League of Legends (LoL) Patch 26.11 has had its patch notes released by Riot Games with some major changes.
Riot has taken substantial steps to return tank supports to the League of Legends meta.
And there are big adjustments for toplaners too, with a Heartsteel buff and a nerf to Hexplate for ranged users.
Here are all the major changes from the large LoL Patch 26.11.
Support Changes
Ranged supports have dominated the 2026 meta, especially in pro play.
And one major reason for that is that the new role quests stop supports from roaming as much.
Riot is helping melee supports, especially ones that like to engage, with big item changes and improvements to Grubs to make roaming for them more worthwhile.
Grubs
- Damage Per Tick, Per Grub: 3 / 9 / 12 || 1.5 / 4.5 / 6 ⇒ 4 / 12 / 16 || 2 / 6 / 8
- Summoned Voidmite HP: 60% of Melee Minion ⇒ 100% of Melee Minion
Summon Aery
Summon Aery’s early game defensive output is being brought down so lane trades can stick onto enchanter duos better.
- Shielding: 30 – 100 (Levels 1 – 18) (+10% bonus AD) (+5% AP) ⇒ 20 – 100 (Levels 1 – 18) (+10% bonus AD) (+5% AP)
Aftershock
Riot is buffing Aftershock in the early game so aggressive users can better trade with their opponents.
- Armor and MR: 35 (+80% bonus) ⇒ 45 (+75% bonus)
Guardian
And finally, we are buffing Guardian’s cooldown and adjusting how it scales to help tankier users who need it to survive the laning phase.
- Cooldown: 90 – 40 (Level 1 – 18) ⇒ 75 – 40 (Level 1 – 18)
- Shield: 45 – 180 (+25% AP) (+5% bonus HP) ⇒ 40 – 150 (+20% AP) (+6% bonus HP)
Dream Maker
Dream Maker is getting a mix of adjustments to function better, with a buff in some ways and nerfs in others.
Blue Bubble Damage Reduction is being adjusted from only affecting the literal first instance of damage (i.e. the first tick of a DoT) to affecting the first cast source (i.e. the entire DoT, until it runs out of flat damage reduction.)
Meanwhile, Purple Bubble Damage is changing from mostly an on-hit effect to an on-hit or on-ability damage cast source effect with AoE penalties. (i.e. If Ezreal Ult triggers the Purple Bubble, it will apply to that entire Ezreal Ult but with reduced AoE efficacy.)
- Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: 75 – 255 (Level 1 – 18) ⇒ 50 – 194 (Level 1 – 18)
- Blue Bubble Damage Reduction: Damage reduction affects the next non-0 instance of damage, regardless of how large it is ⇒ Damage reduction affects the next non-0 damage cast source (temporal carry-over)
- Purple Bubble Damage: 50 – 170 (Level 1 – 18) ⇒ 40 – 160 (Level 1 – 18)
- Purple Bubble Damage: Damage triggers on hit, or on certain abilities / items ⇒ Damage triggers on next damaging attack or ability, reduced for AoE effects (i.e. Nami E)
Moonstone Renewer
Moonstone will no longer benefits twice from heal and shield power, which is mostly a nerf but will occasionally help when opponents have Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver.
- Fixed various bugs, including no longer double-dipping on both heal / shield power and Grievous Wounds / Shield Reaver
- Bounces now prioritize lower health allies
Imperial Mandate
Imperial Mandate is getting reworked to become a better fit for utility casters rather than just Nami.
- Build Path: Fiendish Codex (850g) + Bandleglass Mirror (900g) + 500g = 2250g ⇒ Blasting Wand (850g) + Bandleglass Mirror (900g) + 650g = 2400g
- Ability Power: 60 ⇒ 65
- Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 15
- Mana Regen: 125% ⇒ 150%
- REMOVED Unique – Coordinated Fire
- NEW Unique – Control: Gain 15 Ability Haste for your abilities with Immobilizing effects
- NEW Unique – Command: On immobilizing an enemy champion, mark them as 6% Vulnerable for 4s (Vulnerable enemies take % increased damage)
Echoes of Helia
A straightforward nerf for enchanters.
- Damage Stored: 35% ⇒ 30%
Locket of the Iron Solari
And a straightforward buff for tanks.
- Armor and Magic Resist: 25 ⇒ 30
Knight’s Vow
For Knight’s Vow, Riot is pushing its unique effect rather than generically buffing its stats or gold cost.
- Damage Redirection: 12% ⇒ 14%
- Heal: 10% ⇒ 12%
Zeke’s Convergence
Zeke’s is getting a quality of life improvement for any users who might be casting their ultimate from long range such as Leona or Nautilus.
- Frostfire Tempest: Triggers on Ult cast ⇒ Readies on Ult cast for the next 5 seconds, triggering the moment an enemy champion gets within the range or after 5 seconds
LoL Patch 26.11 Champion Buffs
Diana
After previous changes to Dusk and Dawn, Diana jungle has been underwhelming.
