Updated on April 29, 2026 at 1:11am: Added detailed patch notes by Riot Phroxzon.
League of Legends Lead Gameplay Designer Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison posted a preview of the LoL patch 26.09 notes on X on April 21, 2026 and a detailed breakdown on April 22.
Heading into Patch 26.09, the team wasn’t just looking at numbers—they were looking at how the game actually feels to play. A lot of the focus landed on systems and champion roles that weren’t quite hitting the mark, whether in satisfaction or strategic depth.
From there, the goal became clearer: carve out stronger identities, create more distinct gameplay paths, and give players more room to experiment with what’s possible, wrote Riot Phroxzon.
Some underdeveloped gameplay patterns stood out early, and those became the starting point for meaningful changes this patch.
LoL patch 26.09 introduces new starting items
It’s been a while since League of Legends last introduced new starting items, but patch 26.09 is finally changing that. This time, the focus isn’t just on variety—it’s about giving players more meaningful choices right from level one.
Doran’s Bow slots into greedier lanes, where you’re willing to give up some safety in exchange for stronger, consistent trades—especially if you can stay on your opponent.
On the other hand, Doran’s Helm is more situational. It’s aimed at champions who don’t really need the sustain from Doran’s Shield, opening up a different kind of flexibility in lane.
The idea here is pretty straightforward: more ways to push small advantages early. Whether it’s squeezing out better trades or leaning into specific matchups, these additions should make laning feel a bit deeper—and a bit less solved, Riot Phroxzon explained.
LoL patch 26.09 notes
LoL patch 26.09 champion buffs
| LOL PATCH 26.09 CHAMPION BUFFS | STATS |
| Gragas | W Damage Reduction: 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18% → 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26% |
| Tahm Kench | Grey Health to HP Conversion: 45–100% → 60–100% R Devour Ally Movespeed: 40% → 60% |
| Taliyah | Q per-rock base damage: 55–125 → 50–120 Q bonus monster damage per rock: 23–43 → 20–40 |
| Warwick | Passive on-hit damage: 6–46 → 6–55 |
Tahm Kench
“We overnerfed Tahm Kench last patch; we intended to buff TK support overall and these buffs are more skewed there, though they will overall affect both roles,” wrote Riot Phroxzon.
Warwick
Warwick has been falling behind—again, most noticeably in average play brackets where he’s typically expected to perform well. Riot’s adjustments here aim to give him a bit more footing in those environments, bringing him back in line with his intended strength.
LoL patch 26.09 champion nerfs
| LOL PATCH 26.09 CHAMPION NERFS | STATS |
| Ambessa | R Cast Time: 0.55s → 0.70s |
| Briar | Health growth: 100 → 95 |
Ambessa
After roughly a year and a half in the wild, Riot says it now has a much clearer read on Ambessa—how her power curves play out, where she spikes, and which matchups tilt in her favor. That broader dataset has led the team to a specific pain point: her ultimate.
As explained by Riot Phroxzon, the current ult warning doesn’t offer quite enough room for meaningful counterplay.
Because of its long cast range, the ability tends to feel “more missable (burden is on the caster) than dodgeable (counterplay for user),” shifting the interaction too heavily onto whether the Ambessa player lands it cleanly rather than whether opponents can respond.
Riot experimented with multiple timing adjustments before settling on the current change. The goal is to better balance “dodgeability, requirement to combo CC and still satisfaction for the Ambessa player”—in other words, making the ability fairer to play against without stripping away its payoff when used well.
Briar
Briar has been overperforming—particularly in average play—and a big part of that comes down to her early itemization skewing overly squishy, with picks like Collector pushing her damage too far, too fast.
These changes are meant to gently steer her toward more durable builds, toning down that glass-cannon approach without removing her threat entirely.
LoL patch 26.09 champion adjustments
| LOL PATCH 26.09 CHAMPION ADJUSTMENTS | STATS |
| Ezreal | More incentives to build AP |
| Kennen | Incentives to build On-Hit Base Stats: Base AS: 0.625 → 0.638 AS ratio: 0.69 → 0.638 AD Growth: 3 → 4 Q: Passive: 1% (+1.1% per 100 bonus AD) (+1.1% per 100 AP) of target max HP → 1% (+1.1% per 100 bonus AD) Hit reduction: 1s → 0.5s Active: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+110% AD) (+25% AP) → 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+110% AD) (+30% AP) [QoL] Cooldown ticks in background if sequence isn’t finished |
| Shyvana | W: Cooldown: 14–12 → 13–9 Shield: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 (+5% max HP) → 75 / 95 / 115 / 135 / 155 (+12% bonus HP) Damage: 80–160 (+40% bonus AD) (+20% AP) → 80–160 (+65% AP) Dragon Form Heal: Old: 75–214.71 (+10% bonus AD) (+5% AP), scaling with missing HP up to 150–429.41 (+20% bonus AD) (+10% AP) New: 60–100 + 4.8% missing HP (scales with level) Move speed separated from shield E: Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10 → 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 Damage: 80–200 (+35% AD) (+70% AP) → 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 (+60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80% AP) + 5% target max HP Subsequent damage vs single target: 50% → 40% Slow: 20–40% → 30% |
| Teemo | On-hit focus |
| Udyr | Movement shifted from Q burst into Q bruiser |
| Xin Zhao | More AP incentives P: Right-click range: 500 → 550 Execute threshold: 60–150 (+18% AP) → 70–160 (+20% AP) Q: Damage: 15–23 (+1.04–1.2 AD) → 21–33 (+1.02–1.1 AD) Excess AS to AD conversion: 70% → 50% W: Wall crit multiplier: 1.75 → 1.5 AP ratio: 0.25 → 0.5 |
| Zeri | E: Magic damage on-hit: 17–25 (+10% bonus AD) (+20% AP) → 22–30 (+20% AP) Cooldown: 22–18 → 24–18 CD refresh: Now applies on attacks vs everything (not just champions) R: Burst AD ratio: 100% → 60% MS per stack: 1% → 1.5% Stack duration: 1.5s → 2.5s |
| Zoe | E hit refund: 16–30% cooldown on champion hit E cooldown: 16–12 → 18–14 W total bolt damage: 60–180 (+45% AP) → 45–165 (+30% AP) |
Shyvana
Riot is taking another pass at Shyvana with a clearer direction in mind: split her AP and AD identities more cleanly, while nudging her away from the all-or-nothing burst playstyle she’s leaned into for too long.
