Patch 14.2 Notes

Grab some water, Patch 14.2 is scorching hot!
Game Updates
Riot Riru

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!
Lilu "Riot Riru" Cabreros

Mid-Patch Updates

January 24, 2024 Balance Adjustments and Bugfixes

Brand
  • Passive - Blaze, Damage to Monsters: 230% ⇒ 220%
  • Passive - Blaze, Maximum Health Damage per Stack per 100 AP: 2.5% ⇒ 2%
Rumble
  • Base Attack Damage: 61 ⇒ 64
  • E Damage: 60/85/110/135/160 (+40% AP) ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160 (+50% AP)
Teemo
  • E On-Hit Damage: 14/25/36/47/58 (+30% AP) ⇒ 14/27/40/53/66 (+30% AP)
Bugfixes
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused champions to gain adaptive stats when hit by Grave’s W.
  • Fixed a bug that causes Karthus’ passive form to grant MR with his W.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Twisted Fate’s Red Card to not properly slow the primary target.

Patch Highlights

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!

Vanguard

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.

Windows Min Spec Update

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.

MMR and Matchmaking

  • Reducing the amount of games of demotion protection from tier boundaries (eg. Gold to Silver). This should only affect people who seed/promote into the bottom of a rank tier (eg. Gold 4) and then lose many games in a row. It will make no difference if you’ve been in the rank for a while.
  • Fixed a bug where a small number of Diamond 1 players would sometimes receive negative LP gains (losing more LP on losses than gaining on wins). Unfortunately, while we cannot immediately resolve this issue for existing accounts, the problem will resolve itself with some games.
  • Fixed a bug where players who would be seeded into Iron IV were seeded into Iron II with negative LP gains.

Patch 14.1: How it Landed

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!

Stat Shard Changes

Stat Shards


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.

Row 2: Flex Shard Options

  • Slot 1: 9 Adaptive Force (unchanged)
  • newSlot 2: 6 Armor ⇒ 2% Move Speed
  • newSlot 3: 8 Magic Resist ⇒ 10-180 (based on level) bonus health

Row 3: Defensive Shard Options

  • newSlot 1: 15-140 (based on level) bonus health ⇒ 65 base health
  • newSlot 2: 6 Armor ⇒ 10% Tenacity and Slow Resist
  • newSlot 3: 8 Magic Resist ⇒ 10-180 (based on level) bonus health

Jungle Companion Compensation


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.
  • Jungle Companion Heal per Second: 12-35 (based on level) ⇒ 14-37 (based on level)

Champions

Smolder

The name's Ignacarious Gigantareno Rex Le Spes Offerentis, but you can call him Smolder. Spit fire in the botlane starting January 31, 2024 at 20:00 UTC!
  • Smolder Abilities Rundown here!
  • Smolder Champion Bio here!
  • Smolder Champion Insights here!

Ahri

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.

E - Charm

  • Cooldown: 14 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds

Blitzcrank

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Armor: 40 ⇒ 37

E - Power Fist

  • Damage: 200% Total AD (+25% AP) ⇒ 180% Total AD (+25% AP)

Briar

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.

Passive - Crimson Curse

  • Healing Amplification: 0.5% per 1% missing health ⇒ 0.4% (+0.025% per 100 bonus health) per 1% missing health
  • Bleed Tick Rate: 1 second ⇒ 0.5 seconds (Note: Total bleed damage and duration are unchanged.)

Q - Head Rush

  • Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% bonus AD) physical damage ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% bonus AD) (+60% AP) magic damage
  • Defensive Reductions: 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% armor reduction ⇒ 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% armor and magic resistance reduction
  • newHealthy Hits: Q now applies on-hit effects and lifesteal

W - Blood Frenzy

  • Bite Heal: 36/42/48/54/60% of damage dealt ⇒ 25/30/35/40/45% of damage dealt (+5% of Briar’s maximum health)
  • removedLess Critical Strikes: W no longer critically strikes for 5-65(+5% AD) bonus damage. (Note: W can still critically strike like a basic attack for 100% total AD.)

