Is Gwen still good after the Patch 26.4 nerfs?

Yes, but she's no longer S-tier. The Q and R damage nerfs are noticeable. She's still strong into melee-heavy comps but can't be blind-picked as freely.

What is the best ADC on Patch 26.4?

Samira is the biggest winner with full lifesteal on Q and R. Xayah also received meaningful buffs. Jinx remains strong despite minor armor growth nerfs.

Does the new ping detection system ban players?

Not directly. The system detects disruptive pinging patterns and can auto-mute or flag accounts for review. It's a warning system with escalating penalties for repeat offenders.

Is Darius jungle viable in Patch 26.4?

With passive monster damage increased from 2x to 2.5x, Darius jungle clear is noticeably faster. He's viable in Gold and below but unlikely to be meta in Diamond+.

What changed about Lee Sin's W in Patch 26.4?

Lee Sin's W2 (Iron Will) now grants Omnivamp instead of separate Lifesteal and Spell Vamp. It's mostly a neutral change in practice since Omnivamp no longer applies to Summoner Spells.

League of Legends Patch 26.4 notes and champion changes

Season 16 -- Act 1

Patch 26.4: The One Where Gwen Gets Gutted

Q: When does Patch 26.4 go live?

Patch 26.4 is live as of February 19, 2026. All regions are updated within the standard maintenance windows.

Live on February 19, 2026. Buffs to jungle flex picks, Samira finally gets her lifesteal back, and Riot adds a system to detect if you're spam-pinging your 0/7 bot lane.

Patch 26.4 is the last patch of Act 1, and Riot is clearly trying to shake up the meta before Act 2 drops. There's a lot here, but most of it boils down to: jungle diversity buffs, overperforming champs getting slapped, and a few quality-of-life changes that should've existed years ago.

Let's cut through the noise.

The Buffs That Actually Matter

Not every buff is created equal. Some of these are "nice for ARAM I guess" and some are "this champion is about to be pick/ban." Here's the stuff that moves the needle.

Buffed

Samira

Samira26.3 WR: ~49%

Q lifesteal: 80% → 100% | R lifesteal: 80% → 100%

Huge. Full lifesteal on ult means she heals for real in teamfights. Expect +2-3% winrate. Pick/ban incoming.

Lux

Mana: 480 → 440, regen: 7 → 9 | Q CD: 11-9s → 10s flat | W CD: 14-10s → 12-10s

Support Lux is the real winner. More shields, more bindings, less running out of mana at level 3.

Graves

Graves26.3 WR: ~49.5%

E armor/stack: 4-16 → 7-19 | E MR/stack: 2-8 → 3.5-9.5

Was struggling into AP junglers. More E resistances means he can actually trade in skirmishes.

Xayah

Q mana: 50 → 35 | E mana: 30 → 20 | W CD: 20-16s → 18-14s

Out of meta for a while. Lower mana costs + W cooldown buff could sneak her into A-tier.

Hwei

Hwei26.3 WR: ~50.1%

WW shield: 100-200 → 100-260, ally mod: 75% → 85% | R CD: 140/115/80s → 120/100/80s

More survivability and more ults. Still hard to play, but rewarding if you put in the time.

Annie

Annie26.3 WR: ~50.3%

Q damage: 80-240 → 80-260 | E CD: 12-10s → 10s flat

+20 damage on max Q means burst combo kills earlier. If you're below Gold, ban her.

Quick take: Riot is clearly pushing jungle diversity this patch. Brand, Camille, Darius, Fizz, Maokai, Teemo, and Udyr all got monster damage or jungle-specific buffs. If you're a jungle main, your champion pool just got a lot wider. If you're a laner who hates getting ganked by weird picks... sorry.

Jungle Flex Buffs

These are all targeted at making more champions viable in the jungle. None of them change how these champs play in lane.

Brand

Passive monster damage increased

Brand jungle was a thing years ago. His clear was too slow to compete -- this should fix that.

Camille

E attack speed now applies always (not just on champion hit)

Camille jungle is back. E giving AS on camps means her clear actually functions. Ganks were always insane.

Darius

Darius26.3 WR: ~49.4%

Passive monster damage: 2x → 2.5x

Darius jungle in your ranked games. You've been warned.

Fizz

Fizz26.3 WR: ~51.2%

W monster bonus damage: 60 → 90

Always been a cheese pick. This makes it slightly less troll. Terrifying if he hits 6 before you expect it.

Maokai

Q bonus monster damage: 120-160 → 140-180

Already decent. This just makes his first clear less painful. Good for tank jungle enjoyers.

Teemo

E monster damage mod: 145% → 160%

Teemo jungle. In ranked. In 2026. We live in a society.

Udyr

Q on-hit: 5-35 → 5-45 | W shield: 45-120 → 45-145

Better scaling means he doesn't fall off a cliff after 20 minutes. Phoenix and Tiger both benefit.

