Patch 9.14 notes
Hey, all! We're finally at the halfway point of the season. How's your Ranked climb going? How are your TFT games going? For more details on the schedule for future patches for the remainder of the year, please check out the Patch Schedule on the Support page! Also, tell your friends and bookmark that link!
During this patch, we're introducing certain counter mechanics to some champions' existing abilities. Our general thought is: Having natural counters to common and powerful effects in the game will help make it healthier in the long-term. And as a part of our overarching Summoner's Rift balance strategy, we want to continue encouraging diversity in lane picks and push safer and more reliable champions to a more "sharp" space like other champions are in currently.
Hopefully, the existence of these counters also introduces a slew of not-as-present champions to the mix in all levels of play. We were very selective in the champions we chose to add these mechanics to, keeping in mind their status in the game currently. We believe, in the long term, these additions will make pros' draft priorities more robust which can lessen the amount of nerf cycles on certain champions and allow us more opportunities to give more love and attention to others.
With these points in mind, here are the counters that will be added to specific champions in 9.14:These changes are the last planned round of significant pattern-level or mechanic updates to champions before the end of the season. That being said, we won't turn a blind eye to game-impacting things that may crop up during the rest of the year.
- Anti-shield
- Anti-healing
- Flat damage reduction
- Improvements to true sight mechanics
- Anti-mobility
Stay frosty!
Mid-Patch Updates
7/24/2019 Azir Bugfix
Azir
7/22/2019 Bugfixes
Akali
Camille
Corki
Qiyana
7/19/2019 Bugfixes
Azir
Blitzcrank
Fizz
Wukong
7/18/2019 Balance Changes
Akali
Cassiopeia
Fizz
Galio
Tahm Kench
Singed
7/18/2019 Kalista Bugfix
Kalista
7/17/2019 Update
Akali
Lux
Ryze
Udyr
Patch Highlights
Demacia Vice Garen and Demacia Vice Lucian will be available on July 18, 2019.
Teamfight Tactics Patch Notes
9.14 also marks the first patch with official TFT patch notes! From now on, you can expect TFT patch notes almost every week on their own separate page. This first official patch week we have a whole host of changes. First, Twisted Fate is warping in to the Convergence for all your piracy and spell-slinging needs. Then, get ready to start climbing because the ranked Beta Season is coming and as they say, “RNG is a ladder.” Finally, items and gold will now drop from NPC rounds on a more consistent basis.
Looking for the full Teamfight Tactics patch notes? Take this magical journey!
Anti-Shielding Champions
Blitzcrank's and Renekton's new anti-shielding effect specifically break damage-absorbing shields.
Blitzcrank
R now destroys shields on enemies before dealing damage and silencing.
R - Static Field
Renekton
Empowered W now breaks shields on targets before dealing damage and stunning.
W - Ruthless Predator
Anti-Healing Champions
While all other current healing reduction sources in the game cap out at 40%, Katarina's and Kled's will be at 60%, making them uniquely powerful and better than items like Executioner's Calling against specific healing team comps.
Katarina
R healing reduction increased.
R - Death Lotus
Kled
Q pull now applies healing reduction.
Q - Bear Trap on a Rope
Flat Damage Reduction Champions
Leona and Fizz will now be a little stronger against opponents with "death by a thousand cuts" types of damage patterns, like on-hit and DoT champions.
Fizz
Passive reduces all sources of damage.
Passive - Nimble Fighter
Leona
W reduces damage by a flat amount; armor decreased; magic resist decreased. R no longer empowers basic attacks.
W - Eclipse
R - Solar Flare
True Sight Champions
While these abilities already provide true sight, we're taking them a step further and extending the true sight effect beyond these champions' abilities' tethers and into the complete CC.
Karma
W now provides true sight on rooted targets.
W - Focused Resolve/Renewal
LeBlanc
E now provides true sight on rooted targets.
E - Ethereal Chains
Morgana
R now provides true sight on stunned targets.
R - Soul Shackles
Anti-Mobility Champions
Because mobility is such a prominent feature on many mainstay champions, we're increasing the power and number of anti-mobility options players have against them. This should open up more opportunities for Ahri, Cassiopeia, and Poppy to outplay their slippier opponents without increasing their overall power.
Ahri
E now cancels in-progress dashes; bonus damage duration decreased.
E - Charm
Cassiopeia
W minimum cast range removed; maximum cast range decreased; cooldown increased early and decreased late. E healing increased; now reduced when poisoning minions and small monsters; cost flattened. Ability casts now buffer.
Outside of the flexibility in mobility, Cassio is getting too much out of just a few (or one!) points in her E, so we're amping up the value at later ranks to encourage a full rank-up.