Camille

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Health: 646 ⇒ 670

Passive - Adaptive Defenses

  • Cooldown: 20/15/10 seconds (levels 1/7/13) ⇒ 18/14/10 seconds (levels 1/7/13)

Q - Precision Protocol

  • Bonus Movement Speed: 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 30/32.5/35/37.5/40%

Darius

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 - Decimate

  • Mana Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana ⇒ 25/30/35/40/45 mana
  • Healing based on Missing Health per Target: 13% per target (up to a maximum of 39%) ⇒ 15% per target (up to a maximum of 45%)

E - Apprehend

  • Passive Armor Penetration: 15/20/25/30/35% ⇒ 20/25/30/35/40%

Ezreal

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 - Mystic Shot

  • Damage: 20/45/70/95/120 (+130% AD) (+15% AP) ⇒ 20/45/70/95/120 (+135% AD) (+15% AP)

W - Essence Flux

  • Damage: 80/135/190/245/300 (+60% bonus AD) (+70/75/80/85/90% AP) ⇒ 80/135/190/245/300 (+100% bonus AD) (+70/75/80/85/90% AP)

R - Trueshot Barrage

  • Damage: 350/500/650 (+100% bonus AD) (+90% AP) ⇒ 350/525/700 (+120% bonus AD) (+90% AP)

Fizz

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.

Q - Urchin Strike

  • Magic Damage: 10/25/40/55/70 (+50% AP) ⇒ 10/25/40/55/70 (+45% AP) (Note: 100% AD physical damage and on-hit effectiveness unchanged.)

W - Seastone Trident

  • Total Magic Damage Over Time: 20/30/40/50/60 (+40% AP) ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 (+30% AP)

Garen

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.

W - Courage

  • 30% Damage Reduction Duration: 2/2.75/3.5/4.25/5 ⇒ 4 seconds at all ranks

E - Judgment

  • Damage per Spin: 4/8/12/16/20 (+0-8.2 (based on level)) (+32/34/36/38/40% AD) ⇒ 4/8/12/16/20 (+0-8.2 (based on level)) (+36/37/38/39/40% AD)

Gragas

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.

Base Stats

  • Armor Growth: 4.8 ⇒ 5
  • Health Growth: 109 ⇒ 115

R - Explosive Cask

  • Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds ⇒ 100/85/70 seconds

Gwen

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.

Passive - A Thousand Cuts

  • Damage: 1% (+0.65% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health ⇒ 1% (+0.72% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health

Hwei

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.

E - Subject: Torment

  • Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

EQ - Grim Visage

  • Flee Duration: 1 second at all ranks ⇒ 1/1.125/1.25/1.375/1.5 seconds

Illaoi

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Mana: 300 ⇒ 350
  • Mana Growth: 50 ⇒ 60
  • Health Growth: 109 ⇒ 115

Passive - Prophet of an Elder God

  • Missing Health Heal upon Tentacle Hit: 4.5% of missing health ⇒ 5% of missing health

Jax

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.

E - Counter Strike

  • Minimum Damage: 55/85/115/145/175 (+70% AP) (+4% of target's maximum health) ⇒ 40/70/100/130/160 (+70% AP) (+3.5% of target's maximum health) (Note: Maximum damage values are still 2x the minimum damage values.)

Karma

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Health: 604 ⇒ 630

Q - Inner Flame

  • Damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+50% AP) ⇒ 70/120/170/220/270 (+70% AP)

E - Inspire

  • Shield Strength: 80/120/160/200/240 (+45% AP) ⇒ 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% AP)

Karthus

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 - Lay Waste

  • Damage: 43/61/79/97/115 (+35% AP) ⇒ 45/65/85/105/125 (+35% AP)

W - Wall of Pain

  • Magic Resist Reduction: 15% ⇒ 25%

Rumble

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.

Q - Flamespitter

  • Damage: 135/150/165/180/195 (+110% AP) (+6/7/8/9/10% of target's maximum health) ⇒ 125/140/155/170/185 (+110% AP) (+6/7/8/9/10% of target's maximum health)

E - Electro Harpoon

  • Magic Resist Reduction: 12/14/16/18/20% ⇒ 10/12/14/16/18%

Shen

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 64

Teemo

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.

