League of Legends 14.2 Patch Preview

RiotPhroxzon and RiotPhreak have given us a sneak peak for the newest League of Legends 14.2 Patch. In this preview, you’ll see a lot of changes, so sip a drink and get cozy, because this will take a while.

What’s New in League of Legends Patch 14.2 Preview?

Ranked

We’re making some changes to reduce how lenient tier boundary demotions are. While we think making a tier boundary is a big milestone, we also need to be demoting people more honestly to ensure the ranked system functions properly.

We’re also continuing to investigate some players with negative LP gains. The vast majority of these are coming from the above, where people are not being demoted properly, so their visible rank is higher than their current level of play.

We’re also chasing down a few cases of some Diamond1/Masters players having some negative LP gains for a short amount of time, but these only seem to be affecting a small number of accounts in large regions.

Overall

After reviewing all the patch data, game time is stable and higher than 13.24 (mainly due to increasing the backdoor damage reduction and buffing towers)

Snowballing is lower than 13.24, however, burst is up (especially from AP), which is a bit counter-intuitive. We suspect because people are getting burst pretty quickly, it’s easy to build leads, but harder to end and easier to throw.

We’re looking at moderate burst reductions as a result – Objectives have landed in a mostly decent spot; chain ganking bot vs fighting for grubs seems to be carrying real tradeoffs that teams are engaging in – Rift Herald usability is the main thing on our mind as something worth following up on here

AP

Our strategy with AP items was to increase the overall AP values that players are getting (it was unsatisfying to be 180AP at 3 items) and reduce base damages (on AP champs that have problematic tank builds) and reduce ratios (on everyone else) over time on AP champions to compensate for this, especially on the outliers. This will lead to some short term instability, but long term will be better for the AP system and champions overall

Players had also been asking for reductions in haste (game it too URF) and HP (I don’t want this stat) on AP items, which also contributes to increasing burst as champions are both dealing and receiving more damage. Our goal once the system is tuned is to end up with both less burst and less AH coming from the item system

Stat Shards

I’m sure @RiotPhreak will have some notes on this in the rundown as this is one of the passion projects he’s been trying to do for months, but Season Start is the only reasonable time to do it – The main goal of this change is to make choices more satisfying and intuitive. While we’re losing some interest in choosing armor/MR against opponents, we hope to gain more intuitive choices like early vs scaling or movespeed/tenacity vs durability. These changes are also intended to combat some of the increased burst in the game – They were intended to go out in 14.1 to counteract some of the burst increases, but had a small delay and were desynced a patch as a result

Items

Double support item (and quadra support item) are being nerfed. We’re being pretty heavy handed here – Even after the buff, Stridebreaker is struggling to find its place, as is Horizon Focus when Stormsurge is so much better.

Stormsurge is receiving a substantial nerf and we think it’s the root cause of a lot of the increased burst – Bloodsong also appears to be the best of the support items.

Finally, Frozen Heart and Riftmaker are a bit too efficient.

Buffs

Almost all of the champions in the list had a core item that they had a great synergy with either removed or reworked (or in Gwen’s case, overnerfed) – Everfrost, Sunderer, Tri Force, AH for Hwei, Karthus Liandrys, etc.

Nerfs

The nerfs in this list are for champions who have incredible synergies with the new items – Sundered Jax, Liandrys DoT champs, Fizz Stormsurge, etc. Thanks for playing the new season, we’re hopefully close to getting it stable and hope you’re all having a blast!!

Champion Buffs

Ahri

• [E] Charm cooldown reduced 14 >>> 12 seconds

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Camille

• Base HP increased
• [P] Adaptive Defenses cooldown reduced
• [Q] Precision Protocol Move Speed increased

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Darius

• [Q] Decimate buffs:
  • Healing increased
  • Mana cost reduced
• [E-P] Apprehend Armor Penetration increased

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Ezreal

• [Q] Mystic Shot damage increased
• [W] Essence Flux damage increased
• [R] Trueshot Barrage damage increased

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Garen

• [W] Courage duration adjusted 2/2.75/3.5/4.25/5 >>> 4 flat seconds
• [E] Judgement tAD ratio increased

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Gragas

• Armor per level increased
• HP per level increased
• [W] Drunken Rage now deals 50% damage to structures
• [R] Explosive Cask cooldown reduced

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Gwen

• [P] Thousand Cuts AP ratio increased 0.65% per 100 AP >>> 0.725% per 100 AP

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Hwei

• [E] Subject: Torment buffs:
  • Cooldown reduced 15/14/13/12/11 >>> 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds
  • [EQ] Grim Visage fear duration increased

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Illaoi

• HP increased
• [P] Prophet of an Elder God healing increased
• Mana increased (pool or costs)

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Karma

• HP increased
• [Q] Inner Flame AP ratio increased
• [E] Inspire base shield and AP ratio increased

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Karthus

• [Q] Lay Waste damage increased
• [W] Wall of Pain Magic Resistance reduction increased 15% >>> 25%

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Shen

• Base AD increased 60 >>> 64

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Veigar

• Base HP increased 550 >>> 580

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Champion Nerfs

Blitzcrank

• Base Armor reduced 40 >>> 37
• [E] Power Fist tAD ratio reduced 100% >>> 80%

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Fizz

• [Q] Urchin Strike AP ratio reduced
• [W-P] Seastone Trident adjustments:
  • Now deals 50% damage to structures
  • DoT AP ratio reduced

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Jax

• [W] Empower now deals 50% damage to structures
• [E] Counter Strike flat damage and target’s max HP damage reduced
• [R-P] Grandmaster-at-Arms now deals 50% damage to structures

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Rumble

• [Q] Flamespitter damage reduced
• [E] Electro Harpoon Magic Resistance reduction reduced

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Teemo

• [E] Toxic Shot on-hit AP ratio reduced
• [R] Noxious Trap cooldown increased

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Champion Adjustments

Nidalee

• Recommended Items manually adjusted to add Lich Bane as the most recommended item

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System Buffs

Horizon Focus

• Range required reduced, reveal radius increased

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Steel Sigil

• Cost reduced 1200 >>> 1100 gold

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Stridebreaker

• Attack Speed increased
• Cost reduced

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System Nerfs

Bloodsong

• Spellblade Expose Weakness damage amplification reduced

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Frozen Heart

• Cost increased

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Riftmaker

• Cost increased 3000 >>> 3100 gold

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Stormsurge

• AP reduced 100 >>> 90
• Squall AP ratio reduced

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System Adjustments

Support Item Stacking

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Rune Stat Shards – PBE and 1/16 PBE

• Second slot Armor and Magic Resistance shards replaced with 2% Move Speed and 10-150 HP (based on level) shards
• Third slot Armor and Magic Resistance shards replaced with 60 HP and 10% Slow Resist/Tenacity shards

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Unflinching – PBE

• Now grants 2-10 bonus Armor and Magic Resistance while CC’d and 2 seconds after instead of Slow Resist/Tenacity based on missing HP

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Experimental Hexplate

• Build path changed Tunneler + Noonquiver + 600 gold >>> Tunneler + Hearthbound Axe + 700 gold (total unchaged)
• Attack Speed increased 20% >>> 25%
• Overdrive Attack Speed reduced 35% >>> 30%

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Phantom Dancer

• Build path changed Hearthbound Axe + Cloak of Agility + 1000 gold >>> Zeal + Rectrix + 800 gold (total unchanged)

That’s all there is for this patch preview. If you want to get better at warding, we have a good beginner-friendly guide.

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