General
Base Stats
W - Miasma
E - Twin Fang
Poppy
W bonus movement speed increased; bonus movement speed duration decreased; grounds and slows dashing enemies.
W - Steadfast Presence
Champion Balance
Aatrox
Base health regen growth increased. R no longer revives Aatrox; amplified self-healing increased; cooldown decreased.
Despite the adjustments we've made over the past couple of patches, Aatrox has remained a stalwart presence in pro play. We're making him less reliable as a blind pick with the removal of revives from his ultimate.
Base Stats
R - World Ender
Akali
W cooldown flattened; energy restore flattened; duration extension removed; stealth type changed. Q AP ratio increased. E damage increased. R cooldown increased.
We're taking some steps to make Akali a little less slippery while buffing her in other areas. By changing her stealth type to Invisibility, she'll now be revealed by true sight, giving more enemies a way to find her when she's in her shroud. Additionally, there will be a higher cost when she chooses to use her ultimate as a means of escape. But on the plus side, the buffs to her energy restore and damage on her E will help her stay lethal against any unfortunate, caught-out enemy.
Base Stats
Q - Five Point Strike
W - Twilight Shroud
E - Shuriken Flip
R - Perfect Execution
Alistar
Base mana and mana growth increased.
Giving Alistar a boost in average play without making him overbearing in pro. The increase in mana helps those who may struggle with managing their resources in lane.
Base Stats
Aurelion Sol
Q max stun duration and radius growth per second increased. E max movement speed now scales with level.
Making larger-than-lane Q stars is so bad that it's just considered trolling. But it's definitely one of the cooler parts of Aurelion Sol's kit and should actually be considered a viable ability, especially in coordinated play. These changes should help encourage more dummy thicc Q stars.
Q - Starsurge
E - Comet of Legend
Bard
Base health increased; health regen decreased. E travel speed increased; ally bonus speed flattened.
We're shifting some of Bard's durability around to help him survive all-ins with his team, and speeding up his tunnel mobility for stronger early-game ganks.
Base Stats
E - Magical Journey
Diana
Passive and R bugfixes. Q arc speed decreased. W cost bugfixed.
Diana's 9.13 changes had unintended power consequences. We're adjusting accordingly.
Passive - Moonsilver Blade
Q - Crescent Strike
W - Pale Cascade
R - Lunar Rush
Galio
Passive cooldown reduction removed; cooldown decreased; damage increased. Q cooldown and damage increased; cost decreased late. W now interruptible by CC and restricts Flash during channel; self-slow decreased.
Galio has long been pro play regular, mainly due to his ability to safely clear waves at a range and threaten instant engages with his taunt+Flash combo. Both of these things are exceptionally powerful in pro, but have led to a low solo queue winrate for the gargoyle. This patch we're looking to diminish these pro strengths while moving that power to places that won't just lead to a different flavor of pro dominance. Overall, Galio should be worse at clearing minions from range, but have fewer mana constraints, which should encourage him to build more durability.
Base Stats
Passive - Colossal Smash
Q - Winds of War
W - Shield of Durand
Jhin
W cooldown decreased; root duration increased.
Adding some power into the part of Jhin's kit that rewards timing and coordination.
W - Deadly Flourish
Lux
Q cooldown increased early, decreased late; cost flattened. W double shield on return removed; shield ratio increased; shield duration decreased. R cooldown reset removed; cooldown decreased late; ratio increased.
Builds centered around the safety provided by Lux's W have risen in prominence over the last month or two. Because Lux's Prismatic Barrier dodged some of the adjustment treatment given to other shields, we're making some changes to adjust the power between her offense- and defense-oriented builds.
We're also removing Final Spark's cooldown refund since we never pushed the mechanic far enough to feel really meaningful and the effect can just be replicated with adjustments to its base cooldown.
Q - Light Binding
W - Prismatic Barrier
R - Final Spark
Malphite
Q slow increased, slow duration decreased. W empowers basic attacks on cast and cleaves in a cone; cost increased and scales with rank. VFX and QoL updates.
Malphite is one of the League's oldest champions, and we all know that rolling stones gather no moss. To that end, we're giving the Shard of the Monolith a giant quality-of-life update that should make his abilities feel more satisfying to use. Specifically, his Q should look and feel more responsive, and his W now resets his attack swing animation and cleaves in a longer-reaching cone rather than a circle.
We're also enhancing the fantasy of playing a literal mountain by scaling Malphite's size as he stacks armor throughout the match. Finally, a suite of new ability visual effects ties the whole update together and should help Malphite feel more rock solid than ever.
Visual Updates
Passive - Granite Shield
Q - Seismic Shard
newW - Thunderclap
Mordekaiser
Passive base damage decreased. E magic penetration decreased late.
