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.”

League of Legends Patch 26.5 bans are about to level up. Riot Games has revealed plans to punish people who are abusive in chat with huge bans. Starting in Patch 26.5, gameplay bans will be given for players who are “severely disruptive” in comms, rather than just chat bans.

Why are Riot Games Making These Changes

No longer will chat bans be issued for players who are highly toxic in chat. Instead, Riot Games is getting serious and will now issue full gameplay bans for players who are severely abusive in chat. The change comes as part of the new Community Pact guidelines with a clear message: Play with respect, or don’t play at all.

Previously, players would be issued a chat ban, essentially muted, and informed that their team they were muted. This new change looks to finally take action against players who ruin the game for others. This could mean a player could use hate speech against another player or a threat of violence, and they would only get muted. Riot has finally admitted that this “doesn’t align with player expectations.”

League of Legends Patch 26.5 bans

Riot Games has been cautious in its language to distinguish between what “mild flame” and “severe offences” are. So, you can still call your jungler an “idiot”, while discouraged, you won’t get banned. However, the following forms of communication will get you a gameplay ban:

• Hate speech
• Threats of physical violence
• Severe and egregious aggression towards another player

One other change is that this ban won’t just look at your public chats. Direct Messages (DMs) will also be taken into account, though not until later in 2026. This should stop players from adding another player just to flame them after a game.

This isn’t the first time Riot Games has claimed to be strong on chat abuse, sadly. Since 2025, when the “Escalation Ladder” came into effect, a four-strike system was implemented to move players up bans, from 10 to 25-game chat bans, to suspensions and permanent bans.

Riot Games also has a zero-tolerance approach in Valorant, with “real-time mutes” since 2022; however, that game has a similar reputation to League of Legends when it comes to toxicity.

It remains to be seen if these changes will help, but they can’t make things any worse.

Source: League of Legends News

We’ve known for a long time that the Shyvana Rework was the next major League of Legends character to get a rework. Now, Riot Games has finally given us the first details with a reveal trailer.

Shyvana Rework Release

Shyvana’s Rework is set to drop on March 18th in the second Act of the Demacia story. The rework to Shyvana the Half Dragon, is a VGU/rework that aims to bring the character more in line with modern characters. The new rework is expected to drastically change both the human and dragon form. At the end of the trailer above, we get a pretty good look at what she’ll end up like in-game.

Gameplay details have not been made public; however, some leaks suggest the majority of her kit will be reworked. Her human form Q is rumoured to be an empowered auto-attack. The Dragon Form is likely to offer a similar ultimate, seeing Shyvana fly across a large area and do massive AoE damage.

The other note from Riot Games was a look at fixing the “visual clarity” of Shyvana, specifically on her Flame Breath (E). Shyvana’s rework is a very long time coming. In fact, it was announced nearly 10 years ago alongside Volibear, Udyr, Fiddlesticks and more. Those three have had theirs for a long time, which has made Shyvana’s wait even harder for fans of the half dragon.

As for why she needs a rework, Shyvana has been at the lower end of the scale when it comes to Jungle performance for some time.

Sitting at B in our Jungle tier list currently, with a fairly poor Pick Rate, it looks like only diehard Shyvana mains are sticking with her for now. Which is most likely inflating the poor win rate to a somewhat respectable level. Regardless, the rework will be sure to increase her pick rate. So be prepared to see a lot of Shyvana when she releases on March 18th.

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