Death timers are increased, midlane ADC's are nerfed again, some mages are buffed and much more !
The League of Legends 14.16 Patch Notes preview is out. According to the official schedule provided by the game's developers, Patch 14.16 is set to be released on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. While Riot has already nerfed AD Carries in the midlane on the previous patch, some of them are still dominating. That's why, Corki and Lucian are being directly nerfed to be less oppressive in laning phase, while some mages are receiving buffs to restore a bit of their former power. Death Timers and Homeguards are also being increased in the early game, to receive an harder punishment when getting solokilled, especially in the toplane. Here’s a comprehensive look at what to expect.
Buffs:
Azir, Syndra, Orianna, Sylas, Katarina, Vi, Skarner, Wukong, Black Cleaver (item)
Nerfs:
Corki, Doran's Blade (item), Blade of the Ruined King (item)
Adjustments:
Lucian, Qiyana, Senna, Death Timers and Homeguards (system)
Riot's Reasoning behind these changes
Read more about League of Legends changes on the X account of David "Phreak" Turley
Wukong (typo on the picture):
The real changes are:
- P Armor +1 at all levels (stacks up to +6 armor)
- E attack speed +5% at all ranks
Senna:
- Senna adjustments are to make it harder to be the "primary carry" unless you get ADC levels of gold income.
- As a support, she should be more supportive, meaning she'll be stronger alongside ADCs in lane and a bit weaker alongside tanks.
- Solo queue vs. pro power, essentially.
- Also if Senna occasionally considers AP items, that's cool. We don't want them to overshadow AD builds, just be worth considering.
Black Cleaver:
- Black Cleaver rules change brings it back into viability for Senna (especially alongside ADCs) and is a buff for many on-hit fighters.
Azir, Orianna, Syndra, Sylas, Vi, Skarner, Wukong:
- Many of the buffs are strictly weak for solo queue.
- If they show up in pro and create diversity, then that's great.
- But not trying to buff things that aren't actually weak after accounting for champion mastery.
Lucian and Corki:
- Changes are specifically for Pro and Elite-level solo queue where they're dominating pick rates.
- Making targeted adjustments that we believe are mid-skewed.
Katarina:
- We're closing the gap on Q/E max.
- Making raw AP builds stronger by buffing ratios.
Qiyana:
- Give her a bit more control over her early game.
- Nudge up her jungle secondary role.
- We think her being a scaling assassin is unique and worth preserving.
- But we think we can make the early lane a bit more forgiving to play and smooth it out a little.
Skarner:
- Introduce juggernaut builds for players who want them.
- Shore up his early game now that Q3 is much weaker.
Doran's Blade (item):
- We nerf the resilience of Doran's Blade so that it's easier to make inroads against those who start with it.
AP junglers ?
- For AP junglers, we'd still rather address the champions themselves. (Should most likely come in the following patches)
The Competitive Impact
As Phreak said "This patch is simultaneously solo queue and pro play focused". Indeed, Lucian and Corki should stop haunting every pro games after 14.16 will be out in the competitions. Also, with champions like Azir, Orianna, Syndra or Sylas receiving buffs, no doubt pro players will go back on their classics as these have always been popular in competitive games.
Obviously, death timers will impact a lot the snowball through kills, especially in the toplane. And maybe, influence more variety on the choice of summoners spells (which was most of the time TP, until then), since the 1v1 should most likely be more impactful on the Rift.
