LoL Patch 26.6 Preview: Azir Scaling Buff, Olaf Q/AS Buffed, Tryndamere AS Increased

Two months into its 2026 season, Riot Games is giving us some interesting tweaks on a short selection of champions, while also sharing data on the state of matchmaking in Ranked.

Azir is receiving scaling‑oriented buffs on his Q and W that reward mid‑to late‑game playstyles. Credit: Riot Games

Patch 26.6 is expected to drop on Wednesday, March 18, 2026

The League of Legends 26.6 Patch Notes are here. Following the official schedule, Patch 26.6 is expected to drop on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Patch 26.6 is a quite small balanced update, delivering modest buffs and system tweaks rather than sweeping overhauls. Azir receives scaling-oriented improvements to restore some of his lost mid-game power, while Lissandra reclaims her old Q cooldown to recapture her signature wave control from earlier seasons. Olaf enjoys jungle-focused buffs with slight toplane tuning, while both Skarner and Tryndamere finally get some love with the first having his Q buffed while the second gets an attack speed improvement. Meanwhile, Ahri’s Q, and Zaahen’s W both have been nerfed.

On the systems side, Chemtech Chainsword and Sunfire Aegis receive quality-of-life adjustments—particularly easing Sunfire’s painful build path—while support item penalties are softened to make gold flow fairer.

Riot Games also shares datas regading matchmaking. The autofill versus autofill matchmaking rollout showing strong results in EUW and Vietnam, vastly improving match fairness for role-swapped players. Riot also confirms the Apex LP fix has stabilized ranked gains, with over 98% of players now earning consistent +19 to +21 LP per game (while losing the same amount per game lost).

The Full Patch 26.6 Preview. The Xerath's line was confirmed to be a joke by Riot Phroxzon. Credit: @RiotPhreak on X.

Buffs

Champions: Azir, Lissandra, Olaf, Skarner, Tryndamere
Systems: Chemtech Chainsword, Sunfire Aegis, Support Item Penalty

Nerfs

Champions: Ahri, Pyke, Shen, Zaahen

Read more about League of Legends changes on the X account of Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison.

Azir

We're buffing Azir to distribute some of his power back into regular play capabilities through scaling power that Azir players hopefully will appreciate

Lissandra

Lissandra hasn't really felt the same since her Q cooldown was nerfed in Season 9
Times have really changed since then and her perma priority waveclear + aftershock taking days and in the vein of making champions feel better to play, we're seeing if she can sustain having this cooldown again

Olaf JG

These changes are targeted at Jungle, which has been languishing a bit
Top is a little bit weak, so he will be getting buffed there a bit too

Sunfire Aegis

Sunfire's build cost (1000g) has been long cited as a pretty painful experience of the item
While we think having some painful build paths is valuable for the long term value of League, we think this one is a bit too painful

Ranked

EUW/VN Matchmaking

We've had about a week and a half now of autofill vs autofill matchmaking being Live and we're seeing excellent results
In regions like Vietnam with a high autofill rate, we're seeing autofill vs autofill go from ~25% of games to 75% of games
In EUW, regular play was already good (90% of the time autofill vs autofill), but in high MMR we went from 30% to 85%
We will continue to roll out to more regions over the coming patches as we're seeing positive results here

Apex LP

So far, so good on Apex LP fix resolving most of the issues. The fix looks to be good and is holding
>98% of players should be between 19 and 21 in terms of LP gains, calibrating up and down in small amounts (+19/-21 or +21/-19 or +20/-20)
We have one small fix coming in 26.6 to make this even more consistent