League of Legends Patch 26.7 is shaping up to be one of those patches that feels bigger than the raw balance list suggests. On paper, it is a fairly straightforward preview with a handful of buffs, nerfs, one champion adjustment, and a system change. In reality, it is also tied to Riot’s latest thoughts on the First Stand meta, Shyvana’s post-rework landing spot, support role balance, and the ongoing mess around Apex tier LP gains in ranked.
Riot Phroxzon’s latest preview confirms that Cassiopeia, Kalista, and Rell are set to receive buffs in Patch 26.7. On the nerf side, Graves, Karma, Nami, Ornn, Singed, and Veigar are all being targeted. Shyvana is the only champion listed under adjustments, while the support farming penalty is being changed under system adjustments.
League of Legends Patch 26.7 buffs and nerfs
The headline balance list for Patch 26.7 is already enough to get players talking. Cassiopeia being buffed makes sense given Riot’s comments that AP junglers and AD mids were one of the bigger gaps in the First Stand meta. Kalista also stands out as a meaningful bot lane touch, especially after Riot said it was happy with bot lane diversity overall. Rell, meanwhile, looks like a direct attempt to give engage support players something back at a time when ranged supports are starting to run away with lane control.
| Category | Champion/System | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Champion Buffs | Cassiopeia | Base Mana: 450 → 480 |
| Champion Buffs | Cassiopeia | E Bonus Magic Damage: 20/43/66/89/112 → 20/45/70/95/120 |
| Champion Buffs | Kalista | E AD scaling on bonus damage per additional stack: (+20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% AD) → (+20 / 27.5 / 35 / 42.5 / 50% AD) |
| Champion Buffs | Rell | E MS: 3s of 10%, increased to 25% while facing ally / visible enemy → 3s of 15%, increased to 30% |
| Champion Buffs | Rell | R Damage: 120 / 200 / 380 (+110% AP) → 150 / 250 / 350 (+110% AP) |
| Champion Nerfs | Graves | Base AD: 68 → 66 |
| Champion Nerfs | Karma | R+E Bonus Primary / Secondary Target Shield: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 (+45% AP) → 45 / 85 / 125 / 165 (+45% AP) |
| Champion Nerfs | Nami | W Bounce Modifier: -10% (+10% per 100 AP) → -20% (+15% per 100 AP) |
| Champion Nerfs | Ornn | Brittle Trigger Damage: 10-18% Target Max HP (Levels 1-18) → 9-16% Target Max HP (Levels 1-18) |
| Champion Nerfs | Singed | R Bonus Stats: 25 / 60 / 95 → 25 / 55 / 85 |
| Champion Nerfs | Veigar | R Cooldown: 100 / 80 / 60s → 120 / 90 / 60s |
| Champion Adjustments | Shyvana | Ultimate Haste provides passive 0.015 passive fury generation per second → Ultimate Haste amplifies all fury generation by 1% per 1 Ultimate Haste |
| System Adjustments | Support farming penalty | Removed |
The nerf list is even more interesting. Graves being hit lines up with Riot’s concern around jungle class diversity, while Karma and Nami getting nerfed fits the broader point Phroxzon made about ranged supports beginning to outpace the rest of the support pool. Ornn, Singed, and Veigar, rounding out the list, suggest Riot is not interested in letting stable comfort picks quietly dominate while the season settles. This is the kind of preview that says Riot likes the current meta more than players might expect, but still wants to trim the champions that are pushing too far ahead.
Shyvana adjustments are not going away yet
Shyvana remains one of the biggest talking points heading into Patch 26.7. Riot says she initially landed too strongly, though her hotfix brought her into a more reasonable spot. Even so, the work clearly is not done. Phroxzon said the team is still evaluating whether top lane Shyvana can be supported without hurting jungle satisfaction, while also exploring changes aimed at improving passive satisfaction, reducing MMR skew, and creating more counterplay around her E.
