LoL Patch 14.6 has landed, bringing a wave of champion and item adjustments. The long-awaited nerfs for Smolder and Karma (Mid) headline the patch, alongside significant changes to the bot lane meta with buffs for ADCs and nerfs for supports.
This substantial update for Season 14 impacts a whopping 15 champions and over 10 items, promising major gameplay shifts and a potential meta shakeup!
LoL Patch 14.6 is out now
Adhering to Riot’s patch schedule for League of Legends, LoL Patch 14.6 went live on 20 March 2024.
Smolder and Karma (Mid) receive major nerfs
Smolder and Karma (Mid) have been terrorising the Rift, and Patch 14.6 aims to tone down their dominance.
The adorable fledgling, Smolder, might be small in stature but he certainly boasts immense scaling potential that can feel like a nightmare to deal with. While the dev team believe he'll be unproblematic in the long term, they're addressing some frustrating aspects of his kit. His execute scaling based on stacks has been capped at 6.5% to curb his late-game dominance. Additionally, his E's safety and the mismatch between his W's visuals and hitbox are being adjusted to expose his early-game vulnerability.
While a strong support, Karma has become an oppressive mid-laner with near-constant uptime with her powerful Mantra (R) due to easy access to Ultimate Haste. To promote strategic decision-making, the dev team have increased the mana cost of her Q and the cooldown of her R, among other nerfs. However, to maintain her power as a support, they've shifted her focus to mana regeneration and buffed her E.
Crit items buffed for ADC while Support nerfed
Addressing player concerns about the weak state of ADC, Patch 14.6 buffs Crit items to make them more competitive with on-hit and lethality builds. The devs acknowledge the current struggles of Crit marksmen and aim to revitalise the subclass. This involves strengthening their damage multipliers and emphasising their tank-busting capabilities, differentiating them from other early-game focused marksmen. Specific items buffed include Infinity Edge, Navori Quickblades, Lord Dominik's Regards, and Mortal Reminder.
The goal is to improve the satisfaction of the role, especially in casual play, without overtuning their power in coordinated teams. To balance this out, Supports will see a decrease in gold income and further nerfs to Solstice Sleigh and Doran’s starting items (which will become mutually exclusive with support income items).
If you want to learn more about LoL Patch 14.6, check out our 14.6 rundown, or the official full patch notes on the official LoL website here!
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