League of Legends Patch 26.22: TFT Splits Off, Mel Reworked

League of Legends Patch 26.22 is live, and it carries more than the usual mid-week balance pass. Riot used today's update to formally split Teamfight Tactics away from the League client, alongside a full rework of Mel's W and a long list of champion, item and Classic mode tuning. Patch notes credit Austin "Riot wroadie" Wright, Erika "Riot Cashmiir" Haas and Steven "Riot sternest" Earnest, and went live November 3 at 7:00 PM UTC ahead of today's client-side changes.

01TFT's Standalone Client Arrives Today

The headline change isn't a champion at all. Starting November 4, 2026, Teamfight Tactics moves to its own standalone client instead of living inside the League of Legends launcher. Riot's TFT team says the goal is to make switching between the two games "as easy as clicking a button," and because of the new infrastructure this patch downloads larger than usual to prepare local files for the split.

Existing TFT cosmetics keep working inside League for now. The first TFT-exclusive Little Legends land December 1, and full cosmetic separation — including emotes and icons — follows on December 15. Riot says a future patch will add an option to fully opt out of downloading TFT content inside League patches, which should shrink client size for players who only play Summoner's Rift.

02Mel's Rebuttal Gets a Full Rework

Mel's midscope touches every ability, but her W, Rebuttal, changes the most. It's now an area nova that expands to a 400-unit radius over 0.75 seconds, destroying enemy projectiles and shields caught inside it while granting Mel and nearby allies bonus move speed. Each destroyed missile triggers a retaliation hit for 35-55 (+10% AP) damage on its first proc, tapering to 5-25 (+5% AP) on repeat hits against the same target, up to seven times. The ability also sheds a 80-200 (+70% AP) shield for two seconds and swaps its mana cost curve to get cheaper at higher ranks, down to free at rank five.

Her other abilities shifted to compensate. Radiant Volley's first-hit damage drops its AP ratio from 55% to 25% but adds a cooldown refund of up to one second whenever it connects with a champion, and its missile now travels slower at 3200 units per second instead of 3800. Solar Snare's root now scales from 0.8 to 2.2 seconds based on distance rather than a flat 1.5 seconds, and her ultimate's cooldown drops as low as 60 seconds at max rank, down from 80. Base health and mana both fall in exchange for steeper growth per level.

03Buffs, Nerfs and a New Mana Item

Outside of Mel, Smolder's W explosion gets a sizable buff across every rank, Naafiri's healing and bonus attack damage both climb, and Shen's Q now hits monsters harder at early ranks. Viktor's ultimate AP ratio rises to 60% and his health growth improves, while Rumble's ultimate gains a higher maximum AP ratio.

On the nerf side, Thresh loses two points of base attack damage and his ultimate's flat damage drops by 50 at every rank, though its AP ratio doubles to 100%. Yasuo's Q total damage ratio comes down slightly, and Locke's passive stacking damage is toned down across both its per-stack and maximum values. Doran's Bow's attack damage drops from 8 to 7, while Overlord's Bloodmail gains 10 flat attack damage in exchange for a lower retribution damage cap.

04Classic Mode Welcomes Volibear, Swain and Elise

League's Classic mode — Riot's ongoing project restoring older champion kits as a separate playable mode — adds three new classic versions this patch: Volibear, with a flipping basic attack and chain lightning ultimate; Swain, whose raven passive refunds mana on kills and whose ultimate transforms him into a mana-draining bird; and Elise, who swaps between human and spider forms with abilities that change based on which form she's in.

Classic also reshuffles older balance across the board — Amumu, Evelynn, Ezreal, Fiddlesticks, Gangplank, Janna, Mordekaiser, Nami, Olaf and Rammus all received tuning — and fixes a token-progression bug on the Classic Pass by boosting per-game token grants by 50% for the remainder of its run.

05Skins and ARAM: Mayhem Changes

Cosmetically, Patch 26.22 ships the K/DA Firestarter skin line for Ahri, Evelynn and Kai'Sa, plus a K/DA Firestarter Ignition recolor for Akali, a K/DA Hitmaker skin for Evelynn, and a Prestige Classic Baron Kog'Maw skin with its own Vivid chroma. ARAM's Mayhem mode also saw a dense pass of augment reworks, including two brand-new augments (One Hit Wonder and RISE!) and adjustments to Hecarim, who loses his innate ability haste in the mode.

Patch 26.22 is rolling out now on live servers. The next patch is expected to continue tuning around Mel's rework once ranked data comes in, so expect follow-up adjustments if her early lane power swings too far in either direction.