LoL Patch 26.22: Riot Keeps Buffing the Champions It Held Back for Worlds

LoL Patch 26.22 goes live on November 4, the same day Gen.G and LYON play their Worlds quarterfinal on an older build.

That timing is the story. For the second patch running, Riot is buffing champions it deliberately held back while Worlds was being prepared. Last time it was Azir, Orianna and Ryze. This time it is Corki and Rumble.

The Worlds debt, paid in instalments

Riot says it out loud in the Corki notes: “We were cautious about Corki’s power level going into Worlds, but now (like Azir and Orianna), he has some more space to be better for everyone.”

• Corki R damage: 90/170/250 (+85% bonus AD) to 100/190/280 (+90% bonus AD)
• Corki Big One: 180/340/500 (+170% bonus AD) to 200/380/560 (+180% bonus AD)
• Rumble R AP ratio: 35% to 40% per second, which takes the full-duration ratio from 175% to 200%

Rumble gets the same explanation. He “was tuned for pro play”, and Riot expects the change to help the average Rumble more than the pros once teams catch up to the patch cycle.

So if Corki shows up in Allen this week, it is the older, more careful version. The one in your games now hits harder. Our quarterfinals schedule has every match this week.

Viktor gets a softer version of the same idea. Riot admits last patch’s nerf “hit him harder than we expected” but likes what it did to his early bullying. So the power comes back in scaling: health growth from 100 to 105 per level, and his R from 50% to 60% AP.

Why LoL Patch 26.22 is a bigger download

If your client is taking longer than usual today, this is why. Teamfight Tactics moves to its own standalone client from November 4, and Riot made this patch larger to prepare for it.

• Switching between League and TFT should take one button press
• TFT cosmetics you already own stay usable in League
• The first TFT-only Little Legends arrive on December 1
• From December 15, new TFT cosmetics, including emotes and icons, stay in TFT

The useful part comes later. Riot plans a future option to opt out of TFT downloads in League patches entirely. That is what this larger download is building toward, and anyone who never touches TFT should get smaller patches once it ships.

Mel’s new W, with real numbers

We covered the Mel rework when Riot published the dev post in October. Every direction in that post shipped. LoL Patch 26.22 finally shows the size of it.

Rebuttal is a 400-unit nova that expands over 0.75 seconds. It destroys enemy projectiles, shields Mel and her allies for 80 to 200 (+70% AP), and gives them 10 to 30% move speed for two seconds. Every missile it destroys triggers a hit back on its caster when the nova ends, up to seven per enemy.

Three numbers stand out.

• W costs nothing at rank 5. Mana goes 100/80/60/40/0, and cooldown drops from 30 to 24 seconds
• R drops to a 60-second cooldown at rank 3. It was 120/100/80 and is now 120/90/60
• E is much weaker up close early. The root used to be a flat 1.5 seconds. It now scales with distance, from 0.8 to 1.6 seconds at rank 1 and up to 2.2 seconds at rank 5

That last one is the laning cost. Point blank at rank 1, her root is close to half what it was.

Her base stats trade early safety for late value too. She starts with 50 less health, 590 instead of 640, but grows faster per level and ends up with roughly 86 more at level 18.

Locke, Yasuo and Thresh come down

Riot’s line on Locke is worth reading: he “has proven to be a much deeper champion than we initially expected”, and the players who reached that depth showed he is “still clearly too strong, especially early game”.

• Locke Q: stack bonus damage from 18-50 to 15-43, so a full stack at rank 5 drops from 210 to 180.6
• Locke W: duration from 6 to 5 seconds
• Yasuo Q: 105% to 100% total AD, the same treatment Yone got last patch as crit builds pushed his win rate up
• Thresh: base AD from 56 to 54, and The Box from 250/400/550 to 200/350/500

Thresh is the one Riot is visibly annoyed about. This is his second nerf, because the first one did not move him off the top of the support list for high-level players.

What changed since the preview

Riot’s Phroxzon posted the full preview last week, and we covered it the same day. Almost all of LoL Patch 26.22 landed exactly as previewed. One change did not.

The preview gave Aurelion Sol’s E a flat 70% AP ratio. The final version scales by rank instead, from 60% to 80%.

