Patch 6.14 Notes

Ryze

Ryze, the Rune Mage, will be updated with the launch of patch 6.14! To learn more, check the following links:

• Champion Reveal & Champion Insights
• Champion Spotlight
• Champion Bio

Leona

When we think of Leona, two things come to mind: the sun and crowd control. Leona’s success is predicated on landing her CC so her teammates can light up enemy champions. But what does Leona do after locking the enemy team down? Right now, the answer is “not much.”

Adding to her woes, Leona is eclipsed at higher levels of play by other tanks who offer value throughout a teamfight, not just at the beginning (your Braums, your Alistars). Leona’s lockdown may be strong enough at lower skill levels to lead teammates to victory, but higher-skilled opponents are much better at punishing Leona (and her team) while her abilities are on cooldown. Capitalizing on moments of vulnerability is really just the correct way to play League of Legends, but with how quickly Leona expends her payload, this punishment is all too frequent.

To fix this, we’re ushering in A New Dawn for Leona, giving her more to do throughout teamfights via Solar Flare’s new passive. In addition, changes to Q and E mean that foes will have a harder time finding the shade when Leona comes for them.

(Quick closing note, the Shield of Daybreak range and Zenith Blade root duration buffs accidentally shipped last patch. Sorry, not-Leonas!)

Passive - Sunlight

Q - Shield of Daybreak

W - Eclipse

E - Zenith Blade

R - Solar Flare

Sona

Things have been quiet for Sona over the past few seasons, so the sheer volume of changes here may look intimidating. In actuality, they all lead to one simple outcome: “Sona plays more music.” Let’s begin.

Sona shares a problem with many supports: it feels like she’s not doing much, even when she’s doing a lot. To tackle that problem, we’re playing into her unique game of musical buffs. Here's how it works: as fights unfold, Sona cycles between abilities, sending pulses of utility to nearby allies. Spellcasting activates Power Chord, offering Sona choices in how to neutralize her foes. These strengths grant Sona flexibility as the maven of extended engagements.

Here's where the feel-bad problem lies: Sona’s cadence is too slow to fulfill that fantasy. Dead air between beats creates downtime for both auras and Power Chords, relegating Sona to the background track. A remastered Crescendo passive solves that problem as Sona levels up, combining with cooldown reduction to cut her basic ability cooldowns by up to 67%. Understandably, we're adjusting the rest of Sona's kit to ensure she doesn’t go off the rails. Overall, Sona’s left with clearer purpose: transform fights into endless streams of song (and utility) as she scales into late-game.

General

R - Crescendo

Passive - Power Chord

Q - Hymn of Valor

W - Aria of Perseverance

E - Song of Celerity

Annie

Just a few more improvements to Tibbers following Annie’s midseason update. With a smarter bear, the sky’s the limit for Annie players everywhere.

R - Summon: Tibbers

Azir

The Emperor of Shurima is a champion that needs no introduction - especially when it comes to why he’s back here in the patch notes. Azir’s problems are many, but can be oversimplified as ‘too many pros, not enough cons’. Amazing sustained damage, long-ranged initiation, really cool armor - he’s got it all. This patch, we’re taking a crack at his damage progression over the course of the game.

Azir’s a champion with game-ending potential, but while champions with similar strength (hypercarries) are gated behind difficult early-games (Vayne) or steep item requirements (Kog’Maw), Azir doesn’t really have a period of weakness to exploit. He just sort of pokes you from afar, leaning on the generous base damage of his soldiers while he gathers enough ability power to dominate late-game. We’re altering soldier damage progression to dip significantly as Azir approaches mid-game, meaning his posse of sand-clad scallywags can no longer bail him out if he falls behind early. This period of weakness presents an actual hurdle for Azir to overcome. Should he make it through that dry spell, however, his soldiers’ damage evens back out at max level. This means the Emperor will still crush 50-minute teamfights like you’d expect.

W - Arise!

Fiora

Fiora’s a devastating side-lane duelist when given the appropriate support, but she’s struggling to find success outside of the professional scene. As mentioned with Azir above, it’s important for late-game powerhouses to have early windows of vulnerability, but the degree to which Fiora's being punished at early levels is just a bit too high. We’re improving Fiora’s early trade potential to help tip the scales in her favor when the Grand Duelist starts making the right moves.

Passive - Duelist's Dance

Q - Lunge

Illaoi

With Illaoi getting a little more of the spotlight, we noticed her opponents having a tougher-than-normal time dodging some of her stray tentacle slams. Fighting Illaoi should test your spirit, not your ability to judge misleading indicators.

General

Lee Sin

Safeguard’s shield is pretty flimsy even at max rank. We’re giving it a healthy bump to give allies a real chance of survival when Lee Sin makes a clutch play to save them.

