League of Legends Solo Queue Tier Lists for Patch 26.18:
Patch 26.18 barely touches the top of the board. Top lane isn't in the notes at all, the leading four mid laners aren't either, and the two supports Riot did nerf are both sitting below God Tier. What we do expect to move is Viego, who picks up the only buff aimed at a champion already in God Tier, and the bot laners our data actually has holding Guinsoo's Rageblade, with Kai'Sa the only one of them already in Tier 1. Nautilus finally taking a real nerf is the change that should open the most room further down.
SEASON 16 - PATCH 26.18 Changelog
Patch 26.18 Tier List Predictions
Patch 26.18 Changes At a Glance
Buffs: Ekko, Kassadin, Master Yi, Viego, Zaahen
Nerfs: Bard, Nautilus, Seraphine, Syndra, Zeri
Tweaks: Cassiopeia
One item moved: Guinsoo's Rageblade keeps its stacks a second longer. Everything else in the patch lands in League Classic (five new old champions) or in ARAM: Mayhem (another pass on its Augment pools). Full patch notes recap here.
Where We Think Each Role Lands
Top Lane
Top lane is the one role Patch 26.18 skips completely. Nasus, Garen, Yone and Malphite are all absent from the notes, no top laner in Tier 1 is mentioned either, and no item a top laner builds moved. We expect the same four names in the same order.
Zaahen is the only exception worth writing down, and he's in Tier 3. His second Q cast goes up by 20% at every rank, and the cooldown fix means he now comes out of a resurrection with The Darkin Glaive [Q] available instead of on cooldown. That should be worth a tier. It is not worth four.
Jungle
Viego is the only God Tier jungler in the notes and Riot buffed him. Half a point of attack damage per level is about eight extra damage by the end of the game, and his possession heal now scales off attack damage, ability power, attack speed and health rather than sitting flat. He should move up to third.
Shyvana, Nocturne, Graves and Briar all hold, for the same reason top lane stays put: the patch never mentions them. There's no nerf anywhere in the jungle this cycle, so nobody vacates anything.
Master Yi is the other one to watch. He was hit hardest by the Rageblade bugfix earlier in the year and this patch makes it up to him twice (armor growth, and five more percent move speed on his ultimate at every rank). We'd expect him to climb inside Tier 1 rather than break into the top five.
Mid Lane
Nothing happens to Fizz, Viktor, Yone or Yasuo, so the top of mid should look identical next week.
Syndra is the one that moves. Her passive mana ceiling drops by 56 and her W comes back a full second later at every rank, and both changes push her toward a build she was doing better without. We have her leaving Tier 1.
Cassiopeia is the patch's only adjustment and the interesting thing about it is who it's for. Every base number comes down and every ratio goes up, which is a tax on the pro build and a raise for everyone else. She should climb out of Tier 3.
Ekko's mana cut is pointed at mid on purpose, so he should move up a tier too. Kassadin got the smaller half of the same treatment (he isn't ranked anywhere right now, and one buff won't fix that).
Support
Thresh, Seraphine, Lux and Leona are all missing from the notes, so God Tier support should hold exactly as it is.
The interesting movement is underneath. Nautilus has been the best support in Tier 1 all year and Riot went after him properly: three flat attack damage off his base plus up to twenty damage off his hook at every rank past the first. He drops.
Bard's armor nerf is much smaller and he sits in the middle of Tier 2, so we'd expect him to slide a few places rather than fall out. Between the two of them, this is the first patch in a while where the engage supports below God Tier have room to work with.
Bot Lane
The one item change in the patch lands in bot lane, on the champions our data actually has holding Guinsoo's Rageblade. Kai'Sa is the clearest case of them all (every one of her common builds runs the item), and she's the only Rageblade buyer already sitting in Tier 1. Four seconds of stacks instead of three is a real gain for her, so we have her climbing inside Tier 1 rather than breaking into the top two.
Kog'Maw, Varus and Vayne are the other three the buff reaches, and they're the ones with room to move. The extra second matters most to a carry who loses the ramp every time a fight breaks up and has to build it again from nothing, which is the shape of all three of them. We have all three up to Tier 2.
Jinx isn't mentioned and stays on top.
Zeri had been climbing on the back of the Runaan's Hurricane and Yun Tal Wildarrows buffs, and losing 20% and 30% of the attack damage scaling on her W should stop that. She stays in Tier 2 rather than continuing up.
Seraphine's nerf is written for bot lane specifically, since flattening the rank scaling on Beat Drop [E] only costs the build that maxes it. She slips as a marksman replacement and stays put at support.
Everything above is a forecast written the day the patch went live, before a single ranked game had been played on it. The League of Legends tier list hub carries the measured rankings, and gets its first read on 26.18 once the games exist.
The LoL calendar has the date the next patch goes live.
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