Author: U.GG

Patch 26.6 notes for League of Legends are here, including nerfs to Ahri and Zaahen, as well as the Shyvana Update. (Source)

Patch Highlights

Champions

Shyvana Update

Shyvana’s update goes live this patch and we’re excited for all of you to try her out! Not only will she have a brand new look, she’ll also be sporting an updated kit, visual effects, voice over, and skins, all of which will come out alongside her release.

As a heads up at the time of writing she is still being fine tuned on PBE so these numbers you see below may have changed by the time you’re seeing this.

Oh, and for the real ones we’re bringing back the Leg Day bundle so make sure you drop by the shop to check it out!

Passive – Scalemail

• Takedowns on champions, large minions, and monsters earn Shyvana stacks of Scalemail; each stack grants Shyvana permanent 0.4 Armor and 0.4 Magic Resist.
• Large monsters and siege minions grant 1 stack.
• Champions and Epic monsters grant 3 stacks.

---

Q – Emberstrike

• Cooldown: 6 seconds
• Passive: Shyvana’s Attacks deal 1.0% max Health magic damage On-Hit and reduce this Ability’s cooldown by 1.25 seconds.
• Active: Shyvana’s next Attack strikes the target and the surrounding area, dealing 154 physical damage. This Ability may be Recast after an Attack or short delay within the next 4 seconds.
• Dragon Form: Shyvana gains an additional Recast, causing her to bite the target of her next Attack, dealing 231 true damage.

---

W – Inferno Aegis

• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• Shyvana wraps herself in flames for 2.5 seconds, gaining 256 Shield, increased by 77 per nearby enemy champion, and 25% Move Speed, increased to 44% when moving towards enemy champions. When the effect ends, the shield is broken, or upon Recast, the area around her detonates, dealing 160 magic damage.
• Dragon Form: If the detonation hits an enemy champion, Shyvana restores from 250 to 500 Health based on her missing Health.

---

E – Molten Burst

• Cooldown: 10 seconds
• Shyvana launches a fireball at the target location dealing 240 magic damage and Slowing by 50% for 2 seconds. It explodes upon striking an enemy or reaching its terminus.
• Dragon Form: Shyvana’s fireball is larger and pierces through enemies. Upon striking a champion, large monster, or reaching its terminus it triggers a pulse of fire that deals 300 magic damage and Slows by 50% for 2 seconds. The fireball leaves behind a trail for 2 seconds that deals 25 magic damage per second.

---

R – Dragon’s Descent

• Requires 100 Fury to activate.
• Passive: Shyvana generates 1.25 Dragon Fury by striking enemies with Attacks and Abilities, increased by 200% while in Dragon Form, and reduced 75% when striking in an area against non-champions.
• Active: Shyvana transforms into her Dragon Form, becoming Unstoppable, and flying to the target location breathing fire on enemies below dealing 350 magic damage and causing them to Flee for 1 second.
• While transformed, Shyvana’s basic Abilities are upgraded, she gains 350 bonus Health, size, and Attack Range. Shyvana loses Dragon Fury over time and her transformation ends when she has no Dragon Fury remaining.

Ahri

See Highest Win Rate Ahri Builds

A moderate buff to Ahri back in 26.3 skyrocketed her to the top of the mid lane pool and pushed her power a bit too far. Her overall waveclear is quite powerful right now, so we’re targeting her Q’s base damage as it could stand to lose some power.

Q – Orb of Deception

• Damager per Pass: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 ⇒ 35 / 60 / 85 / 110 / 135

Azir

See Highest Win Rate Azir Builds

In this patch we’re looking to make Azir a bit more powerful for players at home. These changes should be pretty appreciable for all Azir players, regardless of rank.

Q – Conquering Sands

• Damage AP Ratio: (+ 35% AP) ⇒ (+ 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% AP)

---

W – Arise!

• Damage: 0-45 (5 damage per level starting at level 10) ⇒ 0-72 (7 damage per level starting at level 10)
• Damage AP Ratio: (+ 32.5 / 40 / 47.5 / 55 / 62.5% AP) ⇒ (+35 / 42.5 / 50 / 57.5 / 65% AP)

Cassiopeia

See Highest Win Rate Cassiopeia Builds

We’re looking to get more damage in Cassiopeia’s poison this patch, particularly when for her mid lane players. We want to give her more freedom to look for trades and to feel rewarded when she finds successful ones, so we’re bumping up her base Mana and empowered E scaling.

Base Stats

• Base Mana: 450 ⇒ 480

E – Twin Fang

• Bonus Magic Damage to Poisoned Targets: 20 / 43 / 66 / 89 / 112 ⇒ 20 / 45 / 70 / 90 / 120

Lissandra

See Highest Win Rate Lissandra Builds

The Queen of Ice has not ruled in a very, very long time… thankfully, a lot of her biggest problem children like Everfrost and Aftershock aren’t in her toolkit anymore, so we’re looking to give her some a chill buff. We want to do this by letting her get that 2nd Q off more reliably in those tighter combos. We think this is going to be a big power-up, so we want to make sure she’s not icing out her AD melee matchups too hard without affecting her durability in others.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.9 ⇒ 4.2

Q – Ice Shard

• Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 ⇒ 7.5 / 6.5 / 5.5 / 4.5 / 3.5

Olaf

See Highest Win Rate Olaf Builds

Olaf top is fine but he’s lagging behind in the jungle. As such, we’re improving his clear, making his ganking stronger and leaning into his identity as a risky, low health fighter. We hope to keep top lane in a fairly stable place while boosting his jungle performance.

Base Stats

• Base Attack Speed: 0.694 ⇒ 0.72

Q – Undertow

• Slow Amount: 25 / 30 / 40 / 45% for 1.5- 2.5 seconds (based on distance) ⇒ 30 / 40 / 45 / 50% for 1-3 seconds (based on distance)
• Bug Fix: Enemies only struck by the Lollipop at the end of the Q are now slowed for the proper amount of time (was a fixed 30% slow).

---

W – Tough It Out

• Bug Fix: If you cast W while the previous cast was still active, it now properly re-applies its effects rather than just refreshing the prior cast (you get the attack reset and the AS value is updated).

---

E – Reckless Swing

• Damage to Self: 30% of Damage Dealt ⇒ 40% of Damage Dealt

Pyke

See Highest Win Rate Pyke Builds

Pyke has often toed the line around being strong enough to be worth playing in most skill brackets and being overbearing in Elite levels of play. Recently, he’s crossed that line and is due for a power reduction. We want to keep his ability to strongly punish squishy lanes and deal tons of damage at the drop of a hat, so for this patch’s nerf we’re making him more easily counter-attacked when he makes a mistake or gets caught by a well-placed engage.

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 43 ⇒ 37

Shen

See Highest Win Rate Shen Builds

Shungle is performing better than he is in the top lane, not to mention he’s also outperforming many other junglers with one of the best clear speeds in the game, reliable ganks, and a global presence starting at level 6. Given the latter two strengths, we think it’s fair to reduce his clear speed in order to keep the other two intact. 

Q – Twilight Assault

• Monster Damage Cap: 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 / 200 ⇒ 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200

Skarner

See Highest Win Rate Skarner Builds

Our few Skarner top laners have gained tremendous empathy for their solitary Brackern, as their brethren scattered and left them to become the last of their kind. By letting him cast more freely in lane while also giving him some more trading power on his bread and butter ability, we hope some of our scorpion bros will come out of hiding in top lane (and jungle too!)

Q – Shattered Earth

• Mana Cost: 45 ⇒ 30
• Third Attack Target Max Health Damage: 11% ⇒ 9%

---

E – Ixtal’s Impact

• Cooldown: 22 / 21 / 20 / 19 / 18 seconds ⇒ 22 / 20.5 / 19 / 17.5 / 16 seconds

Tryndamere

See Highest Win Rate Tryndamere Builds

We’re back for another Tryndamere buff as he’s still underperforming relative to other top laners. Arguably the highlight of Tryndamere is right clicking enemy champions and killing them with crits. He can already do that extremely well in the early game, so how about doing it in the late game, too?

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Ratio: 0.694 ⇒ 0.725

Zaahen

See Highest Win Rate Zaahen Builds

Zaahen has caught on as one of the strongest top laners and junglers in the game. In our view his jungle performance is farther over the line, so we’re delivering some nerfs with a moderate jungle skew to them. His W is more core to his ganking than it is to his laning, and this E nerf is jungle-skewed and will reduce his ability to create and react to pressure early on.

W – Dreaded Return

• Secondary Damage: 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 50% bonus AD) ⇒ 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+ 30% bonus AD)

---

E – Aureate Rush

• Bonus Damage to Monsters: 75 ⇒ 50

Items

Chempunk Chainsword

Chempunk has been the weakest and least popular of the grievous wounds options for a while now. The reality is often that the AD fighters that would rely on this as their source of Grievous Wounds are also just worse at applying it and keeping it applied to key targets. As such, we are giving it a small buff so it can match up better with its Grievous peers

• Combine Cost: 350 gold ⇒ 250 gold
• Total Cost: 3100 ⇒ 3000 gold

Sunfire Aegis

Sunfire Aegis has felt annoying to purchase but we don’t think the item itself is underpowered, leading us to the smallest of buffs in this patch. Tanks typically can’t earn as much gold as other classes of champions, so instead of leaving them empty handed we’re smoothing out the build path!

• Build Path: Bami’s Cinder + Chain Vest + 1000 gold ⇒ Bami’s Cinder + Chain Vest + Ruby Crystal + 600 gold

Systems

Read More Here

Whether you’ve been with us for years or just discovered U.GG, we’re excited to introduce U.GG PLUS, our new premium subscription designed to give you the best possible experience when using U.GG. 

Here’s everything you get when you go PLUS:

Ad-Free – On the App and the Site

Nobody likes ads getting in the way of their game. With U.GG PLUS, you’ll enjoy a completely ad-free experience across the entire app and website. Less clutter, more focus.

Profiles PLUS – Make It Yours

Stand out from the crowd with Profiles PLUS. You’ll get access to custom profile features, a golden flair, and a name highlight that makes your profile stand out. It’s a small touch that makes a big difference.

Shared Socials – Connect With Other Players

U.GG PLUS connects you to our community like never before. Connect with teammates and gain followers on social platforms like YouTube and Twitch just by linking to your U.GG profile.

Priority Support

Got a question or running into an issue? As a PLUS member, you’ll be moved to the front of the line with priority support. We’re here to help you faster so you can get back to what matters, playing.

Ready to Go PLUS?

U.GG PLUS is available now for just $2.49/month on an annual plan (billed as $29.88/year), or $3.99/month if you prefer to go month-to-month. Still have questions? Contact us via the button on our site/app or hop into our Discord!

Patch 26.5 notes for League of Legends are here, including buffs to Mel and Lilia (Source)

“Welcome to the official patch of First Stand, the first major international tournament of the year! This patch we’re making some pro-focused changes, but not as many as we would for a larger tournament like Worlds, which means we’re re-tuning a small handful of mid laners and a single bot laner. Otherwise, we’re continuing to sweep across the roster and delivering buffs and nerfs to each role’s biggest outliers.