E - Toxic Shot

  • Magic Damage On-Hit: 14/25/36/47/58 (+30% AP) ⇒ 14/25/36/47/58 (+25% AP)

R - Noxious Trap

  • Charge Charge Time: 30025/20 seconds ⇒ 35/30/25 seconds

Twisted Fate

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 Stats

  • Base Attack Speed: 0.651 ⇒ 0.625 (Note: Attack Speed ratio unchanged.)
  • Attack Speed Growth: 3.22% ⇒ 3%

Passive - Loaded Dice

  • newNat 20: Critical strikes now roll an additional 6 sided die that is weighted towards 1 rather than 6.

Q - Wild Cards

  • Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+90% AP) ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220 (+90% AP) (+50% bonus AD)

W - Pick A Card

  • newBlue Crits: 0.575 critical strike multiplier added (increases damage by up to 57.5% based on critical strike chance)
  • newRed Crits: 0.350 critical strike multiplier added (increases damage by up to 35% based on critical strike chance)
  • newGold Crits: 0.250 critical strike multiplier added (increases damage by up to 25% based on critical strike chance)
  • QoL Adjustment: Locking in a card now resets Twisted Fate’s auto attack timer
  • QoL Adjustment: Pick a Card now affects Inhibitors and the Nexus

E - Stacked Deck

  • Bonus Attack Speed: 10/17.5/25/32.5/40% ⇒ 10/22.5/35/47.5/60%
  • Damage: 65/90/115/140/165 (+50% AP) ⇒ 65/90/115/140/165 (+50% AP) (+75% bonus AD)
  • QoL Adjustment: Stacked Deck now affects towers at 50% effectiveness
  • QoL Adjustment: TF’s deck now becomes fully stacked on spawn

Veigar

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.

Base Stats

  • Base Health: 550 ⇒ 580

Items

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

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.
  • Expose Weakness Increased Damage: 12% (melee) / 8% (ranged) ⇒ 10% (melee) / 6% (ranged)

Experimental Hexplate

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).
  • Item Recipe: Noonquiver + Tunneler + 600 gold ⇒ Hearthbound Axe + Tunneler + 700 gold
  • Attack Speed: 20% ⇒ 25%
  • Passive - Overdrive: 35% bonus Attack Speed ⇒ 30% bonus Attack Speed

Frozen Heart

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.
  • Total Cost: 2300 ⇒ 2400

Horizon Focus

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.
  • Passive - Hypershot and Focus Range Requirement: 700 ⇒ 600
  • Passive - Focus AoE Reveal Radius: 1200 units ⇒ 1400 units

Phantom Dancer

Reverting Phantom Dancer back to build out of Zeal again like it always used to.
  • Item Recipe: Hearthbound Axe + Cloak of Agility + 1000 gold ⇒ Zeal + Rectrix + 800 gold

Riftmaker

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.
  • Total Cost: 3000 ⇒ 3100

Steel Sigil

Making a small cost adjustment to Steel Sigil so that it’s 100% gold efficient and feels a bit better on purchase now.
  • Total Cost: 1200 ⇒ 1100 (Note: Due to the gold decrease to Steel Sigil, the combine costs for items building out of of it such as Death’s Dance and Guardian Angel have had their combine costs increased by 100, but total cost is unchanged.)

Stormsurge

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.
  • Ability Power: 100 ⇒ 90
  • Passive - Squall Damage: 100-200 (+30% AP) (melee) / 75-150 (+22.5% AP) (ranged) ⇒ 100-200 (+20% AP) (melee) / 75-150 (+15% AP) (ranged)

Stridebreaker

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.
  • Attack Speed: 25% ⇒ 30%
  • Total Cost: 3100 ⇒ 3000

Support Items


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.
  • newOne At A Time: The gold penalty now applies globally to anyone who has a support item in their inventory. Additionally, every champion with a support item now contributes towards hitting the minion penalty.

Bounty Adjustments

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.
  • Bounty Gold: 20-80% of a players bounty is reduced depending on team gold deficit ⇒ 30-90% of a players bounty is reduced depending on team gold deficit

Infernal Drake Adjustments

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.
  • Ability Haste per Infernal Cinder: 0.3 ⇒ 0.6

Gameplay Quality Improvements

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.

