Patch 26.15 has officially become available on all League of Legends servers. The main highlights of the patch include a massive rework of Bel'Veth's abilities, targeted nerfs to dominant champions like Locke and Riven, and the highly anticipated launch of the League Classic mode.
The new League Classic mode takes players back to the game's roots, featuring old versions of champions, classic runes, masteries, and fan-favorite items from past years. Alongside the mode, the developers have added a free progression track and a special League Classic Pass, which includes both paid and free rewards.
Furthermore, Ranked Season 3 officially started on July 29 at 12:00 PM local server time. Changes have been made to the Aegis of Valor system: LP loss mitigation upon defeat has been removed, but double LP is now awarded regardless of the minimum mastery level. Duo queue rules for high ranks have also been updated. Master tier players can now duo with Diamond I players (provided they have less than 200 LP) or with other Master players if the LP difference between them does not exceed 400. For Grandmaster, Challenger, and players with corresponding MMR, the ability to duo queue is completely disabled.
Bel'Veth underwent the most significant gameplay changes in this patch. The goal of the rework is to make her early game weaker in order to fully unlock her potential as a powerful late-game champion. Her base stats, specifically attack speed, health, and armor, have been reduced, but the most important change involves her ultimate ability. Now, her True Form from [R] lasts indefinitely at rank three, provided she accumulates enough stacks.
Bel'Veth's passive ability now increases attack speed for a fixed duration (3 seconds) rather than for a certain number of attacks, which better synergizes with the new cast delays on her [Q], which now requires max rank to achieve its previous cast speed. Her [W] no longer scales with attack damage, and her [E] has lost its lifesteal scaling, but it now deals more damage thanks to better scaling from On-Hit effects and attack damage.
The developers have addressed several dominant champions. Locke received noticeable nerfs to reduce his burst damage and survivability: his base health and [Q] damage were decreased, along with the base values of gray health and movement speed from his [W]. Riven was also weakened—the bonus attack damage scaling on her [R] ultimate was reduced, although the strength of her low-cooldown shield on [E] remains unchanged. Naafiri and Sylas also received damage reductions on their key abilities to lower their lane pressure.
At the same time, a number of champions received buffs. Alistar, Volibear, and Zac received improvements to their base stats or cooldown reductions on their abilities, which will increase their map presence and make Zac more appealing in the support role. Kai'Sa received a small buff to her passive ability for better late-game scaling, and Maokai had his monster damage from [Q] increased, paving the way for his return to the jungle. Mordekaiser had his previous ultimate buffs reverted, compensated by a cooldown reduction on his [E].
The update brought several targeted adjustments to equipment. The Bastionbreaker and Yun Tal Wildarrows items have become cheaper while their effectiveness has increased (increased true damage and attack speed, respectively). The Terminus item received a new bonus magic damage scaling from attack damage and ability power. Among the runes, changes affected Jack of All Trades, whose adaptive force was slightly reduced at the 5 and 10 stat breakpoints.
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