That is a smarter change than it looks. Riot’s stated goal is to make ranking his Singularity second the correct choice, because most players were doing it anyway. A flat 70% would have rewarded every Aurelion Sol, whatever they maxed. The per-rank ratio only pays off if you put the points into E.

Two smaller notes. GameRiv reported that Aurora and Renekton appeared in the first version of the preview and then dropped out. Neither has a balance change in the final notes, and both show up only as bug fixes.

The patch introduction also mentions Gluttonous Greaves alongside Doran’s Bow, but there is no Greaves change in the item section. The last one was the 100 gold increase in Patch 26.21.

Everything else on Summoner’s Rift

The rest of LoL Patch 26.22 on the Rift, in short.

• Doran’s Bow: 8 to 7 AD. Riot says marksmen who should lean toward Doran’s Blade had become almost pure Bow users
• Overlord’s Bloodmail: 30 to 40 AD, with Retribution capped at 10% total AD instead of 12%. Riot wants a net buff for most users without ballooning Sett, who gets the most from Retribution
• Kayle: Q cooldown from 12-8 to 10-8 seconds, R from 160/120/80 to 140/110/80
• Maokai: Q max health damage from 2-4% to 2.5-4.5%, aimed at getting him out of support and back into top and jungle
• Naafiri: Q heal from 45-105 (+40% bonus AD) to 55-115 (+45%), W bonus AD from 20% to 22%
• Shen: Q monster damage from 100-200% to 120-200%, a straight jungle buff
• Smolder: W explosion from 10-110 to 25-125 base damage, and Riot expects the Doran’s Bow nerf to help him too
• Zaahen: Q cooldown from 10-6 to 8-6 seconds, for more early skirmishing

The bug list has one worth knowing: Quinn’s R could deal double damage after she regained it from recalling or respawning. Riot fixed it.

ARAM Mayhem: tanks finally get help

Riot’s verdict on Journey to Stardom is blunt. Fighters became exceptionally good at closing games, poke took over early, and tanks felt fragile.

• Nerfed: Take ‘Em Down Down Down no longer scales with attack speed or Ability Haste and sits at a flat 17% missing health, Weapon of Destiny loses a large share of its penetration, and BEES!!! and Armored Impact lose damage
• Buffed: Soul Eater, Stay Resolute, Ravenous Bind, Squishy Slappy Grab and Titan’s Resolve, all survivability
• New: RISE!, named after the 2018 Worlds anthem, resets your Ultimate when it kills a champion, up to three times. One Hit Wonder trades Ability Haste for raw damage on one ability

Butcher’s Bridge and Koeshin’s Crossing are back in rotation, as Riot promised last patch. The final page of the Journey to Stardom track is open too.

League Classic: Volibear, Swain and Elise

Riot calls this the penultimate content patch for Classic, which means one more before it rotates out in January.

Volibear arrives as the winner of Council Vote #2, in his 2011 to 2018 form. Swain returns as the 2010 to 2016 Laser Bird. Elise brings an older kit with more power in her Q, which Riot describes as “incredibly potent” in top lane.

Janna’s global Tailwind drops from 3% to 2% move speed, and Amumu, Fiddlesticks and Rammus all come down in the jungle. Evelynn, AP Ezreal, Gangplank, Nami and Olaf get buffs. Riot even fixed an Aatrox Q bug dating back to 2013.

The practical one: Riot misconfigured this act’s Classic Pass, so tokens came in slower than intended. Riot has corrected it, and per-game token grants go up 50% for the rest of Classic’s run.

K/DA Firestarter skins

K/DA’s comeback single FIRESTARTER gets its skins in LoL Patch 26.22. Our K/DA music coverage has the background on the return.

• K/DA Firestarter Ahri, Evelynn and Kai’Sa
• K/DA Firestarter Ignition Akali
• K/DA Hitmaker Evelynn
• Prestige Classic Baron Kog’Maw

Music Fan Gragas also gets a Firestarter chroma.

None of this patch reaches Worlds, which stays on its locked build through the final in Brooklyn on November 14. Riot’s full notes are on the official League of Legends site, and we cover every patch in our League of Legends section.