LoL Patch 14.2 aims to address burst items, champs spiraling out of control

Major nerfs are coming far and wide to League of Legends in the upcoming Patch 14.2 which rolls out on Jan. 24, with both items and champions under the spotlight after a tumultuous and chaotic return last fortnight.

When season 14 began, no one expected the item changes to hit the Rift as hard as they did. These additions and changes have made ranked and normal League games feel oppressive and brutal to the point where players have been dubbing it the “League of One Shots.” Not even a follow-up Jan. 12 micropatch could properly stave off the high burst AP meta or the multi-support-item-building champs dominating the Rift.

A number of these items and champs causing a ruckus on the Rift will be nerfed even harder in Patch 14.2 according to lead gameplay designer Matt “RiotPhroxzon” Leung-Harrison via the Patch 14.2 preview on Jan. 17. “Snowballing is lower than in 13.24, however, burst is up, which is a bit counter-intuitive,” Phroxzon, suspecting the one-shot burst meta is leading to faster leads but a harder game to end.

The devs have been taking a closer look at ranked games. While they believe the state of League is stable, albeit with a few hiccups, there are a few item and champion nerfs that should help lessen their burst damage and synergy. Blitzcrank, Fizz, Jax, Rumble, and Teemo have been identified as the culprits and are getting nerfed because, when paired with specific items, they are proving to be beyond devastating.

For items, we’ll see double support and quadra support items (basically support item stacking), Stormsurge, Riftmaker, and Frozen Heart also cop adjustments to curb their dominance. Champions are taking these items consistently because of how well they’re doing, so it’s understandable why they’re getting nerfed, especially those providing high burst damage.

While we don’t know just how far they’ll be taking these nerfs, we do know that they will be pretty hefty if Phroxzon dubbed some of these items as “too efficient.” But we’ll have to wait for the full patch notes to see how heavy this nerf hammer will be. In the meantime, spam those synergistic champions while you still can!