Patch 14.23 brings significant adjustments to League of Legends, primarily aimed at balancing champions to reduce their dominance in professional play while maintaining their viability for casual players.
Although the full details of the patch’s minor changes aren’t available yet, Phreak has outlined some major objectives ahead of the patch’s release on the PBE. Notable changes are planned for Aurora, Rell, and Smolder, the three champions he highlighted for updates.
In addition, lead gameplay designer Phroxzon confirmed that Ambessa will also receive updates, though these will focus solely on bug fixes and polishing rather than gameplay balance. As is typical for new champions, her win rate remains low as players continue to familiarize themselves with her mechanics.
The new League of Legends patch will also include further adjustments to the bounties system, building on the changes introduced in Patch 14.21 to refine and improve its implementation. Despite the rapid pace of major updates in recent patches, League of Legends shows no signs of slowing down, as Phreak has emphasized with the small-scale reworks planned for 14.23.
Here’s what we know so far about Patch 14.23:
Champions
Ambessa Medarda
According to both Phreak and Phroxzon, they’re happy with where Ambessa has landed. They don’t plan on buffing her as of now, but there are still changes to be made.
Passive: Drakehound’s Step
- Dashes no longer go over player-created terrain
Q: Cunning Sweep/Sundering Slam
- Q2 cast window increased: 3.5 seconds >>> 4 seconds
R: Public Execution
- Movement commands issued before a successful cast will be discarded after slamming the enemy into the ground to avoid pathing the player towards a place they are no longer near
Aurora’s Post-Worlds 2024 Adjustments: Balancing for Pros and Casuals
Aurora was a dominant force at Worlds 2024, leaving the dev team regretting their decision not to implement additional nerfs before the event. To address this, they are now rolling out changes to her kit, aiming to nerf aspects that make her overpowered in professional play while buffing others to make her more accessible to casual players.
These adjustments represent a small-scale rework, altering several of her abilities and their functionality to reshape how she operates in the game.
Here’s a breakdown of the changes Phreak has proposed:
Passive: Spirit Abjuration
- Bonus movement speed removed entirely
Q: Twofold Hex
- +50 range
- Damage increased: 40-140 >>> 45-145
- Cooldown increased: 8-6 >>> 9-7
- Recast goes off automatically
W: Across the Veil
- No longer gets cooldown reset on takedown
- Cooldown decreased
- Now grants 20-40% movement speed on cast
E: The Weirding
- +25 range
R: Between Worlds
- Will now grant W’s movement speed passive rather than the old passive’s movespeed
- Duration increased: 1.5/2/2.5 seconds >>> 2/3/4 seconds
- Now the ring slows by 75% on exit (1.5-2 seconds) rather than trapping enemies
Azir
W: Arise!
- AP scaling: 35-55% >>> 40-60%
Caitlyn
R: Ace in the Hole
- Bonus AD scaling: 150% >>> 100%
Jinx
Base Stats
- AD growth increased: 2.9 >>> 3.25
W: Zap!
- Total AD scaling: 160% >>> 140%
Kha’Zix
Base Stats
- Armor reduced: 36 >>> 32
W: Void Spike
- Evolved isolated slow: 75% >>> 60%
Kog’Maw
Q: Caustic Spittle
- Resistance shred adjusted: 23-31% >>> 16-32%
E: Void Ooze
- 75-255 (70% AP) >>> 70-230 (65% AP)
Master Yi
R: Highlander
- Attack speed: 25/35/45% >>> 25/45/65%
Miss Fortune
Q: Double Up
- Mana cost reduced: 43-55 >>> 40
Rammus
Q: Fastball
- Cooldown adjusted: 16-6 >>> 12-6
Rell
Phreak argues that Rell has an excessive amount of crowd control (CC), making her overly dominant in professional play due to her difficulty to counter. He proposes reducing her CC while increasing her mobility and flexibility to make her more viable across a wider range of skill levels.
