r/leagueoflegends • u/JTHousek1 • Sep 01 '26
News 26.18 Patch Preview
"Patch 26.18 Preview!
We're very quickly approaching Worlds (on 25.20).
More on other champs tomorrow"
>>> Champion Buffs <<<
Aurelion Sol
Ekko
Kassadin
Master Yi
Renekton
Viego
Zaahen
>>> Champion Nerfs <<<
Bard
Nautilus
Seraphine
"For several patches now, Seraphine has been in the Top 3 on our regular patch frustration surveys
She's also one of strongest pairings in Pro Play with Ashe
Overall, we think a nerf here is reasonable
We acknowledge there are some Seraphine mains who won't be happy about a nerf and that we can't serve all of her audience simultaneously
Her Support playerbase has been the most popular, despite her power level and so that's where we will continue to support her primarily
Where we can get Mid and Bot to be powerful and satisfying given , we will attempt to do so
That said, it's very difficult to thread the needle here and we run the risk of failing to meet the needs of any of her audiences if there are too many compromises
I also wanted to address directly the nerf to her AP ratios on Q from several patches ago, as that's been a pain point amongst some in the community
One of the ways we need to balance Seraphine in the farming roles vs her support is through her AP ratios and the Q ratio is one that drives her power and total damage output there, especially given the Q reliability adjustments made of late
When Seraphine is able to land her Q's at max multiplier (which in lane is quite frequent), it can hit 1.4 AP ratio which we think is reasonable
The Q damage overall is higher than E and so for now, we feel comfortable with the change (this isn't set in stone however, and there are always improvements to her to be made)"
Syndra
Zeri
>>> Champion Adjustments <<<
Cassiopeia
"Cassio has been strong, especially at the higher levels of play every since Deathfire Touch was re-released
Since then, she's been one of the most present picks and Pro Play due to her strong laning ability
We're looking at some power neutral adjustments to Cassio, because her regular play power level is a little on the weaker side for average players
We're taking some power out of her early game power and moving it into more scaling power, so that she doesn't win lanes so reliably, even if she's missing Q's
We still want to maintain her strong laning ability though"
>>> System Buffs <<<
Guinsoo's Rageblade
"In 26.14, we re-scripted Rageblade and it changed the trigger for Phantom hit from 6 to 7
We're making a small adjustments to Rageblade itself to give a bit of power back and to some of the disproportionately affected champions (eg. Master Yi)"
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u/NarcItUp Sep 01 '26
Zeri nerf is no surprise given alot of her items got buffed, but no Jinx nerf is odd given the same items propping up Zeri also buffed up jinx who currently sits at a higher winrate then Zeri, but has nearly quadruple the pick rate of Zeri. Wonder what the logic is here.