Notes published Aug. 11, 2026, live on servers Aug. 12, 2026
Patch 26.16 is a big one. League Classic gets its first major content update, bringing three brand new old champions in Akali, Kennen, and Shen, along with new placeholder runes and a wave of era-appropriate balance changes. Over in the main game, Riot is cracking down on early support roaming and bot lane mages, retuning ADC magic resistance, support role quest progress, and jungle pet scaling to open the door for more diverse team comps. Azir, Gwen, and Kennen all pick up buffs, Bel'Veth gets reined in after a scorching scaling curve, and Camille, Nasus, and Poppy get reworked power curves rather than straight buffs or nerfs. Ten items get retuned to push AD fighters and mid lane mages back into balance, Arena brings back Bravery Wednesdays alongside a hefty champion tuning pass, and ARAM: Mayhem adds two new item-upgrading Augments built for fighters. Top it off with the new Faerie Court skin line for Bel'Veth, Gwen, and Lulu, and there's a ton to dig into this patch.
Riot's still watching Azir now that players have settled on Press the Attack as his best keystone. Until that shakes out he just gets a moderate laning bump.
Last patch's rework left Bel'Veth scaling like Kayle or Aurelion Sol, and she's climbing in every skill bracket. Her early game is already thin, so Riot's blunting the late game instead of touching it.
Base Stats
Health Growth:110⇒105
R - Endless Banquet
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
CamilleAdjusted
Roaming supports run the meta and Camille rules the roamers. Riot's trading the raw all in power of Adaptive Defenses [Passive] for much shorter cooldowns, which should hurt the support version while leaving top lane trading better off.
Base Stats
Mana:339⇒375
Passive - Adaptive Defenses
Shield:20% Maximum Health⇒10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Maximum Health (levels 1 / 7 / 13 / 19)
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
GwenBuff
Gwen hasn't recovered from her nerfs earlier this year. Her passive sustain climbs back toward where it used to sit, which should make her a real threat in her good matchups without making her impossible to fight.
Passive - A Thousand Cuts
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)
KennenBuff
The Hextech Rocketbelt reshape left Kennen behind the rest of the mages. This rewards him for finding the flank, so the team-deleting ults land harder when he gets them off.
Jungle Nasus turned into a genuinely fun outlier while his top lane fell off a cliff. Reshuffling how fast Siphoning Strike [Q] stacks pulls the two roles closer together.
Q - Siphoning Strike
Stacks:3, increased to 12 on champions / large minions / monsters⇒4, increased to 10 on champions / large minions / monsters
PoppyAdjusted
Poppy's meant to be a tank, and instead she's been picking Hail of Blades and Sundered Sky like an early game fighter. This drains her AD snowball and moves that power into durability scaling, with enough mana growth that long fights don't run her dry.
Total Armor and Magic Resistance:12%, doubled below 40% Maximum Health⇒16%, doubled below 40% Maximum Health
Items
Berserker's GreavesBuff
The attack speed boots have sat at a low power point for a long stretch now, and with AD champions struggling in both bot and mid, Riot picked this patch to fix that.
Attack Speed:25%⇒30%
T3 Attack Speed:40%⇒45%
Black CleaverBuff
Black Cleaver became a Smolder and Senna item rather than a core AD fighter item. The melee and ranged split comes back on the move speed so Riot can buff the AD it gives without handing ranged users the whole package.
Attack Damage:40⇒45
Fervor Move Speed:20 for 2s⇒[20 Melee || 10 Ranged] for 2s
EclipseBuff
Eclipse fell behind as the big early AD purchase that isn't a Lethality item, so it gets more damage in exchange for a slightly smaller shield.
Damage:[6% Melee || 4% Ranged] Target Maximum Health⇒[8% Melee || 5% Ranged] Target Maximum Health
Runaan's lost every one of its core users this year as ADCs spread out across the attack speed crit options. The bolts and the move speed both go up to pay off the positioning the item asks for.
Guardian Angel took over as the juggernaut and diver teamfight item. Riot would rather those champions build Sterak's, so it gets more AD.
Bonus Attack Damage:45% of Base Attack Damage⇒50% of Base Attack Damage
Sundered SkyNerf
Sundered Sky has been the dominant AD fighter item for a year. Chaining its triggers through a teamfight is a great moment, but optimized users out-heal actual lifesteal items, so the healing comes down and the health goes up.
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 CapeAdjusted
Sunfire still buys and wins well, but players keep saying it feels bad next to Hollow Radiance. Riot's matching the two on cost and pushing Sunfire's power toward fighting champions instead of clearing waves.
Defensive boots in mid lane keep smothering the action, and this patch is about shifting mage power back from bot to mid, so the counter itemization against mages gets trimmed too.
