Karma 1-cost · Blossom Buff - Explosion Damage
120/180/270/460 AP→125/185/300/515 AP
Patch 18.3 landed 22 September 2026 with 75 numbered changes. Every unit, item, trait and augment Riot touched is below with its icon.
Buff struggling rerollers, squash bugs (not you Kha'Zix), and Enchant the Wilds! 18.3 is a medium-sized patch focused on giving new life to comps that may have appeared during PBE but haven't been found in the Wilds since—I'm looking at you Wolf Bros. Past balance, we've got a ton of bug fixes for this patch, split into two categories—gameplay, where we finally found those missing PvE fights, and stability/performance, where we added a fix to the Augment UI that could result in selecting an incorrect Augment. Oh, and we also have a few Wisp nerfs to the must-buys and buffs for our often-skipped Combat Augments. Let's get into it!
Riot Games · patch 18.3 notes
Nothing in this patch matches that.
It's about time for Karma to get what she deserves: a buff across all star levels, but especially three-star, where she's yet to be seen as a mid-game reroll carry. Unlike Karma, Ornn has been able to access Artifacts too easily with optimal set-ups. We're slowing three-star Ornn down, since he's been able to print these Artifacts for Solar comps to spike in the late game, while making sure our two-star Ornns ornn't griefed. As a reroll carry, Veigar has found success with a few openers that can shore up his weak early game. Some of these set-ups lead to incredibly powerful Veigar carries that feel almost impossible to overcome, but if you want to add Veigar in for his traits, he's all but a dead unit. We're trimming a bit out of his power ceiling, so Veigar can be less of a dead unit when not played as the centerpiece of a comp. There's certainly three to eight potential short jokes for this context paragraph, but I feel like it's about time we stood above that. #shortkings(and queens)
Karma 1-cost · Blossom Buff
Ornn 1-cost · Elderwood Mixed
Veigar 1-cost · Blackthorn Mixed Alistar hasn't been much more than a big health bar when three-starred. He's getting a lot more damage in his ability and a more powerful heal to have this Elder bull feel like a younger pup. Speaking of pups, the Wolf Bros are back to be your new favorite Level 6 reroll comp to play. Just remember to sacrifice an Attack Fighter and not a Tank for the Blackthorn Hex, and since we haven't seen Warwick in a while, be sure to grab a Titan's Resolve and Spear of Shojin, cause mana regen = ramping Attack Speed. As for Murkwolf, positioning, positioning, positioning… for you and your opponent. Gromp is also getting a buff that should be more impactful to the AD form, but a nice buff to AP as well. Gromp and Murkwolf being buffed in the same patch may seem scary, since Riftbeast is not too far off, but most Riftbeast comps do not run both of these Units, especially as carries. Maybe that can change though?
Alistar 2-cost · Elderwood Buff
Gromp 2-cost · Riftbeast Buff
Murkwolf 2-cost · Riftbeast Buff
Warwick 2-cost · Blackthorn Buff With 6 Defender being nerfed, which was a huge source of stall power for Cassiopeia comps, we can put some power into Cassiopeia and Rammus directly so they can slither/roll into more than just 6 Defender comps. Even in his prime, AP flex, tanky Blackthorn sacrifice, two-star Malphite era, Azir was never the go-to carry.
Azir 3-cost · Blackthorn Buff
Cassiopeia 3-cost · Coven Buff
Rammus 3-cost · Sprykin Buff Lillia's only go-to comps, Fae (4) + Cassiopeia Defender, aren't typically seen past 4th place, leaving this 4-cost tank without a home. With a solid buff to her healing, she may be able to survive enough for a second cast, sleeping more foes, and making her way into more comps as a utility tank. Nidalee's AD form was gaining more Armor penetration than intended, but even with that fixed, she's still slightly over the line, so we've got a small nerf to the AD scaling on her swipe. And while AD Nidalee is our strongest 4-cost at the moment, AP Nidalee is rarely itemized, so we're giving her third attack, her snipe at the farthest enemy with the least items, a pointy buff.
Lillia 4-cost · Fae Buff
Nidalee 4-cost · Primal Mixed Even when we tried to incentivize itemizing Taric last patch, he was still often skipped over by our premiere 4-cost tanks (or Maokai). We're polishing the Emerald Aspect's heal to make a bit of AP feel good on him, while taking away some of his passive team-wide shielding (which is a flat value unaffected by items).
As a splash with powerful units, Blossom (3) provides too much value for a few over-performing Wisps in particular. This change may look like a big nerf, cause there are a lot of lines, but the reality of gameplay here is that you'll typically only be impacted by 2-5 of these Wisp nerfs throughout a game in most cases. As a high-stakes trait without the potential to be griefed, we released Coven with cashout generation that was more conservative than past high-stakes traits. We're increasing Loss Essence generation across most breakpoints here to bring Coven out of the dark. Hunter, Defender, Invoker, and even Inferno nerfs are to the highest breakpoint of the traits, where powerful Emblems allow for too much value. We have a few more Emblem specific nerfs later on, but so as to not make the max breakpoints, nor the Emblems, useless, we've split the nerfs into two smaller parts.
Blossom Origin Nerf
Coven Origin Buff
Defender Origin Nerf
Hunter Origin Nerf
Inferno Origin Nerf
Invoker Origin Buff Draven with the Collector is absolutely terrifying, and it still will be, just a tiny bit less. But past Draven (and Aphelios), the Collector provides a lot of econ and combat power, making it one of the better Artifacts on the set, especially in the right hands. Unlike The Collector, Statikk Shiv has yet to find consistent users apart from Kayle. A bit more Ability Power should make this item more appealing even in situations where it's dropped too late in the game to field Kayle.
Eternal Pact Artifact Buff
Statikk Shiv Artifact Buff Smaller nerfs here (and one buff) as the traits that are enabled by our over-performing Emblems are also getting nerfed.
Brawler Emblem Emblem Buff
Hunter Emblem Emblem Nerf
Invoker Emblem Emblem Buff
Juggernaut Emblem Emblem Buff We've got a lot of Augment changes here, but for the most part they are buffs to combat Augments, which have been deprioritized with the emphasis on econ Augments this set. One combat/Item Augment that was greatly buffed through our Hand of Justice buff last patch, Retribution, is getting a nerf to keep things feeling just with other combat Augments. One last critical callout is that we renamed the empowered hex in the It's Me Baby Augment to be called the Championship hex instead of the Spotlight hex. Keep it up champ.
Blossom's Call Gold augment Buff
Challenger's Grace Gold augment Buff
Early Learnings Gold augment Nerf
Electrocharge I Silver augment Nerf
Future Focused Silver augment Nerf
Giant and Mighty Prismatic augment Buff
Group Hug I Silver augment Buff
Group Hug II Gold augment Buff
Heroic Grab Bag Gold augment Buff
Hold the Line Prismatic augment Buff
Item Extraction Gold augment Nerf
Jeweled Lotus I Gold augment Buff
Retribution Prismatic augment Nerf
Shimmerscale Essence Prismatic augment Buff
Spirit Of Redemption Gold augment Buff
Upward Mobility Prismatic augment Buff These Wisps are too spirited, too much value, too wispy, too thingamajigy.
Where these come from. Every number and every designer comment on this page is Riot's, taken from the official Teamfight Tactics patch notes, and each patch links back to its source. What NoxuTFT adds is the join to Set 18's champions, items, traits and augments, so a change shows the thing it touches instead of naming it. The buff and nerf arrows are worked out from the attribute and are occasionally wrong — the original values are always printed beside them. NoxuTFT is not affiliated with Riot Games.