LoL Patch 14.11 changes explained

League of Legends continues to come out with new updates and patches that keep the game fresh for players old and new. Season 14 is no different, as Riot Games has released the patch notes for patch 14.11 and it seems to bring some major changes that will no doubt change how certain players play the game.

Today, we’ll go through everything we know about League of Legends patch 14.11. This includes going through some of the major changes players can expect from it while expanding on them, as well as dropping the full official patch notes so players can go through them themselves.

So, without further ado, here are all of the League of Legends 14.11 changes explained. If you want to learn every change in-depth then you can always hire a professional-level coach from Eloking to give you the full picture. Just don’t forget to use the code “BoostToday” for a 20% discount on your session.

Every major change coming in patch 14.11 of League of Legends

First, we want to go through some of the changes that seem the most interesting. We’ll be cherry-picking some of the major changes coming to LoL Patch 14.11 and expanding on them to ensure you know what to expect when the update drops.

K’Sante

Let’s start with what is potentially the biggest change coming to the game, and that’s how K’Sante is getting reworked. To summarize, he'll be less tanky but will do more damage than he could before. His offense is getting buffs and nerfs, but the specifics of its implementation are unknown.

Lane Swaps

Due to the high number of lane swaps in the MSI tournament, they’re now going to nerd it so that it’s not as often as before. Double-ranged bot lanes will also be nerfed. To make Lane Swaps less frequent, the values of fortification and first turret gold will change.

Marksmen First Items

The first items for Marksmen will be receiving multiple nerfs and buffs. Items like Collector and IE are a bit stronger than the developers would like, so they will most likely get nerfed, whereas items like ER might get buffed. Shiv’s being underused by players because it’s weak compared to other items, so it will also get strengthened to increase its pick rate.

Arena changes

The arena mode is getting numerous changes as well. One of the bigger changes coming to that mode is that healing will get nerfed. Besides that, several weaker champions will get stronger, so they have a fighting chance, and vice versa.

The characters that are receiving buffs are:

• Ekko, Fizz, LB, Corki, Viktor, Ziggs, Akshan

The characters that are receiving nerfs are:

• Darius, Vi, Rhaast, Gragas, Garen, Trundle, Vlad, Aatrox, Briar

Post Hotfix

Blackfire Torch and Ashes are getting changes. Ashes are strong for junglers, so it’ll be nerfed to make junglers weaker instead of nerfing the role entirely. Draven was nerfed too much in the last patch, so he’ll get much stronger once he has a Bloodthirster.

Complete official patch notes

With the major changes out of the way, it’s time to drop the complete official patch notes for you guys to go through by yourself.

Lane Swaps

• They've been a hot topic of conversation over the course of MSI
• While we think some of this was teams adapting to player matchup diffs over time, in some cases, it's more optimal than we'd like (eg. double ranged bot lanes)
• While a few lane swaps every now and then is favorable for the viewer experience, every game is too far
• We'll be adjusting the fortification and first turret gold values as a result

K'Sante

• K'Sante has also been a hot topic from MSI
• While there have been some favorable matchups into him, he was generally not exploitable enough
• In the short term, we're making some targeted changes to reduce just how much damage he can soak with W. We also intend to take a larger stab at some of his kit shape to give him sharper strengths and weaknesses, but that will take some time
• Given that he has optionality between tanking and fighting, he probably also shouldn't be so generally durable

Marksmen Generally

• Marksmen after the changes to snowballing, experience are now at similar levels of durability to the durability patch
• They also seem very strong, but we're waiting on more information before acting in a significant way
• We intend to tune around this rough level of durability and nerf other things like damage, etc. if they are too strong

Marksman First Items

• Overall, Marksmen first items seems close
• Kraken/Collector/ER/IE are all viable options of varying strength
• We believe Collector and IE are a bit on the strong side and ER a little on the weak side
• Shiv has struggled to find an audience, we're looking to move it further into the on-hit space and it is also pretty underpowered

Post Hotfix

• Our hotfix has overall put Blackfire Torch and Ashes in a reasonable spot
• It is intended that Ashes is a strong item for AP junglers, hence why it was generically nerfed, rather than nerfing the jungle specifically
• Draven was slightly overnerfed, but we expect him to recoup some of this power once players fully swap over to Bloodthirster
• Smolder
• Smolder has landed in a bit of a weird spot; Tri Force overall is offering a bit of a better package than Essence Reaver overall
• We would like Sheen items to be viable on him, and also to have some Crit builds and some non Crit builds

Arena

• Post 14.10 changes, we're mainly focused on taking larger swings at nerfing healing, buffing weak champions, nerfing fighters further
• We're also taking a further swing at outlier legendary and prismatic items
• Buffs targeted at Ekko, Fizz, LB, Corki [he had a bunch of Arena specific nerfs that no longer make sense], Viktor, Ziggs, Akshan
• Nerfs targeted at Darius, Vi, Rhaast, Gragas, Garen, Trundle, Vlad, Aatrox, Briar

ARAM

• Main strategy is to remove buff/nerf modifiers that no longer make sense and followups to the 14.10 changes landing
• Buffs to Corki, Ezreal, Yasuo, Yone, MFNerfs to Shen, Veigar, Akshan, Morgana, Nautrilus, Hwei, Skarner