LoL Patch 26.21 Notes: Winners, Losers and Picks

Patch 26.21 targets the bot lane carries and meta junglers that have shaped solo queue for months. Jinx, Tristana and Gluttonous Greaves are nerfed, Lee Sin, Nidalee and Rammus lose jungle power, and Caitlyn is adjusted so her damage arrives in lane instead of at full build. Orianna, Ryze, Azir and Nunu & Willump get scaling buffs, and Hubris is nerfed for ranged users.

Every stat line sits on the cards below, with our pre-patch win and pick rates. For other patches, start from our LoL patch notes.

The clearest winners are low-win-rate champions whose buffs land on their late-game power spike. The table below lists every patched champion’s pre-patch win and pick rates against an average of 50.1%.

Orianna is the biggest winner. Her Q and W AP ratios both rise, so the bread-and-butter ball combo hits harder in every mid and late teamfight without touching her lane. She enters the patch at 45.5%, 4.6 points under average and the lowest of any champion touched, so expect a real recovery rather than an instant meta pick.

Ryze gets paid for scaling again after the Patch 26.19 early nerfs. His W AP ratio rises to 70%, his top-rank Flux bonus climbs to 100%, and Q’s bonus move speed reaches 50% at rank 5. Rank 1 Flux drops slightly, so his early skirmishes stay muted, but full-build Ryze kites and bursts noticeably better.

Nunu & Willump gets back the damage he lost when Hextech Rocketbelt was nerfed. Absolute Zero’s maximum damage rises at every rank, up to 1450 at rank 3, so a full channel on a grouped team around Dragon or Baron Nashor now decides fights. Jungle Nunu players who start the ult from fog gain the most.

Miss Fortune is buffed to offset the Hubris nerf. Make It Rain now ranges from 90 to 210 base damage, and Bullet Time’s crit damage rises from 130% to 145% with better scaling from bonus crit damage. Crit builds come out clearly ahead; Hubris lethality builds roughly break even.

Jinx takes the most meaningful nerf in bot lane. Her base health drops from 630 to 610 and her AD growth from 3.25 to 3 per level, which makes her easier to all-in before items and slows her pre-item damage. She enters at 51.4% with an 18.8% pick rate, so even a small cut will move her numbers.

Tristana loses her level 1 lane control. Rapid Fire’s attack speed at rank 1 drops from 60% to 40%, while rank 5 stays at 120%. She can no longer press Q and auto-attack her way to lane priority, so engage supports get a window they did not have before.

Lee Sin is nerfed twice: Safeguard’s cooldown rises from 7s to 8s and Dragon’s Rage loses base damage at every rank. The longer W cooldown slows the ward-hop and shield chains he uses in early duels and invades. He already sits at 46.6%, 3.5 points under average, so the players still learning him will feel it most.

Hubris on ranged champions is the item loser. Ranged users drop to 10 base bonus AD and 2 AD per stack, which cuts the snowball value that made it a staple on lethality marksmen.

Twenty-five champions change this patch, with the weight on bot lane, jungle and mid. Every card shows the full stat lines and the champion’s pre-patch rates.

Caitlyn’s adjustment moves power from full-build headshots, which now cap at 80% AD, into a Piltover Peacemaker that reaches 230 base damage. She wants to win lane, take plating and end before full build; long scaling games are now less favorable. Her pick rate sits above Jinx’s while her win rate trails it, which is why this is a presence correction rather than a strength one.

Varus is adjusted to push him out of top lane. Blighted Quiver’s on-hit and percent-health damage drop, while Piercing Arrow now scales from minimum damage toward a fully charged shot of up to 391 base damage. Bot lane Q-max Varus gains on fully charged arrows; top lane W-max builds lose their passive damage.

Nidalee loses Pounce damage and Primal Surge attack speed, which slows her clear and trims her skirmish damage. Rammus’s Defensive Ball Curl now scales up to 50% of his armor and magic resist instead of 60%, so late-game Rammus is easier to kill, but his early clear and ganks are untouched. Wukong is adjusted: jungle Wukong loses early passive armor, while lane Wukong gains base health regeneration.

Taliyah and Xin Zhao pick up the slack. Unraveled Earth now deals 225% damage to monsters on top of its damage buff, which speeds her clear and rewards the stun combo. Xin Zhao’s adjusted scalings help both bruiser and attack speed builds after the Sundered Sky nerfs.

Azir’s mana growth rises from 40 to 50 per level, so he can spam soldiers to contest lane before his first item. Viktor is nerfed with move speed down from 335 to 330 and a smaller Siphon Power shield, which makes early ganks on him more reliable. Yone’s Q ratio drops from 110% to 105% AD, and Qiyana loses part of her Patch 26.17 Q buff.

Locke is adjusted: less mana growth, a pricier W and a smaller grey health store weaken his lane sustain, while AP scaling on W and more E blink damage lift his late game. Twisted Fate’s Destiny now reveals untargetable units, a quality-of-life adjustment with little power attached.

Darius’s rank 5 Decimate cooldown drops from 5s to 4s, rewarding sustained fights over one-shot combos. Sion is adjusted with health growth up from 87 to 95 per level and an R damage ramp that rewards channeling into a team rather than away from it.

In support, Zyra’s seeds recharge faster at early ranks, Vel’Koz’s passive now reaches 205 base damage with a higher AP ratio, and Taric’s Q, E and R now fire when his bound ally turns untargetable. Dazzle still will not cast from Vanished allies, so Master Yi funnels stay limited.

Three of the four item changes are nerfs aimed at marksmen and generic stat sticks. Dawncore is the only buff.

Hubris now splits by range. Melee champions get 15 base bonus AD and keep 3 per stack, while ranged champions drop to 10 base and 2 per stack. Lethality marksmen lose value, and melee assassins and fighters get a better reason to buy it.

Gluttonous Greaves rise from 1000g to 1100g, which delays the early purchase that gave marksmen value even with few stacks. Bastion Breaker drops from 22 to 18 Lethality and loses Shaped Charge damage, but its Sabotage bonus against objectives no longer expires, so it returns to being a split-push and turret item.

Dawncore’s AP per 100% base mana regeneration rises from 10 to 15. That makes it a damage option for mana-regen enchanters beyond Soraka, instead of a pure healing and shielding item.

No balance systems change, but three notes affect how you use the client.

Replay downloads are capped at 10 per hour during Patch 26.21. You can still download your own replays and those of friends and other players; the cap exists to stop automated tools from scraping replays in bulk. If you review VODs in batches, spread your downloads across the session.

The Mythic Shop’s Bi-weekly, Weekly and Daily rotations are being realigned ahead of Patch 26.22, when each player starts seeing personal offers. Watch the rotation timers if you are saving Mythic Essence. The patch launcher also now needs a CPU that supports SSE 4.2, which raises the AMD minimum spec by one version.

Mode changes are covered on the Arena Patch 26.21 page and the ARAM: Mayhem Patch 26.21 page.

Play champions whose buffs land on their main power spike, and pick against marksmen that lost early power. Check our champion pages for builds and our guides for matchup and wave advice.

The True Damage Know My Name line arrives on 21 October 2026, led by a Prestige Ekko, with skins and chromas for Akali, Qiyana, Senna and Yasuo.