Riot previews LoL patch 26.11 with keystone and jungle tweaks

Riot Games previewed League of Legends Patch 26.11, putting keystone changes ahead of broad champion updates a few weeks into Season 2. The patch shifts Deathfire Touch to magic damage, includes six champion adjustments, and brings targeted item and jungle tuning.

In a post on X, lead designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison outlined the plan. “We’re adjusting Deathfire Touch this patch to deal Magic Damage,” he wrote, citing its strong interaction with Black Cleaver and a better fit for the effect. He described the keystone as otherwise in a reasonable state.

On the champion side, AP Xin Zhao is being toned down, with healing identified as too high compared with sustain-focused picks. Leung-Harrison wrote that the team wants to keep the style viable while reducing its durability.

Brand in bot lane and Smolder have benefited from Deathfire Touch. Riot plans direct tuning to Smolder on top of the keystone change and expects him to remain strong. The update also aims to make his crit-focused builds more attractive so he is easier to punish later in a match.

Heimerdinger is set for quality-of-life fixes after recent minion changes made his turrets more vulnerable. Ranged minions will no longer clear turrets without drawing return fire. Interactions with 550-range champions are being clarified based on how range is calculated in-game. The vision duration on his E is being raised slightly so the turret beam fires before vision expires in edge cases.

Teemo is receiving a small power reduction. The change offsets a buff to Statikk Shiv in the same patch and is framed as a light push down on his overall strength in top lane.

Riot also addressed support dynamics tied to Season Start role quests. Ranged supports have led the role thanks to strong ADC partners and steady quest stacking in lane, while roaming has carried higher costs for both support and ADC progress. The team does not plan to undo those incentives, but it will slightly increase rewards for early “grubs” to open roaming windows after the laning phase.

Items are getting updates to raise the appeal of underbought choices and sharpen each item’s purpose. Experimental Hexplate is being retuned to work for both melee and ranged champions. Current standouts include Nocturne, Olaf, Vayne, and Varus. The goal is to broaden viable users and make durability-versus-damage trade-offs clearer for Vayne and Varus, including in top lane builds.

In the jungle, small adjustments are planned for Diana and Ekko to improve clear and pacing. Their mid-lane performance remains largely fine, and the changes focus on jungle viability.

Riot did not provide a release date in the preview and positioned 26.11 as the next live patch. The studio emphasized that keystone balance leads the update, followed by six champion changes and a focused set of item and jungle tweaks.

On May 20, League of Legends suffered an outage, with Downdetector reports from users topping 11,000.