The League of Legends 14.18 patch is finally here following an announcement and release on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. The 14.18 patch is the final patch League of Legends is to receive in the lead-up to the World Championship and is the definitive version this year’s tournament will be played on.
The 14.18 patch, similarly to the 14.17 patch, seeks to focus more on nerfing some of the strongest ADCs on top of additional changes such as increasing the penalty for lane swapping as well as improving AP Burst itemization. Included in the 14.18 patch are some new skins for the two most popular champions, Thresh and Azir. The pair will receive “day job” skins that will see them put on hilarious occupational outfits such as Attorney Azir and Janitor Thresh.
Above is a summary of all the changes made in the 14.18 patch.
Buffs in 14.18 Patch
The patch also features buffs for champions such as Lulu, Jinx, and Ahri, just to name a few, with the point being to increase their viability during matches. Some of the other champions buffed in this update are as follows:
Buffed Champions in 14.18 Patch
- Ahri
- Gnar
- Hwei
- Jarvan IV
- Jax (changes undecided yet)
- Jayce
- Jinx
- Lulu
- Malphite
- Samira
- Shen
- Viego
- Xin Zhao
Nerfs in 14.18 Patch
In the patch, certain champions such as Aurora and Lisandra received nerfs for either being too popular and at risk of being overplayed or too powerful as a result of some overshot upgrades. Some of the other champions who’ve been nerfed following this update are as follows:
- Aurora
- Azir
- Corki
- Ivern
- Leona
- Lilia
- Lissandra
- Maokai
- Miss Fortune
- Nasus
- Rell
- Rumble
- Smolder
- Varus
- Vi
- Zeri
- Ziggs
Item Adjustments in 14.18 Patch
In regards to item adjustments, the dev team had the following goals: to first and foremost increase the effectiveness of AP burst items as well as to reduce the level scaling of a number of ADC durability items. This reduction is meant to balance solo lane ADC’s who had quickly become unkillable and were problematic for players. The following items were adjusted in this recent patch:
- Bloodthirster: Nerfed
- Immortal Shieldbow: Buffed melee, Nerfed range
- Luden’s Companion: Buffed
- Shadowflame: Buffed
- Stormsurge: Buffed
Runes & Turrets
The Fleet Footwork Rune had recently received multiple nerfs owing to its heavy use by ADC’s in taking over mid-lanes. These nerfs greatly diminished its effectiveness for melee users while also putting it in a perfect spot for ranged users. In this patch, Fleet Footwork will receive some balancing, which will try and keep the ranged users happy while also buffing it for melee users.
For turrets, the developers have introduced some changes that are mainly targeted towards turret durability. Mid and top lane turrets will take 40% less damage during the first 5 minutes of a game, while bottom turrets will offer far less resistance to teams attacking them.