Riot Games shipped League of Legends Patch 26.14 on July 15, 2026, landing during the final stretch of Ranked Season 2. The patch carries Locke's first round of nerfs following his record-level ban rate, a long-overdue set of T1 Worlds 2025 champion skins, and a hard deadline signal for the entire player base: Season 2 ends July 28, and Season 3 begins July 29 alongside the permanent League Classic mode.
- ▶Official patch notes: League of Legends Patch 26.14 — Riot Games
- ▶League Classic launch details: Riot Launches LoL Classic July 29 With Season 3-Style Gameplay — gHacks
- ▶Skin lineup: LoL patch notes 26.14: T1 Worlds 2025 skins arrive — esports.gg
Patch 26.14 at a Glance
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Patch live date | July 15, 2026 |
| Champion buffs | Corki, Mordekaiser, Yunara, Nami |
| Champion nerfs | Locke, Garen, Jayce, Senna, Seraphine |
| Item nerfs | Hextech Rocketbelt |
| New skins | T1 Worlds 2025 — 6 skins |
| Season 2 end | July 28, 2026, 23:59 local server time |
| Season 3 / Patch 26.15 | July 29, 2026 |
| League Classic launch | July 29, 2026 |
Locke: Emergency Nerfs After Three Weeks at 60% Ban Rate
Locke was released in Patch 26.13 on June 24 — just three weeks before this patch. In that time, he built a 60% ban rate, meaning a majority of games across all skill levels began with his name struck from the available pool. Riot's stated rationale: the champion is overtuned when accounting for player mastery, with early-game snowball access that makes him oppressive before opponents can adapt. Rather than reducing raw burst numbers, Riot targeted his wave-clear efficiency to make it harder to reach the stack threshold for his full damage output.
Locke — Patch 26.14 Changes
| Stat / Ability | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Nail base damage | 50–90 | 50–82 |
| Stack bonus damage | 20–60 | 18–50 |
| Nail recast hold time | 5 seconds | 4 seconds |
| Grey Health cap | 40–200 | 40–160 |
A 60% ban rate is near the top of what Riot has seen on a new champion release. That figure effectively means teams at every level determined that denying Locke from the opposing team was worth more than picking any single champion in their usual pool. Whether these nerfs drop that number into a healthy range — or whether Locke simply moves from broken to just-still-ban-worthy — will be visible within the first ranked weekend under 26.14.
Champion Buffs
| Champion | Change | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Corki | Higher AD scaling; faster Missile Barrage cooldown access | Bot-lane carry recovery |
| Mordekaiser | E damage up; ultimate stat-theft: 10% → 13% | Sustained fighter identity reinforced |
| Yunara | Higher AD scaling to match hyper-carry tier | Late-game relevance extended |
| Nami | E damage increased | Poke-support bot lane pattern strengthened |
Champion and Item Nerfs
Champion Nerfs
| Champion | Key Change |
|---|---|
| Garen | Ult true damage reduced: 150/250/350 → 125/200/275 |
| Senna | Long-range sustained DPS output reduced |
| Seraphine | AoE heal and shield efficiency lowered |
| Jayce | Overall damage output reduced |
Hextech Rocketbelt
| Stat | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Ability power | 70 | 60 |
| Health | 300 | 350 |
| Active cooldown | 40 s | 50 s |
Riot flagged that Rocketbelt had drifted away from its intended user base — short-range AP bruisers who need the active for engage — toward immobile mages and long-range casters stacking it as an offensive tool. The adjustment trades AP for health and lengthens the active cooldown, making the item less appealing as a raw damage option while preserving its utility for melee mages who use the dash defensively.
T1 Worlds 2025 Skins
T1's Worlds 2025 championship skin line arrives in this patch. Gumayusi (Lee Min-hyeong), who earned Finals MVP honors at last year's championship, receives the Prestige-tier Miss Fortune skin. The remaining five skins reflect the champions T1 leaned on during the 2025 tournament run.
| Skin | Champion | Price |
|---|---|---|
| MVP T1 Miss Fortune (Prestige) | Miss Fortune | 1820 RP |
| T1 Ambessa | Ambessa | 1350 RP |
| T1 Xin Zhao | Xin Zhao | 1350 RP |
| T1 Galio | Galio | 1350 RP |
| T1 Yunara | Yunara | 1350 RP |
| T1 Seraphine | Seraphine | 1350 RP |
The Prestige Miss Fortune is sold directly at 1820 RP rather than gated behind an event pass, which differs from some prior Worlds Prestige releases.
League Classic: Season 3 Summoner's Rift Returns July 29
The structural story of this patch window sits outside the champion balance notes entirely. When Patch 26.15 deploys on July 29, League Classic launches as a permanent game mode alongside it. Classic runs on the original Season 3 Summoner's Rift and re-implements the item systems, runes, masteries, and champion mechanics of that era. No separate game client download is required — players switch modes from the existing launcher.
The launch roster is capped at 60 champions, all drawn from League's earliest years. Riot has confirmed the pool will expand over time, but only from that same early-era window. No Yasuos, no recently-released champions, no kits that postdate the Season 3 design language.
On the competitive calendar, this creates a clear two-phase structure for the week ahead. The ranked grind under the current system ends at the hard deadline of July 28 at 23:59 local time. Ranked queues go offline during the transition. Season 3 ranked opens at noon on July 29 when Patch 26.15 goes live. Players chasing their final Season 2 rank goals have one week left in the current patch, and roughly two weeks in total before the slate resets.
What to Watch
Three variables worth tracking over the next week: how far Locke's ban rate falls under these nerfs (whether the adjustment is sufficient or just a preview of a heavier nerf in 26.15), how Rocketbelt adoption shifts now that the stat profile has tilted back toward melee, and whether League Classic's opening numbers indicate sustained interest or a short nostalgia cycle. Season 2's final-week LP rush should also produce clearer tier-list signal than mid-season patches typically do, as players converge on what actually wins.