Illaoi

Illaoi26.3 WR: ~49.8%

Passive tentacle base damage: 9-180 → 9-200

More tentacle damage means she wins the all-ins she's supposed to win. Stop fighting her in the tentacle zone.

The Nerfs: Who Got Hit

This is the part where we pour one out for the champions that were having too much fun. Gwen and Syndra players, I'm sorry. Actually no, I'm not sorry at all.

Nerfed

Gwen

Gwen26.3 WR: ~51.8%

Q damage/snip: 10-30 → 10-24 | R damage/needle: 35/65/95 → 30/50/70

The big one. Both main damage abilities got hit. She won't melt you in 1.5 seconds anymore. Probably 2 seconds now.

Syndra

W damage: 70-210 → 70-190 | R damage/sphere: 90-170 → 80-160

Best mid for two patches straight. Burst combo doesn't one-shot from full HP anymore. Still strong, not S+ tier.

Kassadin

HP growth: 119 → 113 | E slow: 50-90% → 50-70%

Too safe for a "scaling assassin." Less health + E slow nerf makes him actually punishable in lane.

Jinx

Jinx26.3 WR: ~52.2%

Armor growth: 4.7 → 4.2

Best ADC with the seventh item slot. Assassins can actually kill her mid-game now. Still great late, more vulnerable getting there.

Swain

W slow: 50-70% → 50% flat | R DPS AP: 5% → 4% | R2 AP: 50% → 40%

Support Swain has been obnoxious. Less slows means you can actually walk away from him.

Kennen

R cooldown: flat 120s at all ranks

Ult CD was absurdly low at rank 3. Can't teamfight every 60 seconds in late game anymore.

Naafiri

HP regen: 7.5 → 6, growth: 0.7 → 0.6 | Q mana: 55-75 → 50-90 | E mana: 35 → 40

Triple nerf. Free-roaming playstyle just got a lot more expensive. She has to think about mana now. Novel concept.

Rumble

Base HP: 655 → 640 | R max damage: 700/1050/1400 → 600/1000/1400

Ult was doing too much for how easy it is to land in choke points. Less base health too.

The rest of the nerfs -- Ambessa (jungle damage down), Aphelios (passive AD down), Braum (R damage and cooldown), Kayle (Q damage), Qiyana (health growth), Rengar (Q restructured), and Twitch (health/armor growth) -- are all minor tuning. None of them kill the champion. If you main any of these, you'll barely notice.

The Adjustments: Changed, Not Buffed or Nerfed

These are the interesting ones. Riot isn't making these champions stronger or weaker -- they're changing *how* they work.

Adjusted

Lee Sin

W2 (Iron Will) now grants Omnivamp instead of Lifesteal + Spell Vamp

Modernization change. Omnivamp works on everything. Net neutral for most players, simplifies his kit.

Senna

Q: 30-150 (+40% bAD) → 30-130 (+60% bAD) | W: 70-250 (+70% bAD) → 70-230 (+90% bAD)

Support Senna nerf, ADC Senna buff. Full AD builds come out ahead. Riot wants her to commit to a role.

Zac

Q: 40-100 (+3% max HP) → 60-180 (+3% bonus HP) | R max: 350/525/700 → 300/475/650

Q now scales with bonus HP instead of total. Full tank Zac does more damage, AP Zac takes a hit.

System Changes: The Stuff Nobody Reads (But Should)

System

Disruptive Pinging Detection

Riot added an automated system that detects when you're spam-pinging your teammates. If you're the type of player who question-mark pings your jungler 47 times after dying to a solo kill, congratulations -- you're now on Riot's radar.

The system tracks "disruptive pinging patterns" and can mute you automatically or flag your account. It's not clear yet how aggressive the detection is, but the intent is obvious: stop tilted players from using pings as a harassment tool.

Honestly? Good. Pings are for communication, not for passive-aggressively telling your bot lane they should uninstall.

Omnivamp No Longer Applies to Smite/Ignite

Small but meaningful. Champions that build Omnivamp (Eclipse, Riftmaker, etc.) no longer heal from Summoner Spell damage. This mostly affects junglers who were getting free healing from Smite. It's a minor nerf to sustain-heavy jungle builds.

Hexoptics C44 Item Change

The vision item got tweaked. If you play support, check the tooltip. If you don't play support, this doesn't affect you.

ARAM Mayhem Mode

ARAM got some kind of "Mayhem" event changes. If you're reading a patch notes breakdown for ranked advice, you probably don't care about ARAM. Moving on.

Patch 26.4 Winners and Losers

Here's the TL;DR. If you want to climb this patch, play the winners. If you main a loser, maybe take a break or play something else for two weeks.

