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
- Combine cost: 950 gold ⇒ 750 gold
- Total price: 3000 gold ⇒ 2800 gold
Locket of the Iron Solari
- 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.”