The 26.10 patch preview for League of Legends is out. With Season 2 now out, this first patch aims to make a few changes to some of the early pain points. While only nine champions are being directly buffed or nerfed, there are lots of changes to other champions, systems, and much more. From @RiotPhroxon on X Source
Champion Changes
Zed and Naafiri
We have to talk about Zed and Naafiri if talking about Cyclosword.
As 2 of the AD Assassins with a functional poke pattern, these champs were always going to benefit from Cyclosword’s new passive in the same way that if there was no AD Sheen item and we added one, it would be disproportionately powerful on those users.
We’re taking care not to overly nerf these two champions, but they’re also too strong with Cyclosword.
We’re giving a small nerf to both champions, but they will still likely be strong after the nerfs, as it seems reasonably likely that we’ll need to adjust Cyclosword in the future as its true balance state becomes more known (and we don’t want to Riot special these champions).
Systems Changes
Probably the biggest chatter on the patch is Deathfire and Gluttonous Greaves.
Deathfire is looking a little too strong, especially in the laning case, but the audience it’s landed on has been great in giving some of these champs a keystone they’re actually happy with.
After the micropatch nerfs, the power level is in a much more reasonable spot, so just a small adjustment here. Gluttonous Greaves has picked up a nice new user base, especially Fighters and AD Assassins who might not have another offensive boot option (outside of Lucidity).
We think the boots are too strong, both in non-mid roles and in mid with the boot upgrade.
So far, Stormraider’s has landed a bit weak, so we’re giving it a bit of a tap up.
One of our goals with the Dusk and Dawn changes was to help differentiate it a bit from Lich Bane.
Small buffs to Doran’s Bow and Helm
Doran’s Bow at this tuning is the most efficient starting item, but the tradeoff to all of the others is opening yourself up to dying from ganks and all-ins.
We’re also giving a small buff to Doran’s Helm as it’s predominantly a K’Sante item at this tuning, and we think it can be broadened to more users.
In 26.11, we intend to make a change to Cleaver and its interaction stacking with Deathfire Touch to give it an internal cooldown – These changes were too risky to do on this patch, however.
Lich Bane changes are aimed at providing more differentiation to Dusk and Dawn on the Movespeed and Burst Damage aspect, however we don’t think we can go much higher than these values.
Cyclosword is looking a little strong, and so we’re giving it a nerf. At the same time, we think after these changes it will still be a bit on the stronger side, but we want to give it a bit more time to stabilise, and we can discover the shape of the optimized patterns and what users come out with.
Apex Ranked (reset regions)
Apex MMR’s settle for another patch before re-evaluating whether or not duo should be re-enabled. We have investigated several of the “Emeralds in Masters lobbies” cases, which have so far fallen into:
1. A player who didn’t play much prior to the reset, so they are still starting from Emerald (as if they were playing in the early days of 2026).
2. A person who is climbing a fresh account and has a really high winrate (and close to Masters); though a reminder that this is not faster to climb than playing on your main.
3. An Emerald (or multiple) duoing with another Emerald or Diamond player (especially Diamond player with a high MMR) – So far, I haven’t seen anything broken about these games; they are typically fair both MMR and LP wise, even if visual ranks look a bit off.
We’ll update this post with more details of the 26.10 patch as Riot releases them.