League of Legends Patch 13.14 brought a new game mode and a metric ton of changes to the game – while also rewriting the meta.
It’s finally here, Patch 13.14 dropped this Wednesday! The latest League of Legends update contained a number of changes to both items and champions, while also bringing about a pack of hungry beasts with the release of Naafiri and his friends. This patch marks the addition of LoL’s newest game mode, the 2v2v2v2 Arena, which you can find more info and insight about here.
While the new additions to the game are certainly exciting, the changes to champions are even more so! Unlike 13.13, 13.14 aimed to change the meta at every level instead of aiming at champions that have good performances in the top levels of play, such as the LEC, the LCK and LPL: 8 champions have been nerfed and the same amount was buffed, while 10 items, 2 Jungle Buffs and a Summoner Spell were adjusted as well. But which characters were the ones who benefited the most from the latest update, and who have taken a bit of a hit?
League of Legends Patch 13.14: The Biggest Winners and Losers
The Winners
Aatrox
The Darkin Blade is back! Because of the nerfs Aatrox received after DRX (and Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon) won the 2022 League of Legends World Championship, he had a sub-50% win rate for a while now. Riot Games finally had enough of the tank meta and the absence of fighters in the toplane, and what better way to reintroduce them than the World Ender himself.
Aatrox received a buff to his Q, the Darkin Blade, which put more power into the AD scaling of the ability, while took a bit of power away from the base damage. Nevertheless, it still means that the damage is increased by about 25% for Q2 and 50% for Q3. Moreover, his Q’s damage doesn’t get decreased as much against minions later in the game, so his clearing and chances against super minions is much better. Due to these changes, Aatrox saw a more than 4% increase in win rate on the toplane, nearing a 55% WR according to Lolalytics. Aatrox is usually healthy for the meta as he counters very obnoxious champions, let’s just hope that Riot Games doesn’t go overboard with him like before last year’s Worlds.
Xerath
Xerath was promised a big buff last patch, which would’ve increased the number of shots his ult has while also helping him out in other departments. The buffs were pushed down, but they are finally here, and The Ascended Mage can take his rightful place in the midlane!
13.14 decreased Xerath’s Base Mana from 459 to 400, but his Passive has been changed: Mana Surge can now be activated on towers, and killing an enemy unit now decreases it’s cooldown by 2 seconds. Even though the total cooldown has been increased by 4 seconds, this change is still great for Xerath. The flashier change however was for his ult, which now has one more shot at every level, making it 6 volleys at Level 16. While the initial damage of the shots has been decreased, hitting an enemy champion increases the damage of the next casts. This damage stacks, so by the time you make it to your 6th shot, you have a chance to one-tap squishier targets.
Xerath jumped to a 55,42% win rate thanks to these changes, which is incredibly high for such an immobile and “easy to counter” champion. If you can surprise Xerath, you are still able to one-shot him, but Aurelion Sol help you if you can’t close the enormous gap.
Shyvana
Shyvana is among the least popular champions in the game. While she had some pro presence last year in the toplane, she didn’t stick. In the Solo Queue, she only saw play at times when her AP burst build was strong, but her AD builds haven’t been the prominent choice for her. Riot Games had enough of this, and buffed two of her abilities to make her viable with AD and Attack Speed items again.
Her Q now deals more bonus Physical Damage depending on her AD, dealing double her current Attack Damage at ability level 5. It also got a new effect, giving increased attack speed to Shyvana after using the ability for her next to Attacks. The trade off is that it’s cooldown has been increased by 1 second, but that’s a small price to pay for salvation. Her E also got an AD ratio, as the bonus damage on targets marked by Flame Breath has been increased from 3% to 3% plus 1% per 100 bonus AD, so heavy AD builds will be much stronger.
This resulted in Shyvana going from a 49% win rate to a 54% win rate, and while her most popular build is still the Nashor’s Tooth into Night Harvester one, Trinity Force and Divine Sunderer has been climbing steadily in both popularity and win rate – maybe we’ll see more of the Half-Dragon during Worlds?
The Losers
Milio
Riot Games tries and tries to kick Milio out of the meta for multiple patches now, and while his win rate is decreasing, he’s still very strong. After nerfing his E and W, the balance team has toned his Passive Burn Damage down while also decreasing the bonus movement speed his E, Warm Hugs give as well.
The developers fear that Milio will become a problem in the top ranks and in proplay – as he has been before the 13.13 changes. They are trying to take pre-emptive actions to keep the newest support of the game terrorizing the highest levels of play. They succeeded in bringing The Gentle Flame down again, who has lost 2% of his win rate, now sitting at 49%. He’s still good, but not as good as before.
Rell
Other than Milio, all the nerfed champions gained winrate instead of losing it – other than Rell and Hecarim. Rell has been a great pick in both the jungle and in the support role, so the balance team hit her defensive qualities again: They nerfed her Base Armor from 39 to 36, and her Passive now steals less Armour and Magic Resist, and the maximum Armour and MR she can steal has been decreased as well.
These nerfs are obviously targeted at her support performance, where she interacts with enemy champions much more frequently than in the jungle. While the Iron Maiden has been picked a few times as a jungler in proplay, her main role is support, and she has been a pick or ban champion for a while now. Even though they nerfed her again, she only dropped 0,33% so far, still sitting at 54,09% – so don’t think that we won’t see her on the Rift.
Hecarim
Hecarim has been running rampant in the lower levels of play – so anything under diamond. His build consists of items that lets him deal incredible amounts of damage thanks to Trinity Force and Muramana, but he can also build tanky so that he’s difficult to take down, even if you manage to CC the centaur. On top of that, Hecarim has built in tankiness and healing in his kit thanks to his W, Spirit of Dread – which was the ability that Riot targeted with the nerfs. They decreased the bonus Armour and Magic Resist by 10 at every level, trying to tone down Hecarim, especially that Spear of Shojin, one of his favourite items has been buffed.
This has proved to be effective in decreasing the pick rate of Hecarim, but his pickrate is only down 0,20%, so the nerfs might not have been enough. Granted that Hecarim is only a problem for lower levels of play, if he stays as strong as he is, Riot might have to adjust him again.
Of course, there were more champions changed than these six, picks such as Zyra and Diana are looking stronger as well – we just think that these characters are the ones that got the best (or the worst) of the 13.14 League of Legends Patch. The update is still very fresh, so don’t be afraid to experiment, try out the 2v2v2v2 mode, and check out ESTNN’s other League of Legends Articles!
