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LoL Patch 26.03 Preview: Ranked Changes, AD Jungle Buff, Mel Nerf
As players continue to acclimate to League of Legends in 2026, patch 26.03 rolls into town with a number of adjustments aimed at addressing player frustration.
With plenty of changes coming, let’s take a look at the biggest changes coming based on the official preview. LoL Patch 26.03 is set to release on February 4th, 2026.
Ranked System Adjustments
The new Aegis of Valor mechanic is already seeing an adjustment weeks after its release in Patch 26.01. While offering clear benefits, its introduction was also swiftly noted by players to be seemingly correlated with a decrease in auto-filled player efforts. With the new patch, the requirements for the mechanic’s eligibility will now be raised from C to B.
“We’re seeing C’s be too easy of a criteria. We think B still accounts for players needing to ‘play well enough’ while accounting for players being on an unfamiliar role.”
Duo-queuing in Challenger will also see an adjustment as Riot Games has noted its strength at the very highest rank. Lastly, a new climbing indicator is set to be introduced in Patch 26.03, with the goal of aiding players in better understanding fairness in matchmaking. More details to follow on both.
Jungle Champions To See Another Shuffle
In Patch 26.03, Riot Games is aiming to return some Jungler agency with an increase to their unique power to claim objectives for their team. This comes hand in hand with some improvements to Epic monster durability. Champions such as Volibear, Zed, Ekko, and Diana will see nerfs across the board targeting their clear speed in particular.
Riot has asserted that this newest patch is the first pass at rebalancing jungle-viable champions across the board with the end goal of buffing AD junglers while bringing back down the power of AP junglers.
Mel Big Nerfs Arrives
One of the most consistently complained about champions, Mel, will see a significant number of changes coming to her kit in the latest patch. The largest change will be focused on her [W] Rebuttal, with its damage immunity effect set to be removed. Visibility for her abilities, notably her [Q] Radiant Volley and [E] Solar Snare will also be improved for clearer windows to react.
Riot Emizery listed the full changes to come with the latest patch here.
“Our goals with these changes are that more players feel they can outplay Mel in ways that match their expectations, and that Mel players can feel more skilful and that their success is a result of that skill.”
Item Changes
New items Dusk and Dawn, Endless Hunger, and Actualizer will see reworks to their value. Actualizer will in fact see a decrease to its cost to increase its attractiveness as a viable build item. Dusk and Dawn will see a receive a decrease to the damage, however, the additional health provided will see an increase to compensate. Endless Hunger will now cost more but see an increase to the AD damage.
For a complete list of the changes coming with Patch 26.03, be sure to check out Riot Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison's official post.
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Featured Image Credit: Riot Games
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