Even after 9.12's hotfixes, Mordekaiser is too strong. We're following up with some additional adjustments, pulling some power out of his damage amplification in the mid-game and his passive damage overall.
Passive - Darkness Rise
E - Death's Grasp
Nidalee
Cougar E base magic damage increased.
Giving Nidalee a tiny bit of all-in help and jungle clear speed without impacting her already strong ranged abilities.
E - Swipe
Pyke
E now stuns non-champions. R deals reduced damage to surviving enemies; now grants Pyke additional "Your Cut" gold as well.
Pyke's 9.13 changes had the intended outcome of equalizing performance between support Pyke and solo Pyke, but left Pyke with some room for buffs.
E - Phantom Undertow
R - Death From Below
Ryze
Base health regen and health regen growth increased. Q and E bugfixes.
While the dart didn't land on "REWORK" this patch, it did land on "BUGFIX" and slightly grazed "BUFF" (we're giving him more forgiveness in lane while players acclimate to his new ability patterns).
Base Stats
Q - Overload
E - Spell Flux
Singed
Q recast timer increased; brighter ability icon when toggled on in the spell bar.
Making our toggle spells more consistent in timing so they get cancelled less.
Q - Poison Trail
Swain
Soul Fragments restore mana and permanently increase Swain's max HP. Q pierces through minions; no longer pierces through champions killed. R1 drains all nearby enemies. R2 damage tied to R1 health drained; no longer modified by Soul Fragments; now castable immediately.
Swain's Soul Fragment mechanic gated players from simply accessing his ultimate, making it a whole lot less satisfying when they're finally able to trigger it. We're cutting out the decision-making around when Swain should cast Demonflare, while also pushing the scaling fantasy that's appropriate to his thematics.
Base Stats
Passive - Ravenous Flock
Q - Death's Hand
R - Demonic Ascension
R - Demonflare
Sylas
Passive damage vs minions less reduced. Q detonation damage increased. E shield granted on first cast; no longer blocks non-magic damage but blocks all magic damage for a duration; cooldown flattened; second cast stun duration decreased. R cast range decreased, recast window decreased, cooldown increased, AD->AP ratio conversion decreased.
Sylas has been a high priority pick in pro play due to his versatility and late-game power. We're putting in some changes focused around reducing the fallback power of his ultimate, and changing his pick conditions.
Passive - Petricite Burst
Q - Chain Lash
E - Abscond/Abduct
R - Hijack
Tahm Kench
Passive damage health scaling increased; stacks no longer increase ability damage; abilities no longer apply stacks. Q no longer has a melee-range arc; stun now consumes all stacks. W1 Nearsight on enemies removed. W2 stun on enemies removed. E stores less Grey Health but heals for a higher percent; cooldown reduced but starts on shield expiration.
We're taking a sweeping pass at some of the things that make Tahm Kench unnecessarily frustrating to play against, notably the constant CC that plagues opponents in lane and his Q's large melee hitbox.
And he can now Devour Blue and Red Buffs, because that seems like it could be fun.
Passive - An Acquired Taste
Q - Tongue Lash
W - Devour/Regurgitate
E - Thick Skin
Urgot
W recast timer decreased.
Making our toggle spells more consistent in timing so they get cancelled less.
W - Purge
Yuumi
Passive shield decreased; mana restore removed. Q empowered damage decreased; cost increased. E missing HP scaling increased; cost decreased.
We're opening Yuumi's early game weakness to reduce her presence in pro play. These changes cut her very early lane poke dominance, while buffing her later lane scrapping.
Passive - Bop 'n' Block
Q - Prowling Projectile
E - Zoomies!
Ranged Top Laners
A handful of ranged top laners are the dominant picks in professional play because of a combination of their status as a safe early pick in the draft order and their potential to heavily punish unfavorable match-ups in the early game.
Kennen, Neeko, and Jayce all have the following attributes that give them this flexibility and dominance: exceptional (normally enhanced) basic attacks and powerful (and often low cooldown) disengage abilities. With these changes, we're attempting to push these champions' harass power down for the first few levels in exchange for scaling. The expectation is this will lower frustration for the average player, as well as lower pro pick priority.
Jayce
Attack damage decreased; attack damage growth increased. Q base damage decreased early, increased late; damage ratio increased.
Base Stats
Q - Shock Blast
Kennen
Attack damage and attack speed decreased; attack damage growth increased. E bonus attack speed increased.
Base Stats
E - Lightning Rush
Neeko
Attack damage and attack speed decreased; attack damage growth and attack speed growth increased. Passive no longer breaks when Neeko basic attacks enemy champions. W passive movement speed decreased.
