League of Legends’ 14.1 patch has landed. It arrives just in time for 2024 Season Split 1 with lots of gameplay updates, new items, map updates, and more. Read on to dig into all the latest changes, buffs, and nerfs.
League of Legends 14.1 Patch highlights overview
Riot Games has put together a snapshot to give you all the gossip in one hit. Players will see the Champion Hwei has been buffed, and five new Dragonmancer skins are landing in League of Legends. There are some major updates to the Baron, Drake, maps, and Rift Herald. Plus changes to certain abilities. Save this graphic as a handy guide to what’s changed, because there is a lot!
Map changes
Last year, Riot Games put out a blog on the map changes coming for this year, which have now landed. The main goal of the make is to “make lanes fairer across sides”. In the past, each side would have an advantage or disadvantage for ganking. Whilst there are still differences, the team has aimed to smooth these out. Secondly, the map is designed around “making solo lanes a bit more protected from junglers” or roaming enemies.
The Top lane has been changed to reduce the impact of other lanes on the top in the early game. It’s now time for one-on-one fights to shine through. The Rift Herald has been pushed back so as to not steamroll the top lane so early in the game. Changes to the mid lane have made it safer for more immobile Champions to have a good crack. Mid laners are a little more protected from junglers and the roaming paths have been opened up a little.
As for the bottom lane, it has the least amount of changes, mainly due to it receiving so many changes in the past. The updates should however make it more even for both sides, with lane and brush positions more evenly matched. There’s also a new gank pathway, so you better look out. The final map change is to the jungle where there’s more support for lane adjustments with modifications to the geometry of the jungle. There’s a shift away from a single choke point and combat can be focused around multiple entrances.
Infernal map change
Since the terrain has changed so much, there are some updates to the Drakes. With fewer walls, while the walls themselves are no longer destroyed on the Rift. Infernal Cinders now spawn randomly on the map in small groups, with a higher likelihood of spawning on the side of the losing team. By picking these up, players are granted a small burst of movement speed and an Infernal Cinder stack. These stacks give 0.3 Ability Haste and players can keep up to five Cinders on dying. The remaining ones are dropped on the ground. Whilst other players can pick these up to count towards their stack, they won’t grant the 0.3 Ability Haste.
Baron Nashor receives a visual and form update
The Baron Nashor receives three forms with the map changing for each form. There’s the Hunting, All-Seeing, and Territorial Baron. The main visual change is seen on its middle head.
Mechanically, there are some changes to each form:
- Hunting Baron: A pillar of lightning will strike down over every nearby enemy. Each lightning strike starts at 0.7 and is delayed by 0.1 second per strike. Each one deals 15% of the target’s current health
- All-Seeing Baron: Summons rifts toward the two furthest enemies within 2200 units. The rifts last for three seconds and deal 150 magic damage on the first hit, then 50 damage for each subsequent hit
- Territorial Baron: Reaches out and after 1.5 seconds grabs all enemies and pulls them in 300 units, dealing 75 magic damage to each enemy
The map surrounding the Baron slightly changes with each form, making it riskier to attack from certain angles. If you’re planning on taking on the Baron, be vary!
Baron Nashor changes all the buffs on the map
Jungle players in particular love the buffs on the map. Destroying Red Bramblebacks or Blue Sentinels gives players an attack or magic buff. These are integral to the way Junglers play the game. That’s all changing. After the Baron Nashor emerges from its pit, the new respawn of a Red Brambleback or Blue Sentinel will transform them into Voidborn Brambleback or Voidborn Sentinel respectively. These newly risen creatures have 30% more health and increased durability.
Whilst they are harder to take down, not only with the destroyer receive the buff, but their entire team will—minus any Champions that are already dead.
New residents in the Baron pit
Usually, the Baron pit remains empty until the Baron spawns on the map. But no longer. Voidgrubs and Voidmites have made camp on the Rift. These little beasts will regularly spawn in the Baron’s pit. The idea is to give more power to Jungle players will more enemies to take down. Top and mid laners will also have the opportunity to take some quick kills if they are pushed out of their lane. The Voidgrubs provide some tower pushing pressure too.
