LoL Classic Patch 2 Explained: Wriggle's Lantern Reworked, Runes Made Cheap

There is a full item rework buried in the system section that almost nobody is talking about, a rune economy change that quietly fixes the mode's biggest barrier for new accounts, and a nerf list that reads like a checklist of everything Phreak told us was too strong last patch.

This is 26.17, and everything below comes from the patch preview, so treat the numbers as preview values that could still move.

The Wriggle's Lantern Rework Is the Biggest Change

Start here, because it changes an entire build archetype.

Wriggle's Lantern and Feral Flare: Attack Damage 25 to 0, Attack Speed 0% to 30%. The build path moves from Vampiric Scepter to Recurve Bow, and the combine cost drops from 500 to 400, leaving the total gold cost unchanged.

That is not a tuning pass, it is a different item. Wriggle's used to be an Attack Damage and Life Steal item that happened to help you clear camps. It is now an Attack Speed item.

Who this helps: anybody whose damage runs through on hit effects rather than raw Attack Damage. Feral Flare is on hit magic damage that grows permanently with stacks, and Attack Speed multiplies how often it fires. Warwick is the obvious winner. His ultimate applies on hit effects five separate times, his passive heals on every attack, and Blade of the Ruined King is already in his core. Losing 25 Attack Damage costs him very little. Gaining 30% Attack Speed makes every part of his kit better.

Who this hurts: junglers who bought Wriggle's for the Attack Damage and the Life Steal to prop up a weak clear. Losing the Vampiric Scepter in the build path means the sustain arrives later, and if your champion does not convert Attack Speed into damage, this item just got worse for you.

If you were running the Feral Flare build we covered on Warwick, keep running it. It is better now than it was last week.

The Rune Economy Just Got Fixed

This is the change that will matter most to the largest number of players, and it is sitting in the system section where people skim.

• Everyone gets 2 additional rune pages.

• All minor runes are cheaper, priced the same as primary runes.

• Quintessences are cheaper.

• HP5 quintessence: 1.5 to 3.0 health per 5 seconds, a straight doubling.

Combine that with the Influence Point changes below and the picture is obvious. Riot has decided that "you cannot play the champion you want because you do not own the runes" is not an acceptable barrier in a mode that exists for enjoyment.

Two extra rune pages is the practical headline. Every guide on this site tells you to respec between roles because the mastery reset is free. Runes were the part you actually had to pay for and plan around. Now you can hold a jungle page, a solo lane page, and a support page without deleting something you spent Influence Points on.

The doubled health regeneration quintessence deserves a second look. It went from a rune nobody took to one that might be genuinely competitive on melee laners who want to survive the first six levels, which is most of the champions this mode is built around.

Influence Points and Experience

Roughly 2.5 times the Influence Points per game. Roughly 2 times the Classic experience per game.

Those are enormous multipliers, not adjustments. Every champion in the mode is cheaper in real terms, every rune page fills faster, and the level 30 grind that gates full rune access shrinks by half.

Read together with the rune price cuts, this is a deliberate push to get new accounts to a functional state quickly. Which is exactly right for a mode whose selling point is that you can pick whatever you want and still win.

Champion Select Finally Works

You can now swap pick order, roles, and champions during champion select.

Nothing about balance, everything about the experience. This is the single most requested quality of life fix in the mode and it removes the most common reason a game was decided before minions spawned.

Champion Buffs

Lux got the most interesting buff on the list. The E, Flash, R sequence being enabled is a mechanical unlock rather than a number change, and the W shield applying at cast time instead of after is the kind of fix that makes an ability feel responsive rather than broken. Phreak described Lux as being in a terrible state last patch. This is the response, and it is a substantial one.

Garen and Dr. Mundo are both continuing buffs. Mundo was called one of the worst champions in the mode last patch and has now been buffed twice in a row.

Jax's changes are worth reading carefully. Q dealing magic damage on the leap strike changes how his damage interacts with resistances, and R applying spell effects as a single target spell is a technical change with real item implications.

Champion Nerfs

Tryndamere is the story here. Phreak said outright last patch that he was straight up overpowered in both top and jungle, and this is the second consecutive patch hitting him. Cutting the passive crit damage ceiling from 50% to 30% is a significant reduction to the thing that makes him terrifying when low.

Twitch got nerfed again, which is the other half of the same story. Riot said he was the best bot laner in the mode. Twitch is now down attack speed and base Health across two patches in a row.

Heimerdinger is the most conspicuous name on this list, because he received only a bug fix and an indicator change despite being described as one of the best solo laners in the game. Either the internal numbers disagree with that assessment, or his real correction is still coming.

What This Means for the Builds on This Site

Warwick jungle: better. Wriggle's Lantern is now an Attack Speed item, which is what a Feral Flare on hit build actually wanted all along. Keep the build, keep the Attack Speed marks.

Both Ezreal builds: worse, but still fine. Mystic Shot's ratio drops from 120% to 110% and the range drops from 1200 to 1100. That is a real hit and it changes lane spacing, since 100 units of range is meaningful when your entire game plan is poking from outside their reach. The compensation is on the ultimate, where the Ability Power ratio nearly doubles, which does very little for either of the Attack Damage builds we covered. The core logic still holds because Mystic Shot still applies on hit effects, and that interaction is what makes Trinity Force and Iceborn Gauntlet correct.

AP Tristana: a genuine mana problem. Rocket Jump was already the ability you could not afford to waste, and now Q costs up to 90 mana with slower attack speed growth. The build's central discipline, which is deciding whether a minion is worth your escape, just got harder. The mana growth increase softens it slightly. Read the guide again, because the farming section matters more now than it did.

Wukong mid and Shaco jungle: untouched. Nothing in this patch changes either kit or their core items.

The Council Is Voting

Around eight questions are going to The Council this patch, which is the first time the player vote system actually does anything. Riot flagged in Patch 1 that the first round would land in Patch 2 or 3, and here it is.

Worth watching, because it is the mechanism by which this mode's direction stops being purely a Riot decision. If you are eligible, vote. The alternative is letting the loudest people on social media decide what the mode becomes.

One Thing Missing

Patch 1's preview said the Summoner's Rift texture pass, bringing the map closer to its 2013 appearance, was targeted for Patch 2. It does not appear in this preview.

That could mean it ships without being listed, or it could mean it has slipped. Worth keeping an eye on rather than assuming either way.

The Read

Patch 1 was Riot proving they would touch the mode at all. Patch 2 is Riot proving they will touch the parts that need it.

The champion changes follow directly from what Phreak told us was strong and weak, which is a reassuring signal about the balance process even without public data to check it against. The rune and Influence Point changes attack accessibility, which is the correct priority for a mode built around picking whatever you feel like playing. And the Wriggle's rework is a proper item redesign, not a numbers tweak.

The one thing to watch is whether the reworked Wriggle's becomes mandatory on every jungler who was not already building it. An item that gives 30% Attack Speed with no Attack Damage is going to sort the jungle roster into two groups very quickly.

Want to actually use a patch while everyone else is still reading about it? Read our guides on climbing the Summoner's Journey and leveling to 30 fast.

Stay tuned. Hollow, out.