Patch 26.3 Notes
This is our first major live follow-up patch on Season 2026 after collecting our first reads on the game from a combination of playing ourselves and watching you all dive into the changes. We're honing in on item balance, following up on recent rune changes, and tweaking vision mechanics to ensure the early game has the right level of tension. We've also got balance changes. A lot of balance changes. The biggest standout here is AD junglers, who are systemically worse in the new season, but since we like the systems changes that caused this disparity, we're simply buffing them back up.
Also with this patch we're delivering a major update to ARAM Mayhem! Over 40 new augments, augment sets, and a progression track means there's a ton of crazy combinations you can cook up. For you ranked climbers we now have the climb indicator as well as a tweak to the Aegis of Valor threshold. For Demacia Rising the next two chapters will also be unlocked and available to progress in this patch, best of luck to you and your units!
Looking for more information on all things League of Legends? Check out our community-run wiki here!
Wrong patch notes? You can find the TFT patch notes here!
Lilu "Riot Riru" Cabreros
Caden “Riot Sakaar” House
Patch Highlights
ARAM Mayhem
Hello Mayhem enjoyers! We're excited to introduce a patch packed with new Augments, new Augment Sets, and a NEW progression track!
This patch adds 45 new Augments, with some unlockable through the progression track as you play. We've heard your feedback around augment diversity and underserved classes, so we focused on expanding options for them, including item upgrades, active summoner effects, and more Prismatic Augments!
But what about existing Augments? We're giving some underperforming Augments light tuning and refreshing the system overall with the introduction of Augment Sets.
MAYHEM PROGRESSION TRACK
Season of Mayhem provides a new out of game experience for Mayhem enjoyers to give you something to progress and augment your future games! With this track we’re exploring rewarding Mayhem enjoyers and giving you all exciting goals to strive for within the mode. Our goals here are to make this easy to progress and we’ve made it pretty quick so you should never feel behind if you haven’t progressed it yet. You'll also find a couple of cosmetics like emotes and icons, as well as a new banner to show your devotion to the Poro King.
Check out all the rewards you can earn below:
- Level 1 - Red Envelope Augment - Pick up Red Envelopes around the map to increase your Gold and a random stat.
- Level 2 - Weighted Popoffs Augment - Strike enemies to "popoff" allowing your abilities to cooldown faster.
- Level 3 - "Poro Snack, Please" Emote
- Level 4 - +300 Starting Gold - Gain 300 more Gold at the start of each Mayhem game.
- Level 5 - Growth Spurt Augment - When cast, increase your size, health and Knockup nearby enemies.
- Level 6 - Poro Blast Icon
- Level 7 - Donation Augment - Gain a significant amount of Gold. No questions asked.
- Level 8 - Bounce of the Poro King Augment - Bounce on enemies crazy style as the Poro King to Knockback and deal damage.
- Level 9 - "So Bright!" Emote
- Level 10 - Speed Demon Augment - Damage an enemy to temporarily gain movement speed.
- Level 11 - Spirit Bloom Slumber Icon
- Level 12 - Shrink Engine Augment - Gain Ability Haste, Move Speed, and Shrink on every takedown.
- Level 13 - Gold Reroll - Chance to reroll an Augment into a higher tier Augment.
- Level 14 - Crack Open That Egg Augment - Your shields can now detonate, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
- Level 15 - "Avalanche!" Emote
- Level 16 - Void Immolation Augment - Convert Sunfire Aegis and Hollow Radiance into Void Immolation.
- Level 17 - Gift-Giving Poros Icon
- Level 18 - Anvil Voucher - You'll get an Anvil Voucher item at the start of each game that you can redeem to gain extra stats.
- Level 19 - Inferno Triggered Augment - Automatically cast Samira's R when you reach "S" in style.
- Level 20 - Champion Selfie Icon
- Level 21 - Thornmail Upgrade - Thornmail and Bramble Vest will reflect more damage from attacks.
- Level 22 - "Pls Send Help" Emote
- Level 23 - Elixirs- Gain free Elixir at levels 9/12/16.
- Level 24 – Dropkick Augment - Your attacks execute enemy champions, restoring health, and Knocking Back enemies.
- Level 25 - Sonata - Automatically alternate casting Sona's E and W.
- Level 26 - Poro King Banner
- Level 27 - Stuck in Here with Me Augment - Gain damage reduction and taunt enemies after casting your ultimate.
- Level 28 - Loving Family Emote
- Level 29 - Empowered By The Faith Augment - Heal and Shield allies to earn "Devotion" which will execute low-health enemies.
- Level 30 - "Blasting Off!" Icon
- Level 31 - Golden Reroll - Further increased chance to reroll into a higher tier augment
- Level 32 - ??? - Your Missing Pings now do something… no idea what though.
AUGMENT SETS
We've seen tons of creative Augment combinations in Mayhem, and we want to make those moments even more rewarding and create new combinations with an exciting element that ties them together. Some augments sounded like they fit on paper, but that didn’t come across power wise… that's where Augment Sets come in.
