League of Legends patch 14.18 preview: The Worlds' patch

The League of Legends 14.18 Patch Notes is out. According to the official schedule provided by the game's developers, Patch 14.18 is set to be released on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. This is the patch the Worlds Championship will be played on, unlike previous years. This patch is a thick one with many changes targeted at pro-play-specific issues such as the ADC midlane meta and the weakness of several AP items.

Here's a comprehensive look at what to expect.

Buffs :

Ahri, Gnar, Hwei, Jarvan IV, Jax (changes undecided yet), Jayce, Jinx, Lulu, Malphite, Samira, Shen, Viego, Xin Zhao

Nerfs :

Aurora, Azir, Corki, Ivern, Leona, Lilia, Lissandra, Maokai, Miss Fortune, Nasus, Nasus, Rell, Rumble, Smolder, Varus, Vi, Zeri, Ziggs

Adjustments :

Luden's Companion (overall buffed)

Shadowflame (overall buffed)

Stormsurge (Overall buffed)

Recently, the meta for AP items has been focused around Liandry users while the rest of the items feel relatively weaker to the other AP options as well as the AD items. Phroxzon has thus chosen to buff the weaker items instead of nerfing the strong ones as AP champions struggle outside of the jungle and Ziggs.

"Systemically, we're looking to buff some mage burst items to bring them up to Liandrys power level. We currently believe Liandrys is not too strong, but that the other items are too weak; or not shaped in the right ways. We're bringing the other items up to that level "

Turrets : Permament resists for plate is increased, temporary one is decreased. Fortification effect strengthened

Phroxzon explained these changes "As League has matured, players and teams have gotten much better at utilizing and resisting lane swaps as well as min-maxing laning phases. This has gotten to the point where teams are willing to go down 3-4 plates to avoid certain matchups which results in low interaction states. Viewers don't sign up to watch 3v0's and I don't think Pro Players are signing up to play that either. The changes here are making taking the first plate in top take twice as long, while the plates that are dropped in bot lane are going to be far more significant, especially off the first crash."

Fleet Footwork : Buffed for melee, Nerf for ranged

Bloodthirster : Nerf

Immortal Shieldbow: Buffed for melee, Nerf for ranged

Once again, Phroxzon came with explainations, arguing that fleet is a core element of the adc meta in mid and that the full durability of AD carries needed to be worked on

"Fleet is receiving a big nerf for ranged champions; overall we think this is doing a lot to make it hard to assail ADC's in midlane especially. We also overnerfed the rune for melees and so a bunch of these changes are to counteract some of those nerfs somewhat Additionally, there are some nerfs to BT and Shieldbow for ranged. In general, we think ADC's are too durable holistically, while the melees who build these items are overall fine."

The results of the nerfs are always hard to predict, but the current meta is so optimized that every role has a specific kind of champions to pick: one AP champion in top/jungle - or more rarely mid/Ziggs ADC, generally two setup champions with support, jungle, and ADC usually taking this role, and a hyper DPS option in mid.

If the changes go in the direction Riot wants, we should see far fewer AD picks in mid and more burst mage options (Syndra, Ahri for instance), which would mean that fighter mages (Ryze, Cassiopeia) would also be back in the meta. With fewer DPS in mid, hypercarries like Aphelios and Jinx (or even Zeri despite the nerf) should be more present in botlane.