League of Legends Patch 26.21 (October 2026): marksman nerfs, replay limits

League of Legends patch 26.21 was published on 20 October 2026, with a mid-patch update to Varus on 22 October. Two things matter most if you run or play in events. Replay downloads are now limited to 10 per hour, and the botlane took hits from several directions: Caitlyn, Jinx, Hubris and Gluttonous Greaves all lost power. Riot also says Worlds has begun, and that Azir, Orianna and Ryze get a little breathing room with the Worlds patch locked in.

Replay downloads: 10 per hour

Starting during 26.21, replay downloads are limited to 10 per hour. Riot says you can still download your own replays and those of friends and other players. The stated reason is abuse: bad actors using apps to scrape thousands upon thousands of replays. Riot chose a time-based limit so creators can still make content, and says it will keep monitoring how many replays get downloaded.

For team staff and organizers this is the change that bites. A coach who bulk-downloads a scrim block or an opponent's last week of ranked games can burn through ten quickly. Some ways to work with it:

• Download demos the night before, in batches, rather than in one frantic hour.
• Decide which games you need before you start, and skip the rest.
• If you run an event and want participants to review their own games, tell them about the cap so nobody spends the allowance on a stranger's match.

The figure is Riot's to change, so check the current number before you write it into an event handbook.

Botlane: what got weaker

Riot says Caitlyn has been at a very high pick and ban rate for most players for months, and that Jinx has been similarly dominant, even after the Hurricane nerf last patch.

Caitlyn has power moved from the late game to the early game. Her headshot passive drops from 60 to 100 percent AD to 60 to 80 percent AD, and the crit scaling falls from 1 percent to 0.8 percent per 1 percent crit chance or bonus crit damage. In exchange, her Q base damage rises from 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 to 50 / 95 / 140 / 185 / 230.

Jinx loses a little base strength. Attack damage growth falls from 3.25 to 3 per level, and base health drops from 630 to 610.

Items. Gluttonous Greaves rise from 1000 to 1100 gold. Hubris used to give a flat 12 base attack damage and 3 per stack. Melee users now get 15 and 3, ranged users 10 and 2. Riot says it wants melee champions to build it and ranged champions to stop.

Miss Fortune gets compensation for the Hubris hit. Her E base damage rises by 20 at every rank (70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 becomes 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 / 210), and her ultimate's critical strike damage goes from 130 to 145 percent.

My read for captains: a Caitlyn first-pick that used to be automatic deserves a second look, and Miss Fortune looks more attractive if you want a marksman who gave up little. Ranged carries who liked Hubris will also hit softer in mid-game fights. That is a prediction from the numbers, not something Riot has said.

Junglers: Lee Sin, Nidalee, Wukong and friends

Riot spends a lot of the notes on junglers.

• Lee Sin. Safeguard cooldown goes from 7 to 8 seconds. Dragon's Rage kick and collision damage are cut by 25 at rank 1 (175 to 150), 50 at rank 2 (400 to 350) and 75 at rank 3 (625 to 550). A bug fix means Tempest no longer reveals enemies who go invisible after being hit.
• Nidalee. Pounce damage goes from 55 / 88.75 / 122.5 / 156.25 / 190 to 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170, and Primal Surge attack speed falls by ten points at each rank. Riot cites a very high win rate in high-skill brackets.
• Wukong. This is a jungle-focused nerf. Armor per stack at low levels is 4.5 instead of 6, with the top end unchanged at 10, while base health regeneration rises from 3.5 to 5.5 to help lane Wukong.
• Rammus. He loses 2 flat armor at every rank of Defensive Ball Curl, and the armor and magic resistance ratio caps drop from 60 to 50 percent.
• Nunu & Willump. Absolute Zero maximum damage goes from 625 / 925 / 1275 to 750 / 1100 / 1450.
• Taliyah gains damage on Unraveled Earth, and Xin Zhao gets better scaling on Q and E.

Riot describes Wukong, along with Lee Sin and Qiyana, as a meta staple. If your event uses bans, those are the names to plan around. Whether the nerfs are enough to change that is something scrims will tell you.

Other champion changes

Riot thinks Viktor has evolved past the point of exploitable weaknesses and wants him easier to punish in early skirmishes. Locke, Taric, Twisted Fate, Varus, Vel'Koz and Zyra also changed. Taric's spells now work on untargetable allies, with an exemption for Dazzle on vanished allies, and Twisted Fate's ultimate reveals untargetable units.

Varus mid-patch update

On 22 October Riot said work on Varus' top and bottom power skew introduced a bug in his Q, which stopped it dealing reduced damage to subsequent targets. The bug is being fixed, with a compensating buff: the passive's bonus AD and AP on kill or takedown goes from 1.1 to 1.4 per 10 percent attack speed, and Q minimum damage rises from 50 to 230 to 50 to 250. Anything you read about Varus from earlier in the patch will be out of date.

Other modes

Riot also announced an ARAM: Mayhem release, "Journey to Stardom", with Headliner bands and new augments. Butcher's Bridge and Koeshin's Crossing will be unavailable in Mayhem queues for this patch and return in the next. In Classic, Mordekaiser returns with his 2010 to 2015 kit. These matter less for competitive play, but they may change what your community plays between scrims.

Before your next LoL event

Tell participants about the replay cap, confirm which patch your event runs on and publish it. If you write draft restrictions into your rules, look at Caitlyn and Jinx first.

Browse upcoming League of Legends tournaments to see what is on the schedule.

Source: Riot Games, League of Legends Patch 26.21 Notes, https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/game-updates/league-of-legends-patch-26-21-notes/.