League of Legends: New Season's Patch 14.1 Review

With the arrival of a new year, we are treated to another Riot update for League of Legends, with the Void's advance on Runeterra being the central theme of Season 14 of the game!

With a fairer map, the introduction of creatures from the Void, new objectives and the reformulation of some items, League of Legends promises a reinvention and unprecedented experience for 2024, and in this article, I explain the main points of Patch 14.1 and analyze how it can change the dynamics of the game!

The expansion of the Void has arrived at Summoner's Rift and we no longer have just the Baron and the Herald to represent it: Voidgrubs, Voidmites, Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback and the Rift Scuttler join the corral of Void creatures. Each of these new units has unique mechanics that will be covered below.

The Voidgrubs & Voidmites

In Season 14, the Voidgrubs and Voidmites appear. Three Voidgrubs are born within 5 minutes of the game and have their respawn time individualized, so it is possible for the player to kill one or two Voidgrubs without harming the birth of the next ones.

For each Voidgrub killed, your team receives a stack of “Hunger of the Void”, this improvement makes champions on your team deal three additional true damage when attacking towers at long range, or four for melee attacks every 0.5 seconds per stack of hunger.

If your team has 5 stacks of the buff, a Voidmite will be created to take down the Tower, this amount increases to 2 Voidmites if your team has 6 stacks. Their birth has a cooldown of 15 seconds and, compared to a melee minion, they have 40% less health and 50% more movement speed.

The Voidmites disappear to make room for the Rift Herald at 13:45, remaining 10 seconds longer if they are in combat.

Because it is an objective with multiple units, champions that have large amounts of area damage benefit greatly from this field and will have an easy time killing Voidgrubs.

However, the possibility of clearing this field early is not just about them, as they do little damage. Therefore, this objective will be another moment where top and mid-lane players will need to stay alert to help their Junglers. Now the important moments in the game are 3:30, 5:00 and 9:00 of the match.

The Rift Herald

The Rift Herald has received a visual change to match the Voidmites theme. Additionally, it is now possible to pilot the Herald's advance by right-clicking on it for your champion to ride it.

This mechanic is very similar to Sion's ultimate ability with the addition of dealing the Herald's usual 2000 true damage to towers and, if it comes into contact with enemies, it will throw them up and cause 250 true damage.

The Baron's mechanic of receiving half damage from the target it is attacking has been added to the Herald. Another very welcome addition is that it is no longer possible to lose it at the end of the item's duration - if it reaches the end of its duration, it will be used instantly.

The Herald now grants a quick return to all champions that assist in its kill, regardless of how far away the champion was. For example, if a Soraka uses her ultimate ability while the Herald is being made, she will receive a quick return charge. This type of interaction may be welcome for champions who have skills with global reach like Swain, Ezreal and Xerath, providing a quick return window.

Another modification was related to the gold distribution. Originally, all gold obtained from taking down towers or barricades went to the champion who summoned it. This amount will now be divided equally among the team.

Baron Nashor's New Forms

At 20 minutes, the first Baron is born and, in Season 14, it will have three different forms: The All-Seing, the Hunting and the Territorial. They all give the Baron a new ability to use and slightly modify the map.

All-Seeing Baron

The All-Seeing Baron's exclusive ability is the creation of void fissures under the enemies that are furthest away from them up to a limit of 2200 units, from these fissures, tentacles emerge that deal 150 magical damage on the first contact and 50 subsequent damage.

Hunting Baron

The Hunting Baron summons a lightning pillar upon opponents, which begins attacking after 0.7 seconds with a frequency of 0.1 seconds between each attack, dealing damage equivalent to 15% of the target's current health.

Territorial Baron

The Territorial Baron pulls all enemies in a cone to it 1.5 seconds after attacking and deals 75 magic damage to the pulled enemies.

Of all the Baron's new forms, the Territorial is the most exotic, with an entirely new ability that hearkens back to the Spider attack from the old 3v3 map. As for the lair modification, the All-Seeing is the most interesting and can create opportunities when interacting with the vision of the place.

Voidborn Sentinel, Brambleback & Scuttler

After the 20 minutes of the match, all Brambleback and Sentinel fields will be corrupted by the Void, this makes them much more resistant. In return, they grant their respective bonuses to all champions on the team after they are killed.

Considering the new distribution of Blue and Red bonuses, their powers have been reduced by around 50%. The skill boost granted by Blue's bonus was 5 to 20, based on match progression. Now, it has a 10% Haste, regardless of the situation. The Red bonus, previously granted 0.5 to 5% maximum health recovery, now grants 0.5 to 3%.

Another important piece of information is that the Voidborn Sentinel and Brambleback do not transfer their bonuses to the enemy when champions