We also have the return of Brawl, some adjustments, buffs, and nerfs for ARAM: Mayhem, bugfixes for Arena, some fancy new skins on the Season 1 Act 2 Battlepass, updates for Demacia Rising, the arrival of last hit indicators (no excuse to miss canons now), and we have an update to how we’re punishing severely abusive chat.”

Patch Highlights

BRAWL RETURNS

Brawl is back, baby! Grab your friends, grab your enemies, they’re brawling everybody out here! Brawl will be live from March 4, 2026 through April 28, 2026.

Champions

Akali

See Highest Win Rate Akali Builds

Currently, Akali’s re-stealth timer on her Shroud scales with game time. And since we’ve adjusted Summoner’s Rift’s pacing and League now has multiple modes with varying start times, we think everyone’s favorite ninja deserves a bit more flexibility when it comes to her sneakiness.

W – Twilight Shroud

• Restealth Timer: 1s / .9s / .825s / .725s / .625s after your last attack or ability (at game times 0:00 / 8:00 / 11:00 / 20:00 / 30:00) ⇒ 1s / .9s / .825s / .725s / .625s (at levels 1 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16)

Azir

See Highest Win Rate Azir Builds

Azir marks one of a very few changes we are making specifically due to First Stand. We want to preserve Azir’s high points and core strengths of sustained late game damage while opening up late-game weaknesses to AP assassins in the hope that we see some exciting counter picks at the tournament.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 119 ⇒ 108

Garen

See Highest Win Rate Garen Builds

Garen is moderately popular but statistically underpowered, and we’d like it if he was as powerful as other straightforward top lane juggernauts. We’re continuing on the trend of making traditional fighter items more comparable to his crit builds and giving him better trading power before he has access to tools like Stridebreaker and Phantom Dancer.

Q – Decisive Strike

• Move speed duration: 1 / 1.65 / 2.3 / 2.95 / 3.6 ⇒ 1.4 / 1.95 / 2.5 / 3.05 / 3.6

E – Judgment

• Damage per spin: 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 (+ 38 / 41 / 44 / 47 / 50% AD) ⇒ 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 (+ 40 / 43 / 46 / 49 / 52% AD)

Kha’Zix

See Highest Win Rate Kha’Zix Builds

Kha’Zix has evolved with the season changes and overcame all his worthy prey to take the top spot of solo queue junglers. We think he has room to go down in clear speed as the game progresses, as well as overkilling isolated targets without hurting him where he’s already weak in teamfights. We’re also making the bug less speedy to hit higher skill brackets.

Base Stats

• Move Speed: 350 ⇒ 345

Q – Taste Their Fear

• Bonus AD: + 110% (231% isolated bonus) ⇒ + 105% (220.5% isolated bonus)

Lee Sin

See Highest Win Rate Lee Sin Builds

We’re in the fortunate position where Lee Sin is buffable for both regular players as well as pro, which means we’re going to deliver some simple power. We want to reinforce his primary strength of early game power and lethality, so we’re buffing his highest fantasy early game damage ability.

Q – Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike

• Base Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 ⇒ 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185

Lillia

See Highest Win Rate Lillia Builds

We overshot Lillia’s Q nerf and historically gave her power in places she’s less likely to appreciate, all of which has led to the speedy deer feeling limp. We are reverting her ultimate buffs from 25.19, which were fairly small, as well as Q nerfs from 26.02, which were much more impactful. The hope here is that this net buff lets her live out her sustained fight fantasy as we believe that weaving in and out of fights doing damage with Q is closer to that rather than needing to land large scale R’s.

Passive – Dream-Laden Bough

• Monster heal bonus AP ratio: 9% ⇒ 15%

Q – Blooming Blows

• Bonus AP ratio: 30% ⇒ 35%

R – Lilting Lullaby

• Base damage: 100 / 150 / 200 ⇒ 150 / 200 / 250
• AP ratio: 45% ⇒ 40%
• Cooldown: 150 / 130 / 110 ⇒ 140 / 120 / 100

Mel

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds

Mel’s recent update and follow-up balance work has succeeded in creating more counterplay and thus reducing her frustration and ban rate with a similar win rate to the preceding patches. With the initial dust now settled, it’s time to bring her up to a more reasonable power level. We’re looking toward her proactive damage, especially with champion level, to skew these buffs strongly toward the mid lane. We’re also sliding in a small compensation to her passive’s minion mod in order to not push her Q-driven wave clear any higher than it already is.

Passive – Searing Brilliance

• Minion Damage Modifier: 0.6x ⇒ 0.5x

Q – Radiant Volley

• Base Damage per Bolt: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 ⇒ 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13
• Total Q Base Damage: 90 / 132 / 176 / 222 / 270 ⇒ 90 / 145 / 200 / 255 / 310

R – Golden Eclipse

• Initial Base Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 ⇒ 125 / 200 / 275

Neeko

See Highest Win Rate Neeko Builds

Neeko has been a dominant force in pro play through her combination of strong laning, teamfight utility, and vision control, while also being deadly enough to succeed more than the average champion for regular players as well. We like her explosive and high-spectacle teamfights, with the occasional 7th minion engage or wolf flank, but want to tap down the utility her clone provides. This change should still let her engage in trickery, while introducing a tradeoff to when clones stare people down from a bush on repeat, as we explore the best solution that limits her vision control but retains satisfying mechanics.

W – Shapesplitter

• Slightly-Less-Tricksy-Neekoses: Cooldown now starts on clone expiration, instead of on cast
• Fun Eliminated: Neeko can no longer use Ctrl+5, which plays the joke expression for clone only. Neeko can still joke, dance, recall, to make their clone initiate said actions.

Nocturne

See Highest Win Rate Nocturne Builds

Nocturne’s underperforming considering how easy to pick up and play he is, so he’s made the cut for buffs in this patch. In an effort to help him succeed in moderate fight durations, we’re upgrading his ability to stick to his enemies under the Dusk Trail and run them down with basic attacks.

Passive – Umbra Blades

• Cooldown: 13 ⇒ 12

Q – Duskbringer

• Bonus move speed: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

Orianna

See Highest Win Rate Orianna Builds

Orianna is arguably the defining mid pick of the current pro meta, receiving the highest total picks and bans in First Stand-qualifying leagues. As with Azir and Taliyah this patch, we’re hoping to broaden the top-tier pool and allow teams to have different takes on mid lane. In the hands of a true expert, her laning phase can feel unassailable, so we’re focusing on her early game in the hope of opening up some weaknesses.

Q – Command: Attack

• Cooldown: 6 / 5.25 / 4.5 / 3.75 / 3 ⇒ 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3

Samira

See Highest Win Rate Samira Builds

We’re giving Samira some love in the form of QoL and minor bugfixing around her Q! Sometimes Q doesn’t do what you want which can be a bit frustrating, and we’re hoping to fix some of the extreme end of feels-bad cases by adding some additional logic on the decision of when to use her Sword and when to use her Gun.

Q – Flair

• The Right Tool for the Job: Samira Q will now do multiple additional checks to see if there are units on both the right and left of her. If there are, and importantly if there are no units far in front of her, she will use Sword Q. If a unit is far in front of her, she will still use Gun Q regardless of units on the right and left.
• Itchy Trigger Finger: Samira Q is now properly sealed during her passive. This resolves a case where Samira Q can go on cooldown despite not being used if pressed during her passive’s animation. This also applies to an instance where her ultimate was cast after her W.
• Can’t Out-Walk Me: Samira Q will now do a check to see if the enemy is walking away from her and in the very last part of her Sword Q’s range. If so, she will instead use Gun Q. This should resolve the extreme cases where champions can simply walk away from her Q at very low move speed (higher move speeds will still likely be able to do so, rightfully.)

Taliyah

See Highest Win Rate Taliyah Builds

Taliyah joins Azir and Orianna as pro-focused mid nerfs for First Stand with the goal of opening up the mid lane pool to more than just control mages in the first games of a series. In an effort to pro-skew her nerf this patch, we’re attacking her early wave control, making it less likely she can always be first to every Scuttle Crab fight. We’re also compensating her monster damage to keep her jungle clear at similar speeds.

Q – Threaded Volley

• Base Damage: 55 / 72.5 / 90 / 107.5 / 125 ⇒ 50 / 67.5 / 85 / 102.5 / 120
• Bonus Monster Damage: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 ⇒ 23 / 28 / 33 / 38 / 43

Varus

See Highest Win Rate Varus Builds

Oh, Varus. Look, canonically you’re kinda three people at once, so having three times the balance changes of other champions is only fair, right? We’re nerfing Varus’s lethality build as it’s the most pro-dominant ADC in the current patch. However, because on-hit Varus in bot lane is weak, we’re compensating AD on-hit Varus to keep that build afloat.

Q – Piercing Arrow

• Maximum damage: 80 / 160 / 240 / 320 / 400 (+ 130 / 140 / 150 / 160 / 170% bonus AD) ⇒ 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+ 150% bonus AD)

W – Blighted Quiver

• On-hit damage: 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP) ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP + 15% bonus AD)

Volibear

See Highest Win Rate Volibear Builds

Volibear’s last set of nerfs were effective at hitting jungle harder than top, but ended up a bit over the line still. We’re aiming to make laning a bit more satisfying for top Volibear with mana changes, and still trying to open up some bruiser builds so it’s not always wizard bear.

Q – Thundering Smash

• Bonus physical damage: +140% ⇒ +160%

W – Frenzied Maul

• Mana cost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
• Wounded bonus: + 15% per 100 bonus AD ⇒ + 25% per 100 bonus AD

E – Sky Splitter

• Mana cost: 60 ⇒ 50

Items

Hubris

Hubris appears to be the weakest AD assassin item, especially when you consider it should look amazing statistically due to being a situational snowball item. We’re continuing the slow and steady trend of letting assassins spike their items earlier, and especially in the case of Hubris, get the snowball rolling early on.

• Combine cost: 950 gold ⇒ 750 gold
• Total price: 3000 gold ⇒ 2800 gold

Locket of the Iron Solari

Bandlepipes has been a well received addition for first-slot support tanks (and others who don’t really want AP) but it’s overshadowing first-slot Locket more than we’d like. We’re choosing to front-load some of Locket’s power so that it looks more attractive as the first purchase, while keeping its later-game power pretty similar.

• SHIELD: 200 – 360, scaling after level 1 ⇒ 290 – 360, scaling after level 8
• Functional Shield Level 8-18: 265 – 360 ⇒ 290 – 360

Ranked and Matchmaking

Aegis of Valor

Players who were eligible for the Aegis of Valor rewards have those rewards voided if they’re reported for disruptive behaviors and the reports are validated.

Autofill and Secondary Matchmaking Improvements

“As we mentioned at the start of this year, we’re going to start rolling out improved positional matchups in game for autofills and secondaries, e.g. trying to match autofill jungle vs autofill jungle. We’ll be starting with EUW.

We’ll keep an eye on how it’s performing, and will let you know when we feel like it’s ready for a global rollout.”

