Patch 26.15 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
League of Legends Classic
Our newest (oldest) game mode is coming to a server near you! Relive the glory days with League Classic. Marvel at what passed for modern graphical fidelity in the 2010s, outplay your opponents with point and click stuns and using old new items like Heart of Gold…! Classic features 60 champions using classic versions of their gameplay across League’s early history and is an experience that emphasizes strategy over mechanics and stronger consequences, both positive and negative, for your actions. If you want to learn more about League Classic, check out our dev blog here. We’ll see you on the Rift, but be careful, the monsters fight back (use your health potions please)!
Ranked Season 3 Start
Ranked Season 3 will start at 12pm on July 29 local server time. Victorious Ranked Mission (15 Ranked Games won) will be refreshed with season start, and end of S2 rewards will be distributed shortly after S3 start. Shard transfer service will be temporarily off until S2 rewards are granted.
Aegis of Valor
Aegis of Valor has helped make autofill games feel worth playing out, but its loss protection and Mastery requirement created a secondary objective: play for the grade, not necessarily for the win. That’s the opposite of what a Ranked incentive should ask of you. We want every Ranked teammate to share the same goal, which is trying their very best to win the game.
We’re refocusing Aegis entirely around victory: it will no longer reduce LP losses in the case of defeat, and wins will award double LP without requiring a minimum mastery score.
Apex Duo Restrictions
When we brought duo queue back to Apex, our goal was to let more high-ranked players play together without compromising the quality of the ladder. The results were mixed. In Master, duos were generally manageable, but we still saw enough impact on match quality to warrant tighter limits. In GM and Challenger, smaller player pools and extremes of skill give duos an outsized impact on game outcomes, one we can’t consistently offset without creating excessive skill gaps or less competitive lobbies. As our matchmaking systems improve, we’ll keep looking for ways to bring duo queue back to GM and Challenger, but only once we can do so without compromising the fairness and competitive integrity they’re meant to represent.
Master players will now be able to duo, but only with players close to them in rank.
GM, Challenger, and players with GM or Challenger MMR will not be allowed to duo.
For more details on the exact restrictions, see here.
Ever since the loss of Mobility Boots / Symbiotic Soles, Alistar has felt constrained in his gameplay, to the point he’s failing to compete in the current meta even though it favors roaming supports – a space we expect him to excel in.
This patch, we’re launching a set of Bel’Veth changes that are aimed at making her gameplay pattern a bit less focused around her early game, in order to allow her to fulfill her fantasy as a late game scaling champion. The major changes here are making her Q at early levels function more like a regular dueling ability in order to reduce just how heavily she can put certain champions behind with early invades. Historically, this Q tuning has caused us to repeatedly balance around her very early strength at a loss to many of her other more core functions. While we acknowledge that there’s a subset of Bel’Veth players who love this capability, broadly, we think it’s paying too many tradeoffs for the rest of her audience. We are looking to move some of her early game power to her mid and late game by leaning more on her evolution fantasy and her stacking mechanic. We believe that high moments like having form until death when you have gotten enough stacks feels like a transformative yet exciting moment that lines up a bit more with her kit expectations.
Base Stats
Attack Speed: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Speed Ratio: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 55
Basic Attack Damage Modifier: 75% ⇒ 100%
Attack Cast Time: 0.25 ⇒ 0.22
Total Attack Animation: Adjusted to feel better at lower Attack Speeds
Armor: 32 ⇒ 28
Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 5
Health: 610 ⇒ 580
Health Growth: 105 ⇒ 110
Model Size: 100% ⇒ 95%
Passive – Death In Lavender
Attack Speed After Spell Cast: 20% minimum / 40% maximum for 2 attacks ⇒ 20% for 3 seconds
Attack Speed per Stack: 0.28% minimum / 1.1% maximum ⇒ 0.1% minimum / 2% maximum
Damage per Strike: 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 (+8% Attack Damage) (+8% On-Hit effects), increased up to 300% based on missing Health ⇒ 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 (+12% Attack Damage) (+12% On-Hit effects), increased up to 100% based on missing Health
Number of Strikes: 6 + 1 per 33% bonus Attack Speed ⇒ 6 + 1 per 40% bonus Attack Speed
Target Swapping: Passive removed when swapping targets ⇒ Passive no longer removed when swapping targets
Maximum Epic Monster Stacks: 10 ⇒ 8
Passive Application Requirement: E and Q required Bel’Veth to have attacked the target first ⇒ E and Q no longer require Bel’Veth to have attacked the target first
Despite the recent buff, Kai’sa remains weaker than expected, especially late game for a marksman who is supposed to hyperscale to make up for her short range. We’re tapping up her scaling to help her output as she nears her final form.
Locke continues to climb the mastery curve, so we’re continuing nerfs to keep him in line. Particularly, we observe his early game to be clearly over, even for a snowball reliant assassin, and we also want to avoid W 2nd max as optimal as it gives him too much safety for the risks he should need to take.
Maokai has gradually faded out of both top and jungle play since our last major work on him. We think that ultimately his top laning experience is not the greatest for all parties involved, so for now we are mainly focused on buffing his jungle back up, where we think he has a fairly unique output as a zone controlling tank.
We overshot last patch with the R buffs, and after re-assessing what he looks like with a meaningfully stronger ult, decided to instead revert the R buff entirely in favor of improving his ability to catch and keep opponents in his range. Accounting for the bugfix for his R, we believe these two adjustments to his E will be a net positive from 26.13 and will keep an eye on his performance.
Naafiri remains a hot topic in the meta, both for solo queue and pro play. While we are quite happy with how many people have taken her up since her rework, she’s still on the strong end, especially when she really gets the ball rolling with back-to-back-to-back ultimates.
Endless Hunger’s addition to the game has given Riven an extremely potent new tool that fits her play pattern almost perfectly. While we feel we’ve gotten it into a fairly good spot among most users, Riven is notably overperforming. Targeting her R’s AD scaling (heavy synergy with Endless Hunger haste, mid quest scaling) will impact all her spells and how unstoppable her snowballing can feel, while still leaving a lot of room for her high moments.
R – Blade of the Exile
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 25% ⇒ 20%
R – Wind Slash
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 60% minimum / 180% maximum ⇒ 55% minimum / 165% maximum
After his buff in 26.12, it was clear that we moderately overshot our target. We’re pulling back the chains a tad to prevent him from bullying too hard.
Since our direct and systemic adjustments, the bear has been hibernating from dusk till dawn for a couple patches… we’re giving him more chances to gap close, especially for laners, without raising his already thrilling ceiling of spell chaining.
We believe that Zac brings unique gameplay and class diversity to the jungle. That said, his presence in the jungle has fallen quite a bit over the more recent patches. We believe giving him a bit more opportunity to execute on his distinct gank angles as well as a bit of durability in a team fight can help lift up our favorite secret weapon.
The item has been near bottom pickrate since release, and the distance between it and the next least popular Lethality item is quite far. We’re making it both more accessible and slightly stronger on its less noticeable effect, because we find that lethality users putting more of their gold into utility and progressing the team game is healthy in the long term.
Terminus is meant to be one of the premium capstone items for scaling On-Hit builds, but has been more of a mid game spike item than a true late game scaling option, leaving the on-hit space a bit sparse for options later on.
Yun Tal Wildarrows has fallen significantly over this year from its spot as the go-to scaling crit item. We believe the game continues to benefit from its function as a scaling option, so we are buffing it up to compete with the broader array of early crit items currently on offer.
Cost: 850g ⇒ 750g
Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%
Runes
Jack Of All Trades
Different statlines are much more accessible with items like Endless Hunger/Gluttonous Greaves/DHelm, and even though we love players shooting for creative builds to utilize JOAT, it definitely has room to be weaker both early and late while still giving a ton of bang for your buck.
Adaptive Force at 5 / 10 stat breakpoints: 10 / 25 ⇒ 8 / 20
League of Legends has gone through a lot of iteration over the past 17 years, and now in 2026 we’re getting League of Legends Classic, which aims to bring back the experience of “Old League of Legends.” Runes purchased with IP, the classic look and feel of Season 3 League of Legends, and a return to the old, pre-2015 Summoner’s Rift that still had Wraiths.
So what’s confirmed in LoL Classic? A new dev blog just posted, giving us insight into what to expect from Classic.
League of Legends Classic will launch on July 29th alongside patch 26.15.
Key Details
Season 3 is all about celebrating League’s past and present.
