League of Legends Patch 26.21 went live on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, and it is the first patch in a while that has nothing to do with Worlds. Riot's notes say it straight: "Worlds has begun, but time still passes for the rest of us non-professional mortals." The tournament is locked on 26.20, so this is the patch where Riot finally gets to swing at the solo queue problems it left alone during the pre-Worlds freeze.
And it swings. Caitlyn and Jinx, the two bot lane picks that have been in nearly every ranked lobby for months, both get hit. The jungle staples Lee Sin, Wukong, Nidalee and Rammus all lose power. Sion, Nunu, Darius and a group of quiet mages get help, Hubris finally stops being a ranged item, and Gluttonous Greaves costs more. Outside Summoner's Rift you get a big ARAM: Mayhem release called "Journey to Stardom," four more throwback champions in League Classic, a heavy Arena pass, and a new limit of 10 replay downloads per hour.
Everything below comes from Riot's official Patch 26.21 notes, published October 20 at 18:00 UTC (1:00 p.m. CT). If you skipped the last cycle, our Patch 26.20 guide covers the Worlds patch this one is reacting to.
When Did Patch 26.21 Go Live?
Riot lists October 21, 2026 as the release date for the patch's skins, and the patch followed the usual Wednesday rollout. Servers update region by region, so if your client still shows 26.20 for a little while on Wednesday, that is normal.
One thing to keep in mind if you watch Worlds: the matches you see on stream are not played on this patch. Riot says 26.21 gives champions like Azir, Orianna and Ryze "a bit more breathing room with the Worlds patch locked in." In other words, the pro meta and the ranked meta split today. Something you see dominate a Swiss Stage draft may already be nerfed in your own games, and the other way around.
Replay Downloads Are Now Limited to 10 per Hour
This is the change most likely to annoy content creators, so it is worth reading Riot's reasoning. Starting during 26.21, you can download 10 replays per hour. You can still grab your own games, your friends' games and other players' games, just not in bulk.
Riot says the limit exists "to prevent large-scale abuse of downloaded replays by bad actors using vibecoded apps to scrape thousands upon thousands of replays." It picked a time-based cap instead of a hard block so creators can keep making content, and it says it will keep watching download numbers to make sure normal players are not hurt.
For most people this changes nothing. If you review your own games after a session, ten an hour is plenty. If you run a channel that pulls dozens of high-elo replays at once, plan your downloads across a longer window.
The Big Nerfs: Bot Lane and Jungle Staples
Here is every champion that loses power in 26.21, with Riot's stated reason in plain words.
Caitlyn and Jinx
Riot did not hide where its attention was. Caitlyn has been "at a very high pick and ban rate for most players for months now," and Jinx has been "similarly dominant in the meta, even with the Hurricane nerf last patch."
Caitlyn's change is the more interesting one because it is a reshape, not a flat cut. Her Headshot damage drops from 60-100% AD to 60-80% AD, and the crit scalings fall from 1% to 0.8%. That takes a big chunk out of the full-build headshots that delete squishies late. In exchange, Piltover Peacemaker gets more base damage at every rank after the first, ending at 230 instead of 210. Caitlyn players will feel stronger in lane and weaker at 40 minutes. If you were relying on her late game to bail out a bad early game, that plan just got worse.
Jinx loses a little bit everywhere: AD growth goes from 3.25 to 3 per level and base health from 630 to 610. That is roughly 20 health and about 4 AD less at level 18 in base stats. It sounds small, but Jinx's whole game is surviving long enough to get her first reset, and 20 less health means more level 2 and level 3 all-ins go the wrong way for her.
Lee Sin, Wukong, Nidalee and Rammus
Four jungle nerfs in one patch tells you Riot thinks the role got too predictable. Lee Sin's W goes from a 7s to an 8s cooldown, and both parts of Dragon's Rage lose 25/50/75 base damage. There is also a bugfix: Tempest no longer reveals enemies who stealth after being hit by it.
Wukong loses jungle durability through Stone Skin (4.5-10 armor per stack instead of 6-10) but gets base health regen raised from 3.5 to 5.5 to help top lane Wukong, where regen matters more. Nidalee loses damage on Pounce and attack speed on Primal Surge. Rammus, who Riot says "has been rolling over pretty much everyone else," loses a little bonus armor and magic resistance on Defensive Ball Curl, and the scaling cap drops from 60% to 50%.
If you main any of these four, you are still fine. None of them got gutted. You will just notice clears and ganks that used to work by a hair now fail by a hair.
Mid and Top: Viktor, Yone, Qiyana and Tristana
Viktor loses 5 move speed and part of his Siphon Power shield. Riot calls it "Glorious... Devolution" and says it wants him "slightly more vulnerable in early game skirmishes." Yone's Q drops from 110% to 105% AD. Qiyana gets a partial revert of her 26.17 Q buff. Tristana's Q attack speed now starts at 40% instead of 60%, because Riot does not like the "Level 1 press Q and just auto attack" lane pattern.
