Things are heating up in 14.2, say hi to Smolder everyone!
In this week's patch we’re looking to address some of the champions that the 14.1 changes hit hardest. Some champs, like Camille and Illaoi, need the help due to the terrain changes, while others, like Ezreal and Fizz, struggled or thrived with the new items at their disposal. In addition to champion balance changes, we’re also retuning a few of the items to get them into a better place. But that’s not all, we also have a whole list of quality of life changes!
Make sure you check out the sections below on Vanguard and our Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 deprecation coming in the next few patches.
Over in TFT, Lunar Festival has begun, bringing new cosmetics and TFT’s first ever set revival game mode (the return of Galaxies), so be sure to check out all the details at the TFT patch notes here!
Primal Ambush Sivir, Primal Ambush Riven, Primal Ambush Vi, Primal Ambush Talon, Three Honors Akshan, and Foreseen Yasuo will be available on January 24, 2024 at 20:00 UTC.
Our newest champion Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling, (and his Heavenscale skin) will be heating up the Rift on January 31, 2024 at 20:00 UTC!
In a few weeks we will be introducing Vanguard, Riot’s proprietary anti-cheat software that will be required for all League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics games. Starting patch 14.2, we will run a diagnostics check to see if your computer is ready for this update. If not, please review our troubleshooting guide or reach out to Player Support.
If you originally failed the check, it will re-run at a later point or you can manually re-run it by clicking on the settings icon on the top right and “Check for Compatibility” under General > Vanguard System Check.
This will not mean that Vanguard is active or being used for League yet, this is just to give players ample heads up and opportunity to be ready before it’s a requirement. For more information please check out our support article on Vanguard.
Beginning Wednesday February 21st (patch 14.4), we are updating our minimum system requirements and will no longer be supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 for all League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics games. To maintain the stability and performance of our game we sometimes need to deprecate support for legacy Operating Systems that aren’t widely used by our players. If you’re still playing on these versions of Windows, please consider updating to continue playing. Please see our min spec support page for more details.
We’ve been pretty happy with how 14.1 landed in terms of bug stability and overall balance after the 14.1 hotfix. Game time is stable, objective balance looks good, the tradeoffs associated with playing towards top and bot side seems to be reasonable, and snowballing is down. That said, we’re well aware that the amount of burst in the game is up. Some of these burst increases are due to Stormsurge and Bloodsong releasing strong (you’ll see nerfs to them in this patch and we’ll be watching how they land). We also increased AP values across the board, as having 200 AP at 3 items was pretty unsatisfying for players. We wanted to see how these AP increases landed to help identify which champion’s AP ratios or base damages need to be adjusted. We also wanted to reduce Ability Haste on items across the board and naturally, this means that more of an item’s power budget is in burst (either AP or AD).
We’re pursuing some burst reductions in 14.2 through stat shard changes, and targeted item/champion nerfs. Once we’ve done a comprehensive audit on which champions/classes are bursting which classes harder, and by how much, you can expect to see additional changes in 14.3 and beyond. Our goal right now is to get burst levels back to how they were in patch 13.24. We hope you’ve been enjoying all of the new changes and looking forward to seeing you on the Rift!
We’re updating some stat shards this patch in order to create more strategically compelling choices that aren’t as punishing when improperly selected. When choosing between Armor and Magic Resist shards, it’s generally clear which is the better option (am I laning against Zed or Lissandra?), and that’s really all there is to it today. What’s more, unorthodox lane opponents, such as mages in Bot Lane, tend to throw players off, leading to non-optimal shard selections that contribute to strong statistical performances on these mages (despite not actually being as powerful as stats would suggest).
With that said, we’re replacing those less interesting decisions with more in-depth ones that are less likely to punish players for incorrect selections. Now you will be able to choose a non-damage and non-durability option in the Flex row and choose between early durability, late durability, and some targeted defenses via tenacity in the Defense row.
Due to many junglers losing armor on their first clears, we’re increasing jungle heal per second slightly. Running flat health will provide plenty of early game safety and scaling health was already viable on a large number of them as well.
E cooldown decreased.
Ahri lost some power with 14.1, so we’re here to help her out. With less access to Ability Haste, her E cooldown has some room to be lower which should give her more opportunities to look for picks and a more reliable disengage tool against her tougher matchups, such as Fizz or Akali.
Base armor decreased. E damage decreased.
Blitzcrank has become one of the most lethal supports and is overall one of the strongest performers after 14.1. This patch we’re reining in both damage and durability, opening up more room to punish them for over-aggression while also requiring a bit more damage to capitalize on their hooks.
Passive healing amplification decreased, bleed tick rate decreased. Q damage increased, damage type changed to magic, now applies on-hit effects and lifesteal. W heal on bite adjusted, critical strike modifier removed.
Briar’s lethality build has been too strong in recent months while her bruiser build has been struggling to keep up. In this patch we’re bringing the two builds closer together by adding some health and on-hit synergy into her kit while reducing the power of lethality and crit.