League Classic launches next patch and is Riot’s take on creating a “greatest hits” feel from across League’s early years.
Classic will feature the original Summoner’s Rift, a starting roster of 60 champions, old-school items, runes, masteries, and mechanics.
Additional champions over time, but Classic won’t include every champion released up to the present day.
You’ll unlock Runes and Masteries by playing Classic, though progression will be much faster than it was in the past and everyone will have access to default pages from the start.
Classic will also include modern improvements like matchmaking updates, server infrastructure, performance improvements, modern pings, spell buffering, and optional WASD controls.
Regular balance updates, but Classic will have its own balance philosophy focused on preserving what makes it unique.
Riot is also introducing The Council, a community voting system that will help guide the future of Classic.
Classic strives to bring back the old feeling of League of Legends: the combat pacing that changed so dramatically when champions like Lucian and Yasuo were introduced to the game, and that eventually spiraled into more movement-based and mechanics-based champions. There won’t be Kayn, Rek’Sai, Taliyah, Zeri, or any of the new, insanely fast, high-octane champions we have in modern League of Legends. This brings back many of the point-and-click abilities, where champions had longer cast times and higher mana costs, and where casting a spell really meant committing to a fight.
It also brings back runes and rune pages, all the old items, and the retro look and feel of old League of Legends, but with some improvements to lighting and shadows.
Official Blog Post
Since 2009, we’ve continuously done one thing: evolve the game. New and reworked champions, items, runes, modes, you name it. We’re always looking for ways to keep League fun and fresh.
But every now and then, when we talk about where we’re going, we hear many of you talk about where we’ve been.
“Remember experimenting with old Runes and Masteries to play things like Bankplank? Or terrorizing opponents with AP Master Yi or Sion mid? What about AD Alistar? Remember 95% ban rate Kassadin?“
A lot of you miss those days. And we do, too.
And that’s where League Classic comes in.
What, and when, is League Classic?
League Classic is a new gameplay experience that aims to recreate moments like those, and to create totally new ones that were never possible before.
The term Classic can mean a lot of different things to different people—even for us at Riot. For some folks the “Classic era” of League is beta, or Season 1, or Season 3, or even a particular patch (Devourer / Challenging Smite Warwick, anyone?). So when we were thinking about League Classic, we had to ask ourselves the important question: “When is League Classic?”
And, since we mentioned, we all have different perspectives on when, the answer to when was naturally, “Yes.”
We started with Season 3 as our anchor, but League Classic is more of a collection of greatest hits, rather than a singular moment in time. That means it’s got things from a variety of seasons, like every single Summoner (yes, even Fortify), almost every single item from the first few years of League, including Atma’s Impaler and Frozen Mallet, and a lotta pre-rework champ kits. But, there’s one core truth: No Yasuos allowed.
League is amazing—who doesn’t love skipping around as a shy little deer, lulling your enemies to sleep, and then boopin’ and boppin’ them in the head for half their health? Or growing into a super big scary dragon and Elder executing your enemies as they slowly burn to your magnificent power? All right, some of us.
That’s just not what we think is right for League Classic.
League has evolved into a substantially more complex game with tons of spaces for skill expression, diverse champion fantasies, aaand quite a bit of mobility. But one of the things you all mention when you talk about OG League, is how much you miss the combat pacing.
In Classic, champions have sharper strengths and weaknesses, missiles and dashes are slower, and there are more stuns (yippee). But that doesn’t mean the stakes are any lower. Each one of your spells costs more to cast and do substantially more damage than modern League. That means you need to be more strategic about when and how you engage with your opponents.
The Classic Map is built to recreate the early Summoner’s Rift map—it’s got wraiths, buffs have friends again, and they do a bit more damage than they do these days (buy some Health Potions unless you’re Warwick). They also respawn much, much faster.
That said, we made some targeted improvements to readability. Things like lighting, shadows, and textures have been improved to help gameplay clarity when you’re in the middle of a high octane fight.
Champions, Runes, Masteries, and More!
To start, we’re launching Classic with 60 champions: the OG 40 plus another 20 hand-selected champions released from 2009-2013.
Before you ask, “Where’s my main?” Don’t worry! We know 60 champions can’t represent the full breadth of early League, so more champions are coming, but will all pull from this time period.
We wanted Classic to have a more focused roster to make jumping back in a smoother experience. That means if you’ve been away for a bit, you don’t have to go and read 100+ champions’ abilities to get back up to speed.
If you already own a champion, you’ll have access to them in Classic right away. If not, you’ll be able to unlock Classic champions through your Classic Level, or by grabbing them from the Shop. And, as always, there’s the free champion rotation.
And of course, familiar favorite item builds are back too. Atmogs? You betcha. The full Metagolem setup? No doubt. Filling half your inventory with Gold per 10 items? We wouldn’t have it any other way. They’re a huge part of what defined the era. In fact, we’re including almost every item that existed across the first few years of League… And Zz’Rot Portal.
If your favorite item does return, please use it responsibly.
Or don’t. We’ll find out together.
And, finally, let’s touch on Runes and Masteries.
Before you load into a game of Classic, you’ll need to pre-select Runes and Masteries based on who you want to play. These can drastically change the way you play your champion—from the items you build, to the damage you do.
But, we’ve made Runes and Masteries a lot simpler and faster to unlock.
In Classic you’ll unlock both of these just by playing, and there’s no need to upgrade them, they’re all the old Tier 3 as a baseline. And you can put them in Rune Pages. You’ll get three to start, an additional two from Classic Levels, and you can buy more for IP (those are back for Classic) which you get just by playing.
Nearly every single Rune you actually used is coming back, and the under-picked ones have been given a little love to be more attractive options as well. So if you want to play full Crit Gangplank, go crazy!?
As for Masteries, again, you won’t have to grind long to unlock those. You’ll have all Mastery pages and points fully unlocked after hitting Classic Level 4.
And if you forget to set your Runes and Masteries before a game, don’t worry. Everyone gets a default page, so you won’t be substantially less powerful than anyone, just a little sub-optimal.
Summoner’s Journey
At launch, League Classic will have a single PvP draft queue, Co-op vs AI, and customs for all the very important scientific work that starts with “wait, let me try something.”
Our main goal is for Classic to be a place for you to have fun with your friends, rather than a sweaty Ranked grindfest. But, we also know that having something to achieve adds a bit of fun. So, we’re adding a new progression system called Summoner’s Journey.
Once you hit level Classic Level 10, you’ll start your Summoner Journey at Salt, then progress to Wood, and so on, all the way up to Legend (since it’s the League of Legends… get it?). It’s a way for you to flex on your friends, achieve goals, but still have fun with anyone, regardless of how long it’s been since they last stole your penta.
For those who do want to go all-in on the journey, you can climb all the way to Legend if you’re skilled and dedicated enough. Only a single-digit percentage of players will make it into this exclusive club, so climbing that high won’t be for the faint of heart.
Related, we also want to touch on Champ Select. In the old days you had to have 300 wpm to call out which role you wanted. And sometimes someone would hit you with “mid or feed” no matter what, which is a pretty unenjoyable experience. So, we decided to implement a positional preference system that lets you choose the roles you want in order of preference.
We’ll try to give you your first choice, and avoid your last pick, but you may sometimes get your second or third preference in order to keep queue times healthy.
Passes, Skins, and Portraits
We’ve mentioned Classic Levels a few times now. In short, it’s a free progression track that everyone has access to. You gain levels just by simply playing games of Classic. On it you’ll unlock things like Masteries, Runes, the Summoner’s Journey, IP, BE, as well as a variety of cosmetics, including the Rustier Blitzcrank skin.
Classic Levels are a one-time progression system, much like account levels. Outside of them, we’ll have Seasonal Classic Passes, similar to Battle Passes. They’ll have a free and paid track that also grant IP, BE, Rune Pages, emotes, titles, and Classic Skins and Portraits.
Classic Skins are essentially skins that make Classic champs look the way they did in 2009-2013. So if you miss pre-rework Evelynn’s visuals, no worries, Classic Skins bring those back.
Classic Skins are unlockable through Classic Skin Tokens, which you get through the Seasonal Pass (on both the paid and free tracks) or in the Shop. You can use these to unlock any Classic skin, and if your main doesn’t have one yet, you can wait to unlock it at a later date.
