LoL Patch 26.1 Preview – Is this the best offseason of recent times?

With 2025 coming to an end this month, here are all the planned changes coming for the first update of the new season, the LoL Patch 26.1. As usual, it’s going to be a big patch, with adjustments to champions, items, and even the ranked system.

LoL Patch 26.1 – Adjustments to crit damage users

The last update of the 2025 season, Patch 25.24, made it to the live servers on December 3, and it came with a few tweaks to specific champions, hoping to shake the meta one last time before the ranked year comes to an end.

While the players will be making the last grind to reach their desired rank, a lot of the attention has been given to the new season changes, which will see the introduction of role quests, the removal of Atakhan, and the addition of new items.

Even though the 2026 season is still more than a month away, we have gotten our first batch of adjustments, which will primarily focus on crit damage users. These changes will predominantly impact ADC and crit champions like Yasuo, Yone, and Tryndamere, given that Riot has confirmed that the crit damage will return to being 200% instead of the 175% from this season.

Additionally, given that ADCs will receive a seventh item slot going forward, many of the champions in this class have been slightly nerfed to compensate for the extra stats granted. You can find out all the number changes in the section below. We will be adding new leaked changes over time before the new season kicks off.

LoL Patch Notes 26.1 Preview

Champion Changes

Akshan

• Passive turret crit damage modifier: 30% ⇒ 100%
• Q base damage: 5 – 85 ⇒ 45 – 165
• Q AD ratio: 80% total ⇒ 70% bonus
• E crit modifier: 90% ⇒ 50%
• R crit modifier: 50% ⇒ 70%

Aphelios

• Calibrum mark bonus AD ratio: 20% ⇒ 10%
• Sentry AD ratio: 42% – 60% ⇒ 30% – 48%
• Onslaught base damage: 10 – 40 ⇒ 10 flat
• Onslaught AD ratio: 22 – 40% bonus ⇒ 19 – 40% total
• Duskwave base damage: 25 – 65 ⇒ 20 – 110
• Duskwave bonus AD ratio: 56 – 80% ⇒ 10 – 16%
• R crit damage modifier: 45% ⇒ 75%

Ashe

• Attack speed growth: 3.33% ⇒ 3%
• AD growth: 3.45 ⇒ 3
• Passive damage: 75% ⇒ 100%
• W AD ratio: 110% ⇒ 100%

Caitlyn

• Headshot crit chance modifier: 85% ⇒ 100%
• R crit chance ratio: 50% ⇒ 30%

Cassiopeia

• Passive T3 boot replacement: 1 – 18 move speed ⇒ 3 – 54 AP

Corki

• W base damage: 200 – 500 ⇒ 150 – 450

Draven

• AD growth: 3.6 ⇒ 3

Garen

• E crit damage modifier: 80% ⇒ 70%

Graves

• Pellet crit damage modifier: 45% ⇒ 35%

Jhin

• Passive crit damage modifier: 86% ⇒ 75%

Jinx

• Attack speed growth: 1.4% ⇒ 1%
• R max base damage: 250 – 550 ⇒ 200 – 500
• R max bonus AD ratio: 130% ⇒ 120%

Kindred

• E monster damage cap: 300 ⇒ 200

Lucian

• Attack speed growth: 3.3% ⇒ 2.5%
• AD growth: 2.9 ⇒ 2.5
• Q base damage: 85 – 205 ⇒ 80 – 220
• Q bonus AD ratio: 60 – 120% ⇒ 100% flat
• R crit chance per bullet: 4% ⇒ 4.5%

Miss Fortune

• Q bounce crit: 175% ⇒ 150%
• R crit damage: 120% ⇒ 130%
• R now has a base damage of 20 – 40 per wave
• R AD ratio: 80% ⇒ 60%

Nilah

• Attack speed growth: 2.25% ⇒ 2%
• Q base damage: 5 – 25 ⇒ 10 – 50
• Q AD ratio: 90 – 110% ⇒ 100% flat
• Q armor pen: 0 – 33% ⇒ 0 – 30%
• Q crit bonus damage: 0 – 100% ⇒ 0 – 80%
• R mana cost: 80 ⇒ 100

Quinn

• Passive base damage: 10 – 95 ⇒ 15 – 120
• Passive AD ratio: 16 – 50% total ⇒ 40% bonus

Rengar

• Q AD ratio: 100 – 115% ⇒ 100% flat
• Empowered Q AD ratio: 130% ⇒ 120%

Samira

• Q AD ratio: 95 – 125% ⇒ 100% flat
• Q crit modifier: 125% ⇒ 150%
• R AD ratio: 45% ⇒ 25%
• R base damage: 5 – 25 ⇒ 20 – 60

Senna

• Passive crit damage modifier: 100% ⇒ 90%

Shaco

• Passive bonus AD ratio: 25% ⇒ 15%
• Q backstab damage: 155% ⇒ 150%

Sivir

• Q AD ratio: 85% ⇒ 70%
• Q crit chance ratio: 0 – 50% ⇒ 0 – 40%

Smolder

• Passive Q crit ratio: 40 – 75% ⇒ 40 – 50%
• Q crit ratio: 0 – 75% ⇒ 0 – 50%

Tristana

• E base damage: 60 – 100 ⇒ 60 – 160
• E bonus AD ratio: 100 – 140% ⇒ 80%
• E crit ratio: 0 – 75% ⇒ 0 – 40%

Tryndamere

• Q bonus AD: 5 – 25 + 0.15 – 0.55 per 1% per missing HP ⇒ 0 + (up to 20 – 80 at 90% missing HP)
• W slow: 30 – 60% ⇒ 25 – 45%
• E base damage: 75 – 195 ⇒ 70 – 210
• E bonus AD ratio: 130% ⇒ 100%

Twitch

• Attack speed growth: 3.38% ⇒ 3%
• AD growth: 3.1 ⇒ 3
• Q attack speed: 45 – 65% ⇒ 40 – 60%

Viego

• Q passive crit ratio: 175% ⇒ 150%
• Q active crit ratio: 0 – 75% ⇒ 0 – 50%
• R crit ratio damage: 120 – 240% ⇒ 120 – 150%

Yasuo

• Passive now has 10% crit penalty again (to compensate for the increased crit damage)

Yone

• Passive now has 10% crit penalty again (to compensate for the increased crit damage)

Yunara

• Q attack speed: 25 – 65% ⇒ 20 – 60%
• RW base damage: 175 – 525 ⇒ 160 – 480
• RW bonus AD ratio: 150% ⇒ 120%

Zeri

• W AD ratio: 130% ⇒ 120%
• E base damage: 20 – 28 ⇒ 17 – 25
• E bonus AD ratio: 12% ⇒ 10%
• R base damage: 200 – 400 ⇒ 150 – 350

System Changes

No system changes announced as of yet.

What are the most impactful changes in Patch 26.1? 

Looking at the preview, it’s still very early to make a clear call on how the meta will change. Based on Riot’s plan for the new season, we should expect top laners and ADC to have a much higher impact in the game, with both support and junglers having a lower agency in the early game. Aside from that, we should expect teams to go for scaling-focused team compositions, given that teams will benefit from extra gold granted by turret plates and objectives.

New Skins

• Prestige Veiled Lady Morgana – Battle Pass reward
• Durands Legacy Taliyah – Battle Pass Reward
• Petricite Nautilus
• Petricite Cho’Gath

When will LoL Patch 26.1 be released?

While the official patch schedule for the 2026 season has yet to be unveiled, the first patch of the new year is expected to go live on January 7, 2026, when all the new changes should be released and the new ranked season will start.