W - Safeguard

Lux

Lux isn’t struggling too hard these days, and yet her success tapers off at higher levels of play. We’re giving a bit of a nudge to the skilled Lux players out there by shifting power into successful spell-weaving instead of single spell-hits. This shouldn’t rock the boat for the average player (as activating your passive just once at level 6 breaks even on damage), but rewards Luxes who optimize their combos.

Passive - Illumination

Q - Light Binding

Malzahar

Unlike some of the other changes in 6.14, Malzahar’s are pretty clean-cut. We’re happy with how Void Shift’s gameplay incentivizes chipping away at Malzahar’s defenses, but his range and raw pushing power give him too much control over when opponents get to interact with him. Laning against Malzahar should feel interactive, so we’re giving opponents more windows to find favorable trades when Malzahar goes all-in on shoving the wave.

General

Poppy

Struggling to regain her footing after her last round of changes, Poppy’s reliability as an initiator has dropped significantly. Frankly, that reliability isn’t something we’re in a rush to restore - we want Poppy’s power to come from her disruption, not diving the back-line. Poppy shines brightest when she positions herself to lock down as many enemies as possible, so we’re improving her ability to thrive in the close-quarters fracas she creates.

Passive - Iron Ambassador

W - Steadfast Presence

Rek'Sai

Often in the patch notes, we’ll refer to certain high-variance mechanics or champions - the success of which varies heavily depending on a player’s skill or group coordination. Vision’s one of these mechanics - while things like warding are important (really, do it), it’s more whereyou ward and how your team uses that information that can make or break a strategic stand-off. 

When it comes to variance in champion abilities, Rek’Sai’s Tremor Sense has some of the highest in the League. It’s one thing to know where your enemies are, but when Rek’Sai provides near-perfect information on enemy positions, things start to get pretty crazy (like increasing skillshot accuracy or almost completely deterring invades). We’re looking to dial back Rek’Sai’s team contributions, making the information she provides more about telling you ‘They’re somewhere over here!’ rather than ‘They’re exactly here!’ Tremor Sense is still one of the most powerful information-gathering tools in the game, but allowing enemies more ways to play against it keeps it feeling like a proper mind-game and not just an ankle monitor.

W - Burrow

Taliyah

Still fresh to the League, Taliyah’s as rewarding to those that master her as she is difficult to learn. We like steep skill curves, but Taliyah’s mechanics can present more of a burden than a challenge. In particular, Seismic Shove’s spell lockout and two-cast paradigm can leave Taliyah’s stone-weaving feeling straight-up unresponsive.

Let’s be clear on one thing: removing this lockout is really powerful (like, Taliyah’s probably crazy as a result). Having witnessed some of the resulting shenanigans during testing, we’re taking pre-emptive measures to soften the best-case of her now much-more-reliable ‘Seismic Shove + Unraveled Earth’ combo. Things might be rocky for a while, but we’re confident that smoother Stoneweaver gameplay paves the road for a balanced Taliyah in the long-term.

W - Seismic Shove

E - Unraveled Earth

Viktor

Like Malzahar, Viktor’s a champion whose laning phase goes from ‘careful control of the minion wave’ to ‘invalidate your opponent’s actions with god-tier waveclear’ immediately following an early Hex Core. We like how Viktor’s power progresses naturally from laning to bigger group fights, but the efficiency of Aftershock’s clearing potential almost ensures that he’s ahead of the gold-curve once he gets there. In the interest of giving his opponents a chance to catch up, we’re putting the brakes on how soon Viktor starts ramping up. He’ll still be a consistent threat in tight areas, but setting him back in lane should have a greater impact on his grand designs.

Passive - Glorious Evolution

Yasuo

Yasuo mains are people, too. Kind of.

General

Q - Steel Tempest

W - Wind Wall

E - Sweeping Blade

B. F. Sword family

Prior to last November’s preseason update, B. F. Sword was too expensive to have a home on Twisted Treeline. The burden of saving for one would have been madness in an environment where marksmen naturally struggled to scale into relevance, so we gave the Treeline its own cheaper, Pickaxe-based alternatives to B. F.’s upgrades. As discussed above, however, things have changed, so we’re now comfortable introducing this suite of items to the Treeline.

B. F. Sword

Infinity Edge

Essence Reaver

The Bloodthirster

Duskblade of Draktharr

Thornmail

Another prisoner of the “marksmen used to suck” world order, we left Thornmail off the Treeline since marksmen who clawed their way to relevance probably deserved to be there. Marksmen are now, if anything, too dominant, so it’s high time Thornmail emerged onto the Treeline.

Mercurial Scimitar

We covered this one up in the Removed Items section above. Go find Dervish Blade, read it, then cross this off your checklist.

Warmog's Armor

This was also covered in the Removed Items section. Here’s a clue: check Overlord’s Bloodmail. We’re really shooting for word count efficiency this time.