Champions

  • We don’t believe that Kayn should be able to accelerate passive orb gain through runes. We’ve previously adjusted this with First Strike previously and are now doing the same for Aery now. As such, Kayn’s Passive no longer works with Aery.
  • Rhaast’s R now heals even if the unit dies during the channel.
  • Taric E now ghosts units during the cast.
  • Rammus will properly play his AA animation when his W ends.
  • Kled Q is no longer variable duration, changing from 1.75-2 seconds to 1.75 flat.
  • Evelynn now tracks enemies falling under ult threshold much more often.
  • Jayce Hammer E now uses regular knockback instead of fixed distance upon the spell being cast.
  • Evelynn W can no longer target small monsters (Medium Krug and larger only). It already cannot target minions.
  • Heimerdinger Q and R+Q turrets now update their stats every 1 second, reflecting level-ups, rank-ups, and AP purchases. They no longer snapshot their stats when summoned.
  • Teemo’s default adaptive force stat changed: Attack Damage ⇒ Ability Power
  • Yorick’s in-games runes will now replace Glacial Augment with First Strike and Aftershock with Grasp of the Undying. This will affect 0.06% of Yorick players.
  • Gragas W now applies against turrets and other structures, dealing 50% normal damage.
  • Gragas W now applies damage in an AoE when targeting structures and includes them in its AoE when targeting units nearby.
  • Kennen will now respawn with W fully stacked.
  • Ornn R and R2 will no longer be able to target allies or the minimap.
  • Cho’Gath R now grants +2.5 cast range per stack, maximum +25 range at 10 stacks.
  • Cho’Gath R attack range per stack increased: 4.62 / 6.15 / 7.69 ⇒ 4.7 / 6.2 / 7.7
  • Cho’Gath R tooltip now displays the range increases if you hold Shift for more info.
  • Fizz W now applies to structures at 50% damage. The DoT does not apply to inhibitors.
  • Jax W and R now apply to structures at 50% damage.
  • Lulu’s Pix moves faster, especially when further away from its target.
  • Vayne Q-empowered autos cannot be accidentally canceled.
  • Kog’Maw gains an AA range indicator during his W (like Lethal Tempo/RFC).
  • Nami R will strike behind her on cast to mirror visuals and similar spells.
  • Trundle Q has 25 bonus range.
  • Volibear Q has 25 bonus range.
  • Nocturne Q trail has 25 units more forgiveness before you count as outside of it.
  • Nocturne Q trail now attaches to large and epic monsters in addition to champions.
  • Brand's Passive now damages every 0.25 seconds instead of every 1.05 seconds.
  • Nilah W now buffers out of other spells.
  • Nilah W can now be cast during other spell windups.
  • Nilah EQ is very inconsistent and often doesn't fire Q—adjusted to be more consistent.
  • Wards that would be placed beside a brush are now slightly nudged into them.
  • Ziggs’ W should be able to be activated while rooted etc.
  • Swain’s Passive will now be tracked in his tooltip and icon.
  • Poppy’s buckler will now bounce back to her if her target is dead when it hits.
  • Akali’s Passive now extends itself very slightly if attacks are taken in the last few frames before the buff expires.
  • Shaco’s clone will now attack the nearest visible enemy champion within 1500 range of it when dead.
  • Shaco’s clone will now stop to cast the fake W and will only do so within 300 units of Shaco prime.
  • Shaco clone will stop to cast a fake E and will only do so within 575 units of Shaco prime’s E target, this also fakes a missile.

Other Changes

  • Scryer’s Bloom will no longer reveal champion pets for longer than champions, as that was unintentionally revealing those characters for longer.
  • Shifted Tiamat and Ravenous Hydra actives to use attack timers if those are lower than their cast time.
  • Momentum items (Dead Man’s Plate, Trailblazer) will no longer lose Momentum when attacking traps or plants.
  • A number of champions properly have cooldowns listed on their passives.

ARAM Balance Changes

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.