Some Augments will now belong to a themed set. When you collect 2–4 Augments from the same set, you'll unlock a special bonus that enhances that combination even further. Love diving into chaos with Clown College and Dive Bomb? No problem! Completing that Augment Set will reduce your death timer by 30%, letting you get back into the action faster. BOOM.
There are 9 Augment Sets in total, and we can't wait to see the wild combinations you discover.
Deathknell
Dive into death and use augments for true damage
- (2) Reduce death timer by 40%
Augments: Clown College, Train of the Dead, Self Destruct, Dive Bomber
Firecracker
Missiles are cool, more missiles are cooler. Firecracker missiles will bounce extra times to nearby enemies and deal a portion of their original damage.
- (2) 2 bounces, dealing 40% of original damage.
- (4) 3 bounces, dealing 80% of original damage
Augments: Fan the Hammer, Magic Missile, Critical Missile, Light'em Up, Typhoon, Twin Fire
High Roller
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Shaco - Twisted Fate (probably)
- (2) Minions have a chance to drop a Stat Anvil on death.
- (3) +50% chance for Gold or Prismatic Anvils.
- (4) +50% chance for Gold or Prismatic Anvils.
Augments: Transmute Chaos, Pandora's Box, Stats on Stats on Stats, Transmute Prismatic, Stats on Stats, Stats, Transmute Gold
Stackasaurus Rex
Stacks Stacks Stacks Stacks Stacks
- (2) Gain 50% More.
- (3) Gain 100% More.
- (4) Gain 200% More.
Augments: Infinite Recursion, Master of Duality, Tap Dancer, Soul Eater, Quest: Steal your heart, Phenomenal Evil, Shrink Engine, Hubris, Slap Around
Wee Woo Wee Woo
- (2) 40% Speed, 25% Heal and Shield Power.
- (3) 50% Speed, 35% Heal and Shield Power.
- (4) 60% Speed, 45% Heal and Shield Power.
Augments: Windspeaker's Blessing, I'm a Baby Kitty Where is Mama, Upgrade: Mikaels Blessing, All For You, Critical Healing, Sonata, First Aid Kit.
Fully Automated
The first step to making a Mayhem factory truly grow.
- (2) Reduce Autocast cooldowns by 30%
- (3) Autocast cooldown scales with Ability Haste.
Augments: Prom Queen, Quantum Computing, Ok Boomerang, Sonata, Divine Intervention, Self Destruct, Frost Wraith, Firefox
Archmage
A load bearing structure of any game.
- (2) Refund 40% of a random ability's cooldown when you cast a spell.
Augments: Overflow, Mind to Matter, Buff Buddy, Juiced, Ocean Soul
Make it Rain
Gold rules everything around you.
- (2) 25% more gold from augments and kills.
- (3) 50% more gold from augments and kills.
- (4) 100% more gold from augments and kills.
Augments: Goldrend, Heads Up Cupcake!, Donation, Red Envelope, From Beginning to End, Upgrade Immolate, Upgrade Collector
Snowday
Snowballs go brr
- (2) Gain 50 Ability Haste on Snowball and snowballs deal an extra 30% more damage.
- (3) Gain 100 Ability Haste on Snowball and snowballs deal an extra 50% more damage.
- (2) Gain 150 Ability Haste on Snowball and snowballs deal an extra 100% more damage.
Augments: Biggest Snowball, Golden Snowball, Snowball Upgrade, Pinball Snowball, Snowball Roulette
AUGMENT BALANCE CHANGES
Empyrean Promise
- Delay Moving Time: 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds
- Move Speed: 3500 ⇒ 4000
- Cooldown: 30 ⇒ 20
- Augment user gets the shield immediately when traveling instead of landing.
Lesser Heal
- Cooldown: 45 ⇒ 30
- Base Heal: 150-430 (based on level) ⇒ 200-550 (based on level)
Cerberus
- Attack Speed Amp: 140% / 80% ⇒ 200% / 115%
- Bonus Damage: 120 - 360 ⇒ 120 - 360 ( 40% AD) (+30% AP)
Goldrend
- Gold per proc: 15 Gold ⇒ 30 Gold
From Beginning to End
- First Strike Gold proc base: 10 ⇒ 20
- Bonus True Damage: 7% ⇒ 10%
- Gold Conversion: 50% / 35% ⇒ 60% / 42%
Lightning Strike
- Attack Speed Required: 3.5 ⇒ 1.75
Mystic Punch
- On-hit ability cooldown reduction: 20% ⇒ 1.25 seconds
QUALITY OF LIFE
- You can now take any summoner spells you want. For active Summoner Spell augments like Blade Waltz or Biggest Snowball you'll be able to select which slot to replace it.
Champion Bounties
We accelerated how quickly champion kill gold devalued in the new season since there were already guaranteed wins around getting role quest progress and denying it from your opponents. However, we swung the tuning a little too hard, which has created scenarios where champion kills feel valueless. So in this patch we're landing in between the 25.24 tuning and 26.1 to achieve our goals.