The 26.5 full patch preview for League of Legends is out, with another handful of champion buffs and nerfs. From @RiotPhroxon on X Source

Ranked EUW Test delayed for another day, we’re playing it safe to land the changes without breaking anything

Volibear

• Voli changes are targeted at balancing out his AD builds vs his currently strong AP builds; needs a bit more time to land

Lillia

• We’re looking to pull back on some of the previous changes and bring Lillia’s power level most of the way back to where she was before

Orianna

• Changes are targeted at reducing the power level of her early laning phase, especially when sitting on Rank 1 Q for several levels

Neeko

• Neeko has been strong in Pro Play for a while while not being overly strong in regular play
• We’re taking some power out of her vision outputs which are better used in Pro Play without overly impacting her regular play

Varus

• Varus was overbuffed a while ago and so we’re practically reverting the buff to his Q damage
• Lethality Varus has been the strongest ADC in Pro and so we’re tapping him down to not overrun the Pro meta

Ranked EUW Test

• We ended up getting delayed and the new plan is to deploy around 6pm PST tomorrow (roughly 2-3AM EUW)
• There will be about 5-10m of Ranked downtime, so we’re doing this in off peak and monitoring that things are working correctly

First Stand on 26.5

• We made a significant number of changes on 26.4 and so 26.5 is a more conservative set of changes to ensure a good Pro meta for First Stand
• Ori, Azir, Neeko, Lethality Varus are some of the strongest outliers in Pro Play currently, and so we’re tapping them down

Items

• Hubris is looking just generally underpowered
• It doesn’t really have an audience and also doesn’t exhibit the same properties that other snowball items like Mejais have (higher winrates because being purchased when snowballing)
• Bandlepipes is looking pretty strong, especially on second item. Locket is one of its primary competitors so we’re giving it a buff on second item by flatting some of the shield value

Patch Followups

• Lillia is looking a bit worse for wear after her buffs in a previous patch were over magnitude, so we’re giving her a bump back up (it may end up getting delayed to a future patch if we need more time to land on a higher quality changelist, but haven’t decided)
• We’re looking to see what Mel looks like at a higher power level after making some of the frustration lowering changes in 26.3

Patch 26.4 notes for League of Legends are here, for the full notes please see Riot’s official release. (Source).

Patch Highlights

Champions

Ambessa

See Highest Win Rate Ambessa Builds

We had always anticipated that Ambessa would have a jungle audience and we’re happy to see that she’s taken root there, but she also needs to be equally balanced across her two primary roles, so we’re lightly nerfing her monster damage.

Q – Cunning Sweep

• Bonus Damage to Monsters: 150 ⇒ 125

Annie

See Highest Win Rate Annie Builds

Annie has all but disappeared from the current game so we’d like to bring her back up to viability. While her primary player base is likely to be in mid lane, she’s often enjoyed success at support as well, so we’re also fanning the flames of her more supportive outputs.

Q – Disintegrate

• Base Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 ⇒ 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260

E – Molten Shield

• Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds

Aphelios

See Highest Win Rate Aphelios Builds

Even after our hotfix nerfs in 26.1, Aphelios remains as one of the most dominant marksmen in the game. We’re lowering his damage to make him a little less powerful at all stages of the game.

Passive – The Hitman and the Seer

• Bonus AD: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 ⇒ 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24

Brand

See Highest Win Rate Brand Builds

Brand jungle has been smothered as of late, so we’re giving his clear speed some additional firepower to see if he can find his place again.

Passive – Blaze

• Ablaze Monster Damage: 265% ⇒ 270%
• Non-Epic Monster Damage Cap: 40 ⇒ 50

Braum

See Highest Win Rate Braum Builds

We undershot our Braum nerfs last patch so we’re delivering another similarly-sized nerf to get him to the right spot. We’re happy that he can reliably remain his team’s front line, but that doesn’t mean he needs to be as good as he is at starting late game teamfights.

R – Glacial Fissure

• Base Damage: 150 / 300 / 450 ⇒ 150 / 250 / 350
• Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 ⇒ 130 / 115 / 100 seconds

Camille

See Highest Win Rate Camille Builds

Though Camille is statistically balanced, she’s so feast or famine that she doesn’t feel like it. We’re giving her some extra reliability this patch by granting her Hookshot’s attack speed any time she successfully dashes off of the wall, regardless of whether or not she hits her enemies. This should help her more generally so she can succeed in a wider variety of situations.

E – Hookshot

• Always On Point: Attack speed is now gained when Camille dashes off a wall, regardless of whether or not she hits an enemy champion.

Darius

See Highest Win Rate Darius Builds

Last year Darius was tearing up the jungle so we nerfed his monster mod to keep him from taking over. This year, after the changes, Darius is very weak in the jungle, so we’re going to split the difference so that he can be in a stable, fair power level there.

Passive – Hemorrhage

• Monster Damage: 2x ⇒ 2.5x

Fizz

See Highest Win Rate Fizz Builds

Fizz jungle made a splash in our big jungle patch last season, but his pick rate quickly dwindled. We know he’ll need more than just clear speed to stay afloat, though this change will help us test the waters before making any changes that affect him in both mid and jungle, and hopefully helps some of his new builds with W max and/or Dusk & Dawn thrive.

W – Seastone Trident

• Bonus Monster Damage: 60 ⇒ 90

Graves

See Highest Win Rate Graves Builds

Graves has a moderately successful lethality burst build right now, but it means he doesn’t have much of a fallback pattern if he doesn’t high roll a crit. We’d like to reintroduce his more durable builds of old by rewarding Graves more for maintaining Quickdraw stacks.

E – Quickdraw

• Armor per Stack: 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 ⇒ 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 / 19
• MR per Stack: 2 / 3.5 / 5 / 6.5 / 8 ⇒ 3.5 / 5 / 6.5 / 8 / 9.5

Gwen

See Highest Win Rate Gwen Builds

With all the extra experience and/or gold scaling in Gwen’s primary roles, she’s become a total monster in the new season. While her recent jungle nerfs brought her two roles to similar power levels, they’re both equally overpowered. We’re not looking to significantly change her power curve, just make her fairer to play against and since we want to maintain her as a premier AP fighter, this means reducing her burst damage.

Q – Snip Snip!

• Base Damage per Snip: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 ⇒ 10 / 13.5 / 17 / 20.5 / 24
• Minion Damage Modifier: 0.75x ⇒ 0.8x

R – Needlework

• Base Damage per Needle: 35 / 65 / 95 ⇒ 30 / 50 / 70

Hwei

See Highest Win Rate Hwei Builds

After Hwei’s adjustments late last year, he’s a little weaker than he ought to be. We don’t want to buff his wave clear back up as that was the original problem he had, so instead we want to reward him for using his whole toolkit and coordinating with his team.

WW – Pool of Reflection

• Maximum Shield Value: 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200 ⇒ 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 / 260
• Ally Shield Mod: 75% ⇒ 85%

R – Spiraling Despair

• Cooldown: 140 / 115 / 80 ⇒ 120 / 100 / 80

Illaoi

See Highest Win Rate Illaoi Builds

Illaoi is having trouble staying above water in the new season so we’re here to throw her a lifeline. Considering level scaling is all the rage in top lane right now we’re giving her more strength in the role she calls home.

Passive – Prophet of an Elder God

• Tentacle Base Damage: 9-180 (based on level) ⇒ 9-200 (based on level)

Jinx

See Highest Win Rate Jinx Builds

Jinx is currently one of the big winners of the new season. It turns out when your primary output is crits, and they get stronger, you do, too! Considering explosive basic attacks are core to her identity, we’re leaving them just as they are. But we’re going to make sure that she’s squishy enough that if she’s directly next to an explosion while falling dozens of stories, she’s not somehow tanky enough to survive all of that. This isn’t canon, but c’mon, we all know how this works.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 4.2

Kassadin

See Highest Win Rate Kassadin Builds

Kassadin’s been having a great time now that he’s able to stack multiple Tear of the Goddess items. Seriously, get on the Seraph’s + Muramana train! But because this newfound power has taken him over the edge, we need to appropriately balance him. We want to preserve his high late game damage and mobile scaling fantasy, but we want to balance those strengths with appropriate weaknesses once he gets there.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 119 ⇒ 113

E – Force Pulse

• Slow: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90% ⇒ 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70%

Kayle

See Highest Win Rate Kayle Builds

Just about everyone had Kayle on their “winners of the new season” Bingo card due to her reliably reaching level 16 more often. As those assumptions have proved true, it’s time to tune her more appropriately. Players have increasingly come to understand that maxing Q is optimal on her, and we’d like if the choice between Q and E were closer.

Q – Radiant Blast

• Base Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180

Kennen

See Highest Win Rate Kennen Builds

Kennen’s so sneaky that he snuck under players’ radars for a while, but as the new season has dawned, many of you have come to understand that small shurikens can pack a big punch. We want to create windows of opportunity to succeed against him, which means preserving his power when everything’s available, but creating larger gaps between those moments.

R – Slicing Maelstrom

• Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 ⇒ 120

Lee Sin

See Highest Win Rate Lee Sin Builds

Right now Lee Sin’s W2 is the only ability in the game that grants both Life Steal and Spell Vamp. We’re looking to combine those into Omnivamp along with a couple other systemic changes to maintain similar gameplay with clearer wording.

W – Iron Will

• Spell Vamp No More: Lee Sin W2 grants Life Steal and Spell Vamp. Lee Sin is unable to heal with W2 and Smite on either minions, jungle monsters or Champions ⇒ Lee Sin W2 grants Omnivamp which will apply on minions, monsters, and Champions

Lux

See Highest Win Rate Lux Builds

Lux is straightforward to play, which means she should look quite strong in the hands of most players. Unfortunately, she isn’t doing particularly well, especially as a support. Our changes this patch are a mix of skewing her base stats to be more synergistic with the World Atlas and a direct injection of power aimed at making both her primary roles better.

Base Stats

• Base Mana: 480 ⇒ 440
• Starting Mana Regen: 7 ⇒ 9

Q – Light Binding

• Cooldown: 11 / 10.5 / 10 / 9.5 / 9 ⇒ 10

W – Prismatic Barrier

• Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 ⇒ 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10

Maokai

See Highest Win Rate Maokai Builds

Maokai was able to find much more comfortable roots in the Top and Support roles, but his ability to Jungle is still lagging behind other tanks. With this clear speed buff, we’re looking to keep him in line with the other tree champions in the jungle.

Q – Bramble Smash

• Bonus Monster Damage: 120 / 130 / 140 / 150 / 160 ⇒ 140 / 150 / 160 / 170 / 180

Naafiri

See Highest Win Rate Naafiri Builds

Naafiri is pretty evenly split between mid and jungle now, but is too powerful in mid lane at the moment. We’d like her to still hit as hard when she lands her bread and butter Q and uses her mobility to effectively trade, though right now she can spam a bit too effectively, threatening all-ins and pushing at the same time.