Base health increased. Passive cooldown decreased. Q bonus movement speed increased.
With the change to the terrain in the top lane, Camille’s power has begun to wane. Not to mention the loss of one of her favorite items, Divine Sunderer. In this patch we’re looking to give her more tools to interact with enemies in lane more consistently to make up for this lost power.
Q mana cost decreased, healing based on missing health increased. E passive armor penetration increased.
With the drop in power from Stridebreaker, Darius has found himself in need of some help to strike terror into his opponents. These buffs target his non-ultimate damage and health scaling, because those are two of the less frustrating things Darius does. The mana cost buff is to relieve a little pressure off his mana requirements in lane, particularly in matchups where you need to Q trade frequently. This intentionally doesn't make him able to E much more (his highest manacost) because we want him to pay a high cost for that, but don't think he needs to be as limited in how he uses Q.
Q damage increased. W damage increased. R damage increased.
A lot of Ezreal’s tools were blunted in patch 14.1 with items like Ravenous Hydra and Serylda’s Grudge being much worse on him than before. While he gained a bit of power from last patch, he hasn’t gained enough. We’re once again buffing his harder to use abilities so that he’s not just reliant on Mystic Shot landing to inflict damage.
Q damage decreased. W damage decreased.
Fizz is swimming in a world of strong assassin items, plus he no longer has to build stats he doesn’t want in order to access the ones he does. This has resulted in Fizz being overly damaging, even after the recent micropatch. We’re once again toning down his AP ratios to bring his damage in line. Much like last patch, we’re nerfing both him and his itemization, but as Stormsurge is only a small amount of his power budget, we think he warrants these direct changes.
W active duration adjusted. E damage increased.
Garen lost out in the 14.1 update, and Stridebreaker’s buffs haven’t done enough to bring him back up. We’re attempting to give him a mix of damage and durability with these changes, nudging him toward Conqueror to access more early dueling power, while making his defenses more consistent and easier to learn for him and his opponents.
Armor and health growth increased. R cooldown decreased.
Gragas was another big loser from 14.1, specifically in the jungle. We’re amping up his durability, as he used to rely on the extra tankiness that Night Harvester and the old Shadowflame provided. Additionally, a buff to his R cooldown allows him more frequent access to full-power ganks, which should skew toward the jungle.
Passive damage increased.
With the 14.1 micropatch we went a little too hard on Gwen, so we’re back to partially revert the nerf.
E cooldown decreased. EQ flee duration now increases with rank.
Hwei is currently struggling due to the lack of Haste in the new item system, so we're looking to provide him with more consistent and scaling disengage along with general game agency via lower cooldowns on his crowd control spells as a whole.
Base mana, mana growth, and health growth increased. Passive heal increased.
Illaoi is struggling due to a few things including fewer walls and a loss of some core itemization. We’ll be looking to adjust tentacle interactions from walls on a future patch, but for now we’re giving her some power to make up for her lost strength.
E damage decreased.
Jax has landed just fine after Divine Sunderer’s removal as he’s got plenty of other viable options available. He’s been a long-standing top performer in top lane and now we’re taking him down a peg. For a champion long known for his late game prowess, his early laning is too strong, so we’re weakening his primary trading tool and making him rely on gold income to carry more of his late-game damage.
Base health increased. Q damage increased. E shield strength increased.
Karma hasn’t been in a great spot recently, but the 14.1 changes really weakened her. In order to help her get back on her feet we’re looking to give her some AP scaling buffs which should help her when she’s playing as a support or mage, but without resurfacing top lane tank Karma.
Q damage increased. W magic resist reduction increased.
Karthus is another champion with whom the 14.1 changes didn’t land favorably, underperforming in roles he once succeeded in. In order to help him find his voice (and damage) we’re giving him some pretty straight forward damage buffs that should be generically beneficial to him.
Q damage increased. E magic resist reduction decreased.
Rumble is currently dealing a bit too much damage so we need to reduce some of it. We’re lowering his Q base damage as this deals quite a lot early and it can be difficult for his opponents to answer. We’re also including a nerf to his E so that he can’t shred through his opponent’s Magic Resistance as easily.
Base attack damage increased.
Shen’s also not doing too great with the new set of items, so in order to help him we want to give him power back in an area he’s slowly lost over time, his early game. The additional base AD here should help him hit a bit harder when scrapping early.
E damage decreased. R charge time increased.
Teemo is still performing too well despite our micropatch nerf, so we’ll be nerfing him again. We’re increasing his R charge time since he synergizes excellently with Malignance, which is increasing his R frequency by a meaningful amount. We’re also including a nerf to his E on-hit ratio, as this is a large source of his damage and has some room to go down.
Multiple adjustments to support more itemization options.
With the lack of Mythics in the new item system we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to broaden TF’s viable builds for those looking to take advantage of the newfound freedom with their itemization options. Ultimately, this should help players that are picking TF and suddenly find themselves against a tanky comp (or in an AP heavy comp) where AD TF is more appealing. These changes will mainly benefit those looking to build AD TF, but we also have a few smaller changes that will be beneficial regardless of the build. While we still expect AP to be his primary build and will support him with that in mind, but now he should have a viable alternative build.