Nerf

  • Aphelios: Damage Dealt: 105% ⇒ 100%
  • Gwen: Damage Dealt: 105% ⇒ 100%
  • Mordekaiser: Damage Taken: 100% ⇒ 105%
  • Kayle: Damage Taken: 100% ⇒ 110%
  • Teemo: R Maximum Charges: 3/4/5 (levels 6/11/16) ⇒ 2/3/4 (levels 6/11/16)

ARAM Surrender Adjustments

  • Early Surrender at 8 minutes: Removed (Note: Normal surrender time unchanged.)

ARAM Surrender Adjustments

  • Lightning Round: Win games before 10 minutes ⇒ Win games before 13 minutes

Brand VFX Update

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:
  • Base Brand
  • Crycore Brand
  • Zombie Brand
  • Spiritfire Brand
  • Battle Boss Brand

Clash - Noxus Cup

Our first Clash tournament of the year, the Noxus Cup Clash, kicks off this weekend!
  • Registration Begins: January 22 @ 11:00 AM (Local Time)
  • Tournament Dates: January 27-28 (~4-7 PM Local Time, varies by region)

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

Practice Tool Updates

Updating Practice Tool to work with some of the new features introduced in 14.1 alongside a few additional changes:
  • newButton added to spawn Voidgrubs and Jungle Monsters
  • newButton added to create a Spell Shield on your Target
  • newButton added to copy your Inventory to your Target
  • newButton added to cycle between various CC Effects on your champion
  • newReset Game now sets the game times to 0:00 in order to help with timing jungle clears
  • Fixed a bug that caused Reset Game to use the incorrect icon

Mythic Shop Rotation

Now Available

  • Prestige Empyrean K’Sante
  • Prestige PROJECT Zed
  • Prestige Pulsefire Thresh
  • Prestige Conqueror Jax

Leaving the Mythic Shop

  • Prestige PROJECT Irelia
  • Prestige K/DA Kai’Sa
  • Prestige Spirit Blossom Master Yi
  • Prestige Battle Academia Lux
  • Mythic Chroma Storm Dragon Lee Sin
  • Mythic Chroma Dawnbringer Riven
  • Winterblessed 2022 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Lunar Revel 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Faerie Court 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Inkshadow 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Soul Fighter 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Worlds 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
  • Faerie Court 2023 Grab Bag

Bugfixes & QoL Changes

QoL Adjustments

  • Quick Play surrender time adjusted for when 50% of active players vote “yes.” Changed from 15 minutes to 20 minutes.
  • Updated Nidalee’s recommended items in shop.
  • Removed the pop out option for chat windows in the League Client.
  • Added statue locations for Hubris on maps other than Summoner’s Rift.

