League of Legends Patch 9.14 breakdown – Summoner’s Rift edition

Patch 9.14 will be hitting the League of Legends servers on Wednesday 17 July with a huge list of changes included. We’ve taken a look at each individual change and assessed the likely impact on solo queue in our patch notes breakdown.

The folks at Riot Games have just released the Patch 9.14 notes and it’s a big one! It’s possibly the largest list of changes since the season began and includes several new additions to champions, as well as a number of simple buffs and nerfs along the way.

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New mechanics have been added to existing champion abilities to increase the number of counters available in certain match-ups. While it could be argued that these changes could have been released during the mid-season break to make the transition smoother, it shouldn’t take long to adapt to these new mechanics (fingers crossed). For a full breakdown of the champions affected – as well as a list of every Patch 9.14 change – here is our analysis of the patch notes:

Anti-Shielding Champions

Blitzcrank

"R – Static Field [New] Static Field now removes shields on enemies before its other effects (damage and silence)."

Fired up and ready to march up the solo queue tier lists. Blitzcrank is now a direct counter to mage supports that can apply shields to either themselves or their lane partners. Post-level 6, Blitz and his ADC will look to burst down an opponent using Static Field to remove any shields and reduce a health bar to dust. While this won’t have a huge impact on the current tank/playmaking centric meta in the bottom lane, the likes of support Karma and Lux won’t enjoy this change in the slightest.

Renekton

"W – Ruthless Predator [New] Destroys existing shields on targets when empowered with 50 Fury before its existing effects (damage and stun)."

Renekton was already a monster when it came to carving through enemy carries, now he’s all that much stronger with the ability to instantly burst down an opponent, even with a large shield. There aren’t a huge amount of shields in the current top lane meta, so this won’t have an impact on his early game, but later on he should feel the effects and have a tonne of fun in teamfights. Obviously it’s a very dependent change and shouldn’t result in a huge shift in Renekton’s win rate.

Anti-Healing Champions

Katarina

"R – Death Lotus 40% healing reduction –> 60% healing reduction."

An increase of 20% on healing reduction is relatively big and should have quite a large impact on Katarina’s ability when playing around her ultimate. Things like summoner Heal, Redemption, and the multitude of healing provided from items and champion abilities will all have less of an impact in teamfights when facing Katarina. While it won’t see her fly up the tier list, she’ll definitely be a lot stronger against specific team compositions and match-ups now.

Kled

"Q – Bear Trap on a Rope Pulling in an enemy reduces all healing on them by 60% for 5 seconds."

This is a very nice change for Kled players. The likes of Mordekaiser, Darius, Illaoi, and Renekton all thrive in the top lane at the moment, and now Kled has an answer to them all. 60% for 5 seconds is massive and there’s no doubt top lane mains will be looking in Kled’s direction for the next few weeks.