Official Patch 26.15 Notes Summary and Rundown!

Patch 26.15 is the big one. Season 3 starts, the permanent League of Legends Classic mode goes live, and Aegis of Valor stops cushioning losses and starts paying out for wins instead. Bel'Veth gets a real rework pass that pulls power out of her early invades and pushes it into her stacking late game, while Locke, Mordekaiser, Naafiri, Riven, and Sylas all get reined in. Alistar, Kai'Sa, Maokai, Volibear, and Zac pick up buffs. ARAM: Mayhem also gets a systemic overhaul so champion damage modifiers finally apply to item and Augment damage, and Arena caps a pile of Augments at two levels instead of three.

Patch 26.15 highlights graphic featuring Prestige Magma Chamber Jax and Veigar

Patch Notes Summary Rundown

Patch 26.15: Season 3 Kickoff

Season 16

Buffs: Alistar, Kai'Sa, Maokai, Volibear, Zac
Nerfs: Locke, Mordekaiser, Naafiri, Riven, Sylas
Tweaks: Bel'Veth

League of Legends Classic

Riot's newest game mode is also its oldest. League Classic runs 60 champions on classic versions of their kits from across League's early history, complete with point and click stuns and old items like Heart of Gold. Riot describes it as an experience that "emphasizes strategy over mechanics" with stronger consequences for your actions in both directions. The jungle monsters fight back, so bring health potions.

Ranked Season 3 Start

Season 3 begins at 12pm local server time on July 29.

The Victorious Ranked Mission (15 Ranked games won) refreshes at season start
End of Season 2 rewards go out shortly after Season 3 starts
Shard transfer is temporarily off until Season 2 rewards are granted

Aegis of Valor

Aegis made autofill games worth playing out, but its loss protection and Mastery requirement created a second objective: play for the grade rather than the win. Riot is refocusing it entirely on winning.

No longer reduces LP loss on a defeat
Wins award double LP, with no minimum mastery score required

Apex Duo Restrictions

Duo queue at the top of the ladder gets tightened up. Riot found duos manageable in Master but too impactful in GM and Challenger, where smaller player pools and skill extremes swing game outcomes.

Master players can duo, but only with players close to them in rank
GM, Challenger, and anyone with GM or Challenger MMR cannot duo at all

Bel'Veth Rework

Biggest changelist of the patch

Bel'Veth, the Empress of the Void

Riot wants Bel'Veth to stop living and dying by the early invade and start paying off as a late game scaling champion. Her Q at early levels now behaves more like a normal dueling ability instead of a free clear tool, and her stacking evolution carries far more of her power, up to a permanent True Form at 80 stacks.

The Short Version

The level 3 invade is gone. Base AD, attack speed, armor and health are all down, and Q can only be recast every 4 seconds at rank 1 instead of every second.
Q is a duel button now, not a clear button. It deals real damage at rank 1 (12 base, up from 0) but its minion damage bonus is deleted outright.
Her ultimate is the payoff. Stacks now buy attack range, size and attack speed on a curve, and at 80 stacks True Form simply never runs out.

ST Base Stats

Attack Speed: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Speed Ratio: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 55
Basic Attack Damage Modifier: 75% ⇒ 100%
Attack Cast Time: 0.25 ⇒ 0.22
Total Attack Animation: adjusted to feel better at lower Attack Speeds
Armor: 32 ⇒ 28
Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 5
Health: 610 ⇒ 580
Health Growth: 105 ⇒ 110
Model Size: 100% ⇒ 95%

P Death In Lavender

Attack Speed After Spell Cast: 20% min / 40% max for 2 attacks ⇒ 20% for 3 seconds
Attack Speed per Stack: 0.28% min / 1.1% max ⇒ 0.1% min / 2% max

Q Void Surge

Speed: 800/850/900/950/1000 ⇒ 850
Time Between Casts: 1 ⇒ 4/3.25/2.5/1.75/1
Monster Damage Modifier: 55/65/75/85/95 ⇒ 70
Minion Damage Modifier: 60/70/80/90/100% ⇒ removed
Damage: 0/5/10/15/20 (+100% AD) ⇒ 12/14/16/18/20 (+105% AD)
Attack Speed to Ability Haste Conversion: 0.25 ⇒ 0.2