- Devalue rate on death: 1 per 2.5 gold given out ⇒ 1 per 3.5 gold given out
- Re-increment rate from farming: 1 per 5 gold earned ⇒ 1 per 7 gold earned
Turret Plates
It's too hard for teams to convert a winning teamfight into meaningful progress into the enemy base but split-pushing razes towers a little too quickly. To solve both these issues we're re-architecting temporary turret resists to resist solo pushes a little better and blockade teams less well.
- Bulwark Temporary Resistances: 20-100 per plate based on nearby enemy champions ⇒ 30-50 per plate based on nearby enemy champions
- Reactive VFX when hit by champions are now smaller, especially if the turret was recently attacked.
Faelights & Vision
The vision meta with faelights is still evolving in ways that mostly look healthy so far, but one concerning trend is the degree to which early game vision disrupts and zones junglers.
A major contributor to this is the shape of the bonus vision regions from the river pixel brush faelights. These provide large, reliable vision coverage early game, despite the ward locations already being valuable and high-traffic. It's not necessary for faelights' systemic goals that these particular faelight spots are so powerful, so this is a good candidate for nerfs.
The other major contributor is the season's yellow trinket buffs. We buffed yellow trinkets so players could make vision plays without their support, but this isn't as relevant in laning phase, so we've decided to pull back on the cooldown for early levels. We're still seeing high-level players regularly swap out yellow trinket later on, so we don't think the later-level cooldown buffs need to be reverted.
Faelights at River Pixel Brush Locations
- Reveal region shape: expanded past scuttle pad and epic pit entrance ⇒ cuts off before scuttle pad and epic pit entrance
Stealth Ward Trinket
- Cooldown: 170-90s (by level) ⇒ 210-90s (by level)
Other Changes
- Scryer's Blooms: Removed the Scryer's Blooms just outside base gates (from Cloud/Chemtech rift)
- Fiddlesticks: While pretending to be an effigy on a faelight, Fiddlesticks will now display on-model visual effects as if a faelight-enhanced effigy (does not gain bonus vision or destroy existing wards)
- Neeko: While disguised as a ward on a faelight, Neeko will now display on-model visual effects as if a faelight-enhanced ward (does not gain bonus vision or destroy existing wards)
Support Control Wards
For support players on SR, control wards will now start in your role quest slot from the beginning of the match. Combined with the ability to double bind this hotkey, this should help smooth out the experience for supports.
Champions
Ahri
As the new season has shaken out, Ahri is performing worse than last year and worse than she ought to. Now that she's back on high burst builds, we're reverting a nerf from her “Rod of Ages every game” phase of her K-pop career. Some artists just fall off, you know?
W - Fox-Fire
- Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 ⇒ 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5
Bel'Veth
Bel'Veth is one of several AD junglers who suffered in the new season and we're here to buff her back up. We're aiming to bring up her late game in ways that synergize with squishy high attack speed builds by giving her a better payout for that attack speed and enough health to not need to buy as much of it.
Base Stats
- Health Growth: 99 ⇒ 105
R - Endless Banquet
- True Damage on attack per stack: 6 / 8 / 10 (+ 12% Bonus AD) ⇒ 6 / 10 / 14 (+ 12% Bonus AD)
Braum
Braum has easily become a top tier support with the start of the new season. New items like Bandlepipes have been instrumental in helping him and his allies stick onto enemies and take them down. Given that Braum is still looking quite strong even after the nerf to Bandlepiepes, we'll be looking to revert the health buffs we gave him at the end of last year and bring down some of his overall fighting power.
Base Stats
- Health: 630 ⇒ 610
Q - Winter's Bite
- Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+ 2.5% HP) ⇒ 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+ 2.5% HP)
Briar
Briar lost some of her luster in the new season and as someone with ample counter-play, she deserves to win more games than she currently does. We want to make sure her lifesteal-focused durability can manifest by giving her enough health and resists to make that healing efficient and while we're here, we're also throwing top lane Briar a bone by letting her trade more efficiently as well.
Base Stats
- Health Growth: 95 ⇒ 100
- Armor Growth: 4.2 ⇒ 4.5
Q - Head Rush
- Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health
W - Blood Frenzy
/ Snack Attack
- Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health
E - Chilling Scream
- Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health
R - Certain Death
- Health Cost: 6% current health ⇒ 5% current health
Diana
Diana has gone to the moon due to seasonal changes, and in addition to Dusk & Dawn adjustments, this nerf should make sure her power wanes.
Passive - Moonsilver Blade
- Monster Damage: 280% ⇒ 230%
Draven
Draven's Q was initially bugged to deal less damage at the start of the season, which was micropatched within the first week. Players are also trying Essence Reaver over Bloodthirster, which currently performs worse. After accounting for all of these factors, Draven's still not doing as well as he was last year, so we're coming to prop him back up by reverting one of our preemptive pre-season nerfs.
Base Stats
- AD Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.4
Ekko
Time has been on Ekko's side this year. We're taking a swing at both his clear speed and burst after early game to prevent him from going haywire after getting a lead.
Passive - Z-Drive Resonance
- AP Ratio: 80% ⇒ 90%
- Monster Damage: 300% ⇒ 270%
Ezreal
Ezreal's been in a pretty weak spot for most players this season, especially after Essence Reaver got nerfed in the micropatch. While we think there's some winrate to be gained through players optimizing their builds, we still want to bring Ezreal more in line.