Base Stats

• Base Health Regen: 7.5 ⇒ 6
• Health Regen Growth: 0.7 ⇒ 0.6

Q – Darkin Daggers

• Mana Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 ⇒ 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90

E – Eviscerate

• Mana Cost: 35 ⇒ 40

Qiyana

See Highest Win Rate Qiyana Builds

Qiyana’s mid lane performance among experts is one of the strongest in the game and is due for a nerf. We’re happy that she’s a lethal assassin, we just want to make her less generically strong.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 121 ⇒ 115

Rengar

See Highest Win Rate Rengar Builds

As the dust has settled around Rengar’s bug fixes and affinity for new items (hi Umbral Glaive!), we’re now certain that Rengar is simply too strong when piloted by players who know what they’re doing. Overall he gained a lot more damage in the new season, so we’re going to bring some of that damage down now.

Q – Savagery

• Damage: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+ 100 / 103.75 / 107.5 / 111.25 / 115% total AD) ⇒ 20 / 55 / 90 / 125 / 160 (+ 105% total AD)
• Ferocity Damage: 30 – 235 (based on level) (+130% total AD) ⇒ 35 – 240 (based on level) (+120% total AD)

Rumble

See Highest Win Rate Rumble Builds

Rumble is not in pro jail. I repeat, Rumble is not in pro jail! After fixing a long-standing bug that substantially reduced his damage when played on the red team and associated follow-up, he’s just a very strong champion at almost all levels of play once players get over his steep learning curve. As a result, we’re looking to bring him to a more appropriate power level so we’re making him more susceptible to aggressive laners and worse at simply equalizing away poor wave states.

Base Stats

• Base Health: 655 ⇒ 640

R – The Equalizer

• Maximum Damage: 700 / 1050 / 1400 ⇒ 600 / 1000 / 1400

Ryze

See Highest Win Rate Ryze Builds

You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it. We’ve revisited Ryze’s ult and an unintuitive interaction causing champions to not warp when they’d otherwise expect to. This was an intentional mechanic that aimed to anticipate players’ needs but as time has gone on, this predictive help has caused more confusion than it’s worth.

R – Realm Warp

• All Aboard: No longer refuses to grab a champion if they’re currently pathing out of the circle while near the edge.

Samira

See Highest Win Rate Samira Builds

Samira is already a solid performer every way we can measure it, so this change isn’t meant to be a significant buff. Instead, this change is more an acknowledgement that Bloodthirster should be competitive with Endless Hunger and shouldn’t heal her for less just due to some rules text.

Q – Flair

• Life Steal Effectiveness: 80% ⇒ 100%

R – Inferno Trigger

• Life Steal Effectiveness: 80% ⇒ 100%

Senna

See Highest Win Rate Senna Builds

Senna has found herself in a weird state where she can be quite powerful, but not when playing her more popular offense-focused builds. So we’re shifting some power around with the goal of maintaining her viable supportive playstyles but making damage-focused builds much better.

Q – Piercing Darkness

• Damage: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+ 40% bonus AD) ⇒ 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 60% bonus AD)

W – Last Embrace

• Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 70% bonus AD) ⇒ 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 90% bonus AD)

Swain

See Highest Win Rate Swain Builds

Swain is running rampant through bot lane right now and doing quite well in mid, too. His bot lane playstyle is more strongly tied to Malignance and his role as a bot laner is more about his damage output. Meanwhile in the support role, where the majority of his players are, they mostly rush Rylai’s and perform as more of a pseudo-frontliner. So with all of that in mind, we’re nerfing his AP-scaling ultimate damage and inherent crowd control power in hopes to nerf bot lane while leaving support as unscathed as possible.

W – Vision of Empire

• Slow: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70% ⇒ 50% at all ranks

R – Demonic Ascension

• Damage per Second Scaling: 5% AP ⇒ 4% AP
• Demonflare Damage Scaling: 50% AP ⇒ 40% AP
• Demonflare Slow: 75% ⇒ 50%

Syndra

See Highest Win Rate Syndra Builds

Syndra has been rising through the ranks recently, with high CDR builds performing especially well. We don’t want to hit how she feels with her Q poke and main defensive tool in Scatter the Weak, so instead we’re going to take at some of her more guaranteed damage.

W – Force of Will

• Base Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 ⇒ 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190

R – Unleashed Power

• Base Damage: 90 / 130 / 170 ⇒ 80 / 120 / 160

Teemo

See Highest Win Rate Teemo Builds

Teemo has been struggling in the jungle ever since season start, even for the most dedicated scouts. Though we can’t make him sneakier in a world of Faelights, we’re giving him some more clear speed to help him do his job as the Swift Scout.

E – Toxic Shot

• Monster Damage: 145% ⇒ 160%

Twitch

See Highest Win Rate Twitch Builds

Twitch really benefitted from the new items introduced this season, and players are really gravitating towards his glass cannon playstyle. With that in mind, he’s a bit too resilient to be considered glass, so we’re making sure his damage comes with appropriate tradeoffs.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 104 ⇒ 98
• Armor Growth: 4.2 ⇒ 4

Udyr

See Highest Win Rate Udyr Builds

We want both Q-max and R-max Udyr to be viable builds, but right now they’re quite far apart in power. Similarly, maxing W or E second should also be comparable but regardless of build, W is weaker. We’d like to rectify both of these issues by improving the rank-up incentives of both Q and W without giving too much burst damage to AD Udyr and without giving him too much sustain to ignore his lane opponents.

Q – Wilding Claw

• Base Bonus Damage On-Hit: 5 / 11 / 17 / 23 / 29 / 35 ⇒ 5 / 13 / 21 /29 / 37 / 45

W – Iron Mantle

• Base Shield Strength: 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 ⇒ 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 / 145

Xayah

See Highest Win Rate Xayah Builds

Xayah appears statistically balanced, but players feel like she lacks agency. We’re looking to make her base spells more available, giving more access to her spellweaving fantasy and more juicy W-auto uptime. These changes will also help her spread her wings and not be as reliant on Essence Reaver.

Q – Double Daggers

• Mana Cost: 50 ⇒ 35

W – Deadly Plumage

• Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 ⇒ 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 seconds

E – Bladecaller

• Mana Cost: 30 ⇒ 20

Zac

See Highest Win Rate Zac Builds

Zac has been truly explosive in the new season, and while his ability to tank and engage are meant to be core strengths, he’s also too lethal for a tank with deep backline target access. So to give everyone a fair shot against him, we’re reducing his burst damage when it’s slime time, especially against squishies.

Q – Stretching Strikes

• Damage per Hit: 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 (+ 30% AP) (+ 3% of Zac’s maximum health) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 30% AP) (+ 3% of Zac’s bonus health)

R – Let’s Bounce!

• Initial Base Damage: 140 / 210 / 280 ⇒ 120 / 190 / 260
• Maximum Base Damage: 350 / 525 / 700 ⇒ 300 / 475 / 650

Items & Summoner Spells

Hexoptics C44

AD carries now have several first slot options, whether they’re spellcasters, basic attackers, or somewhere in between. We’ve wanted to give them a greedy late-game option for stacking as much basic attack damage as possible, and Hexoptics is here to fill that niche. While we don’t think it’ll be in everyone’s build, we want it to be attractive, so we’re further amplifying its unique strengths in hopes that it’ll find a home.

• Range for Maximum Bonus Damage: 600 ⇒ 500
• Bonus Range on Takedown Duration: 6 ⇒ 8 seconds

Additional Miscellaneous Info

The 26.4 Full patch preview for League of Legends is out, with another handful of champion buffs and nerfs. From @RiotPhroxon on X Source

Ryze

– Ryze’s resurgance in the last few months has increased visibility on R’s prediction behavior. This behavior is frequently difficult to predict and often doesn’t teleport champions when it feels like it should

– We’re removing this functionality as it leads to overall less predicatability around Ryze R behavior

Dusk and Dawn, Gwen & Kayle

– While we nerfed several other Dusk and Dawn users, Gwen has floated to be one of the better ones; we’re tapping her done a bit as a result

– Kayle also falls into a similar boat

– We’re overall pretty happy with the state of Dusk & Dawn; it’s a popular item with a strong fantasy and after this patch, we hope it’s a balanced item with an appropriately sized user base

Manamune Kassadin

– We’re thrilled to see Kassadin finding a new fun build to play; unfortunately he’s a bit too strong both with and without it, so we’re tapping him down

– The early game changes to let him get back to lane a bit faster has made punishing him a bit more difficult and so he’ll have to work a bit harder to access those 2 and 3 item spikes he used to

Rengar

– Rengar’s had a good number of bugs fixed on 26.2 that added quite a bit of power and consistency to him; we’re pulling a bunch of that back as he’s a bit too powerful for Elite players in particular

ADC’s & Senna

– We’re trying a niche for Hexoptics where it is positioned as a greedy 3rd full damage item for Crit users when they don’t need LDR (or post LDR)

– Jinx and Twitch are receiving durability nerfs in the mid-game to keep some of their damage fantasies intact, but create sharper tradeoffs if they misposition

– Aphelios is still one of the stronger ADC’s, even after a hotfix nerf in 16.1; just a generic nerf here to bring power level down

– Samira’s BT build is significantly worse for wear, especially after the changes to Crit; so this adjustment is intended to bring some of that build variety back

– Xayah has been out of the meta for quite a while; we’re trying to ease her reliance on Essence Reaver procs in order to open up a bit more build variety for her. Additionally, her damage output is just superseded by several of her contemporaries, so increasing her W uptime will help her be competitive relative to the pack

– For Senna, in Support, her Enchanter builds have been on average a bit too strong relative to her AD builds and so we’re trying to make that balance a little more AD skewed

– We like the Enchanter build being viable, but AD should be the stronger one for her fantasy

Overall

-Things are looking pretty stable; we’re seeing some pretty marked game time reductions (probably from) the turret plate bulwarking reductions

-We’re still waiting to see the impact of the faelights and early vision changes on Jungle, but need a full patch to draw some conclusions there (and on the early bounty changes)

-After this patch, things are likely to be in a pretty good spot overall, would love to hear from y’all what other things need changing

-We’ve gotten a few initial surveys back from players and Top and Bot have been reporting higher satisfaction and power, while JG, Mid, Supp have been either neutral or lower sentiment.

-This was pretty much our goal, but there’s still some fine tuning to do, expect some of that in some of the coming patches

Systems

-Hexoptics hasn’t really managed to pick up much of an audience, so we’re making some adjustments to make its damage amp passive more accessible to more champions along with some other tuning adjustments

Champion Changes

-First Stand is coming up on 26.5; we’re making a lot of changes for both general balance and hitting a few of the other outliers/forgotten champions

-There isn’t really a major theme here, other than trying to adjust some of the outliers that especially have benefited overly from some of the systems changes (items or otherwise)

-Some of our unconventional junglers are also a bit worse for wear, so we’re giving them a bit of a bump up

-Mel and Zed are in a decent spot after the hotfix buffs, so we’re letting them sit for a bit to stabilize

Challenger + Ranked

-We made some adjustments this patch to increase queue times in Challenger to get better match quality

-We’re going to walk this back a bit as even though match quality has factually improved a bit, players are still feeling like those matches aren’t higher quality, while having longer queue times

-Going to walk it back about halfway as a result

Mel, the elegant Piltover councilor from Arcane, was released onto Summoner’s Rift in January 2025 (Patch 25.S1.2). Just a year later, she’s become one of the most polarizing champions in the game, boasting consistently sky-high ban rates despite dismal win rates.

