LoL 14.4 Patch Notes: Champion and Item Changes

• Patch 14.4 Champion Buffs
• Patch 14.4 Champion Nerfs
• Patch 14.4 Champion Adjustments
• Patch 14.4 Item and System Buffs
• Patch 14.4 Item and System Adjustments
• Patch 14.4 Runes
• Red Side Camera Changes
• Ranked LP Gains
• Patch 14.4 ARAM Changes
• Quickplay Changes
• Bugfixes and QoL Changes
• New Skins

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 96 ⇒ 104

 

Orb of Deception (Q)

• AP Ratio: 45% AP ⇒ 50% AP

With the removal of Everfrost, Ahri lost a lot of the reliability an additional root could create and the durability the item provided. We want to give her power back in some more exciting aspects of her kit, so we're increasing the damage of her Q for two reasons. First, when it came down to more reliability versus more damage, we thought Ahri players would appreciate more potent damage. Second, being able to land both parts of her Q also rewarded more skill expression. We're also giving her a bit more health so she can afford to take some damage while she's kiting around fights with her ultimate.

Base Stats

• Base AD: 57 ⇒ 59

 

Lightning Field (Melee W)

• Mana Restore: 10/12/14/16/18/20 ⇒ 15/17/19/21/23/25
• Damage: 35/50/65/80/95/110 ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100/115

 

Thundering Blow (Melee E)

• NEW: Grounded in Science: Now roots enemies on initial cast. (Note: Similar to Lee Sin's R root.)

Jayce's E sometimes suffered from a weird effect, occasionally throwing players in an odd direction when cast during an opponent's dash. To resolve this, we adjusted it to work more like Lee Sin's R, now rooting on cast. This also means it will no longer knock enemies outside of auto attack range when cast at max range.

Additionally, we're looking to flatten Jayce's power curve slightly, giving him a bit more agency (and mana) to skirmish in lane. This should make him less dependent on Muramana and make early mana runes feel more valuable.

 

Killer Instinct (R)

• Cast Range: 1500/2250/3000 ⇒ 2000/2500/3000

Kai'Sa has been pretty weak this season but has begun to find her footing with Eclipse and Statikk Shiv starts, resulting in a steady climb to her pick and win rates. Even with this newfound tech, we think she's still a little bit underpowered so we're giving her a very small bump to her unique ability to join the fray at a moment's notice.

 

Glitterance (Q)

• Doublehit Damage: 25% ⇒ 50%

Help, Pix (E)

• Damage: 80/120/160/200/240 ⇒ 80/125/170/215/260 (+50% AP)
• Shield: 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 80/125/170/215/260 (+55% AP)

Wild Growth (R)

• Bonus Health: 275/525/575 ⇒ 275/525/575 (+55% AP)

Lulu has been a bit taxed getting ready for Bandle Tale and all, so she's been slipping in League. But don't worry—we're here to help her get back up to full power! In this patch, we want to increase her power in a way that will feel exciting to her players, namely more poke damage for her opponents and more I-will-not-let-you-die-no-matter-how-hard-you-try power for her allies. 

 

Cull the Meek (Q)

• Champion Healing: 12/18/24/30/36  ⇒ 12/20/28/36/44 (+17% bonus AD)

 

Slice and Dice (E)

• Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds

 

Dominus (R)

• Bonus Health:  250/400/550 ⇒ 300/500/700

Simply put, Renekton is quite bad in his current state and in desperate need of some help. For starters we'll be increasing his Q healing now that he no longer has the reliable healing that Goredrinker provided him. We're also decreasing his E cooldown at later stages of the game so he can have better target access to squishies. And last but certainly not least, we're increasing the bonus health he gets from his ultimate to give him better survivability in teamfights and for better Sundered healing synergies as that's his most common first item at the moment. Overall, these should help make Renekton feel a bit more like the Butcher of the Sands he's meant to be.

 

Salvation (Passive)

• Movement Speed: 70% ⇒ 90%

Starcall (Q)

• Heal: 50/65/80/95/110 ⇒ 60/75/90/105/120 (+30% AP)

 

Equinox (E)

• Bugfix: E now silences enemies in the area instantly rather than after a variable delay.

 

Wish (R)

• Cooldown: 160-130 ⇒ 150-120 

Soraka is another champion still struggling to find her place within the new item system. Now that she has space for buffs, we want to give her some that Soraka players will find effective and fun—20% faster bananambulance anyone? 