Base Stats:
- Mana reduced: 350 >>> 320
- Mana growth reduced: 45 >>> 40
- Base Armor reduced: 36 >>> 30
- Armor growth per level increased: 4.2 >>> 4.3
- Base MR reduced: 30 >>> 28
- MR growth reduced: 2.05 >>> 1.8
- Base movement speed reduced: 330 >>> 315
- Attack speed growth increased: 1.5% >>> 2%
- Attack windup reduced: 21-19.5% >>> 18%
Passive: Break the Mold
- Armor and MR steal increased: .8-2 >>> 1-2
- Now deals 5% of total resistances on hit
W: Ferromancy
- Cooldown decreased: 11 >>> 10
- Knock up duration reduced: 1 second >>> 0.4 seconds
- Now stuns for 0.8 seconds after knock up
- Mounted
- 20-40 bonus movement speed
- Not Mounted
- Bonus Armor and MR increased: 12% >>> 15%
- No longer reduces movement speed
- Bonus attack speed reduced: 30% >>> 20%
- Shield increased slightly: 15-110 >>> 15-115
- Mounted
E: Full Tilt
- Passive movement speed removed
- Active movement speed while moving toward enemies increased: 200% >>> 250%
- Base damage and AP ratio removed, now deals more % max health damage
- Max health damage increased: 3% >>> 5-7% (+3% per 100 AP)
- Max health damage cap increased: 150 >>> 150-300
- Cooldown reduced: 15 >>> 14-10
Rengar
R: Thrill of the Hunt
- Bonus damage: 50% total AD >>> 100% total AD
- Armor shred increased: 12/18/24 >>> 15/20/25
Shyvana
Base Stats
- MR growth per level: 2.05 >>> 1.5
E: Flame Breath
- AP scaling: 80% >>> 70%
Skarner
Q: Shattered Earth
- Bonus HP scaling: 4% >>> 3%
Smolder
Q: Super Scorcher Breath
- Damage adjusted: 15-55 (100% total AD) >>> 65-125 (130% bonus AD)
- Passive stack scaling ratio decreased: 40% >>> 30%
- T2 bolts increased: 1 >>> 2
- Passive stacks required to get more bolts increased: 67 >>> 125
- T2 bounce damage decreased: 75% >>> 50%
- T3 burn no longer scales with AP and passive stacks
- T3 burn AD scaling increased: 2% per 100 bonus AD >>> 2.5% per 100 bonus AD
- No longer deals 10% bonus damage to champions
- Now refunds 15 mana if at least one target dies
W: Achoo!
- Missile damage adjusted: 45-165 (25% bonus AD) >>> 30-110 (60% bonus AD)
- Explosion damage increased: 25-85 (25% bonus AD) >>> 30-110 (60% bonus AD)
- Mana cost adjusted: 60 >>> 50-70
- Bonus minion damage removed
- These changes boil down to Smolder’s W doing much less damage to waves but significantly more damage to champions with his AD build. Riot’s trying to kill off AP Smolder so his W damage to champs should level out to be similar to what it was before with AP builds
E: Flap, Flap, Flap
- Damage adjusted: 15-35 (10% bonus AD) >>> 5-25 (10% bonus AD)
- Flat damage per passive stack decreased
- Passive bonus magic damage per stack reduced: 20% >>> 10%
- Passive stacks required for additional bolts decreased: 150 >>> 100
R: Mooommmm!
- Now deals half damage to minions
- Cooldown decreased: 140-120 >>> 120
Tahm Kench
Passive: An Acquired Taste
- AP scaling: 2% per 100 bonus HP >>> 1.5% per 100 bonus HP
R: Devour
- Shield AP scaling: 150% >>> 100%
Teemo
E: Toxic Shot
- Monster bonus damage: 150% >>> 125%
Zac
Q: Stretching Strikes
- Max HP scaling: 4% >>> 3%
Items
The Collector
- Cost: 2950 >>> 3000
Youmuu’s Ghostblade
- Out of combat movement speed reduced: 20 >>> 10
- Active duration reduced: 6 seconds >>> 4 seconds
Yun Tal Wildarrows
- Cost reduced: 3000 >>> 2900
- Passive duration: 4 seconds >>> 6 seconds
- Passive cooldown: 40 >>> 30
Systems
Bounties
- Champion bounties grow 14% faster from kills and assists
- Champion bounty reduction due to losing increased up to 4x
- Maximum contribution to objective bounties from gold leads doubled
