The
League of Legends 26.11 Patch Notes are here. Following the
official schedule, Patch 26.9 is expected to drop on
Wednesday, May 28, 2026. This patch continues to bring many changes following the launch of Season 2 in the previous patch.
Patch 26.11 mainly targets support balance and system diversity. Riot is trying to reduce ranged support dominance by buffing tank/melee-oriented tools like Aftershock, Guardian, and items such as Locket, Knight’s Vow, Zeke’s, and Heartsteel, while nerfing enchanter staples like Moonstone, Helia, Dreammaker, and Aery. At the same time, jungle pacing gets a slight shift with stronger Grubs rewards to reintroduce some controlled roaming after lane phase.
On the champion side, several underperformers get help (Diana, Ekko jungle, Kassadin, Quinn jungle, Heimerdinger), while top performers are toned down, notably Brand bot, Smolder, and Teemo. AP Xin Zhao is adjusted to keep his identity but reduce excessive healing. There’s also a specific follow-up on Smolder to push him toward riskier crit builds, making him easier to punish later in the game.
Item and rune tuning is a big secondary focus: Statikk Shiv is buffed for AD users, Hexplate is adjusted (nerfed for ranged like Vayne/Varus top), and Deathfire Touch now deals magic damage to reduce abusive synergies. Overall, the patch aims to rebalance support ecosystems, clean up item interactions, and bring a few outlier champions back in line while reviving weaker picks.
The Full Patch 26.11 Preview. Credit: @RiotPhreak on X.
Buffs
Champions: Diana, Ekko, Heimerdinger, Kassadin, Quinn
Systems: Aftershock (rune), Guardian (rune), Heartsteel, Knight’s Vow, Locket of the Iron Solari, Zeke’s
Nerfs
Champions: Brand, Smolder, Teemo
Systems: Dreammaker, Echoes of Helia, Moonstone Renewer, Aery (Summoner Spell)
Adjustments
Champion: AP Xin Zhao
Systems: Grubs (jungle camp), Hexplate, Imperial Mandate, Deathfire Touch (rune), Statikk Shiv
Read more about
League of Legends changes on the X account of
Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison.
“In 26.11, we're making a few adjustments to the Support ecosystem to improve diversity, especially in terms of melee vs ranged balance. We're also doing some continued followup to champs after some of the Season 2 changes have been optimized.
There are also some changes to Statikk Shiv to make it slightly more attractive on AD users and a nerf to Hexplate for Ranged which are primarily being picked up on Varus and Vayne Top Lane.
We're not looking to remove it from them, but are looking to get it into a spot where its top end balance doesn't need to be maintained around those 2 champions.
We're also restoring some of the power we removed from Heartsteel a while ago as it lost some of its fantasy and power in a way that we think we can restore now. It will also incidentally help some of the Tank Supports in niche cases when they start snowballing
Systems
- With the role quests in Season Start, ranged supports have risen to the top of the pecking order
- They're both the best at multiplying ADC's who are strong currently, as well as benefiting the most from being in lane for role quests
- Roaming also pays a higher systemic cost as it puts both yourself behind on quest progress and makes it so your ally ADC can't stack their quest
- Overall, this has been desirable, as we think in 2025, roaming was too high for the most part and especially undercut the satisfaction of players in bot lane wanting to a play a “real laning phase”
- At the same time though, we do want to open up a bit of roaming power on the grub timing after early lane is done and so we're buffing up the reward of grubs just slightly
- We're making a broad set of changes to both improve the desirability of some underpurchased items, as well as more finely tune the purpose of various items in the ecosystem
- Other systems adjustments this patch are changes to Experimental Hexplate that aim to make it shine on both melee and ranged users.
- Currently the best users are champs like Nocturne, Olaf, Vayne, Varus and we think we can strike a better balance on more champions while also making the item tradeoffs more apparent for durability vs damage on Vayne and Varus (mostly manifesting in Top)
- The other systems impacting changes are some adjustments to Diana and Ekko jungle who have been slightly worse for wear there (though Mid is mostly fine)
AP Xin Zhao
- He has popped out as one of the most striking and fun champs, but his healing is a bit on the high side, especially when he's outhealing some of the champs designed around healing.
- That said, we still think healing a bunch is exciting and worth supporting, just not at this magnitude.
Deathfire Touch
- We're adjusting Deathfire Touch this patch to deal Magic Damage
- Part of the impetus for this is how strong the synergy is with Black Cleaver and in addition, it feels like more of a magic coded effect
- So we think this strikes a reasonable balance of fantasy fulfilment and practical balance considerations
- Otherwise, we think Deathfire Touch is in a pretty reasonable spot
Brand, Smolder
- Brand Botlane and Smolder have both benefitted from Deathfire Touch
- While we are making changes to the Deathfire Touch interaction that will affect Smolder, we still think he will be too strong after these changes
- The changes to Smolder are targeted at also making his squishy Crit builds more optimal so he is more assailable later in the game
Heimerdinger
- After the minion changes in the previous patch, Heimer's turrets are a bit worse for wear
- We're giving him a feelsgood QOL change so that his turrets aren't killed by ranged minions without being able to attack back
- Despite being 550 range on paper, 550 range champions (which are most of them) will still be able to outrange turrets at max range due to the way this range is calculated
- In addition, there is a small increase to the E vision duration so that the Beam actually manages to fire before losing vision in some cases
Teemo
- For Teemo, he is one of the more powerful Top laners, while also being on the higher end of frustration
- He is also receiving a small buff to Statikk Shiv this patch and so we're compensation nerfing him with an intent for this to be lightly power down
Quinn
- Quinn has landed in a pretty weak spot for Jungle and in this state, it's pretty close to griefing team when picked
- So we're giving it a pretty sizeable buff to give it a legitimate shot at being powerful and viable
- Players so far have expressed interest in playing it!”
