League of Legends patch 26.20 is shaping up to give Lucian and Vayne bot some help while trimming several familiar pro-play picks. Riot is also targeting Experimental Hexplate and Runaan’s Hurricane, with a separate adjustment planned for Hextech Rocketbelt.
Riot Phroxzon, Lead Gameplay Designer of League of Legends, describes 26.20 as the final Worlds patch. Riot is largely happy with the playoff meta and wants to make a few remaining improvements while protecting the Solo Queue experience.
In brief:
- Eleven champions are listed for buffs, including Lillia, Lucian, Smolder, and Vayne.
- Ashe joins Ambessa, Cassiopeia, K’Sante, and Yunara on the nerf list.
- Riot has pulled the planned Varus and Sylas changes from this patch.
- Experimental Hexplate and Runaan’s Hurricane receive nerfs, while Rocketbelt trades ability haste for stronger active damage.
League of Legends Patch 26.20 Preview
These changes are still subject to adjustment before the final patch notes.
Champion Buffs
| Champion | Changes |
|---|---|
| Diana | W shield bonus health ratio: 11% → 14%. |
| Kennen | E bonus attack speed: 40–80% → 50–90%. |
| Kindred | E: No longer targets small monsters. W monster damage modifier: 150% → 165%. E slow duration: 1 second → 1.5 seconds. |
| Lillia | R sleep duration: 2.5 seconds at all ranks → 2.5/2.75/3 seconds. |
| Lucian | Attack damage growth: 2.5 → 2.9 per level. |
| Mordekaiser | R cooldown: 140/120/100 → 120/110/100 seconds. Q scaling at levels 10–20: +5 per level → +7 per level. |
| Neeko | E base damage: 70–210 (+65% AP) → 80–220 (+65% AP). E empowered root duration: 1.8–3 → 2–3 seconds. |
| Smolder | Q Super Scorcher passive bonus: 25–55% (+0–9% with Infinity Edge) → 25–60% (+0–10.5% with Infinity Edge). E Flap, Flap, Flap passive bonus: 8–12.8% (+0–1.44% with Infinity Edge) → 8–14% (+0–1.8% with Infinity Edge). R self-healing: 100–170 (+50% bonus AD) (+75% AP) → 100–250 (+75% bonus AD) (+75% AP). |
| Tahm Kench | Q base healing: 10–25 → 10–50. |
| Vayne | Health regeneration per 5 seconds: 4 (+0.5 per level) → 5.5 (+0.4 per level). Q mana cost: 46–30 → 30 at all ranks. |
| Swain | Base magic resistance: 31 → 34. Base armor: 25 → 23. W damage: 70–210 (+60% AP) → 70–250 (+60% AP). W cooldown: 22–18 → 20–16 seconds. |
Champion Nerfs
| Champion | Changes |
|---|---|
| Ambessa | Passive damage: 5–30 (+25% bonus AD) → 5–25 (+20% bonus AD). |
| Ashe | Attack damage growth: 3.5 → 3 per level. |
| Cassiopeia | Base health: 630 → 610. Base mana: 480 → 450. |
| K’Sante | W mana cost: 40–60 → 45–65. W damage reduction, normal/All Out: 30%/75% → 25%/70%. |
| Yunara | Q passive on-hit damage: 5–25 (+20% AP) → 3–23 (+20% AP). Q active on-hit damage: 5–25 (+20% AP) → 3–23 (+20% AP). Bug fix: W and ultimate-enhanced W slows no longer stack with other slows. |
System Nerfs
| Item | Changes |
|---|---|
| Experimental Hexplate | Ranged modifier: 70% effectiveness, granting 35% attack speed and 14% movement speed → 50% effectiveness, granting 25% attack speed and 10% movement speed. |
| Runaan’s Hurricane | AD ratio per bolt: 65% → 60%. |
System Adjustments
| Item | Changes |
|---|---|
| Hextech Rocketbelt | Ability haste: 20 → 10. Active damage: 100 (+10% AP) → 135 (+15% AP). |
LoL Patch 26.20 Champion Buffs
The following champions are listed for buffs in the preview.
- Diana
- Lillia
- Kennen
- Kindred
- Lucian
- Mordekaiser
- Neeko
- Smolder
- Swain (Mid)
- Tahm Kench (Support)
- Vayne (Bot)
Lucian Gets Help After Patch 26.19
According to Phroxzon, the previous patch weakened Lucian’s strongest pairings, including enchanters such as Milio. Combined with the support laning changes, this significantly reduced his early kill threat.
