Fizz in League Classic: Legacy Kit and Changes

Classic Fizz arrived in Patch 26.20 with heavy AP scaling on Urchin Strike and Seastone Trident, and the same patch cut both ratios. Here is what the notes reveal about his kit and how it compares to live Fizz.

By the MID.GG editorial team

Patch 26.20 28 October 2026 4 min read

At a glance

Fizz in League Classic is the older version of the champion, a mid lane assassin who can also be played as a fighter, with balance tuned separately from the live game. The first thing a live player notices is how much of his damage scales with ability power: his Classic Q and W carried AP ratios large enough that the mode trimmed them right away. Fizz arrived in League Classic in Patch 26.20, and that patch is also his first Classic balance entry.

The Classic kit

Riot’s notes for Fizz have no entry that lays out his full legacy kit, so what is known comes from the Patch 26.20 balance entry. That entry treats Fizz as a champion with two playstyles: a high-AP assassin in mid lane and a sturdier fighter. The changes only touch two abilities, and they show where his burst came from.

Q – Urchin Strike: a damaging ability whose ability power ratio was 60% when Fizz entered the mode, now 40%.
W – Seastone Trident: an ability with an active component that scaled at 35% of his ability power, now 20%.
Items around the kit: the reasoning for the nerf points to Deathfire Grasp and a Lich Bane with a 75% AP ratio as sources of reliable damage that stack on top of these abilities.

His passive, E and ultimate are not described in any Classic entry so far. The notes give no ability text for them, so treat any claim about how they work in League Classic with caution until Riot documents them.

How it differs from today’s Fizz

The two Classic abilities with documented changes share names with live Fizz, but the notes only confirm their AP scaling, not their full behavior. For the live kit in depth, see the Fizz guide; for live numbers, check Fizz stats and builds. Ability by ability, this is what can and cannot be compared.

Passive: live Fizz has Nimble Fighter, which lets him move through units and take a flat amount of reduced damage. No Classic entry describes his passive, so it cannot be confirmed as the same.
Q – Urchin Strike: same name in both. Live, it is a dash through the target that deals magic damage and applies on-hit effects. The Classic notes only give its AP ratio, so whether the legacy version behaves identically is not stated.
W – Seastone Trident: same name in both. Live, his attacks cause a magic damage bleed and he can empower his next attack and the ones that follow. The Classic entry refers to an active AP ratio, which confirms an active part, but the rest of the legacy text is not in the notes.
E – Playful / Trickster: live, Fizz hops onto his spear, becomes untargetable, then slams down or jumps again. No Classic entry mentions his E.
R – Chum the Waters: live, he throws a fish that latches onto a champion, then a shark knocks up the target and pushes nearby enemies aside. No Classic entry mentions his ultimate.

The practical takeaway: the Classic notes make clear that Fizz’s burst leaned hard on AP scaling from Q and W. If you know live Fizz, expect the same names on those two buttons, but do not assume every detail carries over.

Classic patch history

Fizz has one Classic balance entry so far: a nerf in Patch 26.20, the patch that brought him to the mode. He had been one of the strongest performers in League Classic, trailing only Graves, mostly as an AP assassin in mid. The fix cut the AP ratio on Urchin Strike and on the Seastone Trident active, borrowing softer versions of nerfs the live game made in 2013 and 2015. The goal was to shrink his guaranteed burst while leaving the fighter version intact. Every Classic change is also tracked in our patch notes.

Patch 26.20

Riot’s reasoning
The cuts to his Q and W scaling target Fizz’s high-AP assassin builds in mid lane, shrinking his guaranteed burst while keeping his fighter style intact.

QUrchin Strike

Ability Power Ratio: 60%changed to 40%

WSeastone Trident

Active Ability Power Ratio: 35%changed to 20%

MID.GG analysis

Both changes hit ability power ratios only, so the penalty grows the more AP Fizz builds, which pushes the AP assassin version down without directly touching a fighter setup. Urchin Strike and the Seastone Trident active lose a large share of their scaling, so a full-AP Fizz needs more help from items and teammates to finish targets he used to delete on his own.

Key takeawayWhat the 26.20 nerf means

The cut is aimed at one way of playing Fizz, not the champion as a whole.

Both nerfs reduce how much ability power adds to his damage, so the more AP he stacks, the more he loses.
His fighter playstyle was meant to come through the change mostly untouched.
Q and W lost a sizeable share of their scaling, so a high-AP Fizz has less guaranteed burst than when he arrived.

Frequently asked questions

What is different about Fizz in League Classic?

The documented difference is his ability power scaling. Patch 26.20 cut the AP ratio on Urchin Strike from 60% to 40% and the active AP ratio on Seastone Trident from 35% to 20%, targeting high-AP assassin builds. Riot’s Classic notes do not yet describe his passive, E or ultimate, so those cannot be compared.

When did Fizz arrive in League Classic?

Fizz arrived in League Classic in Patch 26.20. That same patch also carries his first Classic balance change, a nerf to the ability power scaling on his Q, Urchin Strike, and the active on his W, Seastone Trident, after he proved one of the strongest performers in the mode, behind only Graves.

Was Fizz nerfed in League Classic?

Yes. In Patch 26.20, Classic Fizz lost AP scaling on two abilities: Urchin Strike dropped from a 60% to a 40% AP ratio, and the Seastone Trident active fell from 35% to 20%. The nerf targets his high-AP assassin play in mid lane while aiming to keep his fighter playstyle viable.

Is there a Classic Fizz build, tier or win rate?

No. League Classic has no published statistics, so there are no win rates, pick rates, tiers, builds or runes for Classic Fizz. What exists is Riot’s patch entry, which notes that Deathfire Grasp and Lich Bane added reliable damage to his kit and that his high-AP play was the target of the Patch 26.20 nerf.

Sources

Riot Games: League of Legends Patch 26.20 Notes