League of Legends Classic gets its first big content drop since launch with patch 26.16. Three ninjas arrive on the roster, a large batch of champions receive balance tweaks, and the mode’s underlying systems shift around gold income, Homeguards, jungle scaling, and turret durability.
Quick answer: Patch 26.16 adds Akali, Kennen, and Shen to League Classic, tunes 18 existing champions, introduces new runes and rune power values, delays ambient gold and Homeguards, and raises turret health across the board while cutting champion Ability Power damage to turrets.
New champions added to League Classic in 26.16
Three classic-era ninjas join the pool, each built around energy management and mark stacking.
Akali
Akali’s passive, Twin Disciplines, converts Ability Power into on-hit bonus damage after she reaches 20 AP, and grants Spell Vamp once she gains 10 bonus Attack Damage. Her Q, Mark of the Assassin, throws a kama that marks a target, then rewards a follow-up attack with extra damage and refunded energy. W, Twilight Shroud, drops a smoke bomb that gives Invisibility and bonus resistances while slowing enemies inside it. E, Crescent Slash, hits all nearby enemies but drains energy quickly, and her ultimate, Shadow Dance, stores up to three dashes that each strike an enemy on arrival.
Kennen
Kennen’s kit revolves around Mark of the Storm, which stuns a target and refunds energy at three stacks. Thundering Shuriken (Q) marks the first enemy hit in a line, while Electrical Surge (W) deals bonus on-hit damage every few attacks and can detonate marks on all nearby marked enemies. Lightning Rush (E) turns him into a ball of lightning with bonus move speed and resistances, marking any enemy he collides with. His ultimate, Slicing Maelstrom, rapidly damages and marks random nearby champions for its duration.
Shen
Shen leans on energy sustain and protection. His passive, Ki Strike, periodically empowers his next attack for bonus damage and energy, with further attacks readying it sooner. Vorpal Blade (Q) marks a target so Shen and his allies heal over time when attacking it, and grants Shen a partial heal on an outright kill. Feint (W) shields him and speeds up Ki Strike while active, Shadow Dash (E) taunts and damages enemies in a line while restoring energy per champion hit, and Stand United (R) shields an ally anywhere on the map before teleporting to them.
Champion balance changes
Eighteen champions already in League Classic receive adjustments. The table below summarizes the key changes for each.
| Champion | Key changes |
|---|---|
| Alistar | E allied heal effectiveness raised from 50% to 75%. |
| Amumu | Passive MR shred now 15/25/35 for 4s; Q base damage rescaled to 80/140/200/260/320. |
| Blitzcrank | Q early damage and R damage lowered; Q and W cooldowns increased. |
| Dr. Mundo | W damage per second and tenacity up; R health regained now 40/55/70%. |
| Garen | More base and passive health regen; R cooldown now 140/110/80. |
| Heimerdinger | Turret AD and W rocket damage cut; E cooldown up by 1s. |
| Janna | Base AD lowered to 49 (+3); Monsoon mana cost raised to 200/275/350. |
| Jarvan IV | Armor per level and W shield lowered; E now costs 55–75 mana by rank. |
| Katarina | Death Lotus maximum damage reduced; per-dagger damage unchanged. |
| Lux | Move speed up to 340; Final Spark cooldown 80/60/40 and AP ratio raised to 85%. |
| Miss Fortune | Impure Shots hits harder per stack but caps at 4 stacks; R bAD ratio up to 40%. |
| Nasus | Early life steal lowered to 10/15/20%; Wither mana cost up to 100. |
| Skarner | Energize works on structures again; Q slow, W cooldown, and E width improved. |
| Soraka | Astral Blessing armor buff raised to 25–125 and duration extended to 5s. |
| Tryndamere | Bloodlust AD per Fury cut to 3 (max 24); Q and E cooldowns increased. |
| Twitch | Base AD down to 50; Venom Cask and Spray and Pray projectile speeds lowered. |
| Veigar | Baleful Strike mana cost lowered and AP ratio raised to 65%. |
| Warwick | Base attack speed reduced from .679 to .644. |
Rune changes
Rune balance shifts along with several new options. The default placeholder rune power jumps from 66% to 80%, and scaling armor seals now grant 0.17 armor per level instead of 0.15.
| Slot | New rune and value |
|---|---|
| Mark | Minor Mark of Ability Power — 0.7 AP |
| Seal | Seal of Energy Regeneration — 0.7 Energy per 5s |
| Glyph | Glyph of Energy — 2.3 Max Energy |
| Glyph | Minor Glyph of Mana Regeneration — 0.33 Mana per 5s |
| Quintessence | Quintessence of Energy — 6 Max Energy |
| Quintessence | Quintessence of Energy Regeneration — 1.8 Energy per 5s |
| Quintessence | Quintessence of Health Regeneration — 1.3 Health per 5s |
| Quintessence | Quintessence of Mana — 38 Maximum Health |
Gold generation, Homeguards, and jungle tuning
Early economy slows down this patch. Ambient gold now starts at 90 seconds instead of 65, and passive income opens at 10.5 gold per 5 seconds. Both melee and ranged minions are worth one gold less, at 19 and 14 respectively.
Homeguards no longer activate at the start of the game. Instead, the movement boost turns on at the 15-minute mark. Death timers for levels 1 through 8 are shortened to 10/12/14/17/20/23/26/29 seconds, while timers at level 9 and above stay the same. In the jungle, maximum health scaling on camps rises from 250% to 315%.
Turret changes
Every turret type gains health, and champion Ability Power damage against structures is cut in half. This makes towers tougher to dive and pushes AP-heavy compositions toward attack damage or minion pressure to take objectives.
| Structure | Old health | New health |
|---|---|---|
| Outer turret | 3000 | 3500 |
| Inner turret | 3250 | 3750 |
| Inhibitor turret | 3500 | 4000 |
| Nexus turret | 2600 | 2750 |
Champion damage to turrets moves from 100% total Attack Damage plus 40% Ability Power to 100% total Attack Damage plus 20% Ability Power. Together with the higher structure health, sieges take longer and lane pressure carries more weight than raw magic burst when closing out a game.
