A new season of League of Legends is upon us, as Patch 14.1 will be releasing soon.
As with the start of a new season for League of Legends, players are treated to a bunch of changes. This time around, Riot has decided to amp it up by reinventing a few systems in the game.
Riot is finally changing the map with some excellent changes. We have Baron Nashor Variants, a better Rift Herald, more Void monsters, and terrain changes. Things are about to get really wild.
Furthermore, Riot is completely overhauling the item system. The Mythic system was a pain in the neck for Riot and players alike, with balance issues down to player satisfaction. So, Riot came to the hard decision of abandoning the Mythic system and moving to a more open item system.
As to how all these changes pan out, it is yet to be seen. With Riot making plans for reinventing the game for 2024 and onwards, all these changes are in PBE right now. Riot started with changes to the Ranked system, and Preseason has been pretty much eliminated.
All the changes mentioned above are going to be coming to League of Legends soon. So, let’s dive into all that is known so far.
Read More: All The LoL New Emotes, Icons, and More Coming Soon
Release Date
League of Legends Patch 14.1 is expected to be released on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
LoL Patch 14.1 release time and server maintenance:
- NA: 3:00 AM PT
- EUW: 5:00 UK time
- EUNE: 3:00 CET
LoL Patch 14.1
A lot is coming in this patch, and here is all we know so far, starting with the Gameplay Changes.
Map Changes
First, we have these huge map changes. Whenever Riot changes the map, the entire gameplay changes. Riot is making a number of changes on multiple lanes, areas, and even from the different Baron Nashors.
Most of the changes are to make the maps symmetrical and give more gank paths and access to objectives.
Top Lane Map Changes
The image below shows the new Top Lane for Summoner’s Rift.
Just judging from looks only, it looks pretty different. While also making the lanes and gank paths symmetrical, this setup gives Red Side more safety than before. The path that Blue Side Junglers used to take has been removed, so now, you have to come behind the turret or walk through the river.
The Brush in the river changing locations and density means that vision control becomes even more important. Also, the river widens near the lane, allowing a little more flexibility in movement. Lastly, the Blue Side Jungle path has been moved for better parity.
All in all, these changes help Red Side Top Lane a lot while keeping Blue Side’s advantages.
Mid Lane Map Changes
If you thought Top Lane got a lot of changes, you should see Mid Lane.
The amount of paths opening up from the new Mid Lane is astonishing. There are much better inside paths for the Mid Laners to enter the river on both sides. Small pathways for each team, which is completely symmetrical.
Additionally, this also changes how ganking works in Mid Lane. Junglers have more access to gank the lane itself and give their teammates an edge. Both teams have equal opportunity to both roam and gank through the lane if they play their cards right.
Dragon Pit Map Changes
Riot has also changes the map around the Dragon Pit.
So long, Red Side from getting superior access to the Dragon Pit. Their direct access has been cordoned off, while the brush around the river was also eliminated, it was merged with another brush.
This new brush runs on the side of the huge wall or the Red Side, allowing them to come under the cover of darkness. Meanwhile, this allows Blue Team to set up for the Dragon properly while not being completely flanked by the Red Team from behind.
A more equal take for both teams, and we should see a lot more Setup fights for the Dragons.
Bottom Lane Map Changes
Would you look at that? Red Side has a tri-brush now.
Riot has added a tri-brush to allow both sides to play around with the vision. Also, similar to Top Lane, the Bot Lane River has that brush in the middle. Red Side also has an extra path that Junglers can use to gank, or the Bot Lane can use to rotate around the map.
Voidgrubs and Voidmites
Riot started the reformation of the Baron Pit by changing Rift Herald and the Baron. Additionally, they are adding two more Voidbeings, the Voidgrubs and Voidmites. Let’s talk about both of these creatures.
Voidgrubs
Them Voidgrubs looks nasty. These critters will be giving players an extra objective to fight for in contrast to the Dragon on the bot side of the map. When you engage the Voidgrubs, they attack with the stats below as well as doing a ton of other stuff.
While being in combat, the Voidgrubs summon four Voidmites each every 12 seconds. On death, each Voidgrub grants the other living Voidgrubs 25% Maximum Health + 25% Missing Health shield that decays over 10 seconds.