Magic Resistance:30⇒25
Spellslinger's ShoesBuff
The other half of the same lever. Magic penetration boots get better at the same time defensive boots get worse.
Magic Penetration:18 + 8%⇒20 + 8%
TiamatBuff
Buying a Hydra item and then deliberately skipping Tiamat until last is a strange place for a component to end up. More AD makes it worth picking up on the way.
Attack Damage:20⇒25
Runes
Fleet FootworkNerf
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])
Three levers this patch, and they all point the same direction: fewer early support roams, less mage dominance in bot lane, and a jungle that isn't only AD fighters.
Stack Consumption On Champion / Turret Damage:22 Melee || 20 Ranged and 24 Melee || 22 Ranged⇒18 and 21
Stack Consumption On Creep Score:15 and 20⇒18 and 21
Minion Creep Score Experience / Gold Penalty:-25% outside of bot lane until level 3⇒-33% outside of bot lane until level 5
Classic
CHAMPIONS
NEW Akali
Passive - Twin Disciplines
After gaining 20 Ability Power, gain a percent of your total Attack Damage as bonus damage on-hit.
After gaining 10 bonus Attack Damage, gain Spell Vamp.
Q - Mark of the Assassin
Throw a kama, damaging and marking your target. Attack the marked target to deal more damage and refund some energy.
W - Twilight Shroud
Throw down a smoke bomb, which gives Akali Invisibility and bonus resists while in the area. Enemies in the area are slowed.
E - Crescent Slash
Slice all nearby enemies, dealing damage.
Be careful, this can empty your energy reserves quickly.
R - Shadow Dance
Dash at an enemy, dealing damage upon arrival. This ability can hold a maximum of 3 dashes at a time, like ammo.
NEW Kennen
Passive - Mark of the Storm
Kennen's abilities add stacking marks to their targets. Upon reaching 3 stacks, they're stunned and Kennen refunds some energy.
Q - Thundering Shuriken
Throw a shuriken in a straight line, damaging and marking the first enemy hit.
W - Electrical Surge
Passive: Every few attacks, Kennen's attack deals bonus damage and marks his target.
Active: Kennen damages and applies an additional mark to all nearby marked enemies.
E - Lightning Rush
Kennen becomes a ball of lightning, gaining bonus movement speed and resistances. Enemies he collides with while a ball of lightning are damaged and marked.
R - Slicing Maelstrom
A maelstrom follows Kennen for a few seconds, damaging and marking a random enemy champion several times per second.
NEW Shen
Passive - Ki Strike
Every few seconds, Shen's next attack deals bonus damage and restores some energy.
Further basic attacks ready his next empowered attack sooner.
Q - Vorpal Blade
Throw a blade, damaging and marking the targeted enemy. Any time Shen or his allies attack the marked enemy, they restore some health over time.
If the blade kills the target outright, Shen gets a partial heal.
W - Feint
Gain a shield. While it persists, attacks refresh Ki Strike faster.
E - Shadow Dash
Dash in a straight line, taunting and damaging all champions Shen collides with and restoring energy for each one.
R - Stand United
Target an allied champion anywhere on the map to grant them a shield. After a few seconds, if they're still alive, teleport to that ally.
Champion Damage To Turrets:100% total Attack Damage + 40% Ability Power⇒100% total Attack Damage + 20% Ability Power
BUGFIXES & QoL CHANGES
Show all 21 lines
Classic Level Progression has been added to the Classic Home tab
In champion select, players can hover on another player to mute chat or report
Fixed a bug where Wukong would gain gold from Twisted Fate passive from his own clones
Fixed a bug where Trinity Force / Phage would play a sound effect whenever they trigger movespeed buff
Fixed multiple bugs with show minimap on the left option
Fixed a bug where Tibbers would heal enemy champions and drain their mana
Fixed a bug where Tear of the Goddess would not stack from spell casts that don't cost mana
Fixed a bug where Tear of the Goddess would stack multiple times from abilities like Corki Gatling Gun
Fixed a bug where Manamune Awe passive would not properly grant AD from mana
Fixed a bug where Master Yi E cooldown was lower than intended
Fixed a bug where Warwicks Hunter's call (W) duration was higher than intended
Fixed a bug where Ezreal had lower base AD than intended
Fixed a bug where Kassadin's Rift Walk (R) had a higher AP Ratio than intended
Fixed a bug where the Cold Steel passive was not unique
Fixed a bug where Sivir Q was interrupted by CC
Fixed multiple bugs with Sivir E not blocking certain spells
Fixed a bug where Spellsword mastery was not scaling with AP
Fixed a bug where Ancient Golem's attack damage was lower than intended
Fixed a bug where Ashe would gain additional attack damage at certain levels
Fixed a bug where Amumu's R would stop unstoppable units
Fixed a bug where Sivir passive procced on non-champion units
CLASSIC SKINS AND COSMETICS
Classic Akali (Stinger)
Classic Miss Fortune (Waterloo)
Classic Shen (Yellowjacket)
ARAM: Mayhem
This patch is about fighters. Two new Gold Augments upgrade fighter items outright, and a batch of existing Augments get rewritten so they have a clear audience instead of a vague one. Riot also closed the hole that let form-swapping champions like Jayce and Nidalee keep melee stats from Augments while in ranged form.