Varus gets a rebuilt Q and W meant to hit the top lane W-max version while keeping bot lane Q-max Varus intact. W on-hit and stack damage drop, and Q now uses a minimum damage scaling with up to 70% bonus based on channel time. Locke gets a mixed bag: less mana growth, a costlier W and a smaller grey health store, but better Q refunds and more E damage, so he scales better if the game goes long.
The Big Buffs: Sion, Nunu and a Mage Comeback
Sion is the headline buff. His health growth jumps from 87 to 95 per level, which works out to about 136 more health at level 18. His ultimate, Unstoppable Onslaught, now ramps up to +200% damage over the first 3 seconds of channeling. Riot says it wants to reward Sion for using the ult to "GET IN THERE rather than run away." Translation: the long engage ult that crashes into the backline now hits much harder than a short escape ult.
Nunu & Willump get back some of the damage they lost when Hextech Rocketbelt was nerfed, with Absolute Zero max damage going up by 125 to 175 at each rank. Darius gets a 4s Q cooldown at rank 5, which Riot says will help him be "a persistently durable damage threat" in long fights instead of a one-combo champion.
The mage group is where 26.21 gets interesting for mid and support players. Azir gets more mana growth so he can contest lane with Q, Orianna gets small ratio bumps on Q and W, and Ryze gets more reward on Q at higher ranks after his 26.19 nerfs. Taliyah gets a stronger E so her combo feels better to land, and Vel'Koz and Zyra get help because "tanks and enchanter supports have reigned supreme." If you have been waiting for an excuse to play a damage support again, this is a decent one.
Quality of Life for Taric and Twisted Fate
Taric's abilities used to fizzle if his bound ally became untargetable at the moment of the cast, an old fix aimed at the Master Yi and Taric funnel. Riot says Role Quests make that restriction unnecessary, so Q, E and R now fire on untargetable allies. The exception is Dazzle, which still will not cast from Vanished allies, meaning champions who disappear from the screen. Riot's note on that one ends with "sorry, Master Yi." Twisted Fate's Destiny now reveals untargetable units too.
Item Changes: Hubris, Greaves, Bastion Breaker and Dawncore
Hubris is the big one for marksmen. Riot says it has been "clearly overperforming" on ranged users while being weak on melee. Now melee champions get 15 base AD and 3 per stack, and ranged champions get 10 base AD and 2 per stack. Riot names this as the reason Miss Fortune got her buffs, since she leaned on Hubris.
Gluttonous Greaves goes up by 100 gold to 1100g, because marksmen were getting too much value even with few stacks. Expect a slightly later first boots spike for ADCs who rushed them.
Bastion Breaker loses generic stats (22 to 18 Lethality, lower Shaped Charge base damage) but its Sabotage bonus no longer expires after 90 seconds. You keep it until you use it on an objective, which is a real quality of life win for split pushers.
Dawncore gets 15 AP per 100% base mana regen instead of 10. Riot calls it "the enchanter capstone that isn't," noting only Soraka really buys it.
What 26.21 Means for Your Ranked Games
Putting it together, here is how this patch should feel in solo queue over the next two weeks.
- Bot lane opens up. Caitlyn and Jinx are not dead, but the gap between them and the rest is smaller. Miss Fortune gains from both her own buffs and the Hubris split. Lane bullies who win early may like Caitlyn's new Q.
- The jungle gets less predictable. Lee Sin, Wukong, Nidalee and Rammus all got trimmed at once. Taliyah's E buff and Xin Zhao's scaling buffs give a couple of alternatives, and Nunu's ult damage helps him too.
- Top lane tanks and juggernauts get a look. Sion and Darius both gained real power, and Wukong lane got a small regen buff.
- Mid shifts toward control mages. Azir, Orianna and Ryze got scaling help while Viktor and Yone got cut.
- Support damage picks come back. Vel'Koz, Zyra and Dawncore enchanters all got something.
ARAM: Mayhem "Journey to Stardom"
The ARAM: Mayhem release this patch is called "Journey to Stardom," and it adds a Headliner to every game. Each Headliner is a band that plays its music during the match and changes the rules:
- K/DA: collect 4 K/DA cards to earn an extra augment.
- HEARTSTEEL: augments can roll with unique modifiers that make them extra strong.
- True Damage: takedowns and tower kills can drop Anvils for your team.
- Pentakill: power up one of your abilities at the start of the game and again at level 18.
- Disco: dance under the disco ball to earn gold for everyone.
- Cafe Cuties: health relics are especially powerful.
- Bees: collect honey pots and dodge the bees flying across the map.
- Command Line: reroll one augment into a higher tier at every selection.
One catch: Butcher's Bridge and Koeshin's Crossing are out of Mayhem queues for 26.21 while Riot finishes their concert stages. They are scheduled to come back next patch.