As for other skins you’ve accumulated, many will be available to use in Classic at launch. We’ve tried to have as many skins ready for launch as possible, but for those that aren’t ready, we’ll be expanding this list over time. But you’ll be able to use every base model champ, which have also all received the old-school inking outlines. Some champions have also gotten VFX, animation, and sound updates to match their Classic kits, if they’ve received VGUs since this time period, like Sion, for example.
We’re also adding Classic Chromas which are chromas for Classic Skins, and inject even more 2009 flair. Do you remember the original Tundra Warwick? You’re about to.
And, finally, let’s talk Portraits. Portraits are alternate-styled loading screen splash, ranging from playful doodles made by one of our resident designers, to pretty reinterpretations of champions. Portraits will rotate in the loading screen, so you can collect them to show off your favorites as you wait for your team to load in on a potato.
Portraits, Classic Skins, and Classic Chromas are only usable in League Classic, but don’t worry, we’ve still got some Classic era-inspired skins for you to use anywhere in League.
The Council: Classic’s Future in Your Hands
We’re launching Classic with our interpretation of what made early League so special. But, as we all know, the real thing that made early League amazing was your feedback. So, we wanted to create a system that gives you all power in the direction Classic goes.
The Council is our version of community voting, which will help guide future choices like which champions are added next, what skins we make for Classic, and even gameplay changes.
You’ll unlock access to The Council through Classic Level, and you’ll get more voting power by playing the game more. That means if you spend more time in Classic, you’ll get more of a voice in The Council. We’ll still handle things like game health and balance, but we want to work with all of you to decide where Classic goes next.
Thank You
League Classic exists because many of you have talked for years about how amazing it would be to re-live the early days of League.
You kept the memories alive: the clips, the discussions, the “back in my day” posts, and the friend group stories.
So it’s time to call the squad, equip that 1% crit Rune, and lock in your main.
Azir is feeling more headless chicken than valiant falcon right now. But rather than straight numerical buffs, we’re preening his feathers of impactful bugs and changing some rune interactions that should make him start squawking about Shurima more often.
W – Arise!
On-Hit? More Like On-Destroy: Scorch, Liandry’s Torment, Blackfire Torch, and Hextech Alternator now deal 100% of their damage on-hit instead of 50%
Double-tap: Conqueror will now apply 2 stacks on-hit instead of 1
Laser Focus: Press the Attack now applies to the primary target hit
R – Emperor’s Divide
Be Gone, Peasant!: Now knocks back jungle monsters
Everyone’s favorite incoherent aviator is having trouble taking off in bot lane. So, we want to give a little more firepower to Corki’s sorties later in the game, and really enhance his spell-weaving missile firing fantasy!
Base Stats
Attack Damage Growth: 2 ⇒ 2.5
R – Missile Barrage
Remaining Recharge Time Reduction from Autos: 2 – 4 seconds (based on critical strike chance) ⇒ 2 – 6 seconds
Garen is dishing out too much justice across all skill brackets right now. So, we’re going to tap down the Demacian Justice just a tad to make him a little less oppressive, while still rewarding well-timed target selection and inspiring fear in the hearts of those who shirk justice.
Jayce quickly climbed the ranks after our 26.03 adjustments and has stayed at the top of the pack. Additionally, he has become a fairly comfortable blind pick champ due to his Rune flexibility, and is the most picked top laner in higher ranks. Right now he’s building like an assassin, but playing like a fighter, which we prefer to the tank Jayce era. These changes should tap down on his speediness and high durability while preserving what makes him fun.
Locke’s release has gone relatively smoothly, and we are now tuning him down a bit as players have had time to pick him up. We want to open up more counterplay by reducing how long he can pressure with his Q. And we’re bumping down the healing on his W because he’s not an enchanter, after all.
Morde has lost a fair amount of power ever since the Riftmaker bugfix in 26.10 and could use some love, so we’re rewarding him more for when he gets you in his Grasp and enhancing the Lord of Death’s 1:1 fantasy.
Nami has been feeling a bit like a fish out of water since the Mandate changes, especially when combined with her nerf in 26.7. We’ve targeted her E which has been feeling a bit underwhelming with her new builds, which should shift the tides a bit in her favor to help her make a bigger splash!
Even after her nerfs last patch, Senna is still tearing through the darkness and the light. We’re focusing on bringing down her passive and scaling power as she collects souls and takes names, which should impact her in support less, and more in bot where Shiv is rushed for AP ratios.
Passive – Absolution
Critical Strike Damage Modifier: 85% ⇒ 80%
Q – Piercing Darkness
Ability Power Slow Ratio: 10% per 100 Ability Power ⇒ 7% per 100 Ability Power
Ability Power Healing Ratio: 50% Ability Power ⇒ 35% Ability Power
Seraphine’s vocal lessons have paid off and she’s hitting those High Notes more consistently. So much so that she’s become one of the bot lane headliners. So, we’re lowering her volume a little so she doesn’t burst everyone’s ear drums. We don’t have any more immediate plans to adjust her Q hitbox, so are going to tune her around this current state going forward.
Q – High Note
Ability Power Ratio: 50% Ability Power ⇒ 40% Ability Power
Yunara’s spirit is waning a little. So we’re giving her a little more scaling power to help find more balance later in the game.
Base Stats
Attack Damage Growth: 2.5 ⇒ 3
Items
Immortal Path
Immortal Path has really been living up to its name lately on a couple of mid picks who can use the item, with a higher winrate than expected even for its niche pick rate. These changes should leave it worth building but more reasonable in output.
Damage Increase While Above 50% Maximum Health: 5% ⇒ 4%
Healing, Shielding, and Regeneration Increase While Below 50% Maximum Health: 15% ⇒ 12%
Protoplasm Harness
Protoplasm is overperforming across the board and is leading to particularly potent spikes on champions that buy it early. We still want to make sure it’s still an exciting option for tank champs, so we’re focusing on decreasing its early single item spike power.
Cost: 2500 ⇒ 2600
Bonus Health: 200 – 300 ⇒ 100 – 300
Healing: 200 – 400 ⇒ 100 – 400
Hextech Rocketbelt
Rocketbelt’s popularity on usually immobile mages, rather than AP bruisers, is giving us flashbacks of the Galeforce days. We’re adjusting its stat incentives to make it slightly less appealing when compared to other damage-focused options but also keep it feeling good on its traditional core users that rely on the item for engage. There’s also a Ruby Crystal in its build path that didn’t exist in days where the item built out of Kindlegem and was a little more clunky.
Ranked Season 2 will end local server time at midnight 23:59 on July 28, which is the last day of patch 26.14. Several hours later, we’ll roll over into patch 26.15, which marks the start of Season 3 at 12:00pm noon, July 29, local server time.
Similar to previous mid-year season transitions, Ranked Solo and Flex queues will be disabled during the down time. Shard transfer services will also be disabled to make sure rewards are properly calculated.
We don’t expect any disruptions to your LP / Ranked progression, but the Victorious Ranked mission for 15 ranked games won will be refreshed when the new season starts.
Patch 26.12 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
System Changes
Normal Draft Queue Availability
We are happy to open up Normal Draft availability for ME, OC and SG from windowed time to 24/7, as we’ve seen meaningful queue time improvement across regions since late 2025.
Apex Duo Restrictions
Apex duo restriction was turned on with S2 start in some regions where the Apex players also got a reset. We are actively monitoring the health of those top tier matches to build confidence and understand what match quality improvements we need to make to re-enable duo for Apex players in those regions, but don’t currently feel comfortable in flipping the switch without making some improvements. We will let you know when we’re in a state to re-enable.
Honor in Social Panel
We are introducing Honor and active penalty information to your social panel so you can easily track your standing, view your progress towards redemption, and see how your behavior impacts your games. The panel will display current Honor, restrictions, and actions you must take to restore standing, serving as a constant reminder of the positive community we are building together.
Teleport
You get teleport, you get teleport, everyone gets teleport! In a post-rolequest world, we’re still monitoring how top laners that don’t want to use combat summoners can have their gameplay fantasies furthered by Enhanced Teleport.
The current state of top lane TP Shields is not incentivizing the kind of action or tradeoffs we like, and it’s pretty clear that expectations are being broken by a 30 second shield, so we’re making an adjustment here that we hope encourages more immediate crossmap action.
Max Health Shield: 30% for 30 seconds ⇒ 35% for 10 seconds
We’re looking to give Aatrox some love as he’s been sitting on the sidelines for some time now, even though signs point to the Darkin being a solid pick in the current meta. We’re putting more power into his Q sweet spot to reward him for his core skill check and make him a real threat against lumbering tanks and squishies alike.