NEW Cleave Application: Your spell applies the cleave effect with no cooldown
NEW Life Steal: 18%
BUGFIXES
Show all 19 fixes
Fixed a bug where Summoner Cleanse and Summoner Clarity were not pickable in ARAM.
Fixed a bug where Pursuit of Power affected Locke (P) damage after its quest was completed.
Fixed a bug where Veigar's W in ARAM Mayhem did not trigger Archmage's cooldown refund effect.
Fixed a bug where Archmage did not refund Azir (W) properly.
Fixed a bug where Marksmage did not apply its damage to certain empowered attacks in Mayhem, including Blitzcrank (E), Nasus (Q), and Trundle (Q).
Fixed a bug where Annie's (R) would go on cooldown if the first Tibbers died when having Ultimate Revolution.
Fixed a bug where champions would lose Hellbent cooldown if they have revive passives.
Fixed a bug where Augment damages can stack Samira passive (P).
Fixed a bug where Lissandra passive (P) consumes gold from Yowch My Coins.
Fixed a bug where Dashing did not apply to Lee Sin Q, Kled Q, and Rek'Sai E.
Fixed a bug where Skilled Sniper did not trigger on Vel'Koz's split Q.
Fixed a bug where form-swapping champions had incorrect damage ratio for Glass Cannon.
Fixed a bug where Scoped Weapon family did not adapt the attack range increase when form-swapping champions swap form.
Fixed a bug where Typhoon fails to fire a missile when no enemy champions are in range.
Fixed a bug where Infernal Conduit base damage and scaling is higher than tooltip.
Fixed a bug where Volibear (R)'s turret-disabling debuff applied by the Echo Cast version visually refreshes while the duration does not.
Fixed a bug where Neeko regains bonus attack speed after exiting disguising when having Purist Caster.
Fixed a bug where Bel'Veth (E) fails to trigger Drop Kick's execution.
Fixed a bug where From Downtown's enemy VFX warning is bigger than intended.
Arena
Bravery is back. Every Wednesday for the foreseeable future, Arena runs Bravery and Crowd Favorites only, and the size of your Crowd Favorite pool scales with how many champions you own. Alongside that comes a long balance pass that mostly lifts the champions who have been stuck at the bottom. Rek'Sai's Tunnel [E] hits a 0 second reuse cooldown when maxed, Gnar stops having a tired window entirely, and Now You See Me leaves a clone behind at level 2.
CHAMPIONS
Aurelion Sol
Q - Breath of Light
Burst Damage Health Ratio:4%⇒3.1% Stardust%
E - Singularity
Cooldown:8⇒12
Bel'Veth
Passive - Death in Lavender
Attack Speed Per Stack:0.2%-2%⇒0.2%-1.5%
R - Endless Banquet
Bonus Health:250-450⇒100-400
Gnar
Passive - Rage Gene
Tired Duration:5s⇒0s
W - Hyper
Mini Percent Health Damage:6%-14%⇒10%-18%
E - Hop / Crunch
Health Ratio:6%⇒8%
Mini Attack Speed:40%-60%⇒50%-70%
R - GNAR!
