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

Champion Balance

Mordekaiser

"Passive – Darkness Rise Base Damage: 8-25 (levels 1-18) –> 5-15 (levels 1-18). E – Death’s Grasp Magic Penetration: 5/10/15/20/25% –> 5/7.5/10/12.5/15%."

Reworked Morde came onto the Rift a bit too strong and these changes are the perfect solution to gauge his power level so on Patch 9.14.

Nidalee

"E – Swipe Base Damage: 70/130/190/250 –> 80/140/200/260."

Nidalee suffers from AP jungler syndrome whereby she’s completely overlooked unless she’s super overpowered or provides a tonne of utility. A +10 increase on her E isn’t enough to bring her into S tier and is merely a placebo buff to increase her play rate and test her level of power at the moment.

Pyke

"E – Phantom Undertow  [New] Phantom Undertow now stuns non-champions but deals no damage to them. R – Death from Below [New] Deals 50% reduced damage to enemies that survive Death from Below. When Pyke kills an enemy with Death from Below, the last assisting ally –> the last assisting ally and Pyke are granted “Your Cut”. When Pyke assists on a kill following Death from Below, he receives 1 “Your Cut” –> 2 “Your Cut”. [New] Icon: Death from Below’s icon now shows next to Pyke’s health bar when it can be cast for free."

The only change here that matters is his reduced damage to champions who survived Pyke’s ultimate, this just makes teamfights slightly less straightforward for the Pyke player but overall nothing has really changed.

Ryze

"General [New] Ryze can now buffer his ability casts. Base Stats Health Regen: 7 –> 8. Health Regen Growth: 0.55 –> 0.8."

Ryze is still suffering from his Patch 9.12 gutting and this won’t be enough to nurse him back to health. He’ll remain a niche pick until his next rework.

Singed

"Q – Poison Trail Recast Timer: 0 seconds –> 0.5 seconds. Indicator: When toggled on, Poison Trail’s icon will be highlighted more brightly."

A nice QoL change for the few Singed players out there but won’t really impact his win rate.

Swain

"Base Stats Health Growth: 90 –> 85. Attack Range: 550 –> 525. Passive – Ravenous Flock [Removed] Swain can no longer store up to 5 Soul Fragments in reserve, empowering Demonflare. [New] Swain permanently stores Soul Fragments, increasing his maximum health by 5 per Soul Fragment. [New] Collecting a Soul Fragment restores 4/5.5/7% of Swain’s mana."

Riot seems to be working towards making Swain a scaling AP bruiser, similar to Cho’Gath. Giving him this kind of constantly stacking health and mana restore is very similar to Cho’s passive and ult. It’ll be interesting to see how they change his interaction between Soul Fragments and his ult now.

"Q – Death’s Hand [Removed] Killing a target no longer restores 3% of Swain’s maximum mana. [New] Bolts now always continues through minions but stop on impact with enemy champions. Cooldown: 7.5/6.25/5/3.75/2.5 seconds –> 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds. Range: 725 –> 625. Angle Between Bolts: 8 –> 10."

I like that the bolt won’t stop on first enemy hit but will now hit the target. I’m not sure if hitting the cooldown and range is needed based on those changes, but it’ll be dependent on how the Soul Fragments and stacking works with his ult.

"R – Demonic Ascension Cost: 0 mana –> 100 mana. Bonus Health: 150/275/400 –> 125/200/275 (+5 per Soul Fragment). Minion and Monster Healing Reduction: 80% –> 90%. [New] Swain drains all enemy units within range, including invisible units."

So Swain gains bonus health on popping his ult in addition to the passive health gain on Soul Fragment. With his ult popped, Swain is going to be unkillable like Nasus or Renekton in ult.

"R – Demonflare [Removed] Second Cast Health Threshold: Swain no longer needs to restore 125/300/450 health to cast Demonflare and can cast it immediately. Demonflare Damage: 45/60/75 (+0.21 Ability Power) magic damage per Soul Fragment to all nearby enemies –> 75% of the health Swain has drained during Demonic Ascension in magic damage, up to a cap. [New] Demonflare Minimum Damage: 100/150/200 (+0.5 Ability Power) [NEW] Demonflare Maximum Damage: 200/300/400 (+1.0 Ability Power)"

So, instead of needing to proc all of the Soul Fragments to recast his ultimate, Swain will be able to just recast to do damage. However, the damage will only be based on the health that Swain drained up to a max. I really like this, because it harkens back to the pre-reworked Swain’s ult and makes his identity closer to the bruiser drain mage he used to be.

Sylas

"Passive – Petricite Burst Damage Reduction on Minions: 70% –> 50%."

Makes Sylas better as a laner, just meaning that he can be flexed easier between jungle, mid, and top. I’m not sure why Riot felt that buffing this damage reduction rather than making the reduction apply to monsters as well would put him back into the lanes.

"Q – Chain Lash Detonation Damage: 40/60/80/100/120 (+0.4 Ability Power) –> 45/70/95/120/145 (+0.6 Ability Power)."