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 28 ⇒ 31

 

Flay (E)

• Damage: 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 75/120/165/210/255 (+70% AP)

 

The Box (R)

• Cooldown: 140-100 ⇒ 120-80

With the changes to support itemization, Thresh is falling off faster in the midgame than he was in the previous seasons and we're looking to give him some power in the areas we feel he's most lacking. We'd like for him to be more able to aggressively take trades and use The Box in lane. Also, Flay isn't quite as good as a second max as we'd like, so we're giving it a bit of damage.

 

Thundering Smash (Q)

• Movement Speed: 8/12/16/20/24% ⇒ 12/16/20/24/28% (Note: this bonus is still doubled when moving towards an enemy champion.)

 

Sky Splitter (E)

• Cooldown: 13 ⇒ 12

 

Stormbringer (R)

• Turret Disable: 3-5s ⇒ 2-4s
• Cooldown: 160-120 ⇒ 130-100
• Crowd Control Resistances during Leap: Crowd Control Immune ⇒ Unstoppable

Volibear is struggling and we'll be helping him out. We think that his R is a supremely cool moment for Volibear players, but the ability to disable turrets can remove his opponents' access to counterplay. In order to give Voli players more agency and more frequent access to his ultimate, we're trading some of his turret disabling power and CC immunity for a cooldown decrease. We're also including a Q movement speed buff so he can reach his targets more consistently, and a slight E cooldown buff for the magic wizard bears out there.

Breath of Light (Q)

• Bonus Magic Damage Pers 1s: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 (+ 35% AP) (+ (3.1% Stardust)% of target's maximum health ⇒ 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 / 95 (+ 30% AP) (+ (3.1% Stardust)% of target's maximum health

Aurelion Sol is still performing too well and we've decided to reduce some more of his power. He now gets more stacks from Q, both because the stack gain was increased and also because he can cast it more frequently due to the potent mana buffs. We'd like to retain how well it stacks and scales with Stardust, but nerf its AP ratio and some base damage to account for that.

Base Stats

• Armor Growth: 5.2 ⇒ 5
• Attack Speed: .625 ⇒ .658

 

Traveler's Call (Passive)

• Damage: 35 + 14/5 Chimes (+30% AP) ⇒ 35 + 10/5 Chimes (+40%AP)

 

Cosmic Binding (Q)

• Damage: 80-260 (+65% AP) ⇒ 80-240 (+80% AP)

Bard is currently quite powerful and is especially durable due to having more than enough base values on his kit to not require anything but tank items. In this patch, we're closing the gap between tank and mage/enchanter-style builds by lowering his base values while preserving his AP scaling to nudge him toward those purchases more often. On top of that, he gets a guaranteed 200 HP from the new support items, so he's generally a bit too durable.

As one final set of changes, we're making discharging Meeps feel a bit better by increasing his overall attack speed. Nashor's Tooth, anyone?

 

Riposte (W)

• Attack Speed Slow: 50% ⇒ 25%

In this patch, we want to address Fiora's trading pattern in certain matchups where her W attack speed slow is hard to answer when used as an opener. She's currently performing quite well and has room to lose some power, so we'll be halving the attack speed slow to provide more counterplay for players that find themselves matched up against the Grand Duelist.

Prophet of an Elder God (Passive)

• Damage: 9-162 (based on level) (+115% Total AD) ⇒ 9-162 (based on level) (+100% Total AD)

With last patch's tentacle range increase, Illaoi ended up being a bit more powerful than anticipated. As her full attack damage build is massively outperforming her tankier options, we're addressing her power by adjusting her passive damage.

Rend (E)

• Base Damage: 20-60 (+70% Total AD) ⇒ 10-50 (+70% Total AD) [Per-stack Damage Unchanged]

Bugfix: Boots of Speed now properly affect passive dash distance. 

Now that much of the Season Start dust has settled, Kalista has found herself as one of the premier bot laners in Pro play and we'd like to open that role up to a bit more variety. Also, she's receiving a meaningful bugfix this patch, so we're also compensating for that bit of extra power. 