Gwen has been cut out of the meta for quite some time across all skill brackets. She lost some power with 26.09’s minor rework to Dusk and Dawn, so we’re giving her some of that power back in the early game. She’ll remain a scaling pick, but a weaker first item spike has cost her early game a bit too much. These changes should help Gwen players live that snip and skip fantasy at all stages!
Q – Snip Snip!
Base Damage Per Snip: 10/13.5/17/20.5/24 ⇒ 10/14/18/22/26
Hwei’s 26.08 changes to how his ability slows stack and interact with other sources of slows had a larger negative impact than expected. While we had put in a compensation buff along with that change, it’s clear after a few patches that he has ended up worse off from the change, so we are giving him some power spread between his Q and E to keep all his abilities feeling relevant.
Our favorite Grandmaster at Angling has been patiently waiting for his time to strike. Jax is meant to be a high-damage threat who ramps up in fights, but currently he’s been a (fish)bait pick against durable opponents. These changes should help with that, without pushing him over the (fishing) line.
Q – Leap Strike
Mana Cost: 65 ⇒ 50
E – Counter Strike
Target Max Health Damage: 3.5% minimum damage / 7% maximum damage ⇒ 4% minimum damage / 8% maximum damage
The recent changes taking away some of Lee Sin’s kit restrictions have been cool for Lee players, but he’s clearly just too powerful now. With more outplay potential, we are nerfing his raw damage to balance him out.
Nocturne has been in quite a strong spot for a while, especially in the higher echelons of play. We like how distinct he feels to play with his relatively low ultimate cooldown, but that means we are going to pull power out of his 1v1 and farming since he has such strong tools to quickly create unequal fights.
Often called League’s “perfect champ,” Orianna in recent years has been doing it all and more: dominating lane, protecting allies, and outputting extremely reliable damage in teamfights. As the highest pro priority in recent patches, we feel like too much of her power is in early lane dominance. She should still show up – just more situationally and for 3k elo shockwaves rather than early game bullying.
Ryze’s early game trading has only gotten stronger with Deathfire Touch. For a champion known as a scaling combo mage, we feel his laning has gotten too unassailable. So like Orianna, we’re tuning down his early game a bit to keep his power budget in the late game as he’s intended to be.
Sylas is one of the champions who has come out worse for wear since the start of Season 2. We think he is still a powerful early lane bully, but he’s lost enough power that his scaling is critically low to the point he’s completely one note, so we are helping him out there.
Heal Amount: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+20% AP) (+5% Sylas’ Bonus HP), increased by up to 100% based on Sylas’ missing health ⇒ 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+30% AP) (+5% Sylas’ Bonus HP), increased by up to 100% based on Sylas’ missing health
Pass the ball, Ori! Syndra has had some of her more reliable damage stripped away recently in W and R, so we want to give her the tools to start pushing for that scaling fantasy with Dark Sphere, her highest variance bread and butter ability. We’re hoping this mix of exciting and functional buffs gets players across skill brackets interested in her untapped power.
it’s been two years since we’ve seen marksmen run over the mid meta, and while we absolutely don’t want to go back to that world, we do feel like some marksmen in mid make for an interesting flavor of game. Tristana makes for a good candidate as she’s been absent since we added mana costs to her Q in a couple seasons back. We’ll be pulling back on some of those nerfs here and improving her level scaling generally.
Varus has steadily become the highest priority ADC & top laner over the course of the year among the top tiers of gameplay. While the changes to Experimental Hexplate should help alleviate his dominance in top lane, in bot lane, we’re looking to further disincentivize oppressive early game focused lethality builds, while being relatively less impactful to the most common on-hit builds and helping them scale a bit better.
Passive – Living Vengeance
On Non-Champ Kill AD and AP: 10% of his Total AS ⇒ 11% of his Total AS
On Champ Kill AD and AP: 25% of his Total AS ⇒ 33% of his Total AS
AP Xin Zhao continues being far too strong in mid lane. We are following up last patch’s adjustment with a straight nerf this time to his ability to sustain both his health and mana in lane.
Passive – Determination
Healing: 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+45 / 55 / 80% AP) ⇒ 2 / 3.5 / 5% Max HP (+40 / 50 / 70% AP)
As the only champion in the game with built in Heal/Shield power, Yuumi was hit hardest by the Moonstone Renewer mechanics changes in 26.09. We are giving her AP ratios a compensation buff to help keep enchanter items optimal for her.
Patch 26.11 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
Role Quest Adjustments
Buffing the Role Quest reward as a minor follow up on the change in 26.9. We felt this reward landed a bit soft, but we think it does good things for the shape of the game by allowing mid laners their own special form of scaling.
Mid Role Quest
Bonus AD and AP: 6% ⇒ 8%
Support Adjustments
This patch, we are taking a holistic pass on the enchanter-heavy support meta that has stabilized and stagnated over the course of the year. We have a set of buffs and nerfs designed to promote tanks into the support meta, as well as some minor and major reworks to certain support items and their functionality.
First off, we have a straight buff to Grubs. In line with 26.9’s changes to role quests to open up some amount of roaming and laning flexibility back into the laning phase, we are also buffing Grubs as a destination to roam to for supports.
As a pretty "behind the scenes" unique that most of us just expect to work, Dream Maker is getting a mix of adjustments to help it perform in a more generally functional way that should pan out to be a nerf in most situations, but will definitely be a buff in others.
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction is being adjusted from only affecting the literal first instance of damage (i.e. the first tick of a DoT, or the first instance of an on-hit damage from an incoming basic attack) to affecting the first cast source (i.e. the entire DoT, until it runs out of flat damage reduction.)
Purple Bubble Damage is changing from mostly an on-hit effect to an on-hit or on-ability damage cast source effect with AoE penalties. (i.e. If Ezreal Ult triggers the Purple Bubble, it will apply to that entire Ezreal Ult but with reduced AoE efficacy. See Nami E for a similar example.)
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
Moonstone Renewer
Moonstone will no longer double dip in both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver. This is mostly a nerf, but will occasionally be a net positive when opponents have Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver.
As a mathy example, this means that if you have 50% Heal / Shield Power, and heal one ally for 100 * 150% from Heal / Shield = 150, on 26.10 it would then bounce 150 * 30% * 150% = 67.5 healing to another ally, whereas now it will only bounce 150 * 30% = 45 healing.
Fixed various bugs, including no longer double dipping on both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver
Bounces now prioritize lower health allies
Imperial Mandate
An item that was completely bound to Nami because of outsized synergy with her E, Mandate is getting reworked to better fit into a niche for utility casters who want to help their team out with more crowd control rather than healing/shielding or personal damage. We look forward to seeing you figure out new optimal users!
NEWUnique – Control: Gain 15 Ability Haste for your abilities with Immobilizing effects
NEWUnique – Command: On immobilizing an enemy champion, mark them as 6% Vulnerable for 4s (Vulnerable enemies take % increased damage)
Echoes of Helia
A straightforward nerf for enchanters.
Damage Stored: 35% ⇒ 30%
Locket of the Iron Solari
And a straightforwards buff for tanks.
Armor and Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 30
Knight’s Vow
For Knight’s Vow, we’re pushing the unique effect rather than generically buffing its stats or gold cost.
Damage Redirection: 12% ⇒ 14%
Heal: 10% ⇒ 12%
Zeke’s Convergence
Zeke’s is getting a QoL improvement for any users who might be casting their ultimate from long range—such as Leona and Nautilus.
Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
Brand has been toeing the line in bot for a while now, and this patch has well and truly crossed over, so we’re targeting that lane with a nerf to his base armor.
Diana’s feeling a bit underwhelming in the jungle after her previous adjustments due to the Dusk and Dawn changes. So we’re giving her a little more moon-power in the jungle to return her to her former glory.
Now that the dust has settled from 26.9’s Dusk and Dawn reshape, we’ve uncovered that Ekko has room for a compensation buff as he is no longer completely bound to just buying that item for his power.
With the ranged minion aggro pull removed last patch, Heimerdinger mains ended up with some degraded functionality around how turret ranges interact with minion ranges—in the sense that ranged minions outrange Heimer’s turrets and he had no way to pull them into their range. This makes for a pretty miserable experience where you just watch as your turrets tank minion autos without attacking back.
Additionally, it was brought to our attention that his Evolution Turrets sometimes fail to follow up on his Storm Grenade when they lose vision of the target too quickly due to minor timing fluctuations around vision and turret logic, so we are increasing the vision duration slightly to resolve that.