Not sure that the damage buffs are necessary, especially given that it’s being buffed in both base stats and scaling ratios. Considering that Riot was concerned about Sylas’s pick as a jungler, this will only make him better in that role.

"E – Abscond/Abduct [New] Now shields himself against all magic damage for 2 seconds on first cast. Cooldown: 18/17/16/15/14 seconds —> 14 seconds at all ranks. Abduct Stun Duration: 0.5 seconds –> 0.35 seconds."

I like making the shield focused on only magic damage, making him better as a mid laner than top laner. Luckily, they’re also nerfing the stun duration to go along with the cooldown getting buffed.

"R – Hijack Cast Range: 1050 –> 950. Hijacked Ultimate Hold Duration: 120 seconds –> 90 seconds. Cooldown: 85/50/15 seconds –> 100/80/60 seconds. AP Ratio Conversion: 0.5 Ability Power to 1.0 bonus Attack Damage, 0.7 Ability Power to 1.0 total Attack Damage –>  0.4 Ability Power to 1.0 bonus Attack Damage, 0.6 Ability Power to 1.0 total Attack Damage."

I don’t think these nerfs to the cast range and hold duration will be meaningful, but the cooldown nerf is actually going to be very big. It means Sylas can’t grab multiple ultimates at once during late game fights. And nerfing the converted ratios will make Sylas hurt a lot less with his Hijacked abilities.

Tahm Kench

"Passive – An Acquired Taste [Removed] Abilities no longer deal bonus magic damage based on passive stacks. [Removed] Abilities no longer apply An Acquired Taste stacks. On-Hit Damage: 1.5% Tahm Kench’s maximum health per stack –> 2.5% Tahm Kench’s maximum health at any number of stacks."

So Tahm no longer stacks up his Acquired Taste with abilities like Tongue Lash and doesn’t do bonus damage based off those stacks, but he’ll do a percent of his max health on hit. Seems like he’s being balanced around being a juggernaut/tank with lots of on-hit damage. I don’t like where this is going…

"Q – Tongue Lash Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 seconds –> 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds. [Removed] No longer hits enemies in a wide arc in front of Tahm Kench on cast. [New] Stunning an enemy with Tongue Lash consumes all stacks of An Acquired Taste. Slow: 50/55/60/65/70% –> 30/35/40/45/50%. Slow Duration: 2 seconds –> 3 seconds. Stun Duration: 1.5 seconds –> 2 seconds."

Oh thank God that hitting the stun on his Q finally removes all the stacks of his passive so he can’t just repeatedly stun, consume, and reconsume. I don’t even mind giving him an increased slow and stun duration to compensate, considering they also nerfed the width of his Q’s hitbox.

"W – Devour/Regurgitate [Removed] Enemies are no longer nearsighted while Devoured. [Removed] Enemies are no longer stunned for 0.25 seconds after they’re Regurgitated. Damage Ratio: 9/10/11/12/13% of target’s maximum health –> 11% of target’s maximum health. Maximum Monster Damage: 400/450/500/550/600 –> 500. [New] Tahm Kench can now Devour and Regurgitate Blue Sentinel and Red Brambleback."

The biggest aspect to these changes is the damage being a flat 11% of the target’s max health at all ranks, meaning most people are going to leave this as a one-point wonder. However, Tahm can now also devour the Red and Blue buffs, which means LS will be thrilled to know that jungle Tahm might actually be a decent pick.

"E – Thick Skin Grey Health: 80/85/90/95/100% of the damage Tahm Kench takes –> 45/50/55/60/65% of the damage Tahm Kench takes. Grey Health Heal: 20/25/30/35/40% of Grey Health –> 75% of Grey Health at all ranks. Cooldown: 6 seconds starting on cast –> 3 seconds when Thick Skin’s shield expires or is broken."

At least Riot is also nerfing Tahm’s shield, but they’re also making the heal higher. This probably helps lane Tahm more than support Tahm, especially given that the cooldown now starts when the shield ends.

Urgot

"W – Purge Recast Timer: 1 seconds –> 0.5 seconds."

Nice quality of life buff. Should help Urgot a good bit, but not really big enough to move the needle too far.

Yuumi

"Passive – Bop ‘n’ Block Shield: 80-300 (levels 1-18) –> 50-300 (levels 1-18). [Removed] Yuumi no longer restores mana when she hits an enemy with an empowered basic attack. Q – Prowling Projectile Empowered Damage: 60/105/150/195/240/285 (+0.6 Ability Power) –> 50/95/140/185/230/275 (+0.65 Ability Power). Cost: 60/65/70/75/80/85 mana –> 75/80/85/90/95/100 mana. E – Zoomies! Base Heal Scaling: Up to +100% –> +130% based on target’s missing health (healing from AP ratio still scales up to +300% based on target’s missing health). Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 mana –> 30/40/50/60/70 mana."

Riot is taking some base damage out of her Q – Prowling Projectile but compensating it by making her healing on E – Zoomies! even stronger. Yes, she’s also getting her early game shield nerfed, which is quite substantial, but she’s going to continue to be annoying to play against.