Cooldown:90-30⇒70-30
Heimerdinger
H-28 G Evolution Turret
Q Base Damage:4-12⇒7-23
LeBlanc
Passive - Mirror Image
Cooldown:10s⇒5s
Q - Sigil of Malice
Refund:60%⇒100%
Base Damage:85-185⇒105-205
NEW Damage Per Level Scaling: Now scales past level 18
E - Ethereal Chains
Cooldown:14s-11s⇒12s-9s
Mordekaiser
R - Realm of Death
Stat Steal:8%⇒10%
Ornn
W - Bellows Breath
Cooldown:10s⇒11s-8.5s
Poppy
Q - Hammer Shock
Target Maximum Health Ratio:8%⇒9%
W - Steadfast Presence
Increased Resistances:8%-16%⇒12%-24%
Cooldown:26-16⇒20-12
Rek'Sai
Passive - Fury of the Xer'Sai
Healing:9%-20%⇒10%-45%
Q - Prey Seeker
Cooldown:10s⇒7.5s
W - Burrow
Move Speed:15-35⇒20-60
E - Tunnel
Tunnel Cooldown:18s-14s⇒9s-5s
Tunnel Reuse Cooldown:6s-2s⇒4s-0s
Samira
R - Inferno Trigger
Base Damage:15-45⇒20-60
Shaco
Q - Deceive
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio:60%⇒85%
E - Two-Shiv Poison
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio:80%⇒100%
Sona
Passive - Power Chord
Stacks Per Round:11.5⇒10
W - Aria of Perseverance
Cooldown:10s⇒13s
Soraka
W - Astral Infusion
Cooldown:6s-2s⇒7s-3s
Swain
R - Demonic Ascension
Heal Health Ratio:1.5%⇒1%
Varus
W - Blighted Quiver
Cooldown:40s⇒20s
E - Hail of Arrows
Cooldown:18s-10s⇒16s-8s
Volibear
Q - Thundering Smash
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio:60%⇒100%
W - Frenzied Maul
Damage Health Ratio:5%⇒6%
Base Heal:10-70⇒20-80
Heal Health Ratio:6%-14%⇒8%-20%
E - Sky Splitter
Shield Health Ratio:11%⇒14%
Shield Ability Power Ratio:65%⇒75%
Base Damage:60-160⇒80-200
Percent Damage:9%-13%⇒11%-15%
Warwick
Q - Jaws of the Beast
Cooldown:8s-6s⇒7s-5s
E - Primal Howl
Cooldown:15s-11s⇒13s-9s
ITEMS
Black Cleaver
Attack Damage:40⇒45
Fervor Move Speed:20 for 2s⇒[20 Melee || 15 Ranged] for 2s
Eclipse
Damage:[6% Melee || 4% Ranged] Target Maximum Health⇒[8% Melee || 5% Ranged] Target Maximum Health
Sterak's Gage
Bonus Attack Damage:45% of Base Attack Damage⇒50% of Base Attack Damage
Sundered Sky
Healing:[100% Melee || 50% Ranged] Base Attack Damage + 6% Missing Health⇒[90% Melee || 45% Ranged] Base Attack Damage + 4% Missing Health
Health:350⇒400
Void Immolation
Aura Bonus Health Ratio:7%⇒10%
AUGMENTS
Nesting Doll
Time Until You Can Revive:2 seconds⇒3 seconds
Now You See Me
NEW Maximum Level Clone: At maximum level this leaves behind a clone at your previous location, lasts for 4 seconds
Move Speed Boost:50% / 75%⇒75%
Three Sacred Treasures
Ability Power Ratio:60%⇒50%
Attack Damage Ratio:75%⇒60%
BUGFIXES
Fixed an issue where Combo breaker was triggering after 3s instead of 4s of being crowd controlled.
Bugfixes & QoL Changes
QoL CHANGES
Reduced the volume of base Locke (Q) missile cast sound effects to better sit in the overall game mix.
BUGFIXES
Fixed a bug where Viego with the Bot lane Role Quest would be able to steal his possessed target's boots.
Fixed a bug where upgrading from Hexdrinker to Maw of Malmortius did not reset the cooldown of the item.
Fixed a bug where killing a ward would display debug text for spectators.
Fixed a bug where Locke picking up his (R) artifact would refund based on its current cooldown instead of the total cooldown.
Fixed a bug where in certain circumstances Taunt and Berserk effects could be ignored using WASD controls.
Fixed a bug where Support players' Control wards would be consumed when trying to place them while dead.
Fixed a bug where Ambessa's omnivamp would apply on turrets when driving Rift Herald into them.
Fixed a bug where Mordekaiser (R) improperly gains Ability Haste.
Fixed a bug where Bel'Veth's resource bar would incorrectly update if she hit 80 stacks while already in True Form.
Fixed a bug where Locke (R) execution would be considered a spell cast.
Fixed a bug where Viktor (R) lightning VFX would stretch across the screen in certain situations.
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
Faerie Court Bel'Veth, Faerie Court Gwen, and Faerie Court Lulu arrive August 12, 2026.
The following skins will be released in this patch
AzirBuff
Bel'VethNerf
CamilleAdjusted
GwenBuff
KennenBuff
NasusAdjusted
PoppyAdjusted
Berserker's GreavesBuff
Black CleaverBuff
EclipseBuff
Runaan's HurricaneBuff
Sterak's GageBuff
Sundered SkyNerf
Sunfire CapeAdjusted
Chainlaced CrushersNerf
Spellslinger's ShoesBuff
TiamatBuff
Void Immolation