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 39 ⇒ 35

 

Bramble Smash (Q)

• Damage: 70-270 (+2-4% Max HP) ⇒ 65-265 (+2-4% Max HP)

Nature's Grasp (R)

• Root Duration: 0.8-2.6 ⇒ 0.75-2.25

Maokai is currently still the best support in the game, branch hands down. And while last patch closed the gap between his power as a support and as a top laner/jungler, he's in a state where we simply need to siphon off some of his baseline power to keep him in check.

 

Hullbreaker

• Works properly now

Hullbreaker currently has an extremely strong interaction with Urgot that makes him deal full damage with it through his W, Purge. We're changing Hullbreaker under the hood to interact properly with Urgot's on-hit damage reduction.

Base Stats

• Base AD: 62 ⇒ 60

Varus currently has two viable builds: Lethality and on-hit. But despite being relatively balanced for the vast majority of players, he's dominating Pro play drafts. In order to address this, we're toning down a Pro-specific strength that will impact his early laning phase.

 

Garden of Thorns (Passive)

• Plant Damage: 20-88 (+18% AP) ⇒ 16-84 (+18% AP) 
• Bonus Monster Damage: 40-100 ⇒ 60-100

Zyra is currently overperforming as a support, but at the same time, as a plant champion, we want her to feel at home in the jungle. Just like Ivern and Maokai and Lillia. These buffs should help her find her roots in the jungle without giving her too much early power to take into the bot lane.

Base Stats

• Attack Speed Growth: 3% ⇒ 2.5%

 

Pick A Card (W)

• Magic Damage: 40-120 (+100% AD) (+115% AP) ⇒ 40-120 (+100% AD) (+100% AP)

Twisted Fate's update from 14.2 has done wonders for revitalizing his player base, having about three times as many players than before the start of the season. However, he's also dealing more damage than before and his opponents have begun to take notice. We don't think he's significantly over the line, but both his AP and AD builds are performing a little stronger than they should so we're stacking his deck a little less. 

Base Stats

• Base Health: 570 ⇒ 625
• Base Mana: 290 ⇒ 320

 

Path Maker (W)

• Armor/MR Ratio: 50% ⇒ 85%
• Bonus Magic Resist Ratio: 50% ⇒ 85%
• REMOVED: All Out no longer reduces the minimum channel to 0.5 seconds
• REMOVED: All Out no longer reduces the cooldown to 18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds

Footwork (E)

• Dash Speed: 1500 ⇒ 900
• Ally Dash Speed: 1800 ⇒ 1100 + Movement Speed

 

All Out (R)

• REMOVED: Q no longer slows
• E Dash Speed: 20-40%

K'Sante doesn't leave a lot of room for counterplay during All Out (you might even say his opponents are all out of counter play options), so we're aiming to address his opponents' ability to outplay him, or at least give them the time to process what he's doing. We think that these changes will result in some degree of lost power, but we believe that these adjustments should help get K'Sante in an overall better state long term. 

Base Stats

• Base Movement Speed: 335 ⇒ 340
• Base Health Regeneration: 7.5 ⇒ 2.5
• Health Regeneration Growth: 0.65 ⇒ 0.5

 

Fury of the Xer'Sai (Passive)

• Maximum Healing: 10 (+2-10% (based on level) maximum health) ⇒ 12-20% (based on level) maximum health
• Fury Generation from Non-Champions: Attacks against minions, plants, and wards restore 50% less Fury.

 

Queen's Wrath (Q) 

• Attack Type: Functions as a basic attack instead of a spell, meaning total attack time and time between attacks is based on Rek'Sai's actual attack speed.
• Bonus Attack Speed : Grants 45% bonus attack speed for its 3 attacks. 

Prey Seeker (Q)

• Cooldown: 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds at all ranks
• Damage: 60/95/130/165/200 (+50% bonus AD) (+70% AP) Physical Damage ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170 (+25% bonus AD) (+70% AP) Magic Damage

 

 

Burrow (W)

• Bonus Movement Speed: 5/10/15 (levels 1/6/11) ⇒ 5/10/15/20/25 (based on rank)
• Vision Radius: 25% ⇒ 35%

Unburrow (W)

• Grouping is Scary: Knocks up all champions for 1 second, not just the primary target.
• REMOVED: Run!: No longer slows enemies by 40% for 0.5 seconds post-knockup.
• Damage: 50/85/120/155/190 (+80% bonus AD) Physical Damage ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150 (+80% AP) Magic Damage

 

Tunnel (E)

• Cooldown: 26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds
• Tunnel Reuse Cooldown: 10/8/6/4/2 seconds ⇒ 6/5/4/3/2 seconds
• Manual Cast Dash Speed: 550 + Movement Speed from Boots ⇒ 500 + Total Movement Speed
• REMOVED: Removed the 0.05 second hitch when manually casting Tunnel.
• oL Adjustment: Rek'Sai begins taking already-placed tunnels roughly 20% faster.