Q – H-28 G Evolution Turret
Turret Attack Range: 530 ⇒ 550
Turret Vision Range: 585 ⇒ 650
NEWTurret Range: Turrets now gain 50 additional range against minions if nothing else is in range
E – CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade
Vision of target location: 1 second ⇒ 1.25 seconds
Our Void Walker has been limping around the Rift more than blinking. Stackable tear items have provided an additional cool late-game fantasy option besides pure AP, but his early game has been tougher than usual (in part due to our mid quest adjustment). These changes should help his laning, both in farming and trading.
Quinngle (or Qungle [Kwun-gle]?) has been pretty popular and fun, even in a weak state. We know a lot of you will pick up more tricks and mastery over time, so for now we’re just making sure her clear speed is more competitive without changing burst or dueling. This should help our trusty ranger more regularly undertake dangerous missions deep in enemy territory, whether she’s looking for camps or champs.
The baby dragon has been absolutely blasting his opponents since getting his hands on Deathfire Touch. We’ve had to do an unfortunate number of micropatch nerfs back to back, and we are hopeful this will be the last one we need to do.
Included in these changes are a continuation of the latest nerf’s push towards bringing him back into primarily critical strike builds rather than just Essence Reaver into bruiser, which we think can sit stronger since at the end of the day, a squishier Smolder has more weaknesses to play around, like being burst by enemy spell rotations.
Passive – Dragon Practice
Bonus Magic Damage on Q: 40% * (1 + (Crit Chance *.5 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks (60% at 100% Crit, 66% if you have IE) ⇒ 25% * (1 + (Crit Chance * 1.2 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
Bonus Magic Damage on E: 12% of Passive stacks ⇒ 8% * (1 + (Crit Chance * .6 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
We’d love (fear) a world where Teemo could be equally happy building AP, on-hit, and AD for his new ratios, but as it stands, Shiv is ahead of the pack. By hitting his Toxic Shot AD ratio, we’re confident Teemo with Shiv can land in a good spot without forcing those of you who like other builds (e.g. Nashor’s, Liandry, Malignance) to rely on it. Additionally, hits to his scaling durability should preserve his lane bully identity, while increasing your chance of getting the jump on him!
While AP Xin builds are not OP per se, the sheer amount of healing has been eye popping in an extremely expectation breaking way. Tamping that down with some compensation in the form of sustained damage.
We like a world where Hexplate is satisfying across a spread of archetypes, and serves as a springboard to dive into interesting itemization tradeoffs. However, right now the item makes League less approachable for top laners by letting Vayne and Varus maintain a large proportion of their damage while being a good bit harder to kill. This change should better align expectations opponents have around ranged users building Hexplate, while still presenting as a worthy Experimental choice.
Overdrive: On ulting, 50% bonus AS and 20% bonus MS for 8 seconds ⇒ Ranged: 35% bonus AS and 14% bonus MS for 8 seconds (unchanged for melee)
Heartsteel
Heartsteel has slowly fallen out of favor. With Mundo meta out of the way though, we’re going to revert a nerf from a year ago since we feel the item occupies a really cool (and important) aspect of greedy tank itemization.
Damage To Permanent Health Conversion Rate: 8% ⇒ 10%
Statikk Shiv
Shiv has picked up a neat spread of users—we think it could use more love when it comes to some characters that are more reliant on AD, like Kalista or Kai’Sa. We’ll keep monitoring satisfaction around the new shape of Statikk as Season 2 progresses (should lightning strike twice?)
After getting to see the impact of last patch’s ultimate nerfs, they’ve been very effective at increasing counterplay at high skill levels. However, we still see an opportunity to shift some power from jungle into top while promoting a bruiser playstyle. As a result, we’re giving her some better early power, while keeping her jungle clear and general lategame potential the same.
The Ice Birb has been strong for quite some time, icing out opponents in top, mid, and support without much build or playstyle differentiation, which is why we’re opting for base stat adjustments. While the change will impact her across roles, we’re targeting her durability to allow for more all-in windows to crack the egg in top lane in particular.
As one of our premier utility ADCs, Ashe is pumping out a bit too much damage. We’re giving her a minor nerf to her Q damage so she can’t have the best of both worlds.
Q – Ranger’s Focus
Total Damage: 110 / 117.5 / 125 / 132.5 / 140% AD ⇒ 110 / 115 / 120 / 125 / 130% AD
Our favorite Demacian colossus has been quite sad between the removal of Phase Rush and the mid role quest adjustments. We’re flipping the script and helping him deliver justice by reducing some of his mana costs and tuning up the reward for a well-aimed Justice Punch. His ultimate is also lacking a bit of oomph in the damage department with how epic it is, so we’re helping it scale with his signature stat!
Over time, Lee Sin has watched as other champs surpass him in both flair and mobility. We are looking to give him more opportunities to use the tools that allow him to fly around the map while making sure his high moments truly feel like such at all moments in the game.
Quinn has been struggling in the top lane environment due to a number of system changes across 2026. We’re looking to let her impact the map with her unique ultimate as a laner by reducing her high mana barrier and also want to open the door (bush?) to the jungle. We’re excited to see if she can thrive as a natural predator in the jungle, and see if she and Valor can prey on the latest new jungler we introduced, Fizz (birds like fish)!
Passive – Harrier
NEWBonus Monster Damage: 50
Q – Blinding Assault
NEWBonus Monster Damage : Now deals 50% increased damage to monsters
Across roles, Wukong has been struggling to find success as of late. We’re looking to help him turn things around by empowering his trickster playstyle to reward clever and creative uses of his clones.
Zed has soared in power along with huge spikes in pickrate with Season 2’s changes, and we think he’s still going to be extremely solid despite systemic nerfs. We’d like to preserve his identity as a strong laner, but hit some of his most guaranteed damage.
Zeri’s new direction and feel have seemed really promising across tiers, but with her winrate being lower as players take time to adjust their playstyle and itemization (looking at you Stormrazor, not looking at you Shiv!). We want to make Zeri speed gaming more accessible!
[BUGFIX] Overcharged duration: Attacks during R currently extend the R duration by 1.5s. Changing that to 2.5s to match the new Hypercharged MS stack duration.
ITEMS
Doran’s Bow
Having just been introduced last patch, we’re starting to see Doran’s Bow being picked up by a few champions, but the risk of taking a starting item with no health was a bit too great even considering the damage upside. We’re looking to make it a bit more compelling to take that risk.
Attack Damage: 6 ⇒ 8
Doran’s Helm
Doran’s Helm is meant to be an exciting item to hold onto after the early game with the resistances it offers scaling better than Doran’s Shield’s health regeneration. However, it is currently a bit too difficult to make it out of the early game. We are looking to lighten the early game load so that players can get to the mid game high points.
Health : 110 ⇒ 140
Gluttonous Greaves / Immortal Path
The new omnivamp boots line is successfully filling a gap in boot itemization we intended, filling in nicely as a defensive-offensive hybrid item for many of our high damage champs across roles. We’re now seeing them being taken at a bit too high of a rate and are looking to bring them back in line with other options.
Total Cost: 950g ⇒ 1000g
Slay – Omnivamp Per Stack: 1% per takedown, up to 6 stacks max ⇒ .6% per takedown, up to 10 stacks max
Lich Bane
Last patch, we made adjustments to further differentiate our two AP Sheen items. For Lich Bane, rather than proccing Spellblade through getting in their face (like what Dusk and Dawn builds provide), we’re tuning up Lich Bane’s Movespeed to help you get into position for a better scaling proc.
AP ratio : 40% AP ⇒ 45% AP
Movespeed : 4% ⇒ 6%
Voltaic Cyclosword
Following its adjustments and the removal of Opportunity, we expected Voltaic Cyclosword to see more play. We’re happy to see it making an impact on the meta, but are lowering its power slightly by increasing its price tag.
Total Cost: 2900g ⇒ 3000g
RUNES
Deathfire Touch
Even after the hotfix nerf, Deathfire Touch is burning a bit too strongly in early laning trades. We’re shaving off just a bit of damage at lower levels to make it less oppressive.
Stormraider’s Surge has landed on the soft side, underperforming on most champions trying it out, so we are going to push its duration a bit.
