discussion League of Legends Patch 26.16 Notes

[Niki]

Champion and system updates, the ninjas have come to Classic, and more!

With this patch, we have a bunch of systems adjustments aimed at some of the strategies that have been emerging in bot lane, as well as opening up some space for itemization diversity in jungle.

Recently we've been seeing increased support roaming really early into the game, to the point where they seem to be operating as a second jungler. While this may be interesting as a strategic option, we feel it is damaging to game integrity when it's the default approach and supports are no longer meaningfully participating in a lane, so we're making higher tradeoffs for this playstyle by tweaking role quest progress for supports and directly addressing specific champions like Camille who have moved into the support role leading this meta.

Related, mages are picking up as a prominent class selection in bot lane in both pro and regular play. While they've been niche but powerful picks for a long time, both from your feedback and the stats, it's clear that it's time for some adjustments to equalize the power here a bit between mages and ADCs. Similar to the approach with supports above, they'll still be viable, just not clearly dominant.

Additionally, we are tweaking the AD fighter itemization space and the jungle pets to encourage a more diverse meta beyond Sundered Sky users to include more AP and Tank junglers. We're excited to see what shakes out next!

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Patch Highlights​

Faerie Court Bel'Veth, Faerie Court Gwen, and Faerie Court Lulu will be available August 12, 2026.

Champions​

Azir

We are continuing to monitor Azir, especially as players continue to pick up Press The Attack as his optimal keystone. For now however, we are going to give him a moderate buff to his laning to help him out.

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• Damage: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 (+35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% AP) ⇒ 75 / 95 / 115 / 135 / 155 (+35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% AP)

Bel'Veth​

Bel'Veth has come out with the scaling curve of Kayle and Aurelion Sol. Her power is rapidly growing across all skill brackets and given her early game is already quite weak, we've opted to make her late game a bit less sharp.

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Base Stats​

• Health Growth: 110 ⇒ 105

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• True Form Total Attack Speed: 5 / 15 / 25% ⇒ 6 / 13 / 20%
• NEW True Form Remora Indicator: Resource bar now turns purple when True Form can spawn Remora

Camille​

With roaming supports all the rage, Camille has been queen. We are simultaneously looking to nerf her support roaming power while keeping or (hopefully) actually buffing her top lane. This means trading the raw all in power behind her passive shield early game in favor of significantly lowered cooldowns for better repeatable trading.

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Base Stats​

• Mana: 339 ⇒ 375

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• Shield: 20% Maximum Health ⇒ 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Maximum Health (levels 1 / 7 / 13 / 19)
• Cooldown: 18 / 14 / 10 / 6s (levels 1 / 7 / 13 / 19) ⇒ 14 / 11 / 8s (levels 1 / 7 / 13)

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• Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11s ⇒ 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10s
• Outer Cone Bonus Damage: 6 / 6.5 / 7 / 7.5 / 8% (+2.5% per 100 bonus Attack Damage) Target Maximum Health ⇒ 7 / 7.5 / 8 / 8.5 / 9% (+2.5% per 100 bonus Attack Damage) Target Maximum Health

Gwen​

Gwen has remained slightly weak since her nerfs earlier this year. We are buffing her passive sustain back up towards where it has previously been, which should help her be a powerful threat in some of her stronger matchups without making her feel uncounterable.

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• Healing On Champions: 50% post-mitigation, capped to 10-25 (based on level) (+6.5% AP) ⇒ 67% post-mitigation, capped to 12-40 (based on level) (+7% AP)

Kennen​

With the reshape to Hextech Rocketbelt to prevent it from becoming the ubiquitous mage legendary, Kennen came out behind the pack. We are buffing him to compensate, making sure he is rewarded well when he does find the right flanks for those huge team-deleting ults.

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• Bonus Resistances: 20 / 40 / 60 ⇒ 25 / 50 / 75
• Damage: 40 / 75 / 110 (+22.5% AP) ⇒ 40 / 80 / 120 (+25% AP)
• Maximum Damage: 300 / 562.5 / 825 (+168.75% AP) ⇒ 300 / 600 / 900 (+187.5% AP)

Nasus​

Nasus has been a distinct jungle pick that we think is pretty exciting to see; however his top lane has lagged very far behind. We are adjusting his Q stack generation to bring these two roles closer to each other in raw power.

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• Stacks: 3, increased to 12 on champions / large minions / monsters ⇒ 4, increased to 10 on champions / large minions / monsters

Poppy​

Poppy is meant to be a tank whose gameplay has leaned too far into early game snowball fighter, to the point she's choosing Hail of Blades and Sundered Sky over more tank runes and items. We're looking to shift power out of her early game AD fighter pattern and enable her tank pattern by significantly increasing her scaling with durability and giving her enough mana growth that sustained combat doesn't immediately run her out of resources.