Mel Win & Ban Rates

By late 2025, Mel was banned in nearly half of all League matches, with her ban rate climbing to around 50% in Emerald+.

Looking at pre-26.3 data, she’s still being banned in nearly a quarter of Emerald+ games.

You can view both current and historical patch data on our main tier list page.

Her win rates tell a different story however. Which leads us to ask the question, why is she being banned?

The Root of the Frustration: Her Kit

She’s too frustrating to play against. Players ban her to avoid the headache.

Mel is an AP ranged mage who excels at safe poking and turning enemy aggression against them. Her W – Rebuttal is the culprit: it grants damage immunity while reflecting incoming abilities (including ultimates) back at foes as magic damage.

Add her Passive – Searing Brilliance (long-range execute procs), vision-granting brushes via abilities, and a spammable Q – Radiant Volley for poke, and she’s untouchable. Against a skilled Mel, your options in lane are either to Flash and use an ability only to have it reflected or play safe and slowly get whittled down.

Comparing other champions with the ability to block damage highlights the issue:

Yasuo and Braum: Both can block attacks with abilities, but only from a single direction, and there are several attacks that can bypass them. Both have a high ban rate (16.4% and 23.4%), but both have a significantly higher win rate than Mel.

Pantheon: His E – Aegis Assault can block all non-tower damage from a single direction, but he’s still vulnerable to CC. He’s also an A-tier champion with over a 50%-win rate, but he’s only banned in 1.1% of games.

Fiora: Riposte parries with complete damage immunity. S-tier duelist with over a 50%-win rate, yet only 6.4% ban rate.

Mel’s ranged safety and reflection create “no counterplay” frustrations, leading to her high ban rate even though she statistically isn’t that strong of a champion.

Past Course Corrections from Riot

Riot’s been tweaking Mel since launch: early hotfixes in Jan/Feb 2025 nerfed her passive/Q/ult, followed by more adjustments.

Mel (PATCH 25.04 Changes)

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds

Mel has been very popular both to pick and to ban. We believe Mel experiences just a little too much safety for opponents to effectively punish her due to her range and ability durations. So to correct that we’re lowering her Q range and speed, W duration, and early E root duration to make her a more assailable target. At the same time, we’re returning some of her ability to scale into the mid and late game with some added damage to both E and R while lowering the damage value of W from rank up which results in some painful end game experiences.

Q – Radiant Volley

• Cast Range: 1000 ⇒ 950
• Projectile Speed: 5000 ⇒ 4500

W – Rebuttal

• Duration: 1 ⇒ 0.75 seconds
• Mana Cost: 60/45/30/15/0 ⇒ 80/60/40/20/0
• Reflected Damage: 40/47.5/55/62.5/70% ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60%

E – Solar Snare

• Root Duration: 1.75/1.88/2/2.13/2.25 ⇒ 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds
• Direct Hit Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% AP) ⇒ 60/105/150/195/240 (+60% AP)

R – Golden Eclipse

• Damage per Overwhelm Stack: 4/7/10 (+2.5% AP) ⇒ 4/7/10 (+3.5% AP)

Mel (PATCH 25.23 Changes)

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds

We’re glad that Mel is a viable mid laner (shoutout League’s GOAT for raising awareness!). However, she’s also proven to be one of League’s most frustrating champions, which we’re looking to alleviate. Her passive buffs that required her to take on more risk were successful in our eyes, so we’re headed back to that. To continue to expose her to more risk, we’re weakening Solar Snare’s lockdown and self-peel potential. We know she’s still got such sharp interactions that she’ll still sport one of League’s highest ban rates, but we hope this adjustment will be roughly power-neutral and frustration-reducing.

Passive – Searing Brilliance

• Damage per spell: 24-99 (based on level) (+9% AP) ⇒ 24-150 (based on level) (+ 15% AP)

E – Solar Snare

• Root Duration: 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 ⇒ 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 / 1.6

Mel 26.3 Overhaul

Mel

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds

This changelist is intended to help lower player frustration while playing against Mel through opening up additional counterplay opportunities for opponents beyond the ban button.

One big change we have is changing her reflect damage immunity to a shield which will ensure when Fizz successfully lands his ultimate she no longer completely negates the damage with a late W. We also want to make sure when you’re laning against her that you can see her Q coming and dodge out of the way at long ranges like many spammable projectile spells. Both her Q and E should now be more visually clear (thus easier to dodge) and we’ve reduced some of the power from her reflect in some situations where her reflections resulted in unexpectedly high damage.

While we believe that champion agency can yield frustrating interactions, we also believe there should be avenues for counterplay to balance that out. Frankly, we underestimated how frustrating the play-against experience for Mel would be and are aiming to improve that with this change list. And for players looking to play Mel we want her to be playable more consistently after the ban phase while making sure her core gameplay that her players have come to love isn’t lost.

Our goals with these changes are that more players feel they can outplay Mel in ways that match their expectations, and that Mel players can feel more skillful and that their success is a result of that skill. We expect that there will continue to be players whose main champions are highly impacted by Mel’s reflection that may continue to prioritize her as a ban, but we’re targeting to get her out of must-ban territory for many players.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Ratio: 0.4 ⇒ 0.625

Passive – Searing Brilliance

• Projectile Damage: 8-50 (based on level) (+ 5% AP) ⇒ 8-25 (based on level) (+ 3% AP)
• Total Projectile Damage: 24-150 (based on level) (+ 15% AP) ⇒ 24-75 (based on level) (+ 9% AP)
• Reduced the visual clutter by no longer displaying the passive mark on non-champions for enemies.
• Fixed certain champion spawned units dying to Overwhelm from an unempowered basic attack.

Q – Radiant Volley

• Now deals additional damage the first time an explosion hits with reduced effectiveness from subsequent hits.
• Initial Hit: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 60% AP)
• Subsequent Hits: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 (+ 5% AP)
• Total Damage: 78 / 109 / 144 / 185 / 230 (+51-85% AP) ⇒ 85 / 126 / 169 / 214 / 261 (+ 85-105% AP)
• Mana Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 ⇒ 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
• Minion Damage: 75% ⇒ 100%
• Cast Time: 0.25s ⇒ 0.35s
• Projectile Speed: 4500 ⇒ 3800
• Explosion Radius: 230 ⇒ 200
• Area Spread: 30 ⇒ 25
• Channel Time: 0.75s ⇒ 0.5s
• Damage type is now DoT AoE (reduced effectiveness in resetting Arcane Comet).
• Stronger area telegraph visual.

W – Rebuttal

• No longer provides Damage Immunity.
• Shield: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+ 60% AP)
• Physical damage reflected is reduced by 30% before magic damage conversion.
• Now destroys projectiles that target each unit in an area instead of reflecting them when those projectiles aren’t targeting Mel. (ex. Ryze E, Brand E, Katarina R, Samira R, Yunara Q)
• Decaying Move Speed: 30% over 0.75s⇒ 40% over 1.5s

E – Solar Snare

• Root Missile Radius: 80 ⇒ 70
• End of Travel Linger Duration: 0.5s ⇒ 0.25s
• DoT Radius: 260 ⇒ 230
• Cast Range: 1050 ⇒ 1000
• Projectile Speed: 1000 ⇒ 1100
• Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10 ⇒ 11 / 10.5 / 10 / 9.5 / 9
• Root Duration: 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 ⇒ 1.5
• Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 ⇒ 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240
• Damage per Second: 16 / 26 / 36 / 46 / 56 ⇒ 16 / 28 / 40 / 52 / 64
• No longer visually pops at the end when descending terrain.

R – Golden Eclipse

• Damage per Stack: 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 3.5% AP) ⇒ 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 4% AP)

Will this finally solve her insane ban rates? Without complete damage immunity, players will probably become less frustrated with Mel, and her ban rate will gradually decline over time. Shields aren’t anything new on mages, but Mel mains may be frustrated because it was a unique aspect that made the champion stand out amongst other mages.

26.3 Aftermath

After analyzing the 26.3 data, we’ve found that Mel’s new ban rate is now under 20% in Emerald+. Some players may still be instinctively banning her and might not know about the changes this patch.

Unfortunately, the changes seem to have brought down her win rate even further, as Mel players now need to adjust to a regular shield instead of the full damage immunity they had before. This could improve over time as players develop strategies that work with the new shield, and hopefully Riot will step in to buff Mel if necessary.

Patch 26.3 notes for League of Legends are here, with a large amount of buffs and nerfs to many champions, along with a big update to ARAM Mayhem (Source)

Patch 26.3 Overview

ARAM Mayhem

Champion Bounties

Control Wards

Faelights and Vision

Turret Plates

Champions

Ahri

See Highest Win Rate Ahri Builds

As the new season has shaken out, Ahri is performing worse than last year and worse than she ought to. Now that she’s back on high burst builds, we’re reverting a nerf from her “Rod of Ages every game” phase of her K-pop career. Some artists just fall off, you know?

W – Fox-Fire

• Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 ⇒ 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5

Bel’Veth

See Highest Win Rate Bel’Veth Builds

Bel’Veth is one of several AD junglers who suffered in the new season and we’re here to buff her back up. We’re aiming to bring up her late game in ways that synergize with squishy high attack speed builds by giving her a better payout for that attack speed and enough health to not need to buy as much of it.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 99 ⇒ 105

R – Endless Banquet

• True Damage on attack per stack: 6 / 8 / 10 (+ 12% Bonus AD) ⇒ 6 / 10 / 14 (+ 12% Bonus AD)

Braum

See Highest Win Rate Braum Builds

Braum has easily become a top tier support with the start of the new season. New items like Bandlepipes have been instrumental in helping him and his allies stick onto enemies and take them down. Given that Braum is still looking quite strong even after the nerf to Bandlepiepes, we’ll be looking to revert the health buffs we gave him at the end of last year and bring down some of his overall fighting power.

Base Stats

• Health: 630 ⇒ 610

Q – Winter’s Bite

• Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+ 2.5% HP) ⇒ 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+ 2.5% HP)

Briar

See Highest Win Rate Briar Builds

Briar lost some of her luster in the new season and as someone with ample counter-play, she deserves to win more games than she currently does. We want to make sure her lifesteal-focused durability can manifest by giving her enough health and resists to make that healing efficient and while we’re here, we’re also throwing top lane Briar a bone by letting her trade more efficiently as well.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 95 ⇒ 100
• Armor Growth: 4.2 ⇒ 4.5

Q – Head Rush

• Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health

W – Blood Frenzy

• Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health

E – Chilling Scream

• Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health

R – Certain Death

• 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health

Diana

See Highest Win Rate Diana Builds

Diana has gone to the moon due to seasonal changes, and in addition to Dusk & Dawn adjustments, this nerf should make sure her power wanes.