W Above And Below

Damage: 70/110/150/190/230 (+100% bonus AD) (+125% AP) ⇒ 80/140/200/260/320 (+150% AP)
Slow: 1.25–2.25s at 50% ⇒ 2s at 30%
Knockup Duration: 0.75s ⇒ 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1s

E Royal Maelstrom

Damage per Strike: 6/7/8/9/10 (+8% AD) (+8% on-hit), up to 300% based on missing health ⇒ 10/12/14/16/18 (+12% AD) (+12% on-hit), up to 100%
Number of Strikes: 6 + 1 per 33% bonus Attack Speed ⇒ 6 + 1 per 40%
Damage Reduction: 35/40/45/50/55% ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60%
Lifesteal: 20% ⇒ 20/25/30/35/40%
Lifesteal Scaling: 100% ⇒ removed
Cooldown: 20/19/18/17/16 ⇒ 24/21/18/15/12
Monster Damage Modifier: 150% ⇒ 200%

R Endless Banquet

Passive On-Hit Application: every other attack ⇒ every attack
Passive True Damage: 6/10/14 (+12% bonus AD) ⇒ 2/4/6 (+3% bonus AD)
Passive is no longer removed when swapping targets
E and Q no longer require Bel'Veth to have attacked the target first
Maximum Epic Monster Stacks: 10 ⇒ 8
Explosion Damage: 150/200/250 (+100% AP) (+25% missing health) ⇒ 150/200/250 (+150% AP) (+20% missing health)
Heal per Bonus Health: 100/150/200 (+120% bonus AD) (+90% AP) ⇒ 100/250/400 (+150% bonus AD) (+150% AP)
Basic Attack Range Bonus: 75 ⇒ 25/75/125
Total Attack Speed: 10/15/20% ⇒ 5/15/25%
Size: 10% ⇒ 10/15/20%
Unempowered Buff Duration: 60 ⇒ 45/90/infinite at 0/40/80 stacks
Empowered Buff Duration: 180 ⇒ 45/90/infinite at 0/40/80 stacks
Post-Cast Lockout: 0.5s ⇒ 0.25s

Champions

Alistar (Buff)

Alistar has felt constrained ever since Mobility Boots and Symbiotic Soles left the game, and he is losing out in a meta that should favor roaming supports.

Base Stats

Move Speed: 330 ⇒ 335

Kai'Sa (Buff)

Even after her last buff, Kai'Sa is short of where a hyperscaling marksman should land. Her late game scaling goes up to pay off the short range.

Passive - Second Skin

Caustic Wounds: 4–24 by level (+12% AP), +1–6 by level (+3% AP) per prior stack ⇒ 4–30 by level (+12% AP), +1–8 by level (+3% AP) per prior stack

Locke (Nerf)

Locke keeps climbing the mastery curve, so the nerfs keep coming. His early game reads as clearly over the line even for a snowballing assassin, and Riot wants to kill second-maxing W, which gives him too much safety for the risk he should be taking.

Base Stats

Health: 655 ⇒ 620

Q - Ritual Nails

Base Damage per Nail: 50/58/66/74/82 (+20% AP) ⇒ 40/48/56/64/72 (+20% AP)
Three Nails Damage: 150/174/198/222/246 (+60% AP) ⇒ 120/144/168/192/216 (+60% AP)

W - Soul Ignition

Move Speed: 40/45/50/55/60% (+2% per 100 AP) ⇒ 40% (+2% per 100 AP)
Grey Health Base Value: 40/70/100/130/160 (+120% AP) ⇒ 40/60/80/100/120 (+100% AP)

Maokai (Buff)

Maokai has faded out of both top and jungle. Riot is not interested in propping the top lane version back up, so this pass aims squarely at the jungle, where he fills a unique zone-control tank role.

