Esports News
It's that time of the month again when Riot Games treats us to another new League of Legends patch, as we're already on the 18th update of the year! Since LoL Worlds 2024 is just around the corner, the Riot Games balance team is working overtime to ensure everything is in perfect working order before the largest esports event on the calendar begins on September 25.
With over 160 champions in the game, the League of Legends dev team is honing in on popular picks in professional play, like Azir, Corki, Gnar, Jax, and Rumble, to make them as balanced as possible before the LoL World Championship kicks off. LoL patch 14.17 was just a taster, as patch 14.18 brings 13 champion buffs, 17 champion nerfs, five item changes, and turret plate fortifications.
Grab your reading glasses and get comfortable; here's everything you need to know about League of Legends patch 14.18.
According to the Riot Games' official patch schedule, League of Legends patch 14.18 will go live on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. The new update, including all champion buffs, nerfs, and item changes, will be rolled out gradually throughout the day to account for all global servers.
The new patch deployment begins with the Oceanic servers at 10 AM AEST. Other servers worldwide will slowly receive League of Legends patch 14.18 throughout the day. The official patch notes will be available in the client for players who want to read more about the latest changes to the MOBA.
Matchmaking queues will be taken offline before patching begins as the Riot Games balance team applies the new update and works out any last-minute kinks.
Here are the key timings to note for when League of Legends patch 14.18 goes live, even with Memorial Day:
League of Legends patch 14.18 is introducing tons of champion buffs and nerfs to keep the MOBA fresh and exciting for LoL Worlds and beyond, bringing the most changes we've seen on Summoner's Rift in 2024.
Despite a hoard of recent changes to balance them, ADCs are the primary target in League patch 14.18, with nerfs to Miss Fortune, Smolder, Varus, and Zeri. There are also nerfs to ADC-specific item Bloodthirster and a Fleet Footwork rework, making certain ADCs a bit weaker than they were before.
Lane swaps are common in pro-play, as seen in MSI 2024. This is where pros swap lanes with their teammates to avoid a less favorable matchup. While this was sometimes done to push a minion wave or two, some teams were willing to lose 3-4 turret plates to avoid certain matchups, resulting in low interaction states. This makes for stale gameplay, as sometimes viewers would watch teams 3v0 a turret ten minutes into a game. Riot Phroxzon has attempted to counter this by buffing turret plates to make them harder to take in one go and fortifying them in the early game.
Joining the likes of Corporate Mundo come two new "work" themed skins for Thresh and Azir. With the Janir skin, Thresh will clean up Bot Lane to leave no trace of the enemy. Meanwhile, Lawyer Azir will fight your corner to ensure you win the case! A new Nautilus skin will also be available in the Mythic Shop for the patch 14.18 cycle.
Please remember that these buffs are just the early patch notes for 14.18 and are only tentative. They are taken directly from the PBE and are subject to change between now and September 11.
Please remember that these nerfs are just the early patch notes for 14.18 and are only tentative. They are taken directly from the PBE and are subject to change between now and September 11.
Turrets are seeing significant changes in the League patch 14.18 preview to combat lane swaps and early game sieging. Popular Precision rune Fleet Footwork, commonly chosen by ADCs, is also being nerfed, leaving ADCs much weaker.
Fleet Footwork (Rune)
Destroyed Turret Plate
Turret Fortifications
While there are no changes to Summoner Spells in League of Legends patch 14.18, several mage burst items are getting tweaked. Liandry's Torment is currently dominating but other AP items such as Luden's Companion, Stormsurge, and Shadowflame, are somewhat lacking, so Riot Games will address that in the upcoming patch.
Bloodthirster
Immortal Shieldbow
Luden's Companion
Shadowflame
Stormsurge
That covers all the new changes coming to League of Legends in patch 14.18, going live on September 11. Remember that this is just an early patch preview, so take all these changes with a pinch of salt. Further updates and details could come to light from the PBE, so bookmark this article to stay informed.
Looking for more LoL content? Our blog page has articles on all things League of Legends including: all champions' release dates, Arcane characters, Your Shop, LoL Arena ranks, the rarest skins, finding out how much you've spent on LoL, and the Blue Essence Emporium. We also have specific guides for champions like Lux, Miss Fortune, and Lillia.
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