League of Legends: Teamfight Tactics Patch 9.14(b) breakdown

Champions

Ahri

"Ability Damage: 100/175/250 ⇒ 100/200/300"

These damage buffs are nice, but they’re far too back-loaded (she gets more at higher star levels). The problem with that is that Ahri has one very early game Origin (Wild) and a pretty underwhelming Class late game (Sorcerer), so I don’t think many people will be building Ahri to 2 or 3 stars. Certainly, this buff makes it better for those who do, but I wouldn’t say it’s going to become more common.

Akali

"Health: 700 ⇒ 650 Attack Speed: 0.75 ⇒ 0.7"

Akali is maybe the strongest 1-star unit in the game, so I’m happy to see she’s getting toned back slightly. This is especially true given that Ninjas aren’t getting touched (even though Assassins are). Akali should still be a good pick as part of an Assassin/Ninja comp.

Evelynn

"1 Star Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 60 Health: 600 ⇒ 550"

Probably the worst Assassin in the game, she desperately needed a base AD buff. However, I don’t necessarily agree with the health buff. I understand the reasoning (she has too much safety with her ult) but I think they could have waited to see if the AD buff made her significantly stronger than other champions in her class and then pulled the trigger on the health nerf.

Mordekaiser

"1 Star Health: 500 ⇒ 550"

Doesn’t matter. Morde is basically only good early to get the Knight buff, which scales horribly into the late game. This may help some Mordes in those first few PvP rounds, but I would still be looking to dump him for a better unit when you can.

Poppy

"Ability Damage: 300/400/500 ⇒ 300/500/700"

Poppy was an F tier champion in our Patch 9.14 tier list, so I’m not surprised she got a buff. This seems like the place to do it, but I don’t think it’s worth building a 2/3-star Poppy unless you’re specing hard into Yordles and just keep getting a ton of Poppys.

Rengar

"Attack Damage: 55 ⇒ 65"

Another underwhelming Assassin, I’m happy to see Riot is giving the Knife Cat some love after nerfing his class. I don’t know if he becomes better than Kha’Zix or Zed, but Rengar is definitely worth picking up as part of a mid game comp (perhaps transitioning from Wild to Ninja/Assassins).

Tristana

"Attack Speed: 0.7 ⇒ 0.65"

Uh…what? Tristana is a C tier champion because her play pattern as a Gunslinger gets hurt by her casting the ability. The bomb isn’t exactly blowing people away, so I’m unclear why a nerf was needed.

Volibear

"Armor: 35 ⇒ 30 Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.55"

Volibear is a God-tier champion at the moment, with Brawlers and Glacials being incredibly strong. There’s also the famously feared Demonbear, where you put him in a comp with Demons and put a Darkin item on him.

Items

Cursed Blade

"Trigger Effect Chance: 25% ⇒ 20% For the curious, Swordbreaker has a 25% chance and Hush has a 50% chance."

I still don’t think Cursed Blade is a terribly good pick until late game and I’d rather use the components (especially the Recurve Bow) to build more impactful items early. Hush, despite having a 50% chance to proc, is still too conditional to be good in my opinion.

Infinity Edge

"Critical Strike Damage: 100% ⇒ 150%"

Okay, so now we have the full extent of the changes to Assassins. To (attempt to) do a little math, all these changes mean that in a three Assassin comp, a champion with Infinity Edge’s previously gained 300% bonus crit damage; now that is down to 275% bonus crit damage. At six Assassins, that champion with IE used to gain 600% bonus crit damage, but now they would gain 500% bonus crit damage.

Locket of the Iron Solari

"Shield Amount: 300 ⇒ 200"

This was hotfixed last week, but Riot just wanted to remind you that stacking Lockets isn’t a win condition in and of itself now.

Morellonomicon

"Percent Max Health Damage: 3% ⇒ 5%"

Morellos has been a very bad item for a while and I’m not sure if this 2% is going to make it really worth building. The item is good on Elementalists like Kennen and Brand, so the fact it wasn’t getting built on those two OP champions is quite disturbing. We’ll see if that changes in Patch 9.14(b).

How do you think the meta will shake out after Patch 9.14(b)? Let us know in the comments below!