Move Speed: [40% Melee | 30% Ranged] for 3 seconds ⇒ [48% Melee | 36% Ranged] for 4 seconds
SYSTEMS
Minion Aggro
Previously, when an enemy champion attacked an allied minion, the enemy champion would enter the minions’ aggro priority list. We’re removing this action entirely from aggroing minions to prevent it feeling like minions sometimes randomly change their target. They have a nexus to take down, anyway.
Disruptive Game Termination
When we detect severely disruptive behaviors during a match that add up to irredeemably ruining their team’s chances of winning , we’ll allow the team with the disruptive player to vote to end the match so that everyone can save themselves some time. The bar for this is high, and most penalties will still be distributed post-game. We’re looking to improve upon this system by proactively offering a vote to end the match when severely disruptive behavior is detected during a match.
When a player is confirmed to be engaging in severely disruptive behavior during a match, their team will be prompted to vote to end the match. The disruptive player and their premade will not be eligible to vote.
If a match termination vote passes, the team with the disruptive player will not lose any LP or MMR. The other team will receive LP as usual for a win. The disruptive player gets banned.
If a match termination vote fails, the game will continue. The team with the confirmed disruptive player cannot lose LP, but has the opportunity to win LP if they can claim victory. This is primarily to avoid detected behaviors terminating matches that might be close to resolution, like when you’re about to destroy the enemy Nexus but one of your allies a minute ago decided to sell all of their items and run in circles in your base.
Patch 26.9 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
We're in the process of micropatching fixes to Cut Down damage being bugged, as well as a niche Viego interaction where he does more damage than expected.
Unrelated: How have things been going in Apex Reset regions?
To kick things off for Season 2, we have a set of changes to Role Quests that are aimed at making them generally more understandable and less punishing.
With this update, we’re lessening penalties when you just need to get out of your lane towards the end of laning phase.
Quest Point Penalty applied to CS / Turrets / Plates: -50% ⇒ -75% , decreasing down to -0% based on Quest Progress
We’ve also adjusted the bounds in which you earn Role Quest progress. Previously, it was heavily tied to being around your lane’s outer most turret, but now it’ll be more broad to allow for responding to proxying and roaming. Gone are the days of having to stick to your wave so you don’t fall behind, rejoice assassin mains!
Passive Point Progression: 0.333 per second, increased to 1.6 per second while they are “in the quest lane” ⇒ 0.333/s, increased to 1.5/s while you are “in the quest lane”
“In the quest lane”: Defined as near or past the lane’s outermost turret ⇒ Defined as anywhere in the lane, outside of your base
Recall Penalty to Passive Point Earn: Functionally exists because passive point gain was reduced until at outermost turret, creating a minor bias towards mid lane (shorter) ⇒ Disables passive point earn entirely for 12s after recalling
Passive point progression now also allows for a moderate degree of roaming. After level 3, you’ll now start banking roaming time while "in the quest lane,"getting up to 60 seconds after spending 120 seconds in lane. For every second banked, you’ll earn the increased Passive Point Progression as though you’re still "in the quest lane" even if you’re not.
Functionally, every 2 minutes you spend in lane, you can spend 1 minute roaming without penalizing your quest progress
Quest Rewards
Finally, we have some adjustments to quest rewards. For top, we’re doing a minor nerf to overall experience gain and adjusting the experience bonus to distinguish between champion and non-champion sources. Effectively, this will help out top laners who prefer scrappy teamfights over split pushing. We’re also ensuring that we avoid top lane experience creep situations where top laners who end up repeatedly killing each other scale their own level and experience rewards.
XP Increase: +12.5% from all sources ⇒ +80 flat XP on champion takedown; +11% from all other sources
For mid, we’re replacing the empowered recall effect with a percent-based increase to bonus AD and AP. We’ve felt that mid has lost some of its carry and scaling fantasy compared to top and bot’s rewards, which get more levels and XP or more gold and items. We’re hoping this change provides an edge over other lanes to spike harder on item purchases.
Role Quest Reward: Empowered Recall (300s CD, reduced by 60s on Takedown) ⇒ +6% Bonus AD and 6% Bonus AP
We feel like bot is a little too strong and snowballs a little too hard given their late game fantasy. So we’re giving a minor nerf to their bonus takedown gold.
Bonus Takedown Gold: 50g ⇒ 40g
Minion Waves
We’re moderately increasing minion wave durability, mostly around mid and late laning phase, to help increase minion action. This should also have a minor impact on opening up roaming windows as well as slightly increase wave stacking effects, allowing teams to spend a bit more time outside of the lane while a wave builds up.
Melee Minion Health: 440 (+25 every 90s; then +35 after this has happened 5 times)⇒ 430 (+35 every 90s)
Minion Slayer (Minion Damage Bonus to other Minions): +[2 Melee | 4 Ranged | 6 Siege]% Current HP On Hit ⇒ +[2 Melee | 3.5 Ranged | 5 Siege]% Current HP On Hit
Ambessa has carried the Medarda legacy a bit too well. Her brutality and fantasy has resonated with her mains, but we believe her ult has felt slightly fast to the point that players hit by it often don’t have clarity on what happened. We’re extending her cast time to open up clearer counterplay, and will be keeping a watchful eye on opportunities for follow-up work.
Briar has one of the steepest mastery curves in League. However, as time has gone on, more and more players have ended up at the high end of that curve and have been finding a lot of success. So we’re looking to nerf a bit of her survivability, but keep her ability to kill a target.
We want to bring back some playstyles that have been lost to the sands of time. First up on that list is AP Ezreal. Bring out your global snipes—there’s a lot of good mages out there but none of them are this skillful!
Gragas top is most impacted by the removal of Phase Rush, and only time will tell whether Grasp or Comet comes out on top. As we wait to see how his laning shakes out, this change should let Gragas players better frontline for their teams, and have a bigger impact in the late-game where they struggle most.
Our second lost playstyle is AD Kennen. In this case, we’re adding critical strike synergy to Kennen’s W and E. While a more attack speed focused on-hit hybrid build may stand out as a more intuitive choice for an auto-attack focused Kennen, we actually think it would spill over too hard into his standard AP builds and want to avoid adjustments to his typical playstyle just to enable this one.
W – Electrical Surge
[NEW]Passive: When ready, now applies the passive effect to the entire attack as an On-Hit, rather than just the first On-Hit trigger
[NEW]Passive Damage: Can now Critically Strike for 140% (+40% of Bonus Critical Strike Damage)
E – Lightning Rush
[NEW]Attack Speed Buff: Critical Strikes now extend the duration of Lightning Rush’s Attack Speed buff by 1 second, up to the initial duration of 4s. This can happen any number of times.
With Shyvana having been out for a few patches, we’ve taken stock of where she’s landed and identified two areas to address: broadening bruiser item viability and sharpening the distinction between AD and AP builds.
On the bruiser side, we’ve reduced the emphasis on pure dps items like Kraken Slayer. Adjustments to her base stats, Q and W create more room for Sheen, ability haste, and health to meaningfully contribute to her kit.
For build differentiation, AD Shyvana looks to engage in more sustained combat through auto attacks followed by big Q hits, using her W for sustain and sticking power and E for supplementary chase power. AP Shyvana, by contrast, centers damage around R and E, with W existing as a way to weave in and out of combat.
Base Stats
Attack Speed: 0.625 ⇒ 0.638
Attack Speed Ratio: 0.69 ⇒ 0.638
Attack Damage Growth: 3 ⇒ 4
Q – Emberstrike
Passive: 1% (+ 1.1% per 100 bonus AD) (+ 1.1% per 100 AP) of target’s maximum health ⇒ 1% (+ 1.1% per 100 bonus AD)
Dragon Form Heal: 75 – 214.71 (based on level) (+ 10% bonus AD) (+ 5% AP), increased by 0% – 100% (based on her missing health) for a maximum heal of 150 – 429.41 (based on level) (+ 20% bonus AD) (+ 10% AP) ⇒ 60 – 100 + 4-8% missing health (based on level)
Last patch’s adjustment last patch ended up a very slight nerf (less than .5%) for both top and support. So we’re making some support-focused improvements to compensate.
E – Thick Skin
Grey Health to HP conversion: 45 – 100% (Level 1 – 18) ⇒ 60 – 100% (Level 1 – 18)
R – Devour
Move Speed On Ally Devour: 40% for 3 seconds ⇒ 60% for 3 seconds
Taliyah is in the same spot as Gragas (RIP Phase Rush), except she was also taken down a notch from the pro mid meta in her last nerf. We don’t expect her to be able to utilize the changes as well as a lot of her competition, so we’re walking back our last hit to her, while also making sure she doesn’t approach sub-2:30 clears.