Passive – Moonsilver Blade

• Monster Damage: 280% ⇒ 230%

Draven

See Highest Win Rate Draven Builds

Draven’s Q was initially bugged to deal less damage at the start of the season, which was micropatched within the first week. Players are also trying Essence Reaver over Bloodthirster, which currently performs worse. After accounting for all of these factors, Draven’s still not doing as well as he was last year, so we’re coming to prop him back up by reverting one of our preemptive pre-season nerfs.

Base Stats

• AD Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.4

Ekko

See Highest Win Rate Ekko Builds

Time has been on Ekko’s side this year. We’re taking a swing at both his clear speed and burst after early game to prevent him from going haywire after getting a lead.

Passive – Z-Drive Resonance

• AP Ratio: 80% ⇒ 90%
• Monster Damage: 300% ⇒ 270%

Ezreal

See Highest Win Rate Ezreal Builds

Ezreal’s been in a pretty weak spot for most players this season, especially after Essence Reaver got nerfed in the micropatch. While we think there’s some winrate to be gained through players optimizing their builds, we still want to bring Ezreal more in line.

Base Stats

• AD Growth: 3.25 ⇒ 3.5

E – Arcane Shift

• Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+ 50% Bonus AD) (+ 75% AP) ⇒ 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280(+ 60% Bonus AD) (+ 75% AP)

Hecarim

See Highest Win Rate Hecarim Builds

Hecarim isn’t doing very well in the new season so he’s got a buff coming up. We’re doing this by giving him a strong mid game power spike that he can use to try to run the map and get his team a lead. And even if he fails to do so, at least he’s got slightly better base damage to fall back on. For those who don’t want to do the math, the net result of both Q changes is a strict buff until around 225 bonus AD.

Q – Rampage

• Damage per hit: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+ 90% Bonus AD) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 90% Bonus AD)
• Damage amp per Rampage stack: 3% (+ 4% per 100 Bonus AD) ⇒ 3% (+ 3% per 100 Bonus AD)

Heimerdinger

See Highest Win Rate Heimerdinger Builds

Slaps roof We can fit so many Arcane champs in this patch. Heimerdinger’s been performing worse in the new season and he was balanced before then, so we’re here to return him to his former glory. We know top lane Heimer can feel suffocating when his turrets are all setup, so we’re looking to re-buff him in ways that allow him to be proactive instead of turtling.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 101 ⇒ 105

Hextech Micro-Rockets

• Initial hit damage: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 55% AP) ⇒ 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+ 55% AP)
• Follow-up damage: unchanged

Jayce

See Highest Win Rate Jayce Builds

Jayce’s build has bounced around a lot over time. He’s been a tank, he’s been (and currently is) a lethality burst mage, and he’s been a fighter. We’d like if Jayce were an AD fighter, caring about both his damage output and durability to stick it out in melee once in a while. He’s also still better in the jungle than in the top lane after last patch’s nerf, so we’re here to re-visit him. Ultimately our goals for Viktor’s better half are to give him a viable fighter build and a viable but not overbearing jungle role. To achieve these goals, we’re reducing his reliance on bonus AD and shifting power from his poke into his melee damage and follow-up.

Q – To the Skies!

• Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 295 / 240 / 285 (+135% Bonus AD)⇒ 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 / 310 (+ 135% Bonus AD)
• Monster bonus damage: 25 ⇒ 10

Q – Shock Blast

• Damage: 80 / 126 / 172 / 218 / 264 / 310 (+ 140% Bonus AD) ⇒ 80 / 121 / 162 / 203 / 244 / 285 (+ 130% Bonus AD)
• Monster bonus damage: 25 ⇒ 10

R – Cannon Stance: Mercury Cannon

• Armor/Magic Resistance Shred: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%

Kayn

See Highest Win Rate Kayn Builds

Blue Kayn specifically became much weaker in the new season and we’d like to fix that with some direct buffs. There’s not much fancy here except that as an assassin, he should be lethal when fighting up close and personal with his targets. As a reminder, Slayer Kayn replaces his Q when transformed.

Q – Reaping Slash

• Damage: 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 (+ 85% Bonus AD) ⇒ 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195 (+ 85% Bonus AD)

Maokai

See Highest Win Rate Maokai Builds

Maokai has been struggling to find his place both in the top lane and in the jungle. We want to give him a little bit of extra power to find relevance in our new season by boosting hist damage

Q – Bramble Smash

• Flat Damage: 65 / 110 / 155 / 200 / 245 ⇒ 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255

Mel

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds

This changelist is intended to help lower player frustration while playing against Mel through opening up additional counterplay opportunities for opponents beyond the ban button.

One big change we have is changing her reflect damage immunity to a shield which will ensure when Fizz successfully lands his ultimate she no longer completely negates the damage with a late W. We also want to make sure when you’re laning against her that you can see her Q coming and dodge out of the way at long ranges like many spammable projectile spells. Both her Q and E should now be more visually clear (thus easier to dodge) and we’ve reduced some of the power from her reflect in some situations where her reflections resulted in unexpectedly high damage.

While we believe that champion agency can yield frustrating interactions, we also believe there should be avenues for counterplay to balance that out. Frankly, we underestimated how frustrating the play-against experience for Mel would be and are aiming to improve that with this change list. And for players looking to play Mel we want her to be playable more consistently after the ban phase while making sure her core gameplay that her players have come to love isn’t lost.

Our goals with these changes are that more players feel they can outplay Mel in ways that match their expectations, and that Mel players can feel more skillful and that their success is a result of that skill. We expect that there will continue to be players whose main champions are highly impacted by Mel’s reflection that may continue to prioritize her as a ban, but we’re targeting to get her out of must-ban territory for many players.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Ratio: 0.4 ⇒ 0.625

Passive – Searing Brilliance

• Projectile Damage: 8-50 (based on level) (+ 5% AP) ⇒ 8-25 (based on level) (+ 3% AP)
• Total Projectile Damage: 24-150 (based on level) (+ 15% AP) ⇒ 24-75 (based on level) (+ 9% AP)
• Reduced the visual clutter by no longer displaying the passive mark on non-champions for enemies.
• Fixed certain champion spawned units dying to Overwhelm from an unempowered basic attack.

Q – Radiant Volley

• Now deals additional damage the first time an explosion hits with reduced effectiveness from subsequent hits.
• Initial Hit: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 60% AP)
• Subsequent Hits: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 (+ 5% AP)
• Total Damage: 78 / 109 / 144 / 185 / 230 (+51-85% AP) ⇒ 85 / 126 / 169 / 214 / 261 (+ 85-105% AP)
• Mana Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 ⇒ 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
• Minion Damage: 75% ⇒ 100%
• Cast Time: 0.25s ⇒ 0.35s
• Projectile Speed: 4500 ⇒ 3800
• Explosion Radius: 230 ⇒ 200
• Area Spread: 30 ⇒ 25
• Channel Time: 0.75s ⇒ 0.5s
• Damage type is now DoT AoE (reduced effectiveness in resetting Arcane Comet).
• Stronger area telegraph visual.

W – Rebuttal

• No longer provides Damage Immunity.
• Shield: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+ 60% AP)
• Physical damage reflected is reduced by 30% before magic damage conversion.
• Now destroys projectiles that target each unit in an area instead of reflecting them when those projectiles aren’t targeting Mel. (ex. Ryze E, Brand E, Katarina R, Samira R, Yunara Q)
• Decaying Move Speed: 30% over 0.75s⇒ 40% over 1.5s

E – Solar Snare

• Root Missile Radius: 80 ⇒ 70
• End of Travel Linger Duration: 0.5s ⇒ 0.25s
• DoT Radius: 260 ⇒ 230
• Cast Range: 1050 ⇒ 1000
• Projectile Speed: 1000 ⇒ 1100
• Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10 ⇒ 11 / 10.5 / 10 / 9.5 / 9
• Root Duration: 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 ⇒ 1.5
• Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 ⇒ 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240
• Damage per Second: 16 / 26 / 36 / 46 / 56 ⇒ 16 / 28 / 40 / 52 / 64
• No longer visually pops at the end when descending terrain.

R – Golden Eclipse

• Damage per Stack: 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 3.5% AP) ⇒ 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 4% AP)

Naafiri

See Highest Win Rate Naafiri Builds

Naafiri’s doing pretty well in the mid lane at the moment but her jungling hasn’t kept up so we’re giving our favorite pack of dogs more of a fighting chance with her current slow clear.

Passive – We Are More

• Packmate Monster Damage: 1.35x ⇒ 1.55x

Nilah

See Highest Win Rate Nilah Builds

Even after her micropatch nerfs, Nilah is still sooo happy (overpowered) about the new season. We’re looking to bring her overall power down now that the dust has settled.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 58
• Armor Growth: 4.5 ⇒ 4.2

Nunu & Willump

See Highest Win Rate Nunu & Willump Builds

We aimed to give Nunu & Willump a hefty nerf but overshot our goals so we’re here to walk back part of the nerf package.

W – Biggest Snowball Ever!

• Maximum Damage: 150 / 195 / 240 / 285 / 330 ⇒ 180 / 225 / 270 / 315 / 360

E – Snowball Barrage

• Base Damage per hit: 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 / 42 ⇒ 15 / 22.5 / 30 / 37.5 / 45

Riven

See Highest Win Rate Riven Builds

Riven’s been crushing it ever since she discovered Axiom Arc. We like that she’s swift and lethal in the early game but ultimately she’s bursting down her competition too quickly once mid game arrives. Additionally, with all the extra gold and experience in the game right now, players have cited that late game fights resolve too quickly. So, all that considered, we’re here to take out some of her late game burst power.

Passive – Runic Blade

• Total AD Ratio: 30-50% (based on level) ⇒ 30-45% (based on level)

Q – Broken Wings

• Damage: 40 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 / 85% Bonus AD) ⇒ 40 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80% Bonus AD)

Ryze

See Highest Win Rate Ryze Builds

Ryze has risen up the ranks this season and is due for a reduction in power. While we’re nerfing Phase Rush, we’re also buffing Actualizer so we think he deserves a direct nerf in this patch. With his late game damage going up and the overall game being more lethal than we’d like, we’re reducing some late game damage in kind.