Q - Bramble Smash

Monster Damage Modifier: 140/150/160/170/180 ⇒ 150/160/170/180/190
Ability Power Ratio: 40% ⇒ 50%

Mordekaiser (Nerf)

Last patch's R buff overshot, so it gets reverted entirely. In exchange he gets a lower E cooldown to catch and hold targets. Riot expects the pair of E changes plus the R bugfix to land him net ahead of 26.13.

E - Death's Grasp

Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 ⇒ 16/14/12/10/8

R - Realm of Death

Stolen Stats: 13% ⇒ 10%
Bugfix: ulting a target with health above their post-reduction max HP no longer deals up to double damage

Naafiri (Nerf)

Naafiri is still a talking point in solo queue and pro play alike, and she is strongest exactly where she should be weakest: chaining back to back to back ultimates. The ratio also moves to bonus AD.

R - The Call of the Pack

Damage: 150/225/300 (+120% AD) ⇒ 125/200/275 (+100% bonus AD)
Damage per Packmate: 15/22.5/30 (+12% AD) ⇒ 12.5/20/27.5 (+10% bonus AD)

Riven (Nerf)

Endless Hunger fits Riven's play pattern almost perfectly and she is overperforming because of it. Hitting her ultimate's AD scaling touches every spell she casts and slows the snowball without capping her high moments.

R - Blade of the Exile

Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 25% ⇒ 20%

R - Wind Slash

Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 60% min / 180% max ⇒ 55% min / 165% max

Sylas (Nerf)

His 26.12 buff overshot. This pulls the chains back a bit so he stops bullying quite so hard in lane.

Q - Chain Lash

First Lash Damage: 40/65/90/115/140 (+45% AP) ⇒ 40/60/80/100/120 (+40% AP)

Volibear (Buff)

The bear has been hibernating for a couple of patches. He gets more chances to gap close, aimed at the laning version, without raising his spell-chaining ceiling.

Q - Thundering Smash

Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10

Zac (Buff)

Zac's jungle presence has dropped off hard. He gets a bit more room to hit his distinctive gank angles and a bit more durability once the fight starts.

Base Stats

Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 5.2

E - Elastic Slingshot

Cooldown: 22/19/16/13/10 ⇒ 21/18/15/12/9

Items

Bastionbreaker (Buff)

Bottom of the pickrate charts since release, and by a wide margin over the next least popular Lethality item. It gets cheaper and stronger on the effect people notice least, because Riot wants Lethality users spending gold on utility and objectives.

Cost: 3200g ⇒ 3000g
Shaped Charge Damage: 30 + 150% lethality true damage ⇒ 50 + 150% lethality true damage

Terminus (Buff)

Terminus is supposed to be a capstone for scaling on-hit builds but has played more like a mid game spike, leaving on-hit thin on real late game options.

Unique - Shadow: 30 magic damage on-hit ⇒ 30 (+10% bonus AD) (+10% AP)

Yun Tal Wildarrows (Buff)

Yun Tal has slid a long way this year from its spot as the default scaling crit item. Riot still wants that scaling option on the board, so it gets cheaper and faster to compete with the early crit items.

Cost: 850g ⇒ 750g
Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%

Runes

Jack of All Trades (Nerf)

Endless Hunger, Gluttonous Greaves and Doran's Helm make odd statlines far easier to hit than they used to be. Riot still likes the creative builds it enables, it just gives too much for too little at both ends.

Adaptive Force at the 5 and 10 stat breakpoints: 10/25 ⇒ 8/20

ARAM: Mayhem

This is the systemic one. For years champion damage modifiers only touched spell and attack damage, which let some champions run away with games because their item and Augment damage was never scaled. Damage dealt modifiers now apply to spell, attack, item and Augment damage, which lets Riot delete a pile of champion-specific mods outright. Critical Missile also comes down after proving a little too reliable on crit ADCs.