Lucian’s attack damage growth increases from 2.5 to 2.9 per level. Riot expects this buff, alongside the Ashe and Yunara nerfs, to help improve the bot-lane meta.
Vayne Bot Buffs Come With Hexplate Nerfs
Vayne gains higher starting health regeneration, though its growth per level drops slightly. Her Q also costs a flat 30 mana, down from 46–30.
These buffs arrive alongside a ranged nerf to Experimental Hexplate, which targets her top-lane builds. Riot is more comfortable with top Vayne using other builds because they leave her less durable while dealing damage.
Diana Jungle Gets a Stronger Shield
Diana’s W shield bonus health ratio increases from 11% to 14%. Riot is targeting her jungle builds, which tend to stack more health and play more like a bruiser.
Phroxzon says Diana mid is mostly fine. The aim is to give jungle Diana a small boost without making her too oppressive through raw stats.
Lillia’s Sleep Lasts Longer at Higher Ranks
Lillia’s ultimate sleep duration increases from a flat 2.5 seconds to 2.5/2.75/3 seconds. This follows the previous patch’s changes, with Riot looking to improve her performance at higher skill levels.
According to Phroxzon, stronger players are better at coordinating around Sleep and making use of its full duration. Riot hopes this change will help close the gap between her performance across skill brackets, particularly after earlier nerfs to her jungle clear.
Neeko Gets More Damage and a Longer Root
Neeko’s E gains 10 base damage at every rank, while its empowered root duration increases at early ranks.
Riot says both support and mid Neeko could use some help. Her support performance has suffered particularly at higher levels following changes to her clone and its interaction with vision.
Smolder Buffs Favor Crit Builds
Smolder receives stronger crit-related bonuses for Q and E, alongside increased healing from his ultimate.
Riot says he has remained weak following earlier changes to Black Cleaver and Deathfire Touch. These buffs focus on crit builds, as Riot believes his bruiser builds offer opponents fewer ways to deal with his scaling.
LoL Patch 26.20 Champion Nerfs
Five champions appear on the nerf list.
- Ambessa
- Cassiopeia
- K’Sante
- Yunara
- Ashe
Phroxzon singles out Ambessa, Cassiopeia, and K’Sante as picks that have grown stale in professional play. Cassiopeia’s recent changes fell short of Riot’s intended pro-play nerf, although they successfully shifted more of her regular-play strength toward higher-AP builds.
Ashe joins the nerf list with her attack damage growth reduced from 3.5 to 3. Riot says she remains part of one of the dominant bot-lane pairings, and the Hurricane nerf alone would miss many of her builds.
Yunara’s Q passive and active on-hit damage both drop by 2 at every rank. Riot is targeting her strong level-one laning, considering how well she scales. The patch also fixes her W and ultimate-enhanced W slows stacking with other slows.
Varus and Sylas Changes Removed From Patch 26.20
Riot has pulled both Varus and Sylas from the patch.
Phroxzon says Varus needs more substantial work to make his builds feel satisfying and give them a clearer purpose.
And for Sylas, Riot is concerned that the planned changes could upset the balance between his roles, especially with Rocketbelt also changing this patch.
LoL Patch 26.20 Item Changes
Experimental Hexplate
Experimental Hexplate’s ranged modifier drops from 70% to 50%. For ranged users, the affected bonuses fall from 35% to 25% attack speed and from 14% to 10% movement speed.
So, this targets builds such as top-lane Vayne’s and gives Riot room to improve her bot-lane performance.
Runaan’s Hurricane
Runaan’s Hurricane’s bolt AD ratio drops from 65% to 60%. This is the modest rollback Riot outlined in the initial preview after deciding the item’s previous buff had gone too far.
Hextech Rocketbelt
Hextech Rocketbelt’s ability haste drops from 20 to 10, while its active damage increases from 100 (+10% AP) to 135 (+15% AP).
Riot wants more of the item’s strength to come from committing to a fight. Phroxzon says its current haste gives mages too much access to repeated spell casts and weakens the tradeoff between Rocketbelt and higher-haste options such as Cosmic Drive.
We’ll update this article with more details as soon as the full patch note drops.
