League of Legends Patch 26.5 Notes

Akali

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

Azir does a lot of things very well when played at a high level, and we want to make sure we preserve that expression of mastery Azir players spend a lot of time developing. But with that in mind when he gets going he can feel very oppressive and unstoppable. In order to give his opponents some degree of counterplay we’re bringing his health in the late game down a notch so assassin type champions can have a chance to dethrone the Shuriman emperor.

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 119 ⇒ 108

Garen

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

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

Lee Sin has lost some of his skill and flair as of late and could use some help, so we’re increasing his damage in a way that will benefit more skilled Lee Sin players (aka those that hit their Q’s).

Q - Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike

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

Lillia

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

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

Neeko has a lot of things going for her right now: strong laning, teamfight utility, and vision control. 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 - Shapeshifter

• 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

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

Orianna has been one of the strongest champions in the mid lane as of late, so strong that she’s head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. 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 and making some space for other champions in the mid lane.

Q - Command: Attack

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

Samira

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

Taliyah’s powerful wave control in the early game means she consistently gets to be the first mid laner to every scuttle fight which can make it difficult to prioritize other picks over her. We’d like for this to not be as reliable a game plan as it currently is, so we’re bringing her early push power down and compensating jungle Taliyah with a bit more bonus damage to monsters.

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

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

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

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

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.

Hello Mayhem enjoyers!

In this patch, we’re focusing on tank experience improvements and a few quality-of-life updates.

Over the past few patches, we’ve seen some overall power inflation, and tanks have been finding it harder to truly hold the frontline. To address this, we’re systematically buffing tank-oriented Augments, including both health-focused and durability-focused options. Our goal is to help tanks feel sturdier and more reliable in their role. We’ll continue monitoring their performance and plan to follow up with more targeted adjustments in future patches if needed.

We’ve reworked Wee Woo Wee Woo to better deliver on the “true ambulance” fantasy. It now gives you stronger burst-healing potential to save your allies in critical moments.

To give support players even more options, we’re also introducing an Upgraded Sword of Blossoming Dawn Augment, which alters your healing pattern and opens up new ways to sustain your team.

We’ve noticed that players often don’t have enough time to fully enjoy their power once they’ve completed their builds and Augments. To address this, we’re adjusting Nexus and Nexus turret health.

These changes aim to: Provide more comeback opportunities for the losing team. Give the winning team a bit more time to show off their full power spike. And avoid games ending too abruptly while still preventing stalled-out hostage scenarios.

We’ll continue monitoring other systems to ensure late-game pacing remains satisfying.

Hope you enjoy the updates, and see you on the Bridge!

Augments and Set Changes

• Gold per tick: 10 ⇒ 12

• Damage scaling off max HP: 1.5% ⇒ 2%

• Max Health Gain: 1250 ⇒ 1500

• Heal amount from immobilizing / grounding enemy: 10-150 (+ 1.5% Max HP) ⇒ 30-250 (+ 1.5% Max HP)

• Base regen: 8 Health / sec ⇒ 10 Health / sec
• Low HP regen: 16 Health / sec ⇒ 20 Health / sec

• Shield: 100-300 + 4%HP ⇒ 150-450 + 4%HP

• MR / armor gained per immobilizing / grounding enemy: 8 ⇒ 10

• Aftershock and Glacial CD: 15s ⇒ 20s

• Post-taunt damage mitigation: 40% ⇒ 50%

• Execute threshold AD scaling: .03% ⇒ .035%

• Cooldown: 75s ⇒ 45s

• Invulnerability duration: 1s ⇒ 1.5s

• Move speed increase: 25% ⇒ 40%
• Damage reduction: 85% ⇒ 70%
• Damage: 100-300 + 5% Bonus HP + 100% Bonus AD + 50% Bonus AP ⇒ 100-700

• Damage: 75-350 + 450% Lethality + 450% Magic Pen ⇒ 100-450 + 550% Lethality + 550% Magic Pen
• Width: 210 ⇒ 250

• Removed CD reset on death

• Damage: 11 - 40+7% bonus AD + 10% AP ⇒ 20 - 100 per missile

• Gain 100% Attack Speed
• When you have Sword of Blossoming Dawn, your attacks against champions deal 50% damage but increase Sword of Blossoming Dawn’s healing by 250%

• Set Bonus: Gain Bonus effects towards allies below 50% health
• (2) Gain 50% Movement Speed
• (3) Your next heal or shield restores 12% of the target’s missing health (10 seconds cooldown)

Systems

• REMOVED: Removed Augment Set icons from player HUD

• Nexus base HP: 5500 ⇒ 3000
• Nexus Tower base HP: 1800 ⇒ 3000

Items

• Garlic: Moonstone’s chain healing will not select targets with Vampirism

• Silver: Diadem’s healing missile will not select targets with Vampirism

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where Divine Intervention had no cooldown.
• Fixed a bug where Grandma’s Chili Oil buff/debuff was missing icons and tooltips.
• Fixed a bug where Grandma’s Chili Oil pool effects stopped being applied when multiple players were standing in it.
• Fixed a bug where Inferno Conduit’s damage did not trigger Grandma’s Chili Oil.
• Fixed a bug so that Void Immolation counts as 2 burn sources for Grandma’s Chili Oil.
• Fixed a bug where Zilean could infinitely proc Ultimate Revolution by self-casting Chronoshift (R) after reviving.
• Fixed a bug where Empowered by the Faithful had debug buffs on allies.
• Fixed a bug where Empowered by the Faithful’s shockwave could cause champions to become invisible.
• Fixed a bug where champions could be knocked back further than intended when combining Inferno Triggered and Poro Blaster.
• Fixed a bug where the Sonata gained cooldown reduction from Ability Haste despite being at the Set 2 bonus for Fully Automated.
• Fixed a bug where The Butcher’s Bridge cannon did not show its range indicator on the minimap.
• Fixed a bug where The Golden Spatula could be lost if you had full items and completed the mission after selecting Quest: Urf’s Champion and using Poro-Snax.
• Fixed a bug where Poro King removed Cho’Gath ult stacks or Sion W stacks.
• Fixed a bug where Upgrade Immolate did not work with Void Immolation.
• Fixed a bug where Red Envelope did not grant Attack Damage.
• Fixed a bug where Droppybara and Poro King worked on Aurora’s and Zaahen’s passives. Aurora’s and Zaahen’s passives will no longer be procced by augment damage.
• Fixed a bug where Upgrade Sheen did not heal on proc.
• Fixed a bug where using a Stat Anvil Voucher before the first augment offering caused the augment offering to break.
• Fixed a bug where Upgrade Thornmail's effect exists if you don't have the items.
• Fixed a bug where Upgrade Thornmail's Shield can be proc by minions.
• Fixed a bug where taking Pinball Snowball broke Hexgate’s repositioning function.

Hey Arena lovers! We have a handful of bugfixes this patch.

Arena Bugfixes

• Fixed Mordekaiser Guest of Honor not working on occasions.
• Fixed Cosmic Drive tooltip.
• Fixed Atmas’ Reckoning breaking the crit cap on Aim for the Head.
• Fixed Cosmic Drive not giving the right amount of movement speed.
• Fixed Multitool removing items unexpectedly when inventory is full.
• Fixed Multitool removing items unexpectedly when it was moved around in your item slot in between rounds.
• Cleaned up Righteous Fury VFX between rounds.
• Fixed Buff Buddies tooltip.