Voidgrubs will spawn every five minutes, and from them, four Voidmites will spawn for every 12 seconds a Voidgrub is in combat. The grubs can respawn once per game with each having their own individual respawn timer of four minutes. Once they die, the Voidgrubs will give nearby other Voidgrubs a buff: 25% max health and 25% missing health shield which will decay over ten seconds.
There are incentives for players to kill Voidgrubs as each kill grants the player and allied teammates a small buff. This is called Hunger of the Void and is a stackable buff. Each kill adds one to the stack and gives your non-proc attacks bonus true damage to structures over four seconds. This is super useful if you’re planning on taking down towers. Check out the patch notes for the full breakdown on health and attack for these creatures.
Revamped Rift Herald
The Rift Herald changed the strategy of League of Legends players with many seeking to capture and tame this beast to use in their lane pushes. Now the Rift Herald has both a visual and technical update. Visually, it now has a more Voidgrub-look. Technically, it’s received some changes that players will find very interesting. The first is you can ride the Rift Herald. By right-clicking, the user or an allied teammate can jump into Shelly. Players can also direct where the Rift Herald charges.
By steering the Rift Herald through an enemy—including a Champion—they’ll take 250 true damage. Structures take a bonus 2000 damage. The Rift Herald now includes “Baron’s Gaze” which halves the damage taken from the last enemy. There’s also a new auto-cast feature where if your Champion dies, the Herald will spawn at your team’s base. The Eye of the Herald will auto-recast with no channel time.
All other status of the Rift Herald such as health, damage, speed, and resistance remain unchanged. How will you use this newly improved Rift Herald?
Champion Buffs and nerfs
Hwei, the brooding mage painter, receives an armor buff. Hwei’s base armor is raised from 18 to 21.
Vel’Koz, the support mage, receives a buff for their Tectonic Disruption ability. The projectile travel time is increased from 0.25 to 0.55 seconds. It’s not all buffs though, with a nerf to Vel’Koz’s circular ability indicator, which now created 0.25 after casting instead of being created immediately.
Some adjustments have been made to junglers with the Champion Bonus Damage to Non-Epic Monsters being reduced from 42% to 25%. Pet Damage per second cap against Epic Monsters is now 16-40 based on level.
League of Legends 14.1 patch item changes
All Mythic items are now officially retired. The goal here is to “reduce the power of items that were previously Mythic by converting them to Legendary”. This would make ex-Mythic items less powerful and ensure Champions’ abilities shine through rather than relying on items.
Some items have been removed from the game including:
- Crown of the Shattered Queen
- Everfrost, Leeching Leer
- Demonic Embrace
- Stopwatch/Perfectly Timed Stopwatch
- Goredrinker
- Divine Sunderer
- Silvermere Dawn
- Ironspike Whip
- Turbo Chemtank
- Radiant Virtue
- Gargoyle’s Stoneplate
- Aegis of the Legion
- Evenshroud
- Radiant Virtue
- Lifewell Pendan
- Duskblade of Draktharr
- Prowler’s Claw
- Rageknife
- Galeforce
- Relic Shield
- Targon’s Buckler
- Steel Shoulderguards
- Runesteel Spaulders
- Spellthief’s Edge
- Frostfang
- Spectral Sickle
- Harrowing Crescent
- Chemtech Putrifier
- Chalice of Harmony
The majority of item changes appear to come from the Tank and Support Tank items. Doran’s Blade, the popular starting item now has 3.5% lifesteal and no longer has omnivamp.
There are also a tonne of new items and changes to existing items. Check out the patch notes for all the juicy details on each item.
Towers get buffs
To make the game run a little longer, and due to the new tower damage coming from Voidgrubs, all towers have been buffed. Inner towers now have 4000 health instead of 3600 health. Inhibitors have 3500 health instead of 3300. Nexus Tower health has increased from 2700 to 3000, and the Backdoor damage bonus has been reduced.
Give a first bump
With all these buffs and changes, one might be a little overwhelmed. The best way to start is to jump into a game and take it nice and slow. When you enter a game for the first time, you can try out a brand-new feature. Players have long emoted when they first spawn into a game, and now you can build some team morale. The new first bump feature allows you to celebrate all your League of Legends hype moments. Activate the fist bump emote, and wait for another player to activate the emote. Once more than one player has it activated, those players will fist bump.
Try it out with your whole team and you can all join in the celebration. Don’t forget to check out the full League of Legends 14.1 patch notes for all the changes.