Our third lost playstyle—On-hit-focused Teemo builds have slowly fallen out of vogue as he’s been tuned around Malignance and Liandries. We are adding bonus AD ratios to Teemo’s E to open up itemization options for auto-attack builds featuring hybrid items like rageblade and the reworked Statikk Shiv.
E – Toxic Shot
[NEW]Initial Damage Bonus AD Ratio: 10% Bonus AD
[NEW]DoT Damage Bonus AD Ratio: 30% Bonus AD over 4 seconds
Currently, we feel that Udyr’s AD Q builds are extremely one note—which makes sense when you look at their scaling. We want to broaden his AD Q bruiser builds by shifting some of his AD ratios out of his Q and into W and E so the stance swapper has more than one stance.
Q – Wilding Claw
Bonus Damage on First 2 Attacks: 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8% (+4% per 100 bonus AD) of the target’s Max Health ⇒ 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8% (+3.5% per 100 bonus AD) of the target’s Max Health
Awakened Bonus Damage on First 2 Attacks: An additional 2 – 4% (based on level) (+3% per 100 bonus AD) of the target’s Max Health ⇒ An additional 2 – 4% (based on level) (+1.5% per 100 bonus AD) (+1% per 1000 bonus HP of the target’s Max Health)
Awakened Chain Lightning Damage Per Bounce: 1.5 – 3% (based on level) (+.8% per 100 AP) ⇒ 1.5 – 3% (based on level) (+.6% per 100 AP)
W – Iron Mantle
[NEW]Shield AD Ratio: 50% bonus AD
[NEW]Awakened Shield AD Ratio: 100% bonus AD
[NEW]Awakened Heal AD Ratio: 50% bonus AD
E – Blazing Stampede
[NEW]Move Speed AD Ratio: 5% move speed per 100 bonus AD
[NEW]Awakened Move Speed AD Ratio: 10% move speed per 100 bonus AD
Our favorite wolf-boy Warwick has been struggling to find his place over game time. We are looking to soften the blow of his transition into the late game by bringing up some of his scaling.
Our fourth lost playstyle is centered around Xin Zhao—particularly attack speed and AP Xin Zhao. Over the years Xin has moved off of auto attack builds solidly into bruiser AD-caster builds buying items like Sundered Sky or Black Cleaver. We think more attack speed-centric Xin Zhao builds offered an enjoyable melee fighter experience, and we want to bring it back. Whether it’s full AP builds revolving around drain tanking, heavy attack speed on-hit carry builds, or just some minor pivots into Stridebreaker, Titanic Hydra, and Triforce, we want to see a bit more build options.
Passive – Determination
Healing: 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+65% AP) (levels 1 / 6 / 11) ⇒ 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+50 / 65 / 90% AP) (levels 1 / 6 / 11)
W – Wind Becomes Lightning
Slow On Thrust: 50% for 1.5 seconds ⇒ 50% for 1.5 (+.5 per 100 AP) seconds
Zeri’s changes have pushed her over time to become more of a bursty assassin than the fantasy that initially called to many of her players. By moving power from her burst and late-game DPS towards her mobility and early laning, these changes should allow Zeri to shine once again as the zappy, speedy legend she is (while still doing ADC damage!)
Refunds 16 / 19.5 / 23 / 26.5 / 30% of cooldown when hitting an enemy champion
Items
Axiom Arc
Last year, we adjusted Axiom Arc to have a higher base refund on its ultimate effect with less scaling. We think this was a mistake, as offering an item early in the game that reduces ultimate cooldowns to this degree on high burst lethality champions can lead to very narrow windows of opportunity for opponents to act.
Flux: On takedown, refund 15% (+.15% per lethality) of your ultimate’s total cooldown ⇒ 10% (+.25% per lethality)
[NEW] Doran’s Bow
We’re looking to give more starting item options to auto attack-focused champions. Doran’s Bow offers a high risk, high reward fantasy that will reward those who are able to sneak in extra autos and come out on top even without the additional health.
Attack Damage: 6
Attack Speed: 12%
Omnivamp: 1.5%
[NEW] Doran’s Helm
We wanted to give more starting item options to champions who want to stack resistances. When it comes to the fantasy of being unkillable, current items assume a losing position. Though champions who want resistances tend to start on the back foot, we want to reward players who take advantage of the opportunity to come out even or ahead in laning phase with an item that pays off in valuable stats throughout the rest of the game.
Health: 100
Armor: 10
Magic Resist: 10
Helping Hand: 5 on-hit vs minions
Dusk And Dawn
One of the standout items for the season so far, we continue to feel it overlaps with Lichbane a bit too much. We want to encourage Dusk and Dawn users to stick around for multiple triggers, and empower them to do just that.
[NEW]Spellblade: Now also heals the user for (10% AP) (+3% Bonus HP)
Health: 350 ⇒ 300
Ability Power: 70 ⇒ 60
Attack Speed: 25% ⇒ 20%
Endless Hunger
Melee AD Fighters face major trade offs when considering this item against building other more durability focused items. We do want them to consider Endless Hunger however, for those pop off games when they get to play greedy, so we’re giving it a minor buff for melee champs.
In addition to new starting items, we’re adding new boots to the game that provide omnivamp. We’ve felt that many fighters and casters are limited in their boot selection, with only Ionian Boots as a real offensive option, and when they do pick something else, it’s purely defensive, which isn’t exactly exciting. These boots should fit a nice middle ground of aggressive and defensive, offering sustain through combat.
Build Path: Boots (300g) + 650g
Move Speed: 45
Omnivamp: 4%
Unique Passive – Slay: On champion takedown, gain 1% Omnivamp permanently, stacking up to 6 times
Tier 3 Immortal Path – Bonus Unique Passive – Now and Forever: While above half health, deal 5% increased damage. While below half health, receive +15% healing, shielding, and regeneration.
Hubris
Hubris cost buffs put it in line with a lot of other 1st slot lethality items, but in its current state feels like it’s crowding out other options by providing both scaling and immediate power. These changes should differentiate Hubris more from immediate powerspikes like Youmuu’s, while making it even stronger than before if you get rolling.
Base AD: 60 ⇒ 55
Passive AD per Stack: +2 ⇒ +3
Bonus AD: +15 ⇒ +12
[REMOVED] Opportunity
We feel that Opportunity has always overlapped a bit too much with Youmuu’s, even after we tried to push them apart a year and half ago, and in its current iteration sits in between Youmuus for mobility and Voltaic for upfront trade power.
Staff of Flowing Water
In the past, Staff’s unique effect granted ability haste, and then we changed that to move speed, and then we removed the move speed. We are re-adding the ability haste, as we believe only granting ability power has made the item too narrow and granting move speed made it too generic.
Unique Passive – Rapids: Healing or Shielding other ally champions grants both you and them +45 Ability Power for 6s ⇒ Healing or Shielding other ally champions grants both you and them +40 Ability Power and +15 Ability Haste for 6s
Ability Haste: 15 ⇒ 10
[REWORKED] Statikk Shiv
We’ve been unhappy with Shiv sitting as a pure waveclear first item purchase for a while now. With so much power in deleting the wave, it removes a lot of the space for back and forth lane trading. So instead, we’re taking this opportunity to move it into a scaling purchase for on-hit builds, a build path that has been missing some itemization since we opened up the 7th item slot for bot laners.
This new version of Shiv allows on-hit builds to apply their effects to multiple enemies at once, creating cool combos and helping them scale into teamfighting.
Unique Passive – Electrospark: Your Energized trigger fires a chain of lightning, dealing 60 (increased to 90 for minions and monsters) bonus magic damage to up to (4 – 8, scaling with level) targets. Applies on-hit effects to secondary bounce targets.
Unique Passive – Electroshock: Basic attacks grant an additional +9 Energize stacks
[REMOVED] Trailblazer
Similar to the reason we removed Opportunity, Trailblazer is sitting between two other tanky mobility options (Bandlepipes and Deadman’s Plate). In this case, we feel not only is its output overlapping with similar effects in the space, it also had the highest complexity unique effect—asking allies to pay attention to a wispy trail which simply seemed over in terms of visual noise.
[REWORKED] Voltaic Cyclosword
Voltaic Cyclosword brings some cool Energized options to AD casters, but we think we can make it even broader by allowing it to open up the strict auto-attack gate that stops many melees from being good with it. We also don’t love the slow effect, as it tended to trivialize a lot of the combat once players did manage to get into melee. With Opportunity removed, Voltaic should also be able to stand as the premier “upfront burst” item for AD casters.