Base Stats
- AD Growth: 3.25 ⇒ 3.5
E - Arcane Shift
- Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+ 50% Bonus AD) (+ 75% AP) ⇒ 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280(+ 60% Bonus AD) (+ 75% AP)
Hecarim
Hecarim isn't doing very well in the new season so he's got a buff coming up. We're doing this by giving him a strong mid game power spike that he can use to try to run the map and get his team a lead. And even if he fails to do so, at least he's got slightly better base damage to fall back on. For those who don't want to do the math, the net result of both Q changes is a strict buff until around 225 bonus AD.
Q - Rampage
- Damage per hit: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+ 90% Bonus AD) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 90% Bonus AD)
- Damage amp per Rampage stack: 3% (+ 4% per 100 Bonus AD) ⇒ 3% (+ 3% per 100 Bonus AD)
Heimerdinger
Slaps roof We can fit so many Arcane champs in this patch. Heimerdinger's been performing worse in the new season and he was balanced before then, so we're here to return him to his former glory. We know top lane Heimer can feel suffocating when his turrets are all setup, so we're looking to re-buff him in ways that allow him to be proactive instead of turtling.
Base Stats
- Health Growth: 101 ⇒ 105
W - Hextech Micro-Rockets
- Initial hit damage: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 55% AP) ⇒ 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+ 55% AP)
- Follow-up damage: unchanged
Jayce
Jayce's build has bounced around a lot over time. He's been a tank, he's been (and currently is) a lethality burst mage, and he's been a fighter. We'd like if Jayce were an AD fighter, caring about both his damage output and durability to stick it out in melee once in a while. He's also still better in the jungle than in the top lane after last patch's nerf, so we're here to re-visit him. Ultimately our goals for Viktor's better half are to give him a viable fighter build and a viable but not overbearing jungle role. To achieve these goals, we're reducing his reliance on bonus AD and shifting power from his poke into his melee damage and follow-up.
Q - To the Skies!
- Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 295 / 240 / 285 (+135% Bonus AD)⇒ 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 / 310 (+ 135% Bonus AD)
- Monster bonus damage: 25 ⇒ 10
Q - Shock Blast
- Damage: 80 / 126 / 172 / 218 / 264 / 310 (+ 140% Bonus AD) ⇒ 80 / 121 / 162 / 203 / 244 / 285 (+ 130% Bonus AD)
- Monster bonus damage: 25 ⇒ 10
R - Cannon Stance: Mercury Cannon
- Armor/Magic Resistance Shred: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%
Kayn
Blue Kayn specifically became much weaker in the new season and we'd like to fix that with some direct buffs. There's not much fancy here except that as an assassin, he should be lethal when fighting up close and personal with his targets. As a reminder, Slayer Kayn replaces his Q when transformed.
Q - Reaping Slash
- Damage: 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 (+ 85% Bonus AD) ⇒ 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195 (+ 85% Bonus AD)
Maokai
Maokai has been struggling to find his place both in the top lane and in the jungle. We want to give him a little bit of extra power to find relevance in our new season by boosting hist damage
Q - Bramble Smash
- Flat Damage: 65 / 110 / 155 / 200 / 245 ⇒ 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255
Mel
This changelist is intended to help lower player frustration while playing against Mel through opening up additional counterplay opportunities for opponents beyond the ban button.
One big change we have is changing her reflect damage immunity to a shield which will ensure when Fizz successfully lands his ultimate she no longer completely negates the damage with a late W. We also want to make sure when you're laning against her that you can see her Q coming and dodge out of the way at long ranges like many spammable projectile spells. Both her Q and E should now be more visually clear (thus easier to dodge) and we've reduced some of the power from her reflect in some situations where her reflections resulted in unexpectedly high damage.
While we believe that champion agency can yield frustrating interactions, we also believe there should be avenues for counterplay to balance that out. Frankly, we underestimated how frustrating the play-against experience for Mel would be and are aiming to improve that with this change list. And for players looking to play Mel we want her to be playable more consistently after the ban phase while making sure her core gameplay that her players have come to love isn't lost.
Our goals with these changes are that more players feel they can outplay Mel in ways that match their expectations, and that Mel players can feel more skillful and that their success is a result of that skill. We expect that there will continue to be players whose main champions are highly impacted by Mel's reflection that may continue to prioritize her as a ban, but we're targeting to get her out of must-ban territory for many players.
Base Stats
- Attack Speed Ratio: 0.4 ⇒ 0.625
Passive - Searing Brilliance
- Projectile Damage: 8-50 (based on level) (+ 5% AP) ⇒ 8-25 (based on level) (+ 3% AP)
- Total Projectile Damage: 24-150 (based on level) (+ 15% AP) ⇒ 24-75 (based on level) (+ 9% AP)
- Reduced the visual clutter by no longer displaying the passive mark on non-champions for enemies.
- Fixed certain champion spawned units dying to Overwhelm from an unempowered basic attack.
Q - Radiant Volley
- Now deals additional damage the first time an explosion hits with reduced effectiveness from subsequent hits.
