Heads up, LoL uncs! League of Legends 2026 Season 2 will feature the return of Deathfire Touch and Stormraider's Surge.
League of Legends gameplay designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison revealed that two runes are making their return to the game: Deathfire Touch and Stormraider’s Surge. Here’s what we know.
Deathfire Touch and Stormraider’s Surge are back
First Stand 2026 surprised fans as G2 Esports swept both LCK representatives: FEARX and the tournament favorites in Gen.G Esports. As the event concluded with Bilibili Gaming’s win, Riot Phroxzon had one last surprise for League of Legends players: Deathfire Touch and Stormraider’s Surge are coming back in Season 2 of LoL 2026.
This puts the redebut of these runes as early as April 29, with Patch 26.09.
We then got more details with the Dev Update
Deathfire Touch
 2017 icon |  2026 icon |
Deathfire Touch was a keystone Mastery that was removed in Preseason 2018 in patch 7.22. It used to have the following effects:
- Dealing ability damage to enemy champions applies a bleed, dealing 1 (+ 3.125% AP) (+ 5.625% bonus AD) magic damage every half-second for a duration based on their type.
- Single Target: 4 seconds for a total of 8 (+ 25% AP) (+ 45% bonus AD) magic damage.
- Area of effect: 2 seconds for a total of 4 (+ 12.5% AP) (+ 22.5% bonus AD) magic damage.
- Damage over time: 1 second for a total of 2 (+ 6.25% AP) (+ 11.25% bonus AD) magic damage.
Upon its removal, Scorch was put. Obviously, Scorch isn’t as strong as its predecessor, albeit the burn effect stayed. With Deathfire Touch being re-added into the game, Scorch might have to undergo a redesign to avoid redundancy within the rune trees.
Before, Deathfire Touch was in the Ferocity Mastery tree. In 2026, DFT is confirmed to be in the Sorcery tree as a keystone primarily designed for mages.
Stormraider’s Surge
 2017 icon |  2026 icon |
Like DFT, Stormraider’s Surge was also removed in Preseason 2018.
- Dealing 30% of a champion’s maximum health within 2.5 seconds grants you 40% bonus movement speed and 75% Slow Resist for 3 seconds.
It was replaced by Phase Rush, which inherited the extra movement speed component of Stormraider’s Surge.
Meanwhile, the “deal x% of a champion’s maximum health within y seconds” part is now present in the aptly named Stormsurge item.
The Dev Update confirms that Stormraider’s Surge will replace Phase Rush in the Sorcery tree.
Before these nostalgic runes come back, there’s more to look forward to. This coming April Fools features skins for Blitzcrank, Sejuani, and more, which you can check out here.