After death, each Voidgrub individually respawns 4 minutes after death until the 13:45 minute mark when they start despawning (13.55 if you are in combat with one). Killing each Voidgrub gives you a stack of the Hunter of the Void Buff. This causes non-proc attacks to deal bonus true damage for structures over 4 seconds. Below are all the numbers regarding Voidgrubs.
- Health: 250 (+250 per minute of game time)
- Attack Damage: 10 (+2.5 per minute of game time)
- Attack Speed: 0.5
- Armor: 0
- Magic Resistance: 0
- Movement Speed: 350
- Attack Range: 500 units
- Experience: 75 (+2% per level over 4*) (*Level is calculated as the average level of champions in the game, rounded up)
- Gold Given on Takedown: 20 gold to the killer + 10 gold per player (including the killer)
Rift Herald
Baron Nashor
Let’s start with the big purple Void Monster, Baron Nashor. Riot went back into the lab to see how they could make Baron more unique, let’s say. All that experimentation behind the scenes we are probably not aware of led to a Void being that can decimate a team.
What’s more, Riot is now bringing three Variants of Baron Nashor as well as Map changes when she spawns. One of those variants will spawn at random for that game from 20 minutes and onwards. Also, the Void energy changes how some other Jungle monsters. Pretty cool, right?
Firstly, let’s talk about that spawning and the changes to some Jungle monsters.
Baron Spawn and Jungle Monster Changes
When the Baron spawns at 20 minutes, the map changes or adapts based on which Baron Variant is spawning. More on that later.
Also, the Void seeps into certain Jungle monsters and corrupts them. Those monsters are the Red Brambleback, Blue Sentinel, and the Rift Scuttler. Here are the effects of the Void on these monsters.
Corrupted Red Brambleback:
The Red Brambleback gets empowered with a different look when Baron Nashor spawns (oooh, Void tree looking monster).
Through this, the Corrupted Red Brambleback gets increased Health and also grants the Crest of Cinders (Red Buff) to the killer and all allies that are alive.
Corrupted Blue Sentinel:
Like the Red Brambleback, the Blue Sentinel also gets corrupted by the Void (Not gonna lie, He looks a lot more menacing than before).
Also, like the Corrupted Red Brambleback, the Corrupted Blue Sentinel has more Health and give the Crest of Insight (Blue Buff) to the killer and all alive allies at that time.
Rift Scuttler:
Unlike the Red Brambleback and Blue Sentinel, the Rift Scuttler undergoes bigger changes due to the corruption (He looks much meaner).
So, in essence, the Scuttler gets more Health and provides a lot more vision but a different kind of it. In addition to all the things the Rift Scuttler provided, the death of this Corrupted Scuttler will also release a Void energy for 1.5 seconds and grant sight in a surrounding area that travels.
This sight reveals champions and non-champions for different durations. Champions are revealed for 3 seconds while non-champions are revealed for 12 seconds. This duration reset if the Champions or non-Champions remain in the area during the 1.5 seconds of the energy spreading.
Wards will be reduced to 1 Health if revealed in this manner. Lastly, the revealed area stays for another 3 seconds after the energy is done spreading.
The Barons
Now, moving to the Barons, there’s three of them: The Hunting Baron, The Territorial Baron, and the All-Seeing Baron, and they all look pretty mean. The last two causes terrain changes and each of them have an unique Ability now, which triggers a few attacks after the Acid Pool that we are all used to seeing.
Hunting Baron
Well, this Baron hunts you down (just kidding). Actually, this Baron Nashor has a horn and shoots lightning.
So, when the conditions are met, the Hunting Baron creates a blast on all nearby enemy champions to deal 15% of target’s Maximum Health magic damage after 1 second. Just don’t get hit by lightning when you face her.
Territorial Baron:
Moving on to the Territorial Baron, she likes to get a little handsy (no pun intended). Also, when the Territorial Baron spawns, the Baron pit shifts to create a wall in front of her.
So, when the condition is met, Territorial Baron uses the limbs to extend for 0.5 seconds, targetting the closest enemy, and then pulling all the enemies in a cone for 1 second. Just like dragging the prey into the territory.
All-Seeing Baron:
Lastly, we have the All-Seeing Baron, showing off that big eye on her head. Not to mention, this one creates two walls and a bunch of tunnels or gaps, making this a very tricky take.
All-Seeing Baron uses her eye to channel a Void Rift towards the target for three seconds. This Rift deals 1000 magic damage over the duration. Watch out for that.
Rift Herald
Note: Article is in progress as we gather more information.