- Initial Hit: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 60% AP)
- Subsequent Hits: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 (+ 5% AP)
- Total Damage: 78 / 109 / 144 / 185 / 230 (+51-85% AP) ⇒ 85 / 126 / 169 / 214 / 261 (+ 85-105% AP)
- Mana Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 ⇒ 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
- Minion Damage: 75% ⇒ 100%
- Cast Time: 0.25s ⇒ 0.35s
- Projectile Speed: 4500 ⇒ 3800
- Explosion Radius: 230 ⇒ 200
- Area Spread: 30 ⇒ 25
- Channel Time: 0.75s ⇒ 0.5s
- Damage type is now DoT AoE (reduced effectiveness in resetting Arcane Comet).
- Stronger area telegraph visual.
W - Rebuttal
- No longer provides Damage Immunity.
- Shield: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+ 60% AP)
- Physical damage reflected is reduced by 30% before magic damage conversion.
- Now destroys projectiles that target each unit in an area instead of reflecting them when those projectiles aren't targeting Mel. (ex. Ryze E, Brand E, Katarina R, Samira R, Yunara Q)
- Decaying Move Speed: 30% over 0.75s⇒ 40% over 1.5s
E - Solar Snare
- Root Missile Radius: 80 ⇒ 70
- End of Travel Linger Duration: 0.5s ⇒ 0.25s
- DoT Radius: 260 ⇒ 230
- Cast Range: 1050 ⇒ 1000
- Projectile Speed: 1000 ⇒ 1100
- Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10 ⇒ 11 / 10.5 / 10 / 9.5 / 9
- Root Duration: 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 ⇒ 1.5
- Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 ⇒ 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240
- Damage per Second: 16 / 26 / 36 / 46 / 56 ⇒ 16 / 28 / 40 / 52 / 64
- No longer visually pops at the end when descending terrain.
R - Golden Eclipse
- Damage per Stack: 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 3.5% AP) ⇒ 4 / 7 / 10 (+ 4% AP)
Naafiri
Naafiri's doing pretty well in the mid lane at the moment but her jungling hasn't kept up so we're giving our favorite pack of dogs more of a fighting chance with her current slow clear.
Passive - We Are More
- Packmate Monster Damage: 1.35x ⇒ 1.55x
Nilah
Even after her micropatch nerfs, Nilah is still sooo happy (overpowered) about the new season. We're looking to bring her overall power down now that the dust has settled.
Base Stats
- Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 58
- Armor Growth: 4.5 ⇒ 4.2
Nunu and Willump
We aimed to give Nunu & Willump a hefty nerf but overshot our goals so we're here to walk back part of the nerf package.
W - Biggest Snowball Ever!
- Maximum Damage: 150 / 195 / 240 / 285 / 330 ⇒ 180 / 225 / 270 / 315 / 360
E - Snowball Barrage
- Base Damage per hit: 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 / 42 ⇒ 15 / 22.5 / 30 / 37.5 / 45
Riven
Riven's been crushing it ever since she discovered Axiom Arc. We like that she's swift and lethal in the early game but ultimately she's bursting down her competition too quickly once mid game arrives. Additionally, with all the extra gold and experience in the game right now, players have cited that late game fights resolve too quickly. So, all that considered, we're here to take out some of her late game burst power.
Passive - Runic Blade
- Total AD Ratio: 30-50% (based on level) ⇒ 30-45% (based on level)
Q - Broken Wings
- Damage: 40 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 / 85% Bonus AD) ⇒ 40 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80% Bonus AD)
Ryze
Ryze has risen up the ranks this season and is due for a reduction in power. While we're nerfing Phase Rush, we're also buffing Actualizer so we think he deserves a direct nerf in this patch. With his late game damage going up and the overall game being more lethal than we'd like, we're reducing some late game damage in kind.
W - Rune Prison
- Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+70% AP) (+ 4% Bonus Mana) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180(+ 60% AP) (+ 3% Bonus Mana)
Trundle
Trundle's doing very poorly in both of his main roles and as a very straightforward champion should be much more successful than he is now. We want to make sure he's good at playing the role of the front-line juggernaut who's great at tank-busting, so we're playing up his late game sustained damage output and resilience
Base Stats
- Armor Growth: 3.9 ⇒ 4.5
- Attack Damage Growth: 4 ⇒ 4.5
Tryndamere
After his micropatch buffs back in 26.1, Tryndamere's power level is close but not quite back to its former glory so we'd like to bring him back up to where he was and continue pushing him toward strong sustained damage.
Base Stats
- Attack Damage Growth: 4 ⇒ 4.5
Varus
Last patch's Varus buffs heavily overshot our target and has resulted in him becoming one of the game's strongest top laners as well. We're sorry for the inaccurate tuning and now that we've got more room to work with, we're looking to weaken his top lane performance as much as possible by rendering him more susceptible to all-ins, reducing his affinity for the top lane role quest, and weakening his top-specific build of AP and maxing W first.
