Riot Games has released the patch notes for League of Legends update 14.21 and the big talking point is a major rework to Swain, as well as a boat load of nerfs to some of the more popular champions.
While there is a lot going on in the 14.21 patch notes, the biggest change is to Swain, who gets what is effectively an entire rework. The update is designed to make him more self-reliant and more fun, especially in solo lanes, which is never a bad thing, especially for a champ that has been underwhelming for a while now.
To make him more fun, the LoL development team has retooled where a lot of his power comes from, trying to make his base kit more impactful and remove the reliance on his ultimate. The full patch notes feature a ton of numbers on how this is being done, which I’m not going to break down here because I haven’t played Swain since his last major update in 2018 and don’t really understand a lot of it. But it looks like it could be enough to make him worth playing.
Elsewhere, the patch notes feature a ton of nerfs, with 18 champions being listed in the nerf category of the patch overview graphic. A lot of these are reasonably minor nerfs, but the likes of Camille, Kassadin and Senna all get some much needed changes to bring them down a peg or two.
There’s a solid amount of buffs in the patch notes as well, with the likes of Azir, Malphite and even Teemo getting some improvements. Hopefully the latter doesn’t become even more of a common pick after his recent ASU, as a result of these changes.
The other big change comes to champion bounties, which have been almost entirely reworked to make them a little less confusing. Champion bounties are now based on gold earned and lost, as opposed to kill/death streaks and the relative amount of farm, which should make them way more consistent. It also means you can have a bounty of one gold, which is fun.
While these patch notes bring a lot of important changes, the biggest League of Legends themed news of the day is that new champion Ambessa is coming in the next patch, which will be Arcane themed, and her abilities have been revealed. She’s likely going to settle in as a powerful top laner to good players, but could be a little overwhelming for newcomers.