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused kills to sometimes show up as double kills on the scoreboard.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Master Yi’s Highlander ability to not block the slow effect from Ahri’s charm.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Akali to be unable to cast abilities for about 1.5 seconds if she uses passive auto attack at the last second.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Katarina R to get into states where the spell casts but does not deal damage or launch knives.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Lux Q to rarely break spell shields but still apply full effects.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W visuals to not properly sync with the faster prep time.
  • Fixed a bug that caused players to be able to flash out of grounded zones they had teleported onto if they were spamming the flash key, F.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Jhin’s 4th shot, when fired within a few frames of his out of combat reload, to sometimes fail.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Heimerdinger’s turrets to have their attack speed slowed by Warden’s Mail and Randuin’s Omen.
  • Shaco clone will properly duplicate energized stacks and effects.
  • Shaco boxes will proc cosmic drive.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Neeko to get stuck running on all fours for the duration of the game.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Arcane Comet to cancel auto attacks if it fires in the windup.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Glacial Augment missiles to break spell shields.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Sion passive movement speed to decay at variable speeds depending on the other effects acting on him at the time.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Rakan’s W to count as an immunity.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Irelia’s Q dash to not properly reset if cast at max range and the target dies right before she arrives.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Lulu’s R bonus health to be slightly delayed in some rare cases.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Lulu to be unable to cast Q when she was CC’d.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Rift Scuttler to respawn at 3:32 instead of 3:30.
  • Fixed a bug where Rift Scuttler would create inaccurate timers when killed early in the game.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s QQ to sometimes explode when hitting walls or other champion abilities.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s E to sometimes get redirected by walls or other champion abilities.
  • Fixed a bug that caused multiple champions to be able to pilot Rift Herald at the same time.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Stormsurge to reflect damage back to the caster when attacking Neeko’s clone.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Neeko to be able to remove the turret backdoor bonus.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Mikael’s Blessing to be able to be used on non-champions.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Malignance and Hexplate to sometimes grant too much ability haste to certain champions.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W to be able to be cast repeatedly.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Azir to sometimes be knocked out extremely far when charging with Rift Herald.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Lich Bane to not show up under the Ability Haste items section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Zeke’s Convergence to not show up under the mana items section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Cosmic Drive to not show up under the health and regeneration section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Anguish passive of Unending Despair to deal less damage after being upgraded by Ornn into Hope Adrift.
  • Fixed a bug that caused The Unspoken Parasite to unintentionally grant the user Ability Haste.
  • Fixed a bug that caused secondary objective timers over 10 minutes to overlap the icon on the scoreboard.
  • Fixed a bug that caused jungle companions to deal more damage than intended when dashing onto a camp.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Stormsurge to improperly give kill credit when activated early.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Tahm Kench to be able to activate Experimental Hexplate without using his R.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Ravenous Hydra’s cast time to not use attack windup values.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Void Sentinel and Brambleback to spawn after the first time their draconic counterparts were killed, regardless of the Baron Timer.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Verdant Barrier’s cooldown to not be inherited by Banshee’s Veil.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Rod of Ages to still display in the Ability Haste section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Stridebreaker to still display in the Ability Haste section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Experimental Hexplate to still display in the armorpenetration section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some abilities to not receive Ability Haste directly after spawning. For example, as Karthus spawned and was spamming R the ability would sometimes go on
  • Fixed a bug that caused Voltaic Cyclosword to be able to slow through Unstoppable and Unslowable states.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Spirit Visage’s bonus shielding counter to count Kaenic Rookern’s Magebane passive shield.
  • Fixed a bug that caused T.U.R.B.O.’s item icon to not display the item’s passive cooldown.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Kaenic Rookern and Celestial Opposition shield sizes to not adjust based on champion size.
  • Fixed a bug that caused slows from Hwei’s QE and EE to stack.
  • Fixed a bug where Baron could take excess damage from specific abilities when damaged from far away
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s spellslot to lock temporarily if he leveled up a skill while opening a spellbook.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Imperial Mandate’s debuff VFX to be shorter than the actual debuff duration.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s Q to be locked into one form if he died while casting QQ as the player was reconnecting to the game.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some abilities to be cast backwards when used simultaneously with a blink in conjunction with the Clamp Cast Targeting setting.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some ability indicators to point the wrong direction when channeling and moving in conjunction with the Clamp Cast Targeting setting.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Zac’s E to sometimes go backwards after maxing the ability.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Wit’s End to still appear in the Attack Damage section of the shop.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Zoe’s Ravenous Hydra shard to have no effect.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hwei to be able to open a spellbook despite not having enough Mana.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W animation to be partially skipped when transitioning to the fully charged version.
  • Fixed a bug that caused certain jungle monsters to not spawn in the practice tool.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Lucian’s passive to sometimes spam the ability’s VFX.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Rumble R and Viktor E to have issues when used with Clamp Cast Targeting.

Cosmetic Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug where Cosmic Reaver’s Kassadin was missing his parallax textures.
  • Fixed a bug where Dawnbringer and Pulsefire Riven’s Shield of Valor (E) VFX was rendering over impassable terrain and structures.
  • Fixed a bug where Broken Covenant Riven’s Dance (Ctrl+3), Recall (B), and Revive VFX were cut-off when triggered on lower graphic settings.
  • Fixed a bug where Battle Bunny Prime Riven’s feet were sliding on the ground during Idle animations.
  • Fixed a bug where Winter Wonder, Bewitching, and Street Demons Neeko’s Pop Blossom (R) outer ring indicator appears skewed under certain circumstances from the enemy’s POV.
  • Fixed a bug where Withered Rose Talon’s Rake (W) VFX were extending past the spell's hitbox.

Upcoming Skins and Chromas