Base Stats
- Armor Growth: 4.6 ⇒ 4
W - Blighted Quiver
- On-hit damage: 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 35% AP) ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP)
- Max health damage: 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% (+1.5% per 100 AP) ⇒ 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% (+ 1.3% per 100 AP)
Vi
Vi certainly does not stand for victory anywhere but pro play. We'd like to make her much more successful for the average League player without indexing too hard into her strengths in tightly coordinated environments, which means we're aiming to play up her self-sufficiency and long-term brawling.
Base Stats
- Health Growth: 99 ⇒ 105
- Attack Damage Growth: 3 ⇒ 3.5
Volibear
We're happy that Volibear is seeing action at all levels with a new build as our signature garage sale enjoyer, but we want to make sure he's a little less overBearing, primarily in jungle. We're targeting his main build path's Q max burst without changing how it feels to get into combat, as well as his clear speed so that he has to work a little harder to show up to fights, and compensating with some AD ratio for anyone who's gotten a good deal on a Triforce or Gunblade recently.
Q - Thundering Smash
- Bonus Physical Damage: 10 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 (+ 120% Bonus AD) ⇒ 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+ 140% Bonus AD)
E - Sky Splitter
- Cooldown: 14 ⇒ 16
- Non-champion damage cap: 190 / 305 / 420 / 535 / 650 (+ 70% AP) ⇒ 150 / 265 / 380 / 495 / 610 (+ 70% AP)
Xin Zhao
Xin Zhao just can't catch a break. First he dies to Atakhan, now he's underpowered in solo queue? When will these tragedies cease? Today. They cease today. Xin Zhao buff time! Much like Vi's changes in this patch, we want to play up Xin Zhao's ability to stick up for himself and scrap with enemy champions in long-term fights.
Passive - Determination
- Heal every third hit: 3 / 3.5 / 4% max HP (Level 1/6/11) ⇒ 3/4/5% max HP
E - Audacious Charge
- Bonus Attack Speed: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% ⇒ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80%
Yone
Yone's on the weaker side of the roster right now so we think he could use a buff. We know it can feel unfair to simply lose to him right clicking you during his E but we don't want him to be super bursty either, so we're pushing power into his Q, which has more gameplay around predictions and dodging.
Q - Mortal Steel
- Damage: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 105% Total AD) ⇒ 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125(+ 110% Total AD)
Zaahen
Zaahen was meant to have a secondary player base in the jungle and while he's great in the top lane, he's not performing well enough elsewhere. So we're delivering some straightforward jungle-specific buffs to bring him back up where he was at the end of last year.
Q - The Darkin Glaive
- Monster Modifier: 1.75x ⇒ 2x
E - Aureate Rush
- Bonus Monster Damage: 50 ⇒ 75
Zed
We regret having jungle Zed in three of the past four patches now but players keep getting better at playing and itemizing this shadow ninja to the point where he wins more frequently today than he did before we shipped that first nerf. We're comfortable with how mid lane Zed is sitting but he's still overshadowing too many champions in the jungle. While this nerf looks very large on paper, the net impact of nerfing his jungle mod from 2.0 to 1.2 was under 1% of win rate movement, and we're looking for more than that here.
Passive - Contempt for the Weak
- Damage to monsters: 1.2x ⇒ 0.5x
- Maximum damage to epic monsters: 300 ⇒ 100
Items
Actualizer
Actualizer is not looking particularly powerful and has a very painful combine cost. While we know players haven't had enough time to fully optimize the use cases yet, we're looking to give it a bit of a boost because it's not looking competitive on any champions besides a certain rune mage.
- Total Gold Cost: 3100 Gold ⇒ 2800 Gold
- Combine Cost: 1050 Gold ⇒ 750 Gold
Dusk and Dawn
We've landed Dusk and Dawn into a spot where it has a healthy number of good users, but it's a bit too good at bursting and taking a little too much of Lich Bane's space, so we're hitting it with a slight nerf that should shift it towards more fighter-y builds.
- Spellblade Damage: 100% Base AD + 10% AP ⇒ 75% Base AD +10% AP
- Health: 300 ⇒ 350 Gold
Endless Hunger
This item is looking okay late in builds for the intended caster fighter audience but could be a bit better earlier in the game and can be awkward to build. A small change to the build path and a bit more AD should help this item really shine for the caster champions it was made for.
- Recipe: Caulfield's Warhammer + Pickaxe + 1075 Gold ⇒ Caulfield's Warhammer + Pickaxe + Longsword + 825 Gold
- Total Gold Cost: 3000 ⇒ 3100
- Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 65
Protoplasm Harness
The current shape of this Lifeline effect ended up being a bit too sharp, where it's extraordinarily powerful for the users that can leverage the resistance scaling and somewhat unexciting for most other potential users. We're shifting some power around to make the item more consistently useful and less eye-popping in the outlier cases.
- Lifeline max health gain: 200 ⇒ 200-300 (based on level)
- Lifeline healing: 200-400 (based on level) (+ 250% Armor) (+ 250% Magic Resistance) ⇒ 200-400 (based on level)(+ 175% Armor) (+ 175% Magic Resistance)
- Ability Haste: 15 ⇒ 20
Armored Advance
When we updated the mid lane quest boots we wanted to make sure that champions had the option to pick items that strongly suited them. We did not want to let early defensive purchases trivialize their competition, as mid lane is a home of many assassins. So in this patch we're adjusting the upgraded versions of Mercury's Treads and Plated Steelcaps to make them weaker anti-burst options for champions who aren't buying any other durability items. These changes represent a tuning close to the end of last season, but with numbers that are more readily apparent at first glance, as no one can acquire these boots at level 1, and the prior max HP ratio carried most of the shield's value, even to squishies.