There is also a micropatch coming to remove an unintended Sylas interaction with Shyvana’s passive, where Sylas reportedly benefits twice from the on-hit effect because of how it interacts with his own passive. That bug alone is a good reminder that champion updates rarely land perfectly on day one, and Riot is still very much in live-fix mode here. So while Shyvana is only listed as an adjustment in 26.7, do not mistake that for Riot being undecided. They are actively tuning her from multiple angles.
Support farming penalty is getting a major test
One of the most important changes in Patch 26.7 may end up being the least flashy one. Riot is effectively pulling back the support farming penalty after previously talking about simplifying the support quest system. Phroxzon admitted this could open the door to some farming support nonsense, but Riot wants to test whether the tradeoff is self-correcting because taking farm also slows your bot carry’s quest progression.
This is a pretty bold move, honestly. Riot just got done saying ranged supports are starting to separate from the rest of the pack because laning matters more due to role quests. Then, almost immediately, it is loosening one of the guardrails tied to that system. Maybe it works. Maybe it blows up bot lane for a patch or two. Either way, this feels like one of those changes that could matter far more than a lot of the champion numbers.
A lot of the context behind Patch 26.7 comes from Riot’s read on First Stand. Phroxzon congratulated BLG and the LPL for winning the event, and said he was generally happy with the tournament meta. According to him, there was strong diversity across roles, healthy game pacing, and a bot lane ecosystem that featured a good mix of casters, hypercarries, utility picks, and fringe options. He even called out Lethality Varus, having just a 14 percent win rate, as evidence that the tournament was not overly warped around one stale bot lane archetype.
The biggest gap Riot identified was AP junglers and AD mids, which is important because it helps explain why the 26.7 preview looks the way it does. Riot is not trying to reinvent the whole meta here. It is making targeted changes to broaden draft options without destroying what it thinks is a pretty good overall state. Whether players agree is another matter, but the philosophy is at least clear this time.
Apex ranked update explained
Outside of champion balance, the other big conversation around League right now is the Apex tier-ranked situation. Riot recently said it had made multiple attempts to address core issues with the Apex experience this year, and now expects most regions to reach peak LP totals around 3000, with some top-end cases potentially approaching 4000. That is a massive shift in visible ladder values, and it explains why so many high elo players feel like the ladder looks inflated and unfamiliar.
Riot’s March dev post on MMR-to-rank distribution also acknowledged that 2026 ranked changes had a meaningful impact on player climbs, and that the team was still working through how to keep progression fair and competitive. In other words, this is not just players overreacting to weird screenshots. Riot itself is openly trying to stabilize a ladder system that has not landed the way it wanted.
Apex LP gain changes are still being worked on
Phroxzon’s more recent follow-up on Apex ranked makes it clear Riot is still deciding exactly how hard to pull the lever. One of the options discussed is a softer solution where players keep their relative ladder positions but need to maintain their current win rate to prove they belong there and climb back toward previous LP values. That wording alone tells you Riot is trying to thread a very awkward needle between preserving progress and correcting inflation.
This also follows Riot’s earlier effort to address negative LP gains at the top end. Back in Patch 26.3, Riot said it had found the cause of some Apex tier negative LP issues and was resolving them, while warning that a small amount of negative gains would still exist for the absolute best players. Patch 26.7 does not seem to be the final answer, but it is increasingly obvious that Riot sees Apex tier LP as one of the biggest competitive problems of the season so far.
League of Legends Patch 26.7 release
Riot has only shared the preview so far, which means the final detailed numbers should come later once the full patch notes are ready. Based on Riot’s normal League update cadence, Patch 26.7 should follow the standard two-week patch rhythm unless something changes. The preview itself also notes that more on champion details is coming later, so the current list is only the first step.
Right now, Patch 26.7 looks less like a chaotic shake-up and more like a course correction patch. It is cleaning up Shyvana, checking a few overperformers, giving some underloved picks help, and quietly testing a support system change that could have bigger consequences than people think. Add the Apex-ranked and LP gain conversation on top, and this patch suddenly feels like a lot more than just Cassiopeia buffs and Graves nerfs.
