Riot Games has rolled out Patch 26.21 for League of Legends, and it is a big one. The update touches 25 champions on Summoner's Rift, adjusts four items and settles the debate over replay access with a compromise that keeps the feature open to everyone.
Riot published the patch notes recently, with the patch going live yesterday.
Replays Stay Available With A 10 Per Hour Cap
The headline change for many players has nothing to do with balance. Earlier this month (October 7th), Riot delayed its previously announced replay changes to Patch 26.21, saying it wanted a solution in place so that creators and coaches who rely on replays would not be meaningfully impacted. That solution has now arrived in the form of a download limit.
The patch notes explain the reasoning. According to Riot, the change is necessary "to prevent large-scale abuse of downloaded replays by bad actors using vibecoded apps to scrape thousands upon thousands of replays." The developer added, "We opted for a time-based limit to still allow creators to make content, while preventing mass exploitative downloads."
Caitlyn, Jinx And Lee Sin Get Nerfed
In his early preview of the update, Riot's Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison explained that with the Worlds patch locked in, the team is "stabilizing the Ranked environment for end of season climbs."
Caitlyn is one of the biggest targets. Riot said she has been at a very high pick and ban rate for months, so it is moving power out of her late game headshots and into her early Q. Her headshot damage now caps at 80% AD instead of 100%, while Piltover Peacemaker's base damage rises to 230 at max rank. Jinx loses 20 base health and some attack damage growth after staying dominant even with last patch's Hurricane nerf.
Lee Sin's Safeguard cooldown goes from 7 to 8 seconds, and Dragon's Rage now deals 150/350/550 kick damage instead of 175/400/625. Qiyana, Nidalee, Rammus, Wukong, Viktor, Tristana, Yone and Locke are also trimmed. Tristana's early Q attack speed drops to 40% at rank one, which Riot said should stop her from taking complete control of the lane with a level one Q.
Azir, Orianna And Ryze Get Room To Breathe
On the other side, Riot is giving some help to champions that it said have had suppressed win rates because of pro play. Azir's mana growth rises from 40 to 50 per level, Orianna's Q and W get higher AP ratios, and Ryze gets stronger late game scaling after his early game nerfs in 26.19.
Nunu & Willump get a large boost to Absolute Zero, with maximum damage climbing to 750/1100/1450. Sion, Miss Fortune, Darius, Taliyah, Vel'Koz, Xin Zhao and Zyra also receive buffs. Taric's spells will now fire on untargetable allies, and Twisted Fate's Destiny now reveals untargetable units. Varus gets a larger rework that moves power out of his W max builds and into Piercing Arrow.
Item Changes
Gluttonous Greaves now cost 1100 gold instead of 1000 after overperforming on marksmen. Hubris is split into melee and ranged versions, with melee users getting more bonus AD and ranged users getting less. Bastion Breaker loses lethality, but its Sabotage effect now lasts indefinitely. Dawncore gets more AP per 100% base mana regeneration to help it work in more support builds.
Beyond Summoner's Rift, the patch launches the ARAM: Mayhem Journey to Stardom update, adds the True Damage Know My Name skins and brings back a classic version of Mordekaiser in the Classic mode.
Which Patch 26.21 change are you happiest about, and do you think the replay limit is a fair compromise?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.