League of Legends Patch 26.16 Buffs ADC Magic Resist and Makes Support Roaming Costlier

League of Legends patch 26.16 goes live today, and it is a bot lane patch first and everything else second. Riot Games is handing every marksman a chunk of early magic resistance, charging supports a much steeper price for leaving their lane, and giving mage and tank junglers better scaling on their jungle pet. The changes apply to the PC client on Windows and macOS.

One clarification worth making up front, because it catches people out every cycle: this is the PC game. Wild Rift, the mobile version, runs on its own separate patch schedule and is not affected by any of the numbers below.

What changes in League of Legends patch 26.16

The headline system change is a flat magic resistance increase for the marksman class. Standard ADC magic resistance moves from 30 + 1.3 per level to 33 + 1.1 per level, with Tristana brought up from her lower 28 base to the same 33. The shape of that change matters more than the raw total: marksmen get noticeably tougher in the first few levels and slightly softer late, which is aimed squarely at mages who have been drifting into the bot lane.

The support role quest gets the opposite treatment. The experience and gold penalty for farming minions outside the bottom lane tightens from -25% until level 3 to -33% until level 5, which is a substantially longer leash. Stack consumption is also being flattened: damage to champions and turrets previously burned 22 or 24 stacks for melee supports and 20 or 22 for ranged, and creep score burned 15 and 20, with all of those consolidating to 18 and 21.

Junglers who build ability power are the third group affected. The jungle pet's ability power ratio rises from +12% to +16%, a straightforward buff to mage and tank clears that has no effect on the AD jungle roster.

Which champions were touched

Seven champions appear in the patch. On the buff side, Azir's Q damage climbs from 60/80/100/120/140 to 75/95/115/135/155, Gwen's passive healing improves from 50% to 67% post-mitigation, Kennen gets more resistances and damage on his ultimate, and Nasus sees his Q stack generation reworked toward a higher base rate.

The nerfs land on three:

• Bel'Veth — ultimate attack speed drops from 5/15/25% to 6/13/20%, better at rank one and clearly worse at rank three.
• Camille — her passive shield is reduced in the early game, with a shorter cooldown as partial compensation.
• Poppy — base attack damage falls from 60 to 56, pushing her further toward tank scaling.

Items and runes

The item pass reinforces the same bot lane theme. Berserker's Greaves gains attack speed (25% to 30%), Runaan's Hurricane sees its bolt damage rise from 55% to 65% AD, Black Cleaver moves from 40 to 45 AD, and Sterak's Gage improves its bonus AD ratio from 45% to 50%. Going the other way, Sunfire Cape's recipe cost increases by 100 gold, Chainlaced Crushers loses 5 magic resistance, and Sundered Sky's healing is cut while its health goes up to 450.

Two runes move as well. Fleet Footwork's healing increases from a 10-130 range to 15-160, while Hail of Blades has its early attack speed cut for melee users from 120% to 90%.

Skins and League Classic

Three Faerie Court skins release alongside the patch today — Faerie Court Bel'Veth, Faerie Court Gwen and Faerie Court Lulu — each with chromas. Riot has not published regional pricing variations in the notes, so check your own client shop rather than assuming a converted figure.

League Classic, the mode built on an older version of the game, adds three ninjas: Akali, Kennen and Shen, with their base skins and chromas. That mode also received its own balance pass targeting outliers, with Tryndamere and Blitzcrank among those pulled back.

Notable fixes

The bugfix list includes a fix for Viego stealing boots through the support role quest, a correction to a Maw of Malmortius cooldown reset, and a repair to Bel'Veth's resource bar display. Riot also fixed damage ratios on form-swapping champions in ARAM.

If you follow live-service patch cycles across games, the WoW patch 12.1 Curse of Ula'tek content update landed just a day earlier with a new zone and raid, and the Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40,000 Warbond also arrives today. For anyone playing away from a desk, our list of Android games with full gamepad support covers what works with a controller you already own, and the best Minecraft shaders for high frame rates guide is worth a look if your PC is doing double duty.