Base Stats
Passive - Inherent Glamour
W - Shapesplitter
ARAM Balance Changes
9.14 Nerfs
9.14 Buffs
Death Recap
The new Death Recap is now live! This new and improved version includes damage type breakdowns, fight duration, and CC duration. Clicking the Recap will allow you to expand and see additional details on damage sources. We still have some more improvements planned for the future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, get in the game and see it for yourself!
Show [Allied] Chat
We've added a new option under Settings>Interface>Chat that will now allow you to mute your allies' chats. There is now a separate checkbox for "Show [Allied] Chat" next to the already existing "Show [All] Chat". Both settings will be checked by default, but players can now uncheck both to mute both enemies' and teammates' chats permanently, or until they're turned back on. However, unchecking both will not mute the pre- and post-game chat, but we've heard your requests and are considering including those in the future!
Bugfixes
- Qiyana's W - Terrashape passive now procs correctly with Liandry's Torment
- Galio's E - Justice Punch no longer remains in the realm it was cast in when entering/existing Mordekaiser's R - Realm of Death
- Corki's Passive - Hextech Munitions's The Package no longer spawns only in Mordekaiser's R - Realm of Death if Corki was banished there at the time of its spawn
- Rammus' Q - Powerball and Lucian's R - The Culling can no longer be interrupted by CC effects while under the effects of Edge of Night, Banshee's Veil, or Morgana's E - Black Shield
- Vision Score now properly updates on the vision Trinket's tooltip
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released this patch. Grab the League Displays app for full-res splash art!
The following chromas will be released this patch:
540 Comments
Really sad that
Aatrox's revive got removed in his ult. Removing that is also removing one of Aatrox's unique identities and strengths in League as a whole and is one reason I like to play him. I hope one day it returns though even in a different form again.
Rest in peace
You were designed as a anti mage then reworked and riot forced you into being a mage. Then when they nerfed that they nerfed you even more by making you not be able to flash taunt and the ability for that to be uninterruptible. The thing you were known for even from before your rework. It was nice knowing you blue and yellow gargoyle who's now sitting in a grave as a white and yellow gargoyle.
RIP Galio two years ago and RIP less fun new(er) Galio today :p
The Aatrox changes are a melting point. With the complete removal of revive, there are zero mechanic/kit similarities with old and new Aatrox. I might be being harsh here, but I think that makes this a failed rework. It would've been better to keep old Aatrox and release the current version of Aatrox in the future as a brand new champion. Now, we lost the old Aatrox for practically nothing.
Welcome everyone, to the patch where Yuumi will truly become an afk support champion because jumping off for nothing but a 50 dmg shield which will get removed the second you get it is nothing short of trolling.
You took away Irelia's shield breaking and now you want anti-class shield breaking back. Nice...
Hi! I was curious which category neeko, galio, jayce, yuumi and renekton fall into to receive their respective nerfs/buffs.
Neeko and galio received nerfs while sitting below the threshold at all levels for a nerf.
Jayce and yuumi received buffs while sitting above at least the pro-play presence threshold for buffs.
Renekton also is sitting at a high pick/ban rate in pro play, as well as a high presence in soloqueue considered as a high priority pick. And he received a flat buff with shield break.
Maybe I don't have all my statistics right, but I'd love to know what else goes into determining these power changes aside from those numbers you released in life of a patch.
Come on Riot... You do realize that those changes to Yuumi, (particularly the Mana back removal) promotes the ‘AFK and heal’ Yuumi play style and removes her main weakness which is being detached to poke right? I can already see the “Yuumi is too safe being attached 24/7 so we’re nerfing her strengths” coming and the thing is it’s your fault because you made this one change.
another case of over nerfing. Tahm is op, and does need a nerf, no doubt. but like Ornn and Zac before when the new runes hit, you can over nerf. Why gut these champions when they can be tuned back more reasonably and made viable instead of keeping them op, or making them unplayable? how long will it be until he gets buff to be viable again? will it be quick and be in a couple patches, or the usually 1-2 seasons before he sees any significant buff besides some "3 more flat damage on his Q"?
Riot, where is Varus' increase to healing reduction? Why do you always forget Varus?! [sg-janna]
Not to be that one trick, but please please PLEASE fix Yasuo's God damn Windwall. LIke why is it still bugged after a whole month? It has caused so many unnecessary deaths in games its unbearable.
I really hate to sound toxic but this whole patch is an absolute shit show.[sg-lulu]
rip akali.. We will remember you..
i like how you guys like stripping and removing shit frkm aatrox but riven despite how oppressive and universally disliked she is
Also I like how they disguised this lux buff as a nerf with some minor changes to the abilities that we have been talking about being either too strong or non-consistent with other similar abilities.
Still no Twisted Treeline section in the patch notes.
[zombie-brand-mindblown]
I know you don't touch the treeline in 99% of patches, but you could at least let us know you're aware of the issues we report and keep us up to date on your plans for the map.