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Base Stats​

• Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 56
• Health Regeneration: 8 ⇒ 9
• Mana: 280 + 40/level ⇒ 300 + 45/level

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• Damage: 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+100% bonus Attack Damage) (+9% Target Maximum Health), twice ⇒ 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+75% bonus Attack Damage) (+7 / 7.5 / 8 / 8.5 / 9% Target Maximum Health), twice
• Target Maximum Health Monster Cap: 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195 ⇒ 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 / 225
• Slow Amount: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% ⇒ 20 / 23 / 26 / 29 / 32% (+8% per 1000 bonus Health)

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• Total Armor and Magic Resistance: 12%, doubled below 40% Maximum Health ⇒ 16%, doubled below 40% Maximum Health

Items​

Berserker's Greaves​

Berserker's Greaves have been sitting at a particularly low state of power for a while now, and with the state of AD champions in both bot and mid, we feel this is the right time to buff them.

• Attack Speed: 25% ⇒ 30%
• T3 Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%

Black Cleaver​

Black Cleaver has become a Smolder / Senna item more than a core AD fighter item. We are re-adding the Melee / Ranged split on the move speed effect to buy space to buff it for AD fighters without pushing it over the top for its ranged user base.

• Attack Damage: 40 ⇒ 45
• Fervor Move Speed: 20 for 2s ⇒ [20 Melee || 10 Ranged] for 2s

Eclipse​

Eclipse has similarly fallen behind as an option for AD champions as a high ticket early AD item that isn't in the Lethality space. We feel it has clear space for a buff.

• Damage: [6% Melee || 4% Ranged] Target Maximum Health ⇒ [8% Melee || 5% Ranged] Target Maximum Health
• Shield: [160 + 40% bonus Attack Damage Melee || 80 + 20% bonus Attack Damage Ranged] ⇒ [150 + 40% bonus Attack Damage Melee || 75 + 20% bonus Attack Damage Ranged]

Runaan's Hurricane​

Runaan's Hurricane has lost all of its core users over the course of the year as ADCs have moved to a wider variety of AS Crit itemization. We are buffing its unique effect and movespeed to help players capitalize on the positioning requirements of that unique effect.

• Move Speed: 4% ⇒ 5%
• Wind's Fury Bolt Damage: 55% Attack Damage ⇒ 65% Attack Damage

Sterak's Gage​

Sterak's Gage has also lost its position as the premium juggernaut / diver teamfight item, with Guardian Angel taking its place. We think Sterak's is a much healthier fit for these champions to take.

• Bonus Attack Damage: 45% of Base Attack Damage ⇒ 50% of Base Attack Damage

Sundered Sky​

Sundered Sky, on the other hand, has been the meta dominant AD fighter item for the last year. While we do find it exciting to see when players manage to chain its triggers through a teamfight and barely survive risky engages, we think it's a bit too performant when optimized to the point where it's healing for more than even lifesteal based items.

• Recipe: Tunneler (1150g) + Caulfield's (1050g) + Ruby Crystal (400g) + 500g ⇒ Tunneler (1150g) + Caulfield's (1050g) + 900g

• Healing: [100% Melee || 50% Ranged] Base Attack Damage + 6% Missing Health ⇒ [90% Melee || 45% Ranged] Base Attack Damage + 4% Missing Health
• Health: 400 ⇒ 450

Sunfire Cape​

Sunfire Cape has remained a powerful item in League, both in purchase and winrate, but players have repeatedly called out dissatisfaction with the item because of how directly it's compared against Hollow Radiance. We are upping its cost to match Hollow Radiance and shifting its power towards PvP damage to give the item more comparable advantages.

Damage: 20 (+1% bonus Health) ⇒ 20 (+1.5% bonus Health)
Minion / Monster Modifier: 160% Minion, 200% Monster ⇒ 150% Minion, 180% Monster
Recipe: 600g ⇒ 700g

Chainlaced Crushers​

We continue to feel that defensive boot optimizations in mid lane stifle action. Since we are looking to shift mage power back from bot lane to mid lane this patch, we are also taking the time to nerf down mid lane counter itemization against mages.

• Magic Resistance: 30 ⇒ 25

Spellslinger's Shoes​

Along with Chainlaced Crushers' change, we are buffing Spellslinger's Shoes to further affect mid vs bot mage balance.

• Magic Penetration: 18 + 8% ⇒ 20 + 8%

Tiamat​

Tiamat has ended up in a state where even if you are buying a Hydra item, it's optimal NOT to purchase it until you have all the other components. That's pretty lame, yo.

• Attack Damage: 20 ⇒ 25

Runes​

Fleet Footwork​

Fleet Footwork has been a relatively weaker and underutilized Precision keystone, and we feel like it has room to be a decent option for sustaining against harass past early laning and onwards.

• Healing: 10-130 ( +[10% bonus AD Melee || 6% bonus AD Ranged]) ( +[5% AP Melee || 3% AP Ranged]) ⇒ 15-160 ( +[10% bonus AD Melee || 6% bonus AD Ranged]) ( +[5% AP Melee || 3% AP Ranged])

Hail of Blades​

Hail of Blades is currently contributing significantly to the extreme early game roaming meta with its super front loaded power skew. We are pushing its power back towards scaling to help soften this impact.

• Attack Speed: 120% Melee || 60% Ranged ⇒ 90% Melee || 60% Ranged
• Bonus True Damage: 4-20 (+8% bonus AD) (+6% AP) ⇒ 2-20 (+12% bonus AD) (+10% AP)