Champion Modifiers

Ahri: Healing 90% ⇒ 100%
Akshan: Damage Dealt 105% ⇒ 100%; Damage Taken 5% ⇒ 0%
Alistar: Healing 80% ⇒ 100%; Damage Modifier 95% ⇒ 100%
Ambessa: Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Annie: Shielding 90% ⇒ 100%; Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Ashe: Damage Dealt 105% ⇒ 100%
Corki: Damage Taken 10% ⇒ 5%
Ekko: Damage Dealt 110% ⇒ 105%
Hwei: Damage Dealt to Minions 60% ⇒ 100%
Jhin: Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Kai'Sa: Damage Taken 10% ⇒ 0%
Kindred: Damage Dealt 110% ⇒ 100%
Kog'Maw: Damage Dealt 88% ⇒ 90%
Lucian: Damage Dealt 105% ⇒ 100%
Malzahar: Damage Dealt to Minions 60% ⇒ 100%
Miss Fortune: Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Mordekaiser: Damage Taken -2% ⇒ 0%
Morgana: Damage Taken -10% ⇒ 0%
Nasus: Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Qiyana: Damage Dealt 115% ⇒ 110%
Ryze: Damage Dealt 105% ⇒ 100%; Damage Taken 5% ⇒ 0%
Senna: Damage Dealt 97% ⇒ 100%
Singed: Damage Taken -8% ⇒ 0%
Smolder: Ability Haste -10 ⇒ 0
Soraka: Healing 105% ⇒ 100%
Teemo: Ability Haste -10 ⇒ 0; Damage Dealt to Minions 60% ⇒ 100%
Trundle: Damage Taken -5% ⇒ 0%
Xin Zhao: Damage Dealt 95% ⇒ 100%
Zilean: Damage Dealt 105% ⇒ 100%; Damage Taken 5% ⇒ 0%
Ziggs: Damage Dealt 87% ⇒ 90%; Damage Dealt to Minions 60% ⇒ 100%

Augments

Warding Weapon: Resists per Stack 5/6.25/7.5/8.75/10 ⇒ 7/8.25/9.5/10.75/12
Squishy Slappy Grab: Cooldown 45 ⇒ 35
Titan's Resolve: Adaptive Force 25/31.25/37.5/43.75/50 ⇒ 25/37.5/50/62.5/75; Armor and MR per 10 Stacks 4/5/6/7/8 ⇒ 5/6.25/7.5/8.75/10
Hellbent: Cooldown 120 ⇒ 90
Earthwake: Base Damage 70/105/140/175/210 ⇒ 90/130/170/210/250
Endless Decimation: Missing Health Healing 15% ⇒ 18%
Chain Reaction: New: ultimate ability damage increased to 250%
Critical Missile: Damage per Missile 20/40/60/80/100 ⇒ 15/32.5/50/67.5/85
Drop Bear: Stun Duration 1.5s ⇒ 0.5s; Tibbers Bonus Health 0/1125/2250/3375/4500 ⇒ 1000/2375/3750/5125/6500
Pat on the Back: New: multiple players on the same team can take it
Mercy's Strike: New: the buff is consumed on attacking turrets, and turrets take 2.5% maximum health damage

ARAM Bugfixes

Fixed Vel'Koz's Q first hit failing to trigger Skilled Sniper
Fixed Anivia's Q failing to trigger Skilled Sniper when passing through units
Fixed Locke's Q receiving a refund in between ammo for Skilled Sniper
Fixed being unable to attack during Rite of Ascension possession time
Fixed Morgana's R Echo cast always sending the clone toward the bottom of the screen

Arena

Riot is cutting the level cap on Augments that felt overbearing at three levels, running a broad champion balance pass, and improving how crit chance over 100% converts into Adaptive Force.

