MSI is almost upon us, and Riot Games’ balance team is hard at work with continuous League of Legends balance changes and sanding down the edges of the mid-season item and rune rework. Several champions are resisting the nerf bat, like AP Xin Zhao, who has had lots of power budget put into his healing, and Jax, who remained a premier top laner for both casual and professional play, but has had a major fall-off lately.
Runes and items look to be in a decent spot, but the summoner spell Teleport is skewing the mid and late-game teamfights too much with the longevity of the shield it grants to the user.
Patch 26.12 Full Preview!
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) June 3, 2026
Cassiopeia
– We pulled Cassiopeia nerfs from the 26.12 patch, but intend to nerf her in 26.13
– We still want to work on a changelist that preserves some of her strengths and the things that her players love about her,
Top Lane Meta
– Aatrox has been… pic.twitter.com/XydRNsK31q
Champion buffs
Yuumi
- P heal AP ratio: 25% → 30%
- E shield AP ratio: 30% → 40%
Yuumi was hit by the Moonstone changes in the last patch, so she’s getting a compensation buff. This buff should also make her AP-centric builds a bit better at supporting duties as well.
Jax
- Q mana: 65 → 50
- E percent target max HP damage: 3.5% minimum / 7% maximum → 4% minimum / 8% maximum
Jax struggles a bit versus some flavor-of-the-month ranged toplaners, so giving him more power in his preferred trade pattern is a decent direction. That said, this buff is small enough that he will likely not feel the benefits in his most difficult matchups.
Gwen
- Q base damage per mini-snip: 10–24 → 10–26
- E bonus attack speed: 20–80% → 30–80%
Everyone knows the menace that is mid-to-late game Gwen, but after the recent nerfs, she started to struggle in the early game, especially against the tanks that she should be beating at all stages of the game. This should give her trading a bit more oomph.
Aatrox
- Q sweetspot bonus damage: 70% → 75%
A straightforward numbers buff to Aatrox’s main attack pattern. The better the player is at landing sweet spots, the more use from this buff they will have.
Hwei
- QQ AP ratio: 70% → 80%
- QW AP ratio: 25–87.5% → 30–105%
- QE slow: 30% → 35%
- E cooldown: 13–11s → 12–10s
Hwei has been overshadowed by better mages and better utility providers after the rune and item changes. They do not allow him to hit the item and power breakpoints in time to contest the major objectives, so he has either not been picked or relegated to the bot lane.
Syndra
- Q damage: 80–220 (+65% AP) → 90–230 (+70% AP)
- Base HP: 563 → 583
Syndra faces the same challenges Hwei does, although her pick rate started to climb, and she was even featured in some pro games, although most of the time as a counterpick option. Buffing her main trade tool is a decent way to power up her early trades.
Tristana
- AD growth: 2.9 → 3.4
- Q mana: 30–50 → 15–35
This is a compensation buff that will allow Tristana to use her Q attack speed steroid much more freely.
Sylas
- Q1 damage: 40–120 (+40% AP) → 40–140 (+45% AP)
- W heal AP ratio: 20–30% → 30–60%
Sylas is one of 2026’s yo-yo champions who seemingly can’t find a decent balance spot. The current set of buffs is aimed at making him better in his worst matchups, where he has to max Q first to survive. The heal ratio buff is also very significant, with him being able to survive even the most dire all-ins.
Champion nerfs
Xin Zhao
- P healing: 3–5% max HP (+45–80% AP) → 2–5% max HP (+40–70% AP)
- W mana cost: 60–40 → 60
- E mana cost: 50 → 60
AP Xin Zhao remains a headache for the balance team, as his healing is still a major pain point. It gets toned down more, and his abilities now cost more mana. This, in theory, should make his trades weaker and, in turn, tone his survivability down.
Nocturne
- Q damage: 65/110/155/200/245 → 65/105/145/185/225
Nocturne is getting picked even without Orianna, which means he’s probably a bit overtuned. A 15 damage nerf is not the end of the world, but he will feel it both in trades and in the jungle.
Lee Sin
- AD growth: 3.7 → 3.4
- Q1 damage: 65/95/125/155/185 (+95% bonus AD) → 60/90/120/150/180 (+90% bonus AD)
- Q2 damage: 65/95/125/155/185 (+95% bonus AD) → 60/90/120/150/180 (+90% bonus AD)
Lee Sin has been rising in popularity ever since his W ward-jump change, so he’s been much more reliable in his backline access. This nerf is just shaving the top end of his damage, which should make him weaker without outright dropping him from the meta.
Orianna
- Passive damage increase per stack: 20% → 15%
- Base HP: 585 → 565
- E resists: 6–30 → 5–25
- E damage/shield ratios: 30% / 45% AP → 40% / 50% AP
- R damage: 250/400/550 (+95% AP) → 225/350/475 (+115% AP)
Orianna has been the best overall midlaner for quite some time now, and this across-the-board nerf has to force her out of her cushy spot.
Ryze
- Base HP: 645 → 620
- Base AD: 58 → 55
A very direct hi to Ryze’s survivability that will only matter in the first few levels of the game, which could possibly allow his opponents to gain the advantage by either killing him or forcing to back, but will likely not matter much in the grand scheme of things.
Varus
- P AD/AP on non-champion kill: 10% of total AS → 11%
- P AD/AP on champion takedown: 25% of total AS → 33%
- P AS on champion takedown: 50% → 30%
- Q bonus AD ratio: 100–150% → 80–120%
Lethality Varus is the best ADC in the game, especially on top, where he can safely farm and harass his opponents, so Riot is trimming back his power in favor of the on-hit attack speed build.
System adjustments
Toplane Teleport
- Empowered Teleport, not just Unleashed: 30% max health shield for 30 seconds → 35% max health for 10 seconds