Part of that push is about making her feel more like a durable dragon in extended fights. A longstanding frustration has been how easily her shield gets blown up—taking her movement speed with it—resulting in a “binary and unsatisfying” pattern.
Decoupling that movement speed from her W should make her mobility more consistent and less punishing in the moment.
On the AD side, Riot wants to reinforce a stickier, bruiser-oriented loop built around Q and W, supported by lower cooldowns and better durability. There’s also a small nudge toward item synergy—particularly with Trinity Force—via increased AD growth, even as some broader AD incentives are pulled back.
Meanwhile, the AP build is being steered in a different direction entirely. Riot is leaning into an E-focused setup, encouraging a more deliberate “in-and-out” playstyle built around fireball poke and spacing rather than all-in burst.
It’s a balancing act, and Riot Phroxzon says it will keep a close eye on how both builds land once the changes go live.
Zeri
Riot is revisiting Zeri with a focus that goes beyond raw win rates. While her burst-oriented builds have kept her statistically in line across ranks, the team says something more important has slipped—her identity.
These changes intentionally trade some of that frontloaded damage for what made Zeri click in the first place: speed. The goal is to bring back that high-mobility, momentum-driven playstyle players associate with her, rather than a more generic burst profile, Riot Phroxzon explained.
There are also a few “feels good” tweaks layered in—most notably making her E cooldown refund apply on attacks against everything, not just champions, smoothing out her flow in fights and farming alike.
At the same time, while her ultimate is getting a boost to movement speed, Riot says it will be closely monitoring how long those stacks last, making sure it hits the right balance between power and the fantasy of an untouchable, high-speed carry.
LoL patch 26.09 system buffs
- Endless Hunger
LoL patch 26.09 system nerfs
- Hubris
LoL patch 26.09 system adjustments
| LOL PATCH 26.09 SYSTEM ADJUSTMENTS |
| Arcane Comet |
| Axiom Arc |
| (New) Deathfire Touch |
| (New) Doran’s Bow |
| (New) Doran’s Helm |
| Dusk and Dawn |
| (New) Gluttonous Greaves |
| Hail of Blades |
| Staff of Flowing Water |
| Statikk Shiv |
| (New) Stormradier’s Surge |
| Voltaic Cyclosword |
Statikk Shiv
Statikk Shiv is being used as a testing ground in patch 26.09, especially for AD on-hit builds that haven’t really been in a great spot for a while.
The item itself hasn’t seen much play either, so this was a chance to give it something extra—namely, having its lightning apply on-hit effects, Riot Phroxzon shared.
That said, some of the early versions went a bit too far. Riot has since adjusted it so the lightning no longer applies on-hits to the primary target, only to secondary ones. It tones things down without removing the core idea.
There’s still some uncertainty around how sustainable this is long-term, but that’s part of the approach here. This is one of those changes where Riot is willing to take a bit of risk just to see what players do with it.
Riot Phroxzon for one, is looking forward to seeing what kind of builds come out of it once players start experimenting.
Keystones get reshuffled to better define mage playstyles in LoL patch 26.09
Patch 26.09 is also reworking how Keystone Runes fit into different mage archetypes.
Arcane Comet, in particular, has been trying to do too much for a while now. It’s been the go-to for DoT mages, but never really excelled there, while also stepping into Aery’s space. Instead of continuing to stretch it thin, Riot is splitting those roles more cleanly.
Comet is “more about long range poke,” while Deathfire Touch is more suited for DoT and sustained damage champions.
Phase Rush is also being phased out in favour of Stormraider’s Surge, which Riot sees as a healthier version of the same idea.
Phase Rush has always been tricky to balance—especially on control mages who can proc it too easily with low-damage spells just to disengage. The result was a rune that had to be heavily nerfed for most champions, but still remained too strong on a few.
Stormraider’s Surge shifts that dynamic by asking for more commitment before rewarding players with movement speed, making it both more satisfying to use and easier to tune overall, Riot Phroxzon explained.