Champion Changes

Akali: Passive Move Speed 30–60% ⇒ 40–85%; W Cooldown 15 ⇒ 15/13.75/12.5/11.25/10; W Energy Restore 150 ⇒ 200
Bard: W Charge Time 5s ⇒ 2.5s; W Move Speed AP Ratio 0.06% ⇒ 0.08%
Elise: W Cooldown 22/21/20/19/18 ⇒ 17/16/15/14/13
Kai'Sa: Passive Arena On-Hit Modifier 50% ⇒ 100%; Detonation Damage 10% missing health ⇒ 15%; Passive AP Ratio 30% ⇒ 12%; AP Ratio per Stack 5% ⇒ 3%; Q AP Ratio 15% ⇒ 20%
Locke: Passive Minimum Base Damage 5–40 ⇒ 7.5–60; Maximum Base Damage 10–80 ⇒ 15–120; W Base Health Restored 40/70/100/130/160 ⇒ 80/140/200/260/320; W Maximum Health Restored 150–450 (+60% AP) ⇒ 225–675 (+60% AP); R Cooldown Refund 20% ⇒ 50%
Nocturne: Passive Base Healing 13–32 ⇒ 15–50; AD Ratio 120% ⇒ 130%; Crit AD Ratio 110% ⇒ 120%; R Cooldown 140/115/90 ⇒ 100/70/40
Samira: no longer loses 1 gold on taunt
Seraphine: Q AP Ratio 65% ⇒ 40%
Tahm Kench: E Damage to Grey Health 15–47% ⇒ 23–47%
Thresh: Passive Souls on Pickup 1 ⇒ 3; W Cooldown 21/20/19/18/17 ⇒ 15/14/13/12/11; E Damage Ramp-Up Time 10s ⇒ 5s; R Cooldown 120/100/80 ⇒ 90/60/30; R Base Damage 250/400/550 ⇒ 350/500/650
Twisted Fate: R Cooldown 170/140/110 ⇒ 40/30/20
Warwick: Passive Last Stand Healing Amp 250% ⇒ 300%; W Cooldown 80/70/60/50/40 ⇒ 40/35/30/25/20; E Damage Reduction 35–55% ⇒ 40–60%
Zac: W Arena Cooldown 6 ⇒ 5

Item Changes

Lich Bane: Attack Speed Increase AP Ratio 66% ⇒ 70%

Augment Changes

Demonic Clasp: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2; Base Damage 100–200 ⇒ 100–300; Cooldown 18 ⇒ 12
Critical Rhythm: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2
HiveMind: Starting Bees 1/2/3 ⇒ 2/4/6; AD Ratio 20% bonus AD ⇒ 25% total AD
Laser Eyes: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2; Laser Length 600/800/1000 ⇒ 600/1000
Ok Boomerang: New: level 2 now fires a second boomerang
Ominous Pact: Omnivamp 15/25% ⇒ 20/35%; Move Speed 50/75% ⇒ 50/100%
Spellwake: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2; Level 1 AP Ratio 20% ⇒ 30%; Level 1 Bonus AD Ratio 145% ⇒ 165%; Level 2 AP Ratio 20% ⇒ 30%; Level 2 Bonus AD Ratio 165% ⇒ 185%
Earthwake: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2
Tap Dancer: Max Level 3 ⇒ 2
Trueshot Prodigy: no longer triggers off its own missile
Slow and Steady: removed

Systems

Critical Strike to Adaptive Force Conversion: 0.68:1 ⇒ 1:1

Bugfixes & QoL

Fixed Neeko being unable to disguise as the Voidborn Rift Scuttler
Fixed Pix always appearing as the base skin version when Neeko disguised as Lulu
Fixed Neeko being unable to disguise as Nidalee's Cougar form or Elise's Spider form
Fixed Neeko being unable to disguise as DJ Sona's Concussive and Ethereal forms
Fixed missing hair when Neeko disguised as DJ Sona's Kinetic form
Fixed horns showing inside the head when Smolder disguised Neeko
Fixed Diana's E sometimes failing to dash over terrain
Fixed Cassiopeia's R VFX not matching the ability's hitbox
Fixed mid lane Tier 3 role quest boots not being refundable with the undo button
Fixed Nilah's attacks immediately after Q or E sometimes not triggering Hail of Blades
Fixed Deathfire Touch's burn duration being overwritten by a shorter duration spell
Fixed the Death Recap window sometimes not appearing on death
Fixed Locke's R artifact being unretrievable from an enemy who was invulnerable when hit
Fixed Zeke's Convergence active not damaging monsters
Fixed Locke's R not being recolored when the artifact was reflected by Mel's W