LoL Patch 26.7 Preview: Every Buff, Nerf & System Change

Patch 26.7 preview is here and it's a nerf-heavy patch. Six champions getting hit, only three getting buffed, and one adjustment for the freshly reworked Shyvana. Riot is clearly in cleanup mode after 26.6 shook things up.

The headline is the support farming penalty being completely removed. That's right — gone. After loosening it in 26.6, Riot decided the mechanic has outlived its purpose. Mage supports everywhere are celebrating.

On the champion side, the Cassiopeia buff is interesting because she just got buffed in 26.6 and they're doubling down. Kalista and Rell are getting meaningful power. Meanwhile Graves, Karma, Nami, Ornn, Singed, and Veigar are all catching nerfs — some of these are pretty targeted.

Shyvana's fury generation is getting reworked from a flat passive rate to a scaling system tied to Ultimate Haste. That's a meaningful change to how she builds and plays.

Champion Buffs

Three buffs this cycle. Cassiopeia is getting more love after her 26.6 changes, Kalista's E AD scaling is going up, and Rell is getting a proper power injection across E and R.

Champion Nerfs

Six nerfs. This is where the patch gets busy. Graves loses base AD, Karma's shield is getting toned down, Nami's W bounce modifier is getting hit, Ornn's Brittle is weaker, Singed R stats are down, and Veigar's R cooldown is going up.

Champion Adjustments

System Changes

One system change, but it's a big one.

This was coming. In 26.6 they raised the pre-5 minute threshold from 7 to 24 kills and the post-5 minute threshold from 20 to 30 per 5 minutes. Now they're just pulling the plug entirely. The mechanic was a relic from a different era of the game.

For support players, this is pure quality of life. No more accidentally losing gold because your Brand E bounced to a minion during a trade. No more getting punished for clearing a wave while your ADC is dead. You still won't want to actively farm lanes (your support item quest needs you to not be last-hitting), but the penalty for incidental CS is gone.

What This Means for the Meta

This is a correction patch. Riot buffed a bunch of stuff in 26.6 and now they're pulling back on what overshot.

The Cassiopeia double-buff is the most interesting thing here. She got mana and E damage in 26.6, and now she's getting even more of both. Riot clearly has a target winrate in mind for her and she hasn't hit it yet. If you're a Cass player, this is your patch cycle.

Kalista getting E scaling is the kind of buff that separates good Kalista players from great ones. The base damage is unchanged — it's the per-stack scaling that's going up. So if you're landing 2-3 spears and rending, the difference is small. But if you're stacking 6-7 spears in an extended fight, the damage increase is substantial.

The Rell buffs are real. More movespeed on E means she can actually engage without feeling like she's running through mud, and the R damage going from 120 to 150 at rank 1 is a 25% increase. She might actually see play again.

On the nerf side, Graves losing 2 base AD is the classic Riot "we know this champion is strong but we don't want to gut them" nerf. It'll shave a few percent off his winrate without changing how he plays. Karma's shield nerf is more targeted — it specifically hits her Mantra E teamfight power, which is what makes her oppressive in pro play.

The Veigar R cooldown change is interesting. At rank 1, going from 100s to 120s is a 20% increase. That's one fewer ult per mid-game teamfight cycle. At rank 3 it's unchanged at 60s, so late-game Veigar is the same. This specifically targets his mid-game spike where he starts one-shotting people.

Once 26.7 goes live, check our tier list — it updates with live winrate data every patch cycle.

FAQ