Base health increased.
Veigar has been struggling into the myriad assassins of both the AD and AP variety, so we're giving him a bit of base line survivability to help him survive his early game.
In an attempt to simplify tooltips for players we went a bit too far when it came to removing information and trackers, and we agree with the player feedback we’ve been seeing about bringing them back. We still think there is value in improving tooltips, but we didn’t hit our mark this time so starting with 14.2 we’ll be adding them back into the game and making further improvements as we go.
Bloodsong has contributed pretty heavily to the amount of burst in the game at the moment, which is something we’re aiming to correct here. We believe Spellblade is important for this item’s feel, so we’re nerfing the aspect that’s much harder for supports to appreciate.
Hexplate builds out of Noonquiver without actually having any on-hit damage, so we’re moving it to build out of Hearthbound Axe instead to make it more intuitive for players. This also balances out Hearthbound/Noonquiver/Zeal to build into three legendaries each (here in League we love our rule of three... sorry Jhin).
Some would say we made Frozen Heart cheap. Possibly too cheap. And thus, we are here to un-cheapen it. By upping the cost Frozen Heart should now be more comparable to other potential armor item options.
Horizon Focus is once again a relatively narrow item that’s also just looking weaker than other options. We’re making it a bit more accessible and consistent on top of giving its most unique output a small buff.
Reverting Phantom Dancer back to build out of Zeal again like it always used to.
Riftmaker’s users are generally overperforming, and Riftmaker is one of the stronger items for these champions like Kayle, Singed, Mordekaiser, etc. In order to bring it down a notch we’re making a generic cost nerf here to increase cost diversity as these champs have a lot of options at the 3000 gold price point.
Making a small cost adjustment to Steel Sigil so that it’s 100% gold efficient and feels a bit better on purchase now.
Stormsurge has been a major contributor to the increased burst damage in the game, and it’s certainly a significant contributor to the time to kill speed for AP assassins. It’s also still quite powerful after the hotfix nerf, so we’re looking to decrease its scaling/multiplicative snowballing power via the AP ratio while maintaining the item as a good early power spike.
Stridebreaker is an item that should be an appealing purchase for low mobility fighters who benefit from the added mobility and target access that it provides. While it is serving this niche for juggernauts like Garen and Sett, data shows that the item is still weak and has room for some additional feels good changes.
We’ve seen double support items start to surface as a game warping strategy, so we’re adjusting the gold income rules on all of the support items which should effectively eliminate the viability of doubling up on support items and the gold they give.
We made an adjustment to the bounty system which will further reduce individual bounties for those on the losing team. We’re looking to improve an edge case where players on the losing team can get a seemingly undeserved bounty due to accumulating a large amount of CS without dying. We also believe there's room to push this modifier further, as the team with more gold should already have plenty of opportunities on the map to progress their lead and they don't need to secure as large a bounty on the champion that could just be the only hope for the losing team.
The new Infernal Terrain mechanic isn’t quite making the impact we had hoped for, so we’re looking to up the Ability Haste each Cinder offers so that they are more valuable when you decide to adjust your game plan or pathing to pick some up.
In this patch we have a long list of smaller one-off changes and minor balance adjustments with the goal to help some champions that need it or make some mechanics a bit more intuitive and satisfying for players.
We're aware of some items and champions overperforming in ARAM right now (cough Stormsurge), but with the balance adjustments coming to Summoner's Rift this patch (which are also inherited by ARAM) we want to take a bit more time to avoid compounding two buffs or nerfs onto a champion. You can expect some more follow up balance adjustments to come in 14.3.
Smolder isn’t the only champion heating up this patch! We’re stoking Brand’s fire as well with a VFX update! The VFX for Brand’s abilities on the following skins have been updated:
Our first Clash tournament of the year, the Noxus Cup Clash, kicks off this weekend!
And in case you’re looking to plan ahead with your 5 stacks, here’s our Clash schedule for the year!
Patch | Team Formation Begins | Tournament Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Noxus Cup | 14.2 | January 22 | January 27-28 |
Shurima Cup | 14.4 | February 19 | February 24-25 |
ARAM Cup 1 | 14.6 | March 18 | March 23-24 |
Piltover Cup | 14.7 | April 8 | April 13-14 |
MSI Clash | 14.9 | April 29 | May 4-5 |
ARAM Cup 2 | 14.12 | June 10 | June 15-16 |
Demacia Cup | 14.14 | July 15 | July 20-21 |
Shadow Isle Cup | 14.15 | August 5 | August 10-11 |
ARAM Cup 3 | 14.17 | August 26 | August 31-September 1 |
Zaun Cup | 14.22 | November 11 | November 16-17 |
ARAM Cup 4 | 14.24 | December 9 | December 14-15 |
Updating Practice Tool to work with some of the new features introduced in 14.1 alongside a few additional changes:
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: