Riot dropped quite the bombshell with their 14.19 League of Legends patch that saw dozens of items, and most Legendary gear, nerfed. These major changes were made to help decrease snowballing and slow things down a bit. And many of these nerfs hurt as every Legendary loss stat efficiency that ranged as low as a 5% loss to as high as a 15% loss. And with hardly any time to breathe, Riot dropped sneak peeks of the upcoming 14.20 patch that will bring more changes after one of the biggest LoL updates yet.
LoL Patch 14.20 Preview
In a post on X from Lead Gameplay Designer Matt Leung-Harrison, he previewed the future 14.20 patch while also mentioning already seeing the effects from the previous one. It’s noted that snowballing has indeed been reduced. There’s still more to monitor, of course, but the item nerf seems to be going in the direction Riot intended so far.
Below are some of the key areas the upcoming LoL patch will further address:
- AP and ADC Itemization
- Champion Buffs and Nerfs
Assessing Itemization in the League of Legends Patch
It was mentioned in the tweet that AP champions will continue to be monitored without any plans for such a major nerf just yet. There were talks about how Liandry’s Torment works quite well for junglers and is now balanced for all other positions. Yet another indicator that perhaps the big nerf 14.19 patch is proving effective in LoL. Of course, there’s still more to be examined to see how well it works.
Meanwhile, the patch will also look at LoL ADC itemization. They claim it’s all about balance, so the first item options will be tweaked. Specifically, they’ll widen the cost gap to remove Infinity Edge from the first lineup.
Champion Buffs & Nerfs
As expected, the LoL 14.20 patch will bring more Champion buffs and nerfs:
Future Champion Buffs
- Aphelios
- Caitlyn
- Corki
- Lee Sin
- Pantheon
- Riven
- Sivir
- Tyndamere
- Xayah
- Yasuo
- Yone
Future Champion Nerfs
- Anivia
- Aurelion Sol
- Cammile
- Dr. Mundo
- Jhin
- Mordekaiser
- Poppy
- Shyvana
- Singed
- Skarner
- Swain
- Taric
- Udyr
- Veigar
- Yorick
These planned nerfs and buffs aren’t major in the LoL 14.20 patch. For instance, Caitlyn will see her attack speed ratio increase from 0.61 to 0.65 while someone like Jhin sees an AD growth per level decrease from 4.7 to 4.4. Nothing too extreme, but enough that you’ll feel it. As someone who plays with Caitlyn quite often, I’m certainly curious to see what, if any, improvements there will be as she’s already a solid ADC Champ.
Of course, this is all just a preview of 14.20, and there’s always a chance that things will be adjusted before the League of Legends patch drops. Until then, at least we can prepare for yet another round of changes.
