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League of LegendsLoL Patch 26.17 is a champion-heavy balance patch aimed squarely at the bot lane and skirmisher pools. Vayne and Nasus both give up base stats, LeBlanc rebuilds her scaling around a much higher base attack speed, and the Yasuo / Yone crit penalty softens for the first time in three seasons. Stormrazor and Sundered Sky also move, which reshuffles marksman itemization on top of the champion changes.
LoL Patch 26.17 release date and context
The patch is scheduled for the standard biweekly cadence: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, following Patch 26.16's ADC buffs and roaming-support nerfs from August 12. It is the last significant balance touch before the 2026 World Championship patch, which lands early September and freezes the meta for the pro tournament.
Every champion buff in Patch 26.17
Cho'Gath
- E Vorpal Spikes damage: 20-100 (+30% AP) (+2.5-3.9% target max HP) → 30-110 (+30% AP) (+2.5-3.9% target max HP)
A flat +10 damage across all ranks on Vorpal Spikes. That is a modest solo lane push-power buff — Cho'Gath will clear caster minions one auto earlier at levels 3 and 5, which matters for his weak early game. Ranked impact: minor, but enough to keep him tenable in Emerald and below.
Irelia
- Q Bladesurge AD ratio: 70% AD → 80% AD
A +10% AD ratio on the ability she uses to reset and trade in every skirmish. This scales through the whole game and lands hardest in the mid-game 3v3 fights around drakes. Expect Irelia to jump one full tier in the top lane meta.
LeBlanc
- Base attack speed ratio: 0.4 → 0.625
- Base attack speed growth: 2.35% → 1.5%
- W / RW Distortion / Mimic AP ratio: 80% → 90%
This is a full mechanical rebuild. LeBlanc's attack speed ratio of 0.4 was the worst in the game; raising it to 0.625 fixes her CS problems and gives her a real auto-attack cadence for early trading. The growth cut keeps her late-game DPS roughly identical. The W ratio buff is the real damage lever — expect her assassination combos to hit noticeably harder at 3 items.
Qiyana
- Q Elemental Wrath damage: 70-190 (+85% bonus AD) → 80-200 (+90% bonus AD)
A double buff on her wave-clear and trading tool. Ranked impact is limited unless you main her: Qiyana's floor is high, and this patch does not lift her skill ceiling. Solid mains will feel it in mid-lane trades and jungle skirmishes.
Yasuo and Yone
- Passive Way of the Wanderer / Way of the Hunter crit strike damage reduction: -10% → -5%
Both wind twins get their crit-damage penalty softened. At three crit items with Infinity Edge, this is roughly a 4-5% raw damage increase on every critical strike. That is a real DPS bump and it comes at a time when both champions are already trending upward. Watch their ban rates spike the week the patch drops.
Trundle
- W Frozen Domain attack speed: 30-90% → 30-120%
A +30% attack speed ceiling on max rank. Trundle's Frozen Domain up-time is short, so this mostly matters in dueling and Baron / Elder fights. Trundle jungle keeps his hard-counter status against tanks and gains a real dueling window against bruisers.
Aurelion Sol
- Q Breath of Light mana cost: 35-55 → 25-45
- W Astral Flight cooldown: 22-16 seconds → 22-14 seconds
Pure quality-of-life for a champion the pros love and the ladder ignores. Cheaper Q gives him laning up-time; a two-second reduction on max-rank W means faster roams and better safety at all stages.
Every champion nerf in Patch 26.17
Graves
- Q End of the Line initial damage bonus AD ratio: 65% → 55%
- Q return damage: 0/125/170/215/260 (+55/70/85/100/115% bonus AD) → 80/125/170/215/260 (+45/60/75/90/105% bonus AD)
A targeted nerf to Graves' burst window at ranks 2 through 5. His level 6 clear timing is unchanged, but skirmishes at 2 items — the exact stage where he was ending games — hit noticeably softer. Expect a two-tier drop in the jungle tier list.
Nasus
- P Soul Eater lifesteal: 12/18/24% → 10/15/20%
A flat -4% lifesteal across the board. Nasus loses laning sustain that lets him survive short trades against ranged tops, which pushes him back into the Q-farm-and-scale niche. Solo queue mains will feel it more than pros.
Nocturne
- Base armor: 38 → 36
- Base health: 655 → 640
Small base-stat cuts. Nocturne clears the same but takes more damage on invades and level-3 skirmishes. Ranked impact is minor — this is a nudge, not a hit.
Thresh
- E Flay active damage: 75-255 (+70% AP) → 65-245 (+60% AP)
Flay's damage drops by 10 flat and 10% AP. The knockback and CC are unchanged, so Thresh keeps his utility identity, but his poke pattern with Dark Harvest and Comet setups loses some sting. Roaming supports remain the target of the current patch cycle.
Vayne
- Base health: 550 + 103 per level → 580 + 98 per level
- Health regeneration: 3.5 + 0.55 per level → 4 + 0.5 per level
- Base attack speed ratio: 0.658 + 3.3% per level → 0.67 + 2.8% per level
- Q Tumble mana cost: 30 → 46-30
- W Silver Bolts true damage: 6-10% max HP → 4-10% max HP
- W Silver Bolts minimum damage: 50-110 → 40-100
This is the biggest single-champion touch of the patch. Vayne gets a flatter stat curve — beefier at level 1, weaker at level 18 — and her ranked-first identity as a tank-shredder takes a real hit at rank 1 of W. Early Tumble also costs more mana. Ranked climb impact: Vayne drops from S to B in the ADC tier list, especially for players who rely on the Blade of the Ruined King rush.
Xerath
- Base armor: 22 → 20
- Q Arcanopulse damage: 75-235 (+90% AP) → 70-230 (+90% AP)
Xerath gets slightly softer in the early game and slightly softer poke. A -5 damage cut on Q at all ranks means one more Q needed to full-clear a caster wave through level 6. Poke supports fall behind roaming supports for the second patch in a row.
Item changes
- Stormrazor — attack speed 20% → 25%
- Sundered Sky — attack damage 45 → 40, health 450 → 400
Stormrazor becomes the fastest crit rush in the game. That 25% attack speed pushes Kai'Sa, Xayah and Jhin toward Stormrazor first-item builds over Kraken Slayer. Sundered Sky moves the other way — the AD and HP cuts make it a worse Fighter Mythic on champions like Sett and Volibear.
What Patch 26.17 means for your ranked climb
Three concrete calls for the two weeks that follow the patch. First, ADC mains should switch to Ashe, Jhin or Kai'Sa with a Stormrazor rush — Vayne is out and the other picks benefit from the new item. Second, Yasuo, Yone, Irelia and LeBlanc jump to first-pick tier in mid and top; ban one of them if you cannot play into their new spikes. Third, skirmish jungle drops — Graves is nerfed and Nocturne loses base stats. Kindred, Viego and Trundle become the safer climbers.
