LoL Patch 26.15 + Season 3: What Changes Before You Queue
Season 2 ends July 28 at midnight. Season 3 launches July 29 with Patch 26.15 — no rank reset, MMR carries over. Ranked queues go offline the night of July 28-29 during the transition. Bel'Veth gets a full rework, Locke is nerfed across the board, and Mordekaiser's 26.14 overbuff is corrected. Here's everything before Tuesday.
Season 2 ends July 28 at midnight. Patch 26.15 and Season 3 launch together on Tuesday, July 29 — and your rank carries over with no reset. Here's every change that matters before ranked queues come back online.
🗓️ Season 3 Starts July 29 — No Rank Reset
No placement matches, no soft reset. Your MMR, LP, and rank transfer directly into Season 3. The only downtime is the patch transition window on the night of July 28-29, when ranked queues go offline while Riot deploys the patch.
When queues come back up, it's a fresh Act on the same competitive ladder you've been building all season. If you want to put your rank to the test beyond solo queue, Amber.gg's LoL ladders run prize pool competitions at every rank 🏆.
🔁 Bel'Veth Rework: Weaker Early, Dangerous Late
The biggest champion change in Patch 26.15. Riot touched virtually every base stat, stat growth, and ability in Bel'Veth's kit. The direction is intentional: sacrifice early-game dominance for a much stronger late-game fantasy.
Ability data unavailable for BelVeth
Early jungle clears are slower and early invades are riskier. Her level 3-6 dueling power drops noticeably. But if she reaches late game, the payoff is substantially higher than before. This rewards patient, macro-focused Bel'Veth players who prioritize stacking passive and scaling over early fights.
Track how her numbers settle on the LoL meta tier list as the Season 3 meta develops.
🔻 Locke Nerfs: Damage, Stickiness, Survivability All Hit 📉
Locke was designed to fall off if he can't snowball — but he wasn't actually falling off. The 26.15 nerfs hit three axes simultaneously:
Ritual Nails: base damage reduced
Riot Games
Soul Ignition: movement speed and healing output reduced
His base HP also drops, making early punishes more effective. Even-game Locke is noticeably weaker now. He's still a strong pick when ahead, but the gap between fed and even Locke closes meaningfully.
🔻 Riven Nerfs
Riven gets trimmed this patch after overperforming in high-elo solo queue. Her mechanical ceiling was creating outsized results compared to other skill-intensive champions at the same difficulty level. Expect targeted reductions to her damage output in her core trading pattern.
🐮 Alistar Buff: +5 Movement Speed
A small number with real impact. Alistar's base movement speed goes up by 5, improving his roam timing, lane pressure, and gap-closing. For a champion whose win condition is entirely built around being first to reach the fight, extra walk speed compounds across every play.
🔻 Mordekaiser: 26.14 Overbuff Corrected
Mordekaiser came out of Patch 26.14 performing well above target. The full ultimate buff from last patch is being reverted. As compensation, Riot is applying a small cooldown reduction on his E to prevent him from simply losing everything he gained.
R stat steal reverted to pre-26.14 values
Death's Grasp: cooldown reduced
If you're playing top lane, Mordekaiser remains viable — the E buff keeps his zone control intact. He just won't duel as freely as he did last patch.
🛡️ Item Changes Worth Knowing
Three items get notable adjustments:
- Bastionbreaker: passive damage increased, total cost reduced — better value for tank-shredding picks
- Terminus: new AD/AP scaling added to on-hit damage — opens hybrid itemization options
- Yun Tal Wildarrows: +5% attack speed plus a 100g cost reduction — a better entry point for ADCs who build it second
🎯 Season 3 Meta Outlook
Three dynamics reshape the meta entering Season 3: Bel'Veth shifts from early-dominant to scale-reliant, Locke loses his ability to carry from weak-side, and Mordekaiser gets corrected from overbuffed status back toward a fair pick.
For context on where the meta stood before these changes, the Patch 26.14 breakdown is the direct baseline. And if you haven't checked out LoL Classic — also launching July 29 — that separate ranked queue is worth knowing about before Tuesday.
Looking ahead: Patch 26.16 drops August 12 with system-wide ADC magic resist buffs, Berserker's Greaves and Runaan's upgrades, and tighter support roaming penalties — the first direct patch answer to mage bot lane dominance since Season 3 launched.
Season 3 starts Tuesday. Queue up on Amber.gg's LoL ladders and compete with real prize pools on the line 🎮.