League Classic: Mordekaiser, Yorick, Hecarim and Lucian
League Classic is rotating out in January, but Riot is still adding to it. This patch brings four more old versions:
- Mordekaiser (2010-2015 kit): abilities cost health, damage turns into a decaying shield, and his old Children of the Grave ult raises a killed enemy as your ghost.
- Yorick (2011-2016 kit): every basic ability summons a ghoul, and his old ult revives an ally as a revenant.
- Hecarim (2012): not much has changed from today's version, mostly how his Q and W worked.
- Lucian (2013): notably with 550 attack range, which Riot says makes him "an extremely potent laner."
Arena Changes
Arena gets a big balance pass aimed at cutting the strongest "one augment combos" and lifting the weakest picks. A few highlights from the notes:
- Bel'Veth: Q ratio 105% to 95%, R stacks 1% to 0.5% bonus AD.
- Katarina: R on-hit is now a flat 25% and AP ratio per dagger goes from 26% to 35%.
- Renata Glasc: longer cooldowns on Bailout and Hostile Takeover.
- Varus: big E and R buffs in Arena, including a 50% AP ratio on Hail of Arrows.
- Yuumi: heal and shield power cut from 10-25% to 4-8%.
- Items: Turbo Chemtank restores 20% max health, Galeforce dashes up to 900 range, and Mirage Blade and Moonflair Spellblade lose some refunds.
- Augments: Trueshot Prodigy is nerfed hard, Nesting Doll loses a revive, and Rite of the Forge God, Spin to Win and Hive Mind get stronger.
Mythic Shop and System Requirements
Two smaller notices are worth knowing. During Patch 26.22, the Mythic Shop will start showing personal offerings, so each player sees a different selection instead of one shared rotation. To prepare, Riot is lining up the Bi-weekly, Weekly and Daily rotation timers during 26.21. If you are saving Mythic Essence for something in the current shop, check the timers so you do not miss it.
Riot also changed the patch launcher to use a library that requires SSE 4.2, which raises the AMD minimum spec by one version. If you play on a very old AMD CPU, check Riot's system requirements page before the next update.
True Damage Prestige Skins
The patch highlight is the Prestige True Damage Know My Name line: Ekko, Akali, Qiyana, Senna and Yasuo, all released on October 21. True Damage also shows up as a Headliner in ARAM: Mayhem, so this patch leans into the band from both sides.
Bugfixes Worth Knowing
- Teleport's channel effect no longer shows to enemies when you cast it in brush.
- Titanic Hydra's cooldown timer shows again after use.
- Hail of Blades now triggers on auto resets even if the first attack was cancelled.
- Nidalee's Q spear no longer goes through spell shields at max range.
- Zoe can no longer get a 1000 damage smite from a minion drop earlier than intended.
- Briar, Kled and Sion now use their base skin ult sound when you play against them, for clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did League of Legends Patch 26.21 come out?
Patch 26.21 went live on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Riot posted the notes on October 20 at 1:00 p.m. CT, and servers updated region by region on Wednesday.
Is Worlds 2026 played on Patch 26.21?
No. Riot says the Worlds patch is locked in, and the tournament stays on Patch 26.20. Patch 26.21 only affects ranked, normals and the other live modes.
Was Caitlyn nerfed in 26.21?
Yes. Her Headshot damage drops from 60-100% AD to 60-80% AD and her crit scalings fall from 1% to 0.8%. To compensate, her Q base damage goes up at ranks 2 to 5, so she is a bit stronger in lane and weaker late.
How many replays can I download now?
You can download 10 replays per hour starting during Patch 26.21. Riot added the limit to stop apps from scraping thousands of replays, and you can still download your own games and your friends' games.
What changed on Hubris?
Hubris now has different values for melee and ranged champions. Melee users get 15 base AD and 3 AD per stack, while ranged users get 10 base AD and 2 per stack.
Which ARAM maps are missing in Patch 26.21?
Butcher's Bridge and Koeshin's Crossing are not in ARAM: Mayhem queues this patch while their concert stages are being built. Riot says they return next patch.
Which champions were added to League Classic this patch?
Mordekaiser with his 2010-2015 kit, Yorick with his 2011-2016 kit, Hecarim and Lucian with 550 attack range. Kassadin's launch nerfs were also fully reverted.
What is changing in the Mythic Shop?
In Patch 26.22, each player will start seeing their own Mythic Shop offerings. During 26.21, Riot is aligning the Bi-weekly, Weekly and Daily rotation timers to get ready for that change.
Final Take
Patch 26.21 is the solo queue patch players have been waiting on since the Worlds freeze started. The Caitlyn and Jinx bot lane gets loosened, four jungle staples get trimmed together, and juggernauts plus control mages get a real window. If you only change one thing this patch, try a buffed champion in your main role, like Sion, Orianna or Miss Fortune, and give Hubris a second look if you play melee. If your account is sitting near a promotion, these first two weeks of a fresh meta are usually the best time to push.
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