it puts both you behind on quest progress and makes it so your ally ADC can’t stack their quest.
Overall, this has been desirable, as we think in 2025, roaming was too high for the most part and especially undercut the satisfaction of players in bot lane wanting to a play a “real laning phase.”
At the same time, though, we do want to open up a bit of roaming power on the grub timing after the early lane is done, and so we’re buffing up the reward of grubs just slightly.
We’re making a broad set of changes to both improve the desirability of some underpurchased items, as well as more finely tune the purpose of various items in the ecosystem.
Other systems adjustments in this patch are changes to Experimental Hexplate that aim to make it shine on both melee and ranged users.
Currently, the best users are champs like Nocturne, Olaf, Vayne, Varus, and we think we can strike a better balance on more champions while also making the item trade-offs more apparent for durability vs damage on Vayne and Varus (mostly manifesting in Top).
The other systems impacting changes are some adjustments to Diana and Ekko jungle, who have been slightly worse for wear there (though Mid is mostly fine).
