Biggest winners and losers of League of Legends Patch 14.1

League of Legends was shaken up once again after the introduction of season 14 on Jan. 10, which launched alongside Patch 14.1. The update was full of major changes, like transforming Summoner’s Rift, adding new mechanics to neutral monsters, and removing Mythics, to name a few.

When there is a major patch like 14.1 in League, the developers often need to deploy a hotfix or something similar a few days afterward to fix the biggest concerns. The case was no different this time around, with Riot Games shipping Patch 14.1B, which buffed and nerfed several champions and items.

With all that in consideration, it’s no surprise players are looking for the biggest winners and losers of Patch 14.1 so they can gain an advantage on the Rift in their ranked climb. We’ve already played our fair share on the new update and picked a couple of champions who have gained, or lost, the most.

Biggest winners of LoL Patch 14.1

Aggressive AD carries

One role that has seen a major improvement in its win rate on the Rift is AD carries, especially the aggressive ones. Champions like Miss Fortune, Draven, and Jinx have all sky-rocketed to the top 10 bot lane champions on U.GG in the Emerald+ rank, with MF currently boasting a jaw-dropping 53.10 percent win rate.

While a lot of ADCs aren’t that mobile, some can get out of control if they’re allowed to snowball. We believe major changes to AD items like Youmuu’s Ghostblade, The Collector, and Kraken Slayer, which are core items for many aggressive ADCs currently, have played a major part in that shift. On top of that, with the map being just a bit wider, marksmen have more space to position properly. And with some early help from junglers, they can quickly start navigating the game.

Mages

While certain types of champions have seen a rise in the bot lane, we have to admit that mages’ domination in the mid lane is even more admirable. While control mages were already brilliant in Patch 13.24, where champions like Annie, Taliyah, and Anivia were among the best picks for solo queue, in Patch 14.1, others have made their way to the top of the rankings, solidifying the class as arguably the best for the mid lane currently.

Kennen, Rumble, and Neeko sit on the highest mid lane win rates in Emerald+ rank as of now, according to U.GG. But the whole role is filled with AP-based champions, with Akshan and Tristana being the only AD-based champions in the top 20. This is likely due to a number of factors. The Rift changes have made the mid lane feel safer, though roaming is even more accessible, especially toward the bot lane if you’re on blue side (we’ll get to that later). Additionally, Stormsurge, a new AP item, is doing wonders, being a core item for almost every mage.

Biggest losers of LoL Patch 14.1

Top lane bruisers

Changes to Stridebreaker and a few other fighter items, alongside isolating the top lane even more, have made bruisers quite weak in the current League meta. Some of them have even seen their win rates drop as much as four percent when compared to the previous patch.

At time of writing, Illaoi has seen a 4.05 percent win rate drop, with Garen, Olaf, Renekton, and Camille all losing somewhere in between 1.5 and 3.6 percent, according to League of Items.

This doesn’t mean bruisers are unplayable in the top lane as of now. While tanks and off-meta picks like Cassiopeia and Quinn are dominating the role so far, some of them can still do fairly well. Yet, tanks provide a much better frontline in the late game and often come alongside some stellar crowd control, like Maokai, Singed, or Zac. So if you aim to pick a bruiser, you might want to consider going for the jungle role instead.

Red side bot laners

Speaking of the jungle role, the latest patch introduced a true highway for these champions into the red side bot lane. Going for dives early has been made much easier due to the straightforward path from the river to the tier two bottom lane turret. Therefore, many blue side junglers and mid laners have been trying their best to capitalize on this—and from our experience, they’ve been doing spectacularly so far.

As we said previously, the game currently favors aggressive AD carries that, in exchange for high damage and an all-in kit, hardly have any escape mechanisms. Therefore, diving them if they end up on the red side has become much easier.

There aren’t stats to prove it, but I personally always advise my bot lane companions to go for a safe duo if we end up on the red side. Otherwise, they might just get snowballed by the enemy team. And it feels like I’m not the only one with such an opinion. In a Reddit thread on Jan. 12, many players pointed out how the red side bot lane has become much more vulnerable—and, as a result, much weaker.