- Base Stats
- Monster Damage: 230% ⇒ 270%
- W – Pale Cascade
- Bonus Health: 9% ⇒ 11%
Ekko
Now that the dust has settled from 26.9’s Dusk and Dawn changes, Riot says Ekko has some room for a compensation buff now that he’s not bound to that item.
- Passive – Z-Drive Resonance
- Per-Enemy Cooldown: 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds
Heimerdinger
After ranged minion aggro pull was removed last patch, how Heimerdinger’s turrets interact with waves has become a bit awkward.
It led to turrets tanking minion autos without attacking back.
Additionally, his Evolution Turrets sometimes fail to follow up on his Storm Grenade when they lose vision of the target too quickly due to minor timing fluctuations around vision and turret logic, so Riot is increasing the vision duration slightly to resolve that.
- Q – H-28G Evolution Turret
- Turret Attack Range: 530 ⇒ 550
- Turret Vision Range: 585 ⇒ 650
- NEW Turret Range: Turrets now gain 50 additional range against minions if nothing else is in range
- E – CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade
- Vision of target location: 1 second ⇒ 1.25 seconds
Kassadin
Our Void Walker has been limping around the Rift more than blinking. Stackable tear items have provided an additional cool late-game fantasy option besides pure AP, but his early game has been tougher than usual (in part due to our mid quest adjustment). These changes should help his laning, both in farming and trading.
- Q – Null Sphere
- Cooldown: 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8 ⇒ 9 / 8.5 / 8 / 7.5 / 7
- W – Nether Blade
- Base Magic Damage: 20 (+10% AP) ⇒ 25 (+10% AP)
Quinn
Riot is continuing its efforts to make Quinn work as a jungler by helping her jungle clear.
- Passive – Harrier
- Monster Damage: 50 ⇒ 75
- Q – Blinding Assault
- Monster Damage: 150% ⇒ 200%
LoL Patch 26.11 Champion Nerfs
Brand
Brand has been toeing the line in bot for a while now, and this patch has well and truly crossed over, so we’re targeting that lane with a nerf to his base armor.
- Base Stats
- Base Armor: 27 ⇒ 24
Teemo
Riot is nerfing Teemo’s Statikk Shiv build so that it’s still in a good place but that his AP build paths are also viable.
- Base Stats
- Armor Growth: 4.95 per level ⇒ 4.5 per level
- E – Toxic Shot
- On-hit/Poison per tick scaling: (+10% bonus AD/+20% bonus AD) ⇒ (+5% bonus AD/+10% bonus AD)
LoL Patch 26.11 Champion Adjustments
Smolder
After the Smolder hotfix added to the last patch, the baby dragon is getting even more changes.
These latest nerfs are pushing towards him returning to crit-focused builds rather than Essence Reaver into bruiser.
- Passive – Dragon Practice
- Bonus Magic Damage on Q: 40% * (1 + (Crit Chance *.5 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks (60% at 100% Crit, 66% if you have IE) ⇒ 25% * (1 + (Crit Chance * 1.2 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
- Bonus Magic Damage on E: 12% of Passive stacks ⇒ 8% * (1 + (Crit Chance * .6 * (1 + Bonus Crit Damage)) of Passive stacks
Xin Zhao
Riot is nerfing AP Xin Zhao while compensating by helping his sustained damage.
- Passive – Determination
- Bonus Damage: 15 / 30 / 45 / 60% Bonus AD (Levels 1 / 6 / 11 / 16) ⇒ 15 / 30 / 45 / 60% Bonus AD (+5 / 10 / 15 / 20% AP) (Levels 1 / 6 / 11 / 16)
- Heal Amount: 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+50 / 65 / 90% AP) (Levels 1 / 6 / 11) ⇒ 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+45 / 55 / 80% AP) (Levels 1 / 6 / 11)
Item Changes
Experimental Hexplate
Riot is addressing Hexplate on ranged toplaners, with Vayne and Varus top becoming far too oppressive, but wants it to remain a viable option for a lot of different archetypes.
- Overdrive: On ulting, 50% bonus AS and 20% bonus MS for 8 seconds ⇒ Ranged: 35% bonus AS and 14% bonus MS for 8 seconds (unchanged for melee)
Heartsteel
Riot claims that with the Mundo meta out of the way, it can now revert a Heartstell nerf from a year ago since Rioters feel the item occupies a really cool (and important) aspect of greedy tank itemization.
- Damage To Permanent Health Conversion Rate: 8% ⇒ 10%
Statikk Shiv
Riot is buffing Shiv for AD champions that could really benefit from it but claims to be keeping a close eye on how the item performs.
- Attack Damage: 40 ⇒ 45
Are you happy with tank supports coming back? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
There could be even bigger changes coming to the bot lane as the League Next update will overhaul the support role.
Comments