 

Furious Bite (E)

• Physical Damage: 5/10/15/20/25 (+70% AD) ⇒ 100% of total AD
• 100 Fury Bonus: 2x Damage as True Damage ⇒ +6-14% (based on rank) of target's maximum health
• Cooldown: 12 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds
• Flashy: E now displays a cosmetic critical strike when fully empowered.

 

Void Rush (R)

• Physical Damage: 100/250/400 (+175% bonus AD) (+20/25/30% of target's missing health) ⇒ 100/250/400 (+100% bonus AD) (+20/25/30% of target's missing health)

In her current state, Rek'Sai tends to feel non-functional as a fighter, causing her core builds to often be full lethality just to accomplish anything in game. This patch, we're hoping to give Rek'Sai some exciting things to do in early, mid, and late game. The primary buffs are substantially snappier tunnel usage and a super juiced passive that plays up her ability to weave in and out of combat to recoup health between cooldowns. As there's a lot of power in these gains, we'll be taking down her burst damage to prevent her from getting out of hand.

We also have a host of modernization and re-scripting updates to Rek'Sai. Queen's Wrath is now an auto attack instead of a spell, meaning it scales appropriately with attack speed. Tunnels no longer have hitches in the middle of their animations when you're entering them. Her cooldowns have been synced up to make jungling more intuitive as Burrow, Prey Seeker, and Unburrow will line up from level 2. These changes, in addition to a whole host of adjustments on the backend, should also make her easier to update going forward. One thing we'll be keeping our eyes on is her balance between fighter and tank builds, which will thankfully be really easy to tweak!

 

Super Scorcher Breath (Q)

• Target dying while missile is in flight still grants a stack
• 125 Stacks Number of Missiles: 2 + 1% Dragon Practice Stacks ⇒ 1 + 1.5% Dragon Practice Stacks

 

Achooo! (W)

• Cooldown: 13-11 ⇒ 14-10
• Base Damage: 70-150 (+25% Total AD) (+35% AP) ⇒ 50-170 (25% Bonus AD) (+20% AP)
• Explosion Damage: 25-85 (+65% AP) ⇒ 25-85 (+25% Bonus AD) (+80% AP) 

 

Mmooommm! (R)

• Will cast even if Smolder dies during cast time

Smolder's W has proven to be a very powerful poking tool during the laning phase. While we're happy that players want to max and poke with it, we want to slightly reduce its power at lower ranks due to the PVP damage it can provide while also ensuring that it never one shots the wave, preventing Smolder from stacking with Q and scaling. We're also taking this opportunity to add in some QoL improvements and bug fixes that will help Smolder live his best dragon fantasy better.

• Max Health Regeneration Per 1s: 8.4% ⇒ 10.4%

In this patch, we'll be increasing fountain healing with the goal of slightly reducing how much time players need to spend in base at the early stages of the game. We think that the time players spend finding a safe spot to recall, recalling, waiting in the fountain to heal, and walking back to lane do a good job of creating opportunity costs for recalls. But there's a bit of room to speed this up to help pacing feel more consistent.

• Aatrox W (Note: Fixed a bug where the tether pull could sometimes ignore the tether range check in the last 0.25 seconds.)
• Fiddlesticks W (Note: Tether break range (not cast range) increased from 700 to 725 units.)
• Illaoi E
• Karma W and R+W
• Kled Q (Note: This ability cannot use area checking due to its changing tether range, however it now checks the range 20x per second instead of 4x per second.)
• LeBlanc E and R+E (Note: There is a 0.25 second grace period on hitting LeBlanc E + RE before the tether will break visually. This is intended so that the players can see that the tether hit a target, but it does mean that for 0.25s the tether will be attached and out of range.)
• Nocturne E
• Morgana R
• Renata Glasc Q
• Zac Q (Note: Tether check changed from center check to edge check, tether range decreased from 1000 to 900.)