W – Rune Prison

• Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+70% AP) (+ 4% Bonus Mana) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180(+ 60% AP) (+ 3% Bonus Mana)

Trundle

See Highest Win Rate Trundle Builds

Trundle’s doing very poorly in both of his main roles and as a very straightforward champion should be much more successful than he is now. We want to make sure he’s good at playing the role of the front-line juggernaut who’s great at tank-busting, so we’re playing up his late game sustained damage output and resilience

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 3.9 ⇒ 4.5
• Attack Damage Growth: 4 ⇒ 4.5

Tryndamere

See Highest Win Rate Tryndamere Builds

After his micropatch buffs back in 26.1, Tryndamere’s power level is close but not quite back to its former glory so we’d like to bring him back up to where he was and continue pushing him toward strong sustained damage.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage Growth: 4 ⇒ 4.5

Varus

See Highest Win Rate Varus Builds

Last patch’s Varus buffs heavily overshot our target and has resulted in him becoming one of the game’s strongest top laners as well. We’re sorry for the inaccurate tuning and now that we’ve got more room to work with, we’re looking to weaken his top lane performance as much as possible by rendering him more susceptible to all-ins, reducing his affinity for the top lane role quest, and weakening his top-specific build of AP and maxing W first.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.6 ⇒ 4

W – Blighted Quiver

• On-hit damage: 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 35% AP) ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP)
• Max health damage: 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% (+1.5% per 100 AP) ⇒ 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% (+ 1.3% per 100 AP)

Vi

See Highest Win Rate Vi Builds

Vi certainly does not stand for victory anywhere but pro play. We’d like to make her much more successful for the average League player without indexing too hard into her strengths in tightly coordinated environments, which means we’re aiming to play up her self-sufficiency and long-term brawling.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 99 ⇒ 105
• Attack Damage Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.5

Volibear

See Highest Win Rate Volibear Builds

We’re happy that Volibear is seeing action at all levels with a new build as our signature garage sale enjoyer, but we want to make sure he’s a little less overBearing, primarily in jungle. We’re targeting his main build path’s Q max burst without changing how it feels to get into combat, as well as his clear speed so that he has to work a little harder to show up to fights, and compensating with some AD ratio for anyone who’s gotten a good deal on a Triforce or Gunblade recently.

Q – Thundering Smash

• Bonus Physical Damage: 10 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 (+ 120% Bonus AD) ⇒ 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+ 140% Bonus AD)

E – Sky Splitter

• Cooldown: 14 ⇒ 16
• Non-champion damage cap: 190 / 305 / 420 / 535 / 650 (+ 70% AP) ⇒ 150 / 265 / 380 / 495 / 610 (+ 70% AP)

Xin Zhao

See Highest Win Rate Xin Zhao Builds

Xin Zhao just can’t catch a break. First he dies to Atakhan, now he’s underpowered in solo queue? When will these tragedies cease? Today. They cease today. Xin Zhao buff time! Much like Vi’s changes in this patch, we want to play up Xin Zhao’s ability to stick up for himself and scrap with enemy champions in long-term fights.

Passive – Determination

• Heal every third hit: 3 / 3.5 / 4% max HP (Level 1/6/11) ⇒ 3/4/5% max HP

E – Audacious Charge

• Bonus Attack Speed: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% ⇒ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80%

Yone

See Highest Win Rate Yone Builds

Yone’s on the weaker side of the roster right now so we think he could use a buff. We know it can feel unfair to simply lose to him right clicking you during his E but we don’t want him to be super bursty either, so we’re pushing power into his Q, which has more gameplay around predictions and dodging.

Q – Mortal Steel

• Damage: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 105% Total AD) ⇒ 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125(+ 110% Total AD)

Zaahen

See Highest Win Rate Zaahen Builds

Zaahen was meant to have a secondary player base in the jungle and while he’s great in the top lane, he’s not performing well enough elsewhere. So we’re delivering some straightforward jungle-specific buffs to bring him back up where he was at the end of last year.

Q – The Darkin Glaive

• Monster Modifier: 1.75x ⇒ 2x

E – Aureate Rush

• Bonus Monster Damage: 50 ⇒ 75

Zed

See Highest Win Rate Zed Builds

We regret having jungle Zed in three of the past four patches now but players keep getting better at playing and itemizing this shadow ninja to the point where he wins more frequently today than he did before we shipped that first nerf. We’re comfortable with how mid lane Zed is sitting but he’s still overshadowing too many champions in the jungle. While this nerf looks very large on paper, the net impact of nerfing his jungle mod from 2.0 to 1.2 was under 1% of win rate movement, and we’re looking for more than that here.

Passive – Contempt for the Weak

• Damage to monsters: 1.2x ⇒ 0.5x
• Maximum damage to epic monsters: 300 ⇒ 100

Items

Actualizer

Actualizer is not looking particularly powerful and has a very painful combine cost. While we know players haven’t had enough time to fully optimize the use cases yet, we’re looking to give it a bit of a boost because it’s not looking competitive on any champions besides a certain rune mage.

• Total Gold Cost: 3100 Gold ⇒ 2800 Gold
• Combine Cost: 1050 Gold ⇒ 750 Gold

Dusk and Dawn

We’ve landed Dusk and Dawn into a spot where it has a healthy number of good users, but it’s a bit too good at bursting and taking a little too much of Lich Bane’s space, so we’re hitting it with a slight nerf that should shift it towards more fighter-y builds.

• Spellblade Damage: 100% Base AD + 10% AP ⇒ 75% Base AD +10% AP
• Health: 300 ⇒ 350 Gold

Endless Hunger

This item is looking okay late in builds for the intended caster fighter audience but could be a bit better earlier in the game and can be awkward to build. A small change to the build path and a bit more AD should help this item really shine for the caster champions it was made for.

• Recipe: Caulfield’s Warhammer + Pickaxe + 1075 Gold ⇒ Caulfield’s Warhammer + Pickaxe + Longsword + 825 Gold
• Total Gold Cost: 3000 ⇒ 3100
• Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 65

Protoplasm Harness

The current shape of this Lifeline effect ended up being a bit too sharp, where it’s extraordinarily powerful for the users that can leverage the resistance scaling and somewhat unexciting for most other potential users. We’re shifting some power around to make the item more consistently useful and less eye-popping in the outlier cases.

• Lifeline max health gain: 200 ⇒ 200-300 (based on level)
• Lifeline healing: 200-400 (based on level) (+ 250% Armor) (+ 250% Magic Resistance) ⇒ 200-400 (based on level)(+ 175% Armor) (+ 175% Magic Resistance)
• Ability Haste: 15 ⇒ 20

Armored Advance

When we updated the mid lane quest boots we wanted to make sure that champions had the option to pick items that strongly suited them. We did not want to let early defensive purchases trivialize their competition, as mid lane is a home of many assassins. So in this patch we’re adjusting the upgraded versions of Mercury’s Treads and Plated Steelcaps to make them weaker anti-burst options for champions who aren’t buying any other durability items. These changes represent a tuning close to the end of last season, but with numbers that are more readily apparent at first glance, as no one can acquire these boots at level 1, and the prior max HP ratio carried most of the shield’s value, even to squishies.

• Noxian Endurance Shield: 10-120 (based on level 1-18) (+ 7% max HP) ⇒ 100-200 (based on level, scaling begins at level 9) (+ 8% Bonus HP)

Chainlaced Crushers

See Armored Advance.

• Noxian Endurance Shield: 10-120 (based on level 1-18) (+ 7% max HP) ⇒ 100-200 (based on level, scaling begins at level 9) (+ 8% Bonus HP)

Runes

Cash Back

Cash Back was buffed late last year and finally has an audience of its own. However, that buff shot a little overboard. We’re happy that it’s turned some heads but now it’s time for the rune to be balanced across its rune competitors.

• Gold Refund: 8% ⇒ 7.5%

Phase Rush

We think Phase Rush restricts the viable mid lane pool at the highest levels of play, as it’s very easy for any ranged champion to trigger Phase Rush and escape most ganks or would-be melee opponents. Among its most common ranged users, Orianna, Vladimir, and Taliyah all have viable alternatives, and for Ryze, we intend for a direct reduction of power due to his general strong performance and an Actualizer buff in this patch. Ultimately, we are nerfing this rune for ranged champions only and retaining its power for melee users to swiftly navigate fights and skirmishes.

• Ranged Effectiveness: 75% (18.75 – 37.5% Movement Speed) ⇒ 50% (12.5% – 25% Movement Speed)

Triple Tonic

Like with Cash Back, we buffed Triple Tonic strongly late last year and it’s been enough to get people to switch over to their old favorites. Now that senpais everywhere have noticed me the rune, we’re bringing its power level to a more balanced state, namely by reducing the eye-popping level of burst the level 6 elixir provides.

• Elixir of Force Adaptive Force: 30 ⇒ 25

The second patch of 2026 is here, and includes a handful of buffs, nerfs and adjustments. Check out the full patch 26.2 notes for additional details from Riot (source).

Champions

Aatrox

See Highest Win Rate Aatrox Builds

Aatrox has struggled to find a place on the Rift in the new season with split pushing on the rise and fewer chances to flex his team fighting strengths. We’re giving him some additional power this patch, primarily in the jungle, where his growing audience has been kneecapped, as well as in the top lane where he could use more ways to benefit from experience. We hope this satiates Aatrox players, especially those with Endless Hunger.

Passive – Deathbringer Stance

• Bonus Magic Damage based on Target Max Health: 4-8% (based on level) ⇒ 4-10% (based on level)

Q – The Darkin Blade

• Bonus Damage to Monsters: 15 ⇒ 25

Ashe

See Highest Win Rate Ashe Builds

Ashe is underperforming in the new season so we’re here to bring her back up near her former power level. We like that she has a strong affinity for buying attack speed, so we’re just making those purchases multiply a little bit harder.

Base Stats

• Attack Damage Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.5

Gwen

See Highest Win Rate Gwen Builds

Gwen jungle has skyrocketed in both pickrate and winrate. While we’re excited to see her loving the new season and snipping from dusk til dawn, we need to make sure she’s not turning all opponents (especially jungle camps) into paper.

Passive – A Thousand Cuts

• Monster Damage Cap: 5 (+10% AP) ⇒ 3 (+5% AP)

Jayce

See Highest Win Rate Jayce Builds

Jayce jungle (AKA Jungle Jayce) has become extremely popular and is also much too strong. One of those two things is awesome and the other isn’t. We’d like to retain JJ as a viable option in the jungle, but without him dominating the competition. So we’re delivering a light nerf that’s intended to bring him more in line with other junglers.

Q – To the Skies / Shock Blast

• Bonus Damage to Monsters : 50 ⇒ 25

Lillia

See Highest Win Rate Lillia Builds

Lillia has been in a dream since the changes to Rift. Unfortunately we need to wake her up as it’s become a nightmare for her opponents. We want her to maintain her spot as our premier in-and-out skirmisher in the jungle, but without her prancing out of control. We are looking to nerf her ability to stay topped up as well as bring down some of her late game damage.

Passive – Dream-Laden Bough

• Heal Against Large Monsters: 39 (+15% AP) ⇒ 39 (+9% AP)

Q – Blooming Blows

• AP Ratio: 35% AP ⇒ 30% AP

Malphite

See Highest Win Rate Malphite Builds

Malphite’s been a frontrunner on the Rift for a while, both in top and in the jungle. We’re actually very happy that he’s found a real audience in the jungle! That said, he’s still overperforming, so we need to bring him down now while still leaving him with two roles to play. To do that, we’re reducing some of his trading and clearing damage while retaining his high durability to physical damage and strong engage power. We’re also hitting jungle a little more as it’s meant to be slightly weaker than his top lane, as opposed to slightly stronger, which is currently the case.