- Noxian Endurance Shield: 10-120 (based on level 1-18) (+ 7% max HP) ⇒ 100-200 (based on level, scaling begins at level 9) (+ 8% Bonus HP)
Chainlaced Crushers
See Armored Advance.
- Noxian Endurance Shield: 10-120 (based on level 1-18) (+ 7% max HP) ⇒ 100-200 (based on level, scaling begins at level 9) (+ 8% Bonus HP)
Runes
Cash Back
Cash Back was buffed late last year and finally has an audience of its own. However, that buff shot a little overboard. We're happy that it's turned some heads but now it's time for the rune to be balanced across its rune competitors.
- Gold Refund: 8% ⇒ 7.5%
Phase Rush
We think Phase Rush restricts the viable mid lane pool at the highest levels of play, as it's very easy for any ranged champion to trigger Phase Rush and escape most ganks or would-be melee opponents. Among its most common ranged users, Orianna, Vladimir, and Taliyah all have viable alternatives, and for Ryze, we intend for a direct reduction of power due to his general strong performance and an Actualizer buff in this patch. Ultimately, we are nerfing this rune for ranged champions only and retaining its power for melee users to swiftly navigate fights and skirmishes.
- Ranged Effectiveness: 75% (18.75 - 37.5% Movement Speed) ⇒ 50% (12.5% - 25% Movement Speed)
Triple Tonic
Like with Cash Back, we buffed Triple Tonic strongly late last year and it's been enough to get people to switch over to their old favorites. Now that senpais everywhere have noticed me the rune, we're bringing its power level to a more balanced state, namely by reducing the eye-popping level of burst the level 6 elixir provides.
- Elixir of Force Adaptive Force: 30 ⇒ 25
Arena
We've seen a bit of frustration with Hellfire Hatchet so we decided to make some adjustments. Our goal is to meaningfully reduce the power you get from stacking Lethality, while keeping it valuable as a tool for assassins to fight tanks when they have no other options. We'll return to Arena's typical balance patch coming in 26.4.
ITEMS
Hellfire Hatchet
- Char Damage: (5% – 10% (+ 0.2% – 0.4% per 1 Lethality) based on maximum health difference) of the targets current health ⇒ (15% – 37% (+ 0.05% – 0.125% per 1 Lethality) based on maximum health difference) of the targets current health.
- Maximum health difference still reached at 2500 HP.
- Cooldown: Now is applied per target rather than an internal cooldown
- Cooldown: 15 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds
Arena Bugfixes
- Fixed Twin Masks. It now grants proper stats from your teammate. We've also identified and removed closed feedback loops that were causing this item to grant infinity stats when synergizing with stat conversions from augments, items, and characters (looking at you Ryze and Vladimir).
- Fixed a bug where Multitool was being duplicated
- Fixed a bug where AFKing during Planning Rounds were granting permanent items via Multitool
- Fixed a bug where Multitool was causing game crashes
- Fixed a bug where Rengar's basic abilities were not refreshed on takedowns with Executioner
- Fixed a bug where Actualizer would not synergize with the Overflow augment (they stack now!)
- Fixed a bug where Infernal Conduit cooldown reduction was a bit higher than intended when multiple enemies are affected
- Fixed a bug where Kinkou Jette weakpoints weren't always being proc'd
- Fixed a bug where players can issue a move command right before entering the Cannon from Cannon Fodder at the beginning of each Combat rounds
SR Ranked System Updates
APEX NEGATIVE LP GAINS
We've found and are resolving the cause of some of the Apex tier negative LP issues that we've seen be mentioned by players. There will still be some negative LP gains at the highest levels of the ladder as the very very best players should be pushing the limits of what's possible in the system, but it shouldn't be as widespread as it currently is.
AEGIS OF VALOR ELIGIBILITY
We're upping the value required for Aegis claims from C to B; we're seeing C's be too easy of a criteria, and we think B still accounts for players needing to "play well enough" while accounting for players being on an unfamiliar role.
- Mastery rating to unlock Aegis of Valor is pushed from C to B.
DUO AT THE TOP OF CHALLENGER
After observing the power of duos in Season 1 and how they're performing across the ladder, the very top of the ladder duos (eg. rank 1&2 together or 2x top 10) are too strong together. So we're making some adjustments to make these games more fair.
CLIMB INDICATOR
As committed in 2026 rank dev blog, we are going to enable the Climb Indicator feature. This feature will help players understand and identify wether someone's rank is low, but their MMR is higher (they're still climbing). This will help players in general have a better idea of fairness of a match when there's say a “Silver” in a Platinum game.
WASD
The WASD flash directions setting is coming to all WASD movement abilities!
