Riot Games has released the patch notes for League of Legends 14.8, which are mostly focused on balancing the game for the pro players ahead of the Mid Season Invitational tournament. However, there are also a lot of balance changes that will impact everyone, and there are the final preparations before the new Vanguard anti-cheat software launches.
When it comes to balance changes, the biggest change isn’t to a champion but to Baron who gets a buff to his damage all round. While the big visual overhaul and addition of two new Barons at the start of the year was a cool addition, he still hasn’t quite felt as dangerous as he should. However, now almost all of his damage output has been buffed slightly to make him more dangerous for anyone who steps in the pit.
The Voidgrubs, who inherit the pit before Baron shows up, are also being tweaked. Their spawn time is being changed so you no longer just trade them and Dragon when they both spawn, and the bonus for killing them has also been buffed.
Then when we get to the champion changes, there are quite a few that are targeted at champions that could be a bit too strong at MSI. Azir gets a health regen nerf and reduced W damage early on, while Zeri gets a base health nerf as the devs think she could be the “most sought-after champion at MSI.”
On the other side of the scale, the likes of Graves, Jhin and Olaf all get buffs, which is great news for me as they are some of my most-played champions. There aren’t many massive buffs, but Mordekaiser gets a big change in that his ultimate can no longer be escaped with certain items or abilities, making it much more potent. You’ll want to check out the full patch notes for all the details, but on paper, it seems like a big change.
Skarner also takes up a large portion of the patch notes, but some of these changes come from the hotfix the other week. However, some quality-of-life changes to recommended builds will be appreciated by anyone trying to play the reworked champion for the first time.
Then we get to the not-so-fun part of the patch notes, the launch of Vanguard. Vanguard is the new anti-cheat solution for League of Legends that is already a part of Valorant. Despite Riot revealing that one in 15 LoL matches had a cheater in it, fans are still sceptical about the upcoming Vanguard launch given how much access it gets to your PC. Unfortunately for those people, this patch sees Vanguard launch in the Philippines, and start compatibility checks for the rest of the world. If you don’t pass these checks you’ll need to fix the issue before patch 14.9, which is when Vanguard will launch in the rest of the world.