LoL Patch 26.18 Preview: Master Yi & Viego Buffs, Zeri Nerf, Cassiopeia Rework

The LoL Patch 26.18 preview is out, and the headline is the bot lane getting cleaned up. Zeri and Seraphine both lose power, Nautilus and Bard get shaved on the support side, and Syndra takes a mana and cooldown hit in mid. On the other end, jungle carries are the winners: Master Yi, Viego and Ekko all get real buffs, and a Rageblade change hands power straight back to the on-hit crowd.

Patch 26.18 is scheduled to go live on September 10, 2026. These are PBE values and can still change before release. Aurelion Sol and Renekton are also listed for buffs, but their numbers were not finalised when this preview went up.

Champion Buffs in LoL Patch 26.18

Yi already got a Rageblade dependency, and this preview pairs a system buff to that item with a direct armor and ult-speed bump. Five percent more Highlander move speed is a lot for a champion whose entire game plan is reaching the backline before he gets kited. Do not expect him to sit still on the tier list.

The passive-heal scaling is the interesting part. Viego's sustain now grows with the health he builds anyway, so bruiser and tanky-DPS Viego both get more forgiving in extended fights. The AD growth quietly raises his damage at every level without touching his reset ceiling.

Ekko mid lives and dies by tempo: clear the wave, roam, come back before he loses a plate. Ten less mana on Q and a stronger return hit let him do that loop more often without running dry. It is a mid-lane buff, not a reason to force him back into the jungle.

The R base-damage bump is front-loaded at rank one and two, which is where Kassadin actually needs it, right when he first hits level 16 and starts hunting. His lane is still miserable until then. Nothing here changes that trade, it just makes the payoff a bit fatter.

Champion Nerfs in LoL Patch 26.18

Zeri's charged W is her long-range execute and her best poke tool, and this cuts 20% to 30% of its AD scaling. She keeps the mobility and the Q machine-gun pattern, so she is not dead, but the free chunk she lands from max range gets noticeably smaller.

Flat 11-second E cooldown means Seraphine's charm-slow no longer speeds up as she ranks it. She has been an S-tier support and a menace bot for two patches, so a lever that only touches her control uptime is a targeted, low-collateral nerf.

Syndra leans on her passive mana refund to keep throwing spheres. Cutting the late value of that refund and adding a second to W means fewer free poke rotations in the mid game, which is where she was starting to snowball games on her own.

Nautilus does not carry with damage, he carries with a hook that starts a kill. Trimming his base AD and Q damage makes his early all-ins a little less lethal without touching the crowd control that makes him a permanent pick.

This is the lightest nerf on the list. Bard wanders for chimes and meeps, and two less base armor punishes the moments he gets caught out doing it. It will not move his win rate much, but it nudges the safest roaming support toward a bit more accountability.

Champion Rework

This is a scaling swap, not a buff or a nerf. Cassiopeia loses base damage on Q, E and R and a slice of her passive move speed, and gets a chunk of it back as AP ratios: 25% more on her ultimate, 10% more on Q. Early lane bullies who first-strike her have an easier time, but a Cass who reaches three items hits harder than she does now. Expect her to feel worse in the first ten minutes and scarier after.

System Changes in LoL Patch 26.18

A one-second longer stack window sounds tiny, but it is exactly what on-hit champions want when they get peeled off a target and have to re-engage. This is why Master Yi shows up on the buff list too, and it helps Kog'Maw, Kai'Sa and every other Rageblade abuser hold their ramp between auto-attacks.

How LoL Patch 26.18 Shakes Out

The bot lane is the story. Zeri loses a big chunk of W scaling, Seraphine loses her ranked-up E cooldown, and Nautilus and Bard both get shaved on the support side. That is four of the most-picked bot champions of the last two patches getting touched at once. If you have been dodging Seraphine and Zeri, September 10 is your window to pick up ground before everyone else adjusts. Check the live tier list once the patch lands to see who fills the gap.

The jungle swings the other way. Master Yi, Viego and Ekko all get direct buffs, and the Rageblade change stacks on top of Yi and the other on-hit carries. Expect a faster, more carry-heavy jungle meta, which usually drags AD assassins down a peg and makes tanks more valuable on the enemy side.

Mid lane is a mixed bag. Syndra gets reined in, while Ekko, Kassadin and the reworked Cassiopeia all get scaling help. Cassiopeia is the one to watch: if you are the type who plays for three items and a 30-minute powerspike, she gets meaningfully better. If you rely on winning lane, she gets worse.

None of this is locked. These are PBE numbers and Riot routinely tweaks them in the two-week runway before a patch goes live. Treat this as the direction, not the final board. If you want to see where you actually sit before the meta moves, run your account through the MMR checker first, or browse the patch notes archive for the previous cycles.

LoL Patch 26.18 FAQ