Final patch before Worlds: mages buffs, Graves/Kindred reintroduced, Kennen/Rumble nerfed, while also adjusting support meta.
The League of Legends 14.17 Patch Notes is out. According to the official schedule provided by the game's developers, Patch 14.17 is set to be released on Wednesday, August 28, 2024. This is the last major patch before Worlds and so we should be starting to see what the meta will look like during the international event. Riot Games is aiming to bring more mages back into the mid lane while nerfing further AD runes. Additionally, they're working on buffing certain AD junglers and addressing the dominance of overpowered tank support items.
Here’s a comprehensive look on what to expect.
Buffs:
Caitlyn, Graves, Kindred, Lissandra, Ryze, Ryze, Twisted Fate, Varus
Nerfs:
Aurora, Ashe, Brand, Ezreal, Katarina, Kennen, LeBlanc, Lillia, Pyke, Rumble, Senna, Seraphine, Sylas, Absorb Life (rune), Cut Down (rune), Fleet Footwork (rune), Celestial Opposition (Item), Warmog's Armor (Item)
Riot's Reasoning behind these changes
Read more about League of Legends changes on the X account of Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison.
Caitlyn
- Caitlyn hasn't been present in the meta for a while
- We're giving her slightly better control on one of her skill skewed spells and better scaling that doesn't skew towards Lethality builds
AP Junglers (Brand, Lillia)
- We're continuing our trend of bringing down AP junglers around the Fated Ashes power level.
- We think the item is doing a good job of allowing other more fringe AP champions to jungle reasonably and are tuning the other champions around it
Graves, Kindred
- Looking to get a few AD junglers back into the meta here.
- Looking for relatively known buffs to their core damage abilities
- Kindred in particular has been looking worse for wear after a Kraken nerf that was targeted at other champions (cough AD mids cough)
Lissandra, Ryze, TF
- Some of the Mage oriented buffs this patch are aimed at furthering their particular niches; Liss as a more utility oriented Mage and lane presence
- Ryze as he's not seen play for a long while and is feeling a bit weak relative to the other mids present right now
- TF has lost some of his luster in recent times, and we're giving him a stable buff to his bread and butter with the hopes of seeing him more in meta
Leblanc
- While LB would be a valuable edition to the World's meta, she's overall too strong for solo Q, especially in Elite play
- She's posting pretty high banrates across the board and warrants a nerf
Aurora
- As mentioned yesterday, Aurora is a pretty deep mastery champion and is posting pretty good statistics, which indicates she's likely long term too strong when players have mastered her
- We're looking to bring down some of the potency of her multi-champion ult casts to hit at some of her Elite skew as we often observe higher skill players using it more effectively than regular players
Rumble, Kennen
- Rumble and Kennen have been a little too strong for a while and as a result have been a relatively more powerful to bring AD champions in Mid
- We're tapping them down a bit to open up room for other champions
Supports
- We're making some nerfs to items that Tank supports (especially the meta drivers) buy (disproportionate nerf to Supports rushing 1st item Warmogs) -> we also think Warmogs is generally too powerful even for income tanks
- We're also tapping Seraphine and Senna down as Seraphine has been strong for a while, especially with her W max, so we're flattening that out some amount
- Senna's AP builds are too strong on the current patch, and as a viable alt build, it should probably be closer to that, an alt build
Sylas
- Sylas is in a better spot after the buffs to get his numbers into a better spot
- We're nerfing his ratios a bit more to make his HP oriented builds a little more competitive (typically have less AP) than the pure burst builds
The Competitive Impact
As this is the last patch before Worlds, this one is mainly focus on pro play for sure. It seems like the meta should be slightly more open now, especially on midlane where ADCs such as Lucian or Ezreal took over recently. Riot Games brought some buffs to some mages such as Lissandra, Ryze and Twisted Fate that we haven't really seen for a while. They are also trying to bring back other AD junglers options such as Kindred and Graves. This position seems to be highly carry oriented as AP junglers like Brand and Zyra will continue to be meta as well.
On toplane, Rumble and Kennen have been seen too much dominating their lane. Their nerfs should open other opportunities for bruisers and tanks again. They also decided to shift the meta for supports. Warmog is nerfed which should slightly impact the current tank/engage meta, and so are Senna and Seraphine who shouldn't be as dominating with their unstopping heals and shields on the botlane.
Header Credit Photo: Riot Games