Winners

Samira -- Full lifesteal on ult is a massive buff. She's going to be pick/ban in bot lane.
Camille (Jungle) -- E always granting attack speed makes her jungle clear functional. Her ganks were already top-tier.
Lux (Support) -- More shields, more bindings, less mana issues. She was already popular, now she's better.
Xayah -- Mana cost reductions and W cooldown buff bring her back into the conversation. Pair her with Rakan and it's a strong lane.
ADC Senna -- Higher AD scaling means lethality Senna hits harder. Support Senna loses, but carry Senna wins.
Off-meta junglers -- Brand, Darius, Fizz, Teemo all got jungle-specific buffs. Your solo queue games are about to get weird.

Losers

Gwen -- Q and R damage both nerfed. She was the best top laner for two patches. Now she's just good.
Syndra -- W and R damage down. Still viable, but not the free-win mid pick she was.
Naafiri -- Triple nerf (HP regen, Q mana, E mana). Her free-roaming playstyle just got a lot more expensive.
Kassadin -- Less tanky, less sticky. Assassin players who relied on his safety net need to play more carefully.
Support Senna -- Base damage nerfs hurt when you're not building AD. Fasting Senna is fine, enchanter Senna is worse.
Spam pingers -- The new detection system is coming for you. Maybe try typing "gj" instead of question-mark pinging 15 times.

New Skins: Petals of Spring

Patch 26.4 brings the Petals of Spring skin line featuring Camille, Jayce, Katarina, Lillia, and Yasuo. There's also a Divine Architect Porcelain Aurelion Sol skin, which is the prestige-tier one for this event.

The Petals of Spring skins have a cherry blossom aesthetic -- soft pinks, flowing petals, that kind of vibe. Yasuo and Katarina skins will probably sell the most because, well, they always do. The Lillia skin looks clean though.

If you're a Camille main who just got buffed for jungle AND got a new skin in the same patch, this is your moment.

How This Affects Your Ranked Games

If you're grinding ranked right now, here's what to actually do with this information:

Ban Samira. Seriously. Full lifesteal on her ult in teamfights is going to be disgusting until people learn to buy anti-heal. And even then, she'll still be strong.

Pick up Xayah if you play ADC. She's been out of the meta long enough that people forgot how to play against her. The mana buffs fix her biggest weakness (running out of mana after two trades). Pair with Rakan for maximum tilt.

Don't panic if you main Gwen or Syndra. They're nerfed, not dead. Gwen still wins extended trades, Syndra still has insane zone control. You just can't autopilot anymore.

Expect weird jungle picks for the first week. Every autofilled jungler is going to try Darius or Teemo jungle because they saw it on Reddit. Some of them will int. Some of them will carry. That's solo queue.

Want to see how your MMR is holding up this patch? Check it with our free MMR checker -- it'll show you if your hidden rating matches your visible rank, and whether you should expect good or bad LP gains.

If your account's MMR is tanked from a bad streak, sometimes the fastest path to climbing is starting fresh. A new smurf with clean MMR means you're not fighting the system's confidence intervals for hundreds of games. Check out our NA accounts, EUW accounts, or OCE accounts if you want a head start.

Climbing on Patch 26.4?

Check your hidden MMR, see if your LP gains are healthy, and find out if you're being held back by a tanked rating.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When does Patch 26.4 go live?

Patch 26.4 is live as of February 19, 2026. All regions should be updated within the standard maintenance windows.

Is Gwen still good after the nerfs?

Yes, but she's not S-tier anymore. The Q and R damage nerfs are noticeable in extended fights. She's still a strong pick into melee-heavy comps, but you can't blind-pick her and expect to win every lane.

What's the best ADC on Patch 26.4?

Samira is the biggest winner this patch with full lifesteal on her Q and R. Xayah also got meaningful buffs. Jinx is still strong despite the armor growth nerf. If you want to climb as ADC, those three are your best bets.

Does the ping detection system actually ban you?

Not directly. The system detects disruptive pinging patterns and can auto-mute you or flag your account for review. It's more of a warning system than an instant punishment. But if you're consistently toxic with pings, expect escalating penalties.

Is Darius jungle actually viable now?

With the passive monster damage going from 2x to 2.5x, his clear is noticeably faster. His ganks were always strong (pull + slow + bleed is terrifying). He's not going to be meta in Diamond+, but in Gold and below? Absolutely viable. Just don't first-pick it in ranked without practicing first.

What happened to Lee Sin's W?

Lee Sin's W2 (Iron Will) now grants Omnivamp instead of separate Lifesteal and Spell Vamp. In practice, this is mostly a neutral change -- he heals about the same amount. The main difference is Omnivamp works on Smite damage... except Omnivamp no longer applies to Summoner Spells as of this patch. So it's basically a wash.

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LoL Patch 26.4 Notes: All Buffs, Nerfs, and Changes (2026)