Updated on March 13, 4:01 p.m. (GMT+8): Added more information from Riot Phroxzon, including section on Galio and Karma.
League of Legends Lead Gameplay Designer Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison posted a preview of LoL patch 14.6 today.
The update addresses the state of ADCs, strength of supports, early lane snowballing, Voidgrubs, Smolder changes, and four top lane tank champions.
State of ADC in LoL patch 14.6
Crit item buffs
- Infinity Edge
- Navori Quickblades
- Lord Dominik’s Regards
- Mortal Reminder
According to Riot Phroxzon, the strong state of supports means that they’re unwilling to buff ADCs, or risk returning to a “bot lane” meta.
That said, four crit items Infinity Edge, Navori Quickblades, Lord Dominik’s Regards, and Mortal Reminder are receiving buffs “to make them more competitive” against on-hit and lethality.
“There are some other changes this patch to decrease the snowballiness of the early-game which should also help with early feels,” he added.
Supports hit by nerfs in LoL patch 14.6
Supports are getting some nerfs through gold income decreases, further Solstice Sleigh nerfs, and a nerf to Doran’s starts by making them unique with support income items.
LoL patch 14.6 sees more Smolder balance fixes
While hotfix nerfs did address some overshot Smolder changes, this patch will add more to bring him back to his previous power level.
“He’s certainly in frustrating territory right now, but we think that’s mainly due to his power level exacerbating an otherwise balanceable champion, rather than due to any specific unbalanceable underlying issue (true damage, scaling, etc.),” Riot Phroxzon explained.
Currently the dev team doesn’t think there’s any underlying issues with the champion in terms of kit design. As such, they aim to hit “some of the more frustrating aspects” such as easy escapes and W hitbox not matching visuals, as well as the scaling of execute.
Changes to early lane snowballing in LoL patch 14.6
Early lane snowballs occur when players get ahead in lane and return to base to buy their first item, such as a Serrated Dirk or Hextech Alternator for example. As such, it disincentives players from stacking components.
“Players have gotten better at juicing their leads, we’ve found these frequently lead to ‘no-fun’ gameplay states too quickly where one party sits under the tower after one bad play,” wrote Riot Phroxzon.
As such, Riot Games is bringing these items down to be closer to 100% gold efficiency so that playing from behind becomes more “realistic.” This also allows the player who gets ahead to have repeated success in terms of reaching their snowballed state.
Small buffs to Cho’Gath, Ornn, Shen, Sion in LoL patch 14.6
Cho’Gath, Ornn, Shen, Sion benefitted from Sunfire Aegis and Heartsteel changes.
Even though the items are now in a reasonable spot, the champions are still weak, Riot Phroxon stated. As such, they’re all receiving a small buff.
According to the devs, in Ornn’s current state, Q max second is a bit more powerful than E max, so they’re trying to make them more situationally equivalent in power by buffing E’s rank one value
Players have also feedback that they would like more Ornn items and the dev team is currently looking into it, with the possibility of creating a new system altogether.
Karma
The team recognizes that Karma is too good in mid lane. Malignance has benefitted her ever since the item received updates.
This LoL patch 14.6, her mana regen is increased while overall mana decreased. This means she’ll lean more towards support items which tend to scale off mana regen.
Her R cooldown reductions from Season 13 will be reverted due to Malignance’s effect in reducing ult cooldowns, and reducing the impact of her passive refund.
Riot hopes that these, in conjunction with E changes, will make E casts relatively more impactful.
Galio
Balancing Galio in mid and in the support role is tricky.
“We’re trying to incentivize having him regularly get multiple passive procs into his combos to provide him with satisfying payouts for good spell usages,” Riot Phroxzon wrote.
At the end of the day, Riot wants to ensure that mid Galio is stronger than support.
Changes to Voidgrubs in LoL patch 14.6
The balance team assessed that Voidgrubs are “a bit too tanky for ahead top laners to take.”
In order to even out the bot-focused buffs this patch, they’re therefore making them a bit easier for ahead top laners to secure.
These changes will also occur in the next patch, where junglers will benefit.
Summary of LoL patch 14.6 changes
Champion buffs
- Cho’Gath — lowered rank one W cooldown to boost laning power
- Diana (jungle) — attack speed focused changes focused on clear speed, giving her a much higher uptime on attacking
- Ornn
- Shen — expect more shields in the early game to help with his early game trading
- Sion
- Tryndamere — Increased damage through AA’s when he gets on you, rather than being primarily spell focused
Champion nerfs
- Briar — able to Q to wards, which increases her skill expression while reducing the effectiveness of level 9 spike
- Gragas (top) — generic nerf that will make him a little more punishable and less forgiving, especially in lane
- Karma (mid)
- Senna (ADC)
- Smolder
- Volibear –possess a binary gameplay style, in that he either gets on you and kills you, or he doesn’t; the “gets on you” part will be a little less guaranteed with this nerf. When he disables tower, it also results in some pretty low counterplay states, so early R cooldown will be increased
Champion adjustments
- Galio
Item buffs
- Infinity Edge
- Navori Quickblades
- Lord Dominik’s Regards
- Mortal Reminder
System nerfs
- Epic item stat efficiency
- Solstice Sleigh
- Support item gold income
System adjustments
- Voidgrub shield on death changed to heal on death
- Doran’s items, World Atlas, and jungle egg items are all unique and cannot be purchased together
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