Unique Passive – Galvanize: Damaging enemy champions with abilities will trigger Energized if it is ready
Unique Passive – Firmament: Your Energized trigger grants you [15 Melee | 12 Ranged] Lethality for 4s and deals bonus physical damage equal to [9% Melee | 7% Ranged] of the target’s current health. This bonus damage is capped to 200 against non-champions.
Cost: 3000g ⇒ 2900g
Lethality: 18 ⇒ 10
Runes
[NEW] Deathfire Touch
Damage over time and sustained damage casters don’t have a keystone made specifically for them. This gap has previously been partially covered by other keystones like Comet and Aery, but we’re re-adding Deathfire Touch from the old keystone mastery system to ensure that these champions are fully supported by the runes system, and making adjustments to other keystones to compensate.
Sorcery Tree Keystone: Damaging a champion with an ability burns them for (4s singletarget / 2s AoE / 1s DoT). The burn deals 4-12 (level scaling) + 8% bonus AD + 3% AP adaptive damage per second. After the burn has been on a target for 3s, the damage of the burn increases by 100%.
[REMOVED] Phase Rush
Phase Rush has historically been a problematic rune for enabling some champions to subvert intended early lane gameplay. But we know that we need a mobility-based rune, so fear not…
[NEW] Stormraider’s Surge
Since Stormraider’s Surge asks the user to commit to dealing a lot of damage and generally ends up having its input scale well over game time, it is able to support much of the same pattern as Phase Rush in a healthier and more exciting way for the intended users.
[NEW]Sorcery Tree Keystone: Dealing 25% of a champion’s maximum health within 3s grants a movespeed and slow resistance for 3s. 20-10s cooldown, scales based on level.
[NEW]Speed: 40%; 75% for ranged champs
[NEW]Slow Resist: 50%
Arcane Comet
Previously, Comet was given a cooldown refund mechanic for damage over time and sustained damage casters. Now that Deathfire Touch exists, Comet no longer needs it, and can now better serve its original intended audience of control mages and artillery mages with a damage-per-distance mechanic that should be exciting for those subclasses to play with.
[REMOVED]Cooldown Refund: Removed
[NEW]Damage: Now deals up to 100% increased damage based on distance from the target, max damage bonus at 750 range away
Damage: 30 – 130 (based on level) + 10% bonus AD + 5% AP ⇒ 15 – 100 (based on level) + 10% bonus AD + 5% AP
Hail Of Blades
Hail of Blades has become an extremely niche keystone that gives an eye popping amount of attack speed and basically nothing else. In other words, these blades are too sharp! We’re shifting some of the attack speed power budget into a new bonus damage effect so we can tune it more comfortably for a broader variety of champions.
Attack Speed: [160% Melee || 80% Ranged] for 3 attacks, increased by +1 attack if you cast an ability that resets your auto attack ⇒ [120% Melee || 60% Ranged] for 3 attacks, increased by +1 attack if you cast an ability that resets your auto attack up to +2 attacks
New: Attacks empowered by Hail of Blades deal 4 – 20 (+8% bonus AD) (+6% AP) bonus true damage
Bugfixes: Fixed various Attack Reset abilities not properly granting bonus attacks (Bel’Veth Q, Kai’Sa R, K’Sante Q3, Gwen E, Quinn E, Rell Remount W, Riven Q)
SR Ranked Season 2
SR Ranked Season 2 will start at 12:00:00 noon, April 29, local server time.
For Apex (Master, Grandmaster, Challenger) players in NA, EUW, EUN, LAN, BR, TR, their rank status will be reset to Master, 0 LP. For all other players, nothing will change. If you want to read more about why we’re resetting Apex in some regions, check out the dev blog to learn more.
For all regions and all players, Victorious Ranked Mission (15 ranked game won) will be reset with Season 2 start.
End of Season 1 Ranked rewards will be distributed shortly after 26.09 is live, shard transfer service will be temporarily disabled until rewards are fully granted.
Patch 26.8 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Patch Highlights
Systems
Ranked Season 1 End
The Summoner’s Rift Ranked Season 1 will end on the last day of patch 26.08 cycle, so if you’ve got ranked goals for this season make sure you hit them this patch! Good luck!
Date and Time: Regional local server time midnight (23:59:59) on April 28.
Summoner’s Rift Ranked Season 2 will start on the first day of patch 26.09 cycle.
Date and Time: Regional local server time noon (12:00:00) on April 29.
A few additional things to keep in mind as we wrap up this season:
For all regions, Ranked mission (win 15 ranked games) will be reset with the Season 2 start.
End of S1 ranked reward will be granted on 26.09.
Shard transfer services will be temporarily disabled during season transition until the reward grant is completed.
Champion Specific Keybinds
Champion specific keybinds have arrived! This long awaited player request will go live this patch and will now allow for champion specific overrides to be set for most keybinds. Rumble and Viktor players rejoice, smartcast options can also be toggled on a per-champion basis.
As a heads up, you won’t be able to do this out of game, so make sure you go into practice tool and set them up before jumping into ranked!
Discord Integration
We’re partnering with Discord to make it easier to get into your next League of Legends game with your friends. Linking your accounts unlocks new social features:
Invite Discord friends straight to your party, no alt-tabbing needed!
Copy a party link and share it in your favorite server, no more manually inviting friends one by one.
See which of your friends play other Riot games and jump into parties faster.
We’ll be running a Beta across US, Canada and Brazil starting on April 14th. We will continue to test and refine the experience and plan on expanding to additional regions in a few patches.
Dr. Mundo has been able to more consistently reach his high points in the jungle where he is less concerned about his slow early game. We are looking to curb some of his clear speed to make sure he can’t go where he pleases too quickly and requires some more time to scale up.
Hwei has remained on the weaker side since the nerfs to his waveclear last year, and we are fixing a bug that we expect to be a further minor nerf. We still believe those waveclear nerfs to be correct as we want Hwei League’s coolest combo mage, not just a walking waveclear machine. Therefore, we’re buffing his combo casting output up through his passive.
Last patch we made some changes to Karma to reduce how generically powerful she was by reducing her midgame shield strength. Unfortunately those weren’t as effective as we had intended so we’re taking another swing at Karma by directly targeting her E power and reducing her base stats a tad so she is more reliant on skillful and intentional ability usage.
Our favorite bouncing deer has been a bit less than enthusiastic to prance from camp to camp as of late, it’s a scary jungle out there. We’re hoping to give Lillia players some more courage to bring her into the jungle by increasing her ability to have her high move speed translate into a faster clear.
Lucian has a unique role as an AD Carry that dashes in, out of, and around fights which is why many of his players enjoy him. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been doing that as effectively recently so we’re looking to remedy that. To get there, we’re lowering both the cooldown and mana cost of his dashes.
Since our recent adjustments to Mel, she’s been hitting too hard with her initial Q missile whether ahead or behind, even as opponents dodge the rest of the spell, so we’re looking to take her damage down a notch. We’re also aiming to reduce how frustrating her W can be by lowering the bonus mobility she gets and the spell’s uptime, with the movespeed now matching her shield and reflect duration.
As a champ in both Top and Support, Tahm Kench requires periodic maintenance as the meta shifts to ensure both roles of his roles are equally supported. In this case, Dusk and Dawn’s addition to the game this season has shifted this balance in favor of top lane, so we’re adjusting how his passive scales to help balance him out.
Passive – An Acquired Taste
Damage: 6 – 48 (Levels 1 – 11) (+1.5% AP per 100 Bonus HP) (+4.5% Bonus HP) ⇒ 5 – 60 (Levels 1 – 12) (+1.25% AP per 100 Bonus HP) (+4% Bonus HP)
We’re implementing a couple bugfixes to Yuumi’s ultimate, one of which will sometimes result in the magical cat outputting significantly more healing than she may have grown used to. As such, we’re throwing her a FISH by increasing her base healing and best friend healing to provide a stronger baseline effect.
Since the dawn of time Zyra’s have been accidentally putting a point into W and effectively doing nothing level 1. Well no more! We’re adding a small QoL change so Zyra can no longer put her first skill point into W to prevent this type of situation from being a thorn in your side and mental blooming.
Patch 26.6 notes for League of Legends are here, including nerfs to Ahri and Zaahen, as well as the ShyvanaUpdate. (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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!)
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?
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.
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!
