Riot's lead gameplay designer Matt "Phroxzon" Leung Harrison has dropped the first preview for League of Legends Patch 26.18, and it already looks like an important step on the road to Worlds 2026. The early rundown covers seven champion buffs, five nerfs, one meaningful rework for Cassiopeia and a system change to Guinsoo's Rageblade.
WHEN DOES PATCH 26.18 COME OUT?
Patch 26.18 will arrive on September 10, 2026 according to the official patch schedule, and the next PBE cycle will begin 2 weeks later, right after the patch goes live.
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PATCH 26.18 BALANCE CHANGES
CHAMPION BUFFS
Ekko
Q Mana: 50-90 → 40-80
Q Return Damage AP Ratio: 60% → 70%
Kassadin
Q AP Ratio: 70% → 80%
R Base Damage: 70/90/110 → 80/95/110
Master Yi
AR Growth: +4.5/Level → +5/Level
R MS: 35-55% → 40-60%
Viego
P Heal: NEW +2% per 500 bonus HP scaling added
AD Growth: 3.5 → 4
Zaahen
Q placed on CD immediately upon entering Resurrection
Q2 Damage: 25/50/75/100/125 → 30/60/90/120/150
CHAMPION NERFS
Bard
Base AR: 34 +5/Level → 32 +4.7/Level
Nautilus
Base AD: 61 +3.3/Level → 58 +3.3/Level
Q Damage: 85-265 (+90% AP) → 85-245 (+90% AP)
Seraphine
E CD: 11-9s → 11s
Syndra
P Splinter Mana: 20-255 → 20-199
W CD: 12-8s → 13-9s
Zeri
W Damage: 30-190 (+120% total AD) → 30-190 (+100% total AD)
W Wall Damage: 45-285 (+180% total AD) → 45-285 (+150% total AD)
CHAMPION ADJUSTMENTS
Cassiopeia
P MS Bonus: 6%-40% → 5%-35%
E Mana Cost: 40 → 45
E Base/Enhanced AP Ratio: 10%/55% → 20%/45% (Total 65% unchanged)
E Base Damage: 52-120 → 50-118
Q Damage: 75-215 (+65% AP) → 65-205 (+75% AP)
R Damage: 150/250/350 (+50% AP) → 125/225/325 (+75% AP)
SYSTEM BUFFS
Rageblade
Seething Strike Stack Duration: 3s → 4s
Why Master Yi made the buff list
Master Yi's place on the buff list ties directly into the Rageblade change. Back in Patch 26.14, Riot recoded how Rageblade functions, and that recode quietly pushed the Phantom Hit trigger from six attacks up to seven. A handful of champions who lean on Rageblade felt that shift more than intended, and Master Yi was one of the biggest losers. Patch 26.18 is meant to give some of that lost power back, whether that ends up being raw stats, a Phantom Hit tweak or something else inside the item.
Seraphine is getting nerfed again
Seraphine landing on the nerf list will not shock many players. Phroxzon says she has sat in the top three of Riot's regular frustration surveys for several patches in a row, and her pairing with Ashe has become one of the stronger bot lane duos in professional play, giving Riot another reason to pull power from her kit.
The tricky part for Riot is that Seraphine gets played across three very different roles. Support is by far her most popular position, so Riot wants to keep prioritizing that experience while trying not to gut her farming builds in Mid and Bot along the way. Phroxzon also addressed earlier community pushback over a past cut to Seraphine's Q AP ratio, saying AP scaling is still one of the main levers Riot has to keep her farming builds in check without overtuning her as a Support pick.
Cassiopeia trades early lane strength for scaling
Cassiopeia is the only champion listed as an adjustment rather than a straight buff or nerf. Since Deathfire Touch returned to the game in Patch 26.9, Cassiopeia has become notably strong at higher levels of play, in both Solo Queue and on stage.
Riot's plan for 26.18 is to keep the overall change close to power neutral: pull some of her early game lane strength and shift it toward her scaling instead. The stated goal is to make it harder for Cassiopeia to win lane purely off landing Noxious Blast, while keeping her identity as a strong laning mage intact later into the game.
Guinsoo's Rageblade is getting some power back
The only item change confirmed so far is a buff to Guinsoo's Rageblade. As mentioned above, this corrects a side effect of the Patch 26.14 recode, which unintentionally slowed Phantom Hit's trigger from six stacks to seven. Expect the effects to ripple beyond Master Yi to other on hit and attack speed champions who build the item, once the full numbers land.
What this means heading into Worlds 2026
With Worlds set for Patch 26.20, Phroxzon's framing of 26.18 makes clear that Riot is already weighing the competitive meta alongside regular Ranked play. Five picks with real professional or high MMR presence, Seraphine, Zeri, Bard, Nautilus and Cassiopeia, are all being touched in some way, while buffs to Aurelion Sol, Kassadin, Renekton and Viego look aimed at pulling underused champions back into the pool before the meta locks in for the tournament.