W – Thunderclap

• Monster Damage: 2x ⇒ 1.8x

E – Ground Slam

• Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 60% AP) (+ 40% armor) ⇒ 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 60% AP) (+ 40% armor)
• Mana Cost: 50 ⇒ 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70

R – Unstoppable Force

• Cooldown: 130 / 105 / 80 ⇒ 130 / 115 / 100

Master Yi

See Highest Win Rate Master Yi Builds

Master Yi has been struggling as a result of the changes in the new season. We’re looking to return some of his power so that he can keep up with other junglers and better live up to his full hyper carry potential.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.2 ⇒ 4.5

Q – Alpha Strike

• On-Hit Damage Mod: 65% ⇒ 75%

Nunu & Willump

See Highest Win Rate Nunu & Willump Builds

Nunu & Willump are devouring the competition in the new season, so we’re here to bring them back to a fairer level of power. To do that, we’re reducing a mix of the PvP and PvE power out in their kits to give opponents a fighting chance.

Q – Consume

• Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 ⇒ 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 seconds

W – Biggest Snowball Ever!

• Maximum Damage: 180 / 225 / 270 / 315 / 360 (+ 150% AP) ⇒ 150 / 195 / 240 / 285 / 330 (+ 150% AP)

E – Snowball Barrage

• Damage per Hit: 16 / 24 / 32 / 40 / 48 (+ 15% AP) ⇒ 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 / 42

Sivir

See Highest Win Rate Sivir Builds

Sivir has become an extremely dominant ADC pick, regardless of whether or not she buys Essence Reaver, so it’s time to bring her down a notch. Since she has very strong wave control and great damage scaling, we’re looking to bring down her top end a little.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Growth: 2% ⇒ 1.6%
• Armor Growth: 4.45 ⇒ 4.0

Smolder

See Highest Win Rate Smolder Builds

As expected Smolder has become much more powerful with the new Essence Reaver and increased minion counts. Since we’ve tuned our systems to our liking for now, it’s time to take stock of individual champions, Smolder being one. We want to make sure Smolder’s strong late-game damage has durability tradeoffs, even when buying the occasional HP item.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 4.0

Taliyah

See Highest Win Rate Taliyah Builds

Taliyah’s been missing from the jungle as of late and the gameplay changes for the new season didn’t help her, quite the opposite actually. To that end we want to get her rocking and rolling in the jungle again so we’re buffing up her mid game clear speed to help her out.

Q – Threaded Volley

• Bonus Damage to Monsters : 20 ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (Note: Empowered Boulder damage is still increased by 80% to primary target.)

E – Unraveled Earth

• Monster Damage Modifier: 190% ⇒ 225%

Varus

See Highest Win Rate Varus Builds

Varus isn’t doing very well in the new season so we’re here to lift up his two primary builds, on-hit and AD caster.

Q – Piercing Arrow

• Maximum Charge Base Damage: 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 ⇒ 80 / 160 / 240 / 320 / 400

W – Blighted Quiver

• On-Hit Base Damage: 6 / 14 / 22 / 30 / 38 ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44

Viego

See Highest Win Rate Viego Builds

Viego is performing worse this season due to direct adjustments and overall game-wide changes. As a result he needs some power added back in, both compensating some crit scaling that he lost and generally just making him a better fighter.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Growth: 2.25% ⇒ 2.75%

Q – Blade of the Ruined King

• Percent HP On-Hit Bonus Crit Damage Mod: 50% ⇒ 70%
• Active Bonus Crit Damage Mod: 50% ⇒ 60%

Zed

See Highest Win Rate Zed Builds

Zed’s recent jungle changes didn’t affect him as strongly as we had anticipated, and players have noticed, resulting in a resurgence of pick and ban rate. We’d like to slow his clear and lower his potency, this time with more accuracy now that we have a better understanding of how to tune him in the jungle.

Passive – Contempt for the Weak

• Monster Damage: 1.8x ⇒ 1.2x

Items

In 16.1, we added nine new items. We’re mostly happy with how they landed in terms of users and use cases, but there’s definitely some balance work to be done here. This patch, we’re adjusting Bandlepipes down and Fiendhunter Bolts plus Hexoptics C44 up as we think they’re the furthest off from where we wanted them to be. At the moment we’re also keeping our eyes on some of the other items/cases like the fast powerspike offered by Dusk and Dawn or the distribution of power on Endless Hunger between damage, haste, and omnivamp. The synergy between Diadem of Songs and Echoes of Helia is very cool, but it’s something we’ll be monitoring to make sure that it doesn’t become the only way to build a champion to exist between the mage and enchanter space.

Bandlepipes

The pipes are sounding good on the rift but they’re crowding out other support options due to their low price point. While we’re excited for their newfound popularity, we don’t want them to completely steal the spotlight.

• Price: 2000 ⇒ 2300 gold
• Combine Cost: 500 ⇒ 800 gold

Fiendhunter Bolts

Fiendhunter Bolts is doing what it’s supposed to do, but it’s not quite well enough to get picked over its competition. We’re buffing up a little bit all around on the Bolts to help it hold up better against the other Zeal items.

• Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%
• Damage Multiplier for Guaranteed Critical Strikes: 75% ⇒ 80%
• Bonus True Damage for Critical Strikes: 10% ⇒ 15%

Hexoptics C44

Hexoptics has found a place in some situational builds for longer range champions, but is a bit too niche and a little weaker than needed for it to function for most of the marksman roster, so we’re giving it a general appreciable AD buff and easing the range requirement.

• Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 55
• Distance Required for Max Damage Amp: 700 ⇒ 600

Miscellaneous Changes

It’s been a few days since 26.1b dropped and just under a week since 26.1, the first patch of the year. Now we’ve just gotten the full preview for 26.2, which is scheduled to release on January 22nd. Source

Official Patch 26.2 Preview

Patch 26.2 Full Preview!

Jungle

• Some of the main changes this patch are re-distributing some of the jungle power
• This includes buffs to some of the AD junglers like Aatrox, Master Yi, Viego, Trynd (micropatched last patch) and nerfs to some of the outliers like Zed, Jayce who has been strong for a while
• Several of the AP or Tank junglers have really benefitted from being able to kill Epic monsters from increased pet damage, where they otherwise previously lacked DPS to do so and so they’re being tapped down a bit as well
• We expect that this shift within the Jungle role itself is going to have ripple effects into Pro Play, but are waiting to see the outcomes of this before taking larger swings and having Junglers hold more dominion over Epic monsters is an intended directional adjustment

Game Strategy

• One of our major goals with this season was bring into better balance the 3 major strategic decisions
• Sieging, Grouping for Objectives & Split Pushing are all intended to play a part
• In 2025 in particular, Grouping for Objectives was by far the dominant strategy, so the adjustments to tower plates, homeguards, minion spawn rate and nerfs to objective power were intended to change some of this balance
• In particular, it was hard to justify hitting towers sometimes without rewards for doing so and in some situations, champions were ready to hit towers, but there just weren’t minions in the right place at the right time to facilitate that especially in the sidelanes
• We’re curious to see how strategy for this evolves over the course of the Season

Gameplay Thoughts –

Game Time & Snowballing: For the most part, our metrics around snowballing have come in and they’re not looking any higher than last season (and for average play are lower). This is pretty much the same across every region.

Game time is also looking slightly longer in each region, and even moreso given that the game starts earlier.

But at the same time, players have reported that games feel a lot faster. We have a few hypotheses:

Certainly, downtime with more frequent minion spawns and homeguards makes it feel like there’s constant action happening.

Hitting towers and getting those chunks of damage from crystalline overgrowth both feels more rewarding (and more confronting on the receiving end), so it feels like progress is being made faster, even if it’s not actually that much faster.

Barons are being taken earlier, since they’re spawning again at 20 minutes, even though Baron takes are a bit weaker than they were before (gives +150G instead of +300G), so games don’t typically end after the first Baron push. Players have often associated the first Baron take with the game being over, but that is a bit less of the case this Season.

For now, we’re not going to make any changes to Snowballing and Game Length, but will continue to monitor how things play out.

Balancing the needs of the Summoner’s Rift audience is pretty tough. There is a section of the audience who really enjoys the slow, methodical form of “Classical Chess/League” and at the same time, there are some sections of the audience who love “Blitz Chess/League”.

While we don’t intend to go all the way down to Bullet chess speeds, we also need to be very responsive to the needs of our audience, especially global players and younger players who are often looking for a game with less downtime and faster pacing. At the same time, we don’t want to move so quickly that we’re alienating our long time core players who might be looking for a slower, more strategic game. We’ll continue to fine-tune this over the course of the season.

Vision: The amount of vision has also been a hot topic. We’ve heard a lot of your discussions on Faelights and the overall state of vision. We’ve opted not to do anything to do them for 16.2, but are in active discussion for 16.3, especially in terms of how they affect early jungle ganks. Otherwise, we’re not planning anything major until Pro Play starts.

Role Agency & Strategy: We’re going to hold a little bit on taking a definitive stance on which roles are most and least powerful, we don’t feel any are so out of line that we need to act now. It’s been fun to observe how some players are putting roles at the top of their tier list and different players are putting the same role at the bottom (cough ADC cough).

There are a lot of things for players to optimize here, but so far, we’ve been pretty happy with how the game, especially in the mid-game feels a bit more strategic; should I greed tempo to get an Overgrowth proc here, should I push next wave to try and get that turret chunk for gold.

Bugs & Features
– [Fixed] Draven Q: Bug that was causing reduced damage has been micropatched onto Live

– [?] Dropped Inputs: We’ve been actively triaging some reports of dropped inputs on 16.1 when sequencing abilities. Things like Q -> Hydra -> W on Fiora working differently in 15.24 compared to 16.1.

If you have any more examples of these, please pass them over, so we can track them down.
– [16.3] Support Quest + Control Ward Bindings: We’ve been testing 2 changes to address some of the bad feels around control wards. The first is to put the control ward in the role quest slot at the start of the game (this has some weirdness with how the UX of the slot is conveyed and can be confusing to players).

We’re also testing an option where control wards can be double bound to both the role slot and the item slot where you hold it in your inventory.

We’ve also been investigating whether we should be reverting V be defaulted back to caution ping and to re-bind the role quest slot to a different button.

– Cassio: Please remember to buy boots on Cassio, she has feet now

Ranked – [16.2] Champ Mastery: We’re actively resolving an issue where Champ Mastery grades are higher than normal in certain situations (S’s in situations where it’s not warranted)

– [16.2] Aegis of Valor: We’ve resolved an issue where in <1% of games Aegis of Valor was not proccing in situations where it should (eg. when autofilled)

– [16.2/3] Start of Season LP: For players in OCE & China who played games during the period where Ranked placements were compromised, we will be granting players bonus LP for games played during that period

– [16.2] KR and JP Ranked Climbers: For players in Korea and Japan who started their climbs during the compromised period, we’re also looking to remedy their situations sometime during Patch 16.2.

– We’re seeing reduced dodge rates across all MMR’s

– We’ve also been seeing some successful lobby terminations for disruptive behavior and are continuing on our journey to roll this out in more regions

– But overall the Ranked changes have rolled out pretty smoothly and we’re happy with how things have gone there