While LoL Patch 14.4 continues to fine-tune champions and items impacted by the Season 14 overhaul, it also delivers several champion adjustments and a long-awaited nerf to the dominant keystone from the precision rune tree: Lethal Tempo.
This hefty patch affects 19 champions and 5 items, offering changes across various gameplay aspects. The stunning new Porcelain skins will also make their debut in this patch. So, let's dive into some highlights!
LoL Patch 14.4 is out now
LoL Patch 14.4 was originally scheduled for 21 February, but landed today, on 22 February, likely due to the Presidents' Day holiday.
Lethal Tempo finally gets nerfed
The precision tree keystone, Lethal Tempo, has been too heavily skewed towards early-game power for melees for a bit too long. Riot aims to reduce this dominance, then tune for affected champions. The goal is to reduce its reliability for certain champions in the early laning phase.
Lethal Tempo's Melee Attack Speed per stack will decrease from 9-13.5% to 5-16%, based on level. Riot Phroxzon admits this nerf is overdue, and acknowledges it could have happened sooner!
Champions like Yasuo, Yone, Trundle, and Jax have been frustrating to deal with due to their ability to skip playing around cooldowns and miss abilities early on, simply winning through auto-attacks with Lethal Tempo.
LoL players have rejoiced at the news, with some calling it "probably my favourite change for 14.4." They point out how champions like Yasuo and Yone rely heavily on this rune, and it completely carries them in the early game, arguing that “These type of champs are supposed to have a worse early game. And this Keystone is completely eradicated that weakness for way too long.”
Champion adjustment highlights
Patch 14.4 also introduces adjustments and kit updates for K'Sante, Smolder, and Rek'Sai.
K'Sante
This jack-of-all-trades top laner boasts tankiness, dashes, crowd control, shielding, and even burst damage. As evidenced by LCK player Showmaker's legendary rant, many players, especially at high-level play, are fed up with his frustratingly extensive kit.
In Patch 14.4, Riot aims to address this by adding more counterplay options. They've nerfed his ultimate, "All Out", by removing slows, increasing cooldowns, and reducing his dash speed. However, they are also compensating with some base stat buffs.
The most notable changes target K'Sante's mobility. His dash speed in his primary movement ability, "Footwork (E)", is reduced, and the charge time for "All Out (W)" is increased, forcing him to remain stationary for longer in his ultimate.
Smolder
Smolder's W has been a powerful laning poke tool, but Riot wants to slightly reduce its power at lower ranks while ensuring it never one-shots the wave, preventing Smolder from stacking Q and scaling too quickly.
There will also be QoL improvements to his Q and R. For example, if a minion dies while Smolder's Q is flying towards it, he'll still receive a Dragon Patience stack. Additionally, Smolder's Mom won't stop if he dies, but she will be "VERY angry."
Rek'Sai
Rek'Sai's lethality-heavy meta is getting a shake-up! This patch focuses on making her more dynamic by buffing her tunnel speed and passive healing, while nerfing her burst damage by reduce the potency of lethality on her, moving some damage types into magic. Modernisation includes turning Queen's Wrath into an auto attack for better scaling, smoother tunnel animations, and cooldown sync for easier jungling.
The dev team is cautiously returning Rek'Sai's AOE knockup to her W “Unborrow”, and monitoring how it goes. The goal is to move Rek'Sai into more of a fighter and less of a one-shot assassin
If you want to learn more about patch 14.4, check out our 14.4 rundown, or the official full patch notes on the official LoL website here.
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