As a reminder, this setting lets you choose between your cursor location, your movement direction, or your movement direction unless your cursor location is in your movement direction - in which case the cursor is prioritized.
- There is a known issue with Nidalee and this setting that will be fixed in a future patch.
Co-Op Versus AI Queue
Last patch we made a change to the Co-Op versus AI queue to use Swiftplay instead of normal Summoner’s Rift. This was a change we thought would make a better new player experience. This had an unintended side effect of drastically increasing queue times so we’re reverting this change back to what it was pre 26.2.
Streamer Mode
We heard your feedback about players who use Streamer Mode to troll their teammates from the safety of anonymity. Starting in 26.3, we are making the privacy settings on Streamer Mode symmetrical: all information that you hide from the lobby and game will also be hidden from you.
- When you have "Hide My Identifying Info" enabled, your identifying info is hidden for other players. Additionally, you will no longer be able to see the identifying info of other players in your game.
Clash - 26.2 makeup for select regions
For players in EU, APAC, and OC we’re going to be running a makeup Summoner’s Rift Clash since we unfortunately had to cancel the 26.2 patch Clash.
This makeup Clash will take place on February 7th and will be free to enter, with a premium ticket option. Rewards will be the same as the previous scheduled one.
- Registration is live now.
- Tournament Dates: February 7 (~4-7 PM Local Time, varies by region)
Your Shop
The first Your Shop of the year will be landing at the end of this patch so keep an eye out for that in the client!
Your Shop will be active from February 10th to March 10th.
Demacia Rising
Demacia Rising's first content update brings 2 chapters of objectives and concludes Act 1's story. Demacia Rising will update again in Act 2 with patch 26.5, with more rewards, story, new settlements, champions, enemies – and more.
- Level 3 Settlements and Research are now available. Upgrade Zeffira to level 3 to unlock them.
- Two new champions, Galio and Kayle, are available for research and training.
- Galio is a tanky front-line champion who uses Shield of Durand to resist incoming damage.
- Kayle is a high damage, medium-range champion who gains splash damage and attack speed on her attacks.
- Complete Chapter 3 to earn an Icon, and Chapter 4 to earn an Orb and an Emote.
Bugfixes & QoL Changes
- Fixed an issue where the friends list was sorted incorrectly, sometimes placing friends into the wrong groups.
- Fixed Rengar's R applying shred before the bonus damage was applied
- Fixed Rengar's Q, Empowered Q and R damage not being reduced by Plated Steelcaps
- Plants / Wards are now considered combat for the sake of Rengar's ferocity
- Fixed an issue where Rengar sometimes wouldn't heal when W was cast after an empowered ability
- Fixed an issue where flashing during leap would remove Rengar's passive stacks
- Fixed an issue where Rengar's Q was being consumed by on-hit augments without granting ferocity
- Fixed an issue where ferocity stacks would fall off if E landed as combat timer was running out
- Target's going invulnerable during leap no longer drop combat for Rengar
- Fixed an issue where Damage over time effects extended Rengar's ferocity timer
- Fixed an issue where Rengar's leap would be delayed by up to 0.325s when casting R
- Fixed an issue where Rengar's leap could be delayed by up to 0.325s when flashing during R
- Fixed an issue where Rengar's Q attack speed buff lasted for 3 auto attacks instead of 2
- Fixed Rengar Q / Empowered Q timing out mid leap sometimes
- Fixed an issue where Sylas stealing Rengar ult would lose all mana on leap
- Fixed an issue where Rengar would sometimes drop vision when attacking from melee in a bush
- Fixed an issue where melee during Rengar's R would sometimes not grant a ferocity stack
- Fixed an issue where Bel'Veth's passive would prevent the support item from properly executing minions.
- Fixed an issue where Azir's W autos would only grant 1 Conqueror stack.
- Fixed an issue where Zigg's VO wouldn't trigger during his Run animation.
- Fixed an issue where Senna's passive wouldn't convert excess crit chance from Yuntal into lifesteal.
- Fixed an issue where Seraphine's Recall when interrupted by animation pause effects she would return to idle pose.
- Fixed an issue where Mel could destroy Yorick's W with a single basic attack.
- Fixed an issue where Annie's passive VFX is missing when her Passive is ready.
- Fixed an issue where Ashe's base skin VO in Spanish was at a low volume.
- Fixed an issue where Karthus's first encounter with Varus VO would fail to play.
- Fixed an issue where multiple Project Katarina VO lines would fail to play during her R channel.
- Fixed an issue where Nidalee's killing Milio VO was not audible.
- Fixed an issue where Nidalee's first encounter VO for Milio was not audible.
- Fixed an issue where Yorick's joke VO couldn't be triggered.
ARAM MAYHEM BUGFIXES
Fixed a bug where Infernal Conduit cooldown reduction was a lot higher than intended when multiple enemies are affected.
- Fixed a bug where Marksmage had a lower then intended ratio.
- Fixed a bug where Ultimate Revolution did not refresh itself after the cooldown ends.
- Fixed a bug where power flower did not heal players on Butcher’s Bridge.
- Fixed a bug where removing Slow and Steady did not clear the Attack Speed Override.
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch:












