Cassiopeia Gets Rebalanced Around Who Actually Buys AP

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04 September 2026 11:35

Patch 26.18 lands on Thursday 10 September, a day later than the usual Wednesday.

3pm CT (NA) 5am GMT (EU West) 3am CET (EU North East) 8am KR (Korea)

Cassiopeia

Phroxzon says Cassiopeia sits around a 47% win rate for average players while being too strong in pro play. Rather than nerf her, Riot is moving power out of base damage and into AP ratios, so the basic logic is that regular players buy more AP than pro teams do.

Passive, Serpentine Grace: movement speed reduced from 6-40% to 5-35%
Q, Noxious BLAST: 75-215 (+65% AP) to 65-205 (+75% AP)
E, Twin Fang: mana cost 40 to 45, base AP ratio 10% to 20%, enhanced AP ratio 55% to 45%, total AP ratio unchanged at 65%, base damage 52-120 to 50-118
R, Petrifying Gaze: 150/250/350 (+50% AP) to 125/225/325 (+75% AP)

Same total ratio on E, lesser base damage everywhere, more scaling.

Buffs

Ekko. Aimed at mid lane, specifically waveclear and mana. Q mana cost 50-90 to 40-80, return damage AP ratio 60% to 70%. Phroxzon acknowledged that buffing waveclear is low-interaction, arguing the game needs a mix and that a roaming tempo champion needs it to start snowballing.

Kassadin. Q AP ratio 70% to 80%. R base damage 70/90/110 to 80/95/110.

Master Yi. Armor growth 4.5 to 5 per level. R movement speed 35-55% to 40-60%.

Viego. Bruiser builds fell off after Divine Sunderer's removal and the Sundered Sky nerf. Passive healing now gains 2% scaling per 500 bonus health, and AD growth rises from 3.5 to 4.

Zaahen. Q now goes on cooldown immediately on entering Resurrection, fixing a desync that left too little time for Q2. Q2 damage 25/50/75/100/125 to 30/60/90/120/150.

Aurelion Sol and Renekton also appear in Riot's preview as buffs, with details not yet published.

Nerfs

Bard. Armor 34 +5 per level down to 32 +4.7.

Nautilus. AD 61 +3.3 per level to 58 +3.3. Q damage 85-265 to 85-245, AP ratio unchanged.

Seraphine. E cooldown increased from 11-9 seconds to 11.

Worth noting this one has drawn criticism, since support Seraphine typically maxes E last and is therefore least affected, while damage-focused builds that rely on E maxing take the hit. That's a live argument in the community rather than a settled reading.

Syndra. Passive mana from Splinters 20-255 to 20-199. W cooldown 12-8 seconds to 13-9.

Zeri. W damage 30-190 (+120% total AD) to (+100%). Wall damage 45-285 (+180%) to (+150%).

Rageblade

Seething Strike stack duration goes from 3 seconds to 4.

The context: a 26.14 rescript accidentally shifted the Phantom Hit trigger from 6 to 7, and this returns some of what that cost, including to champions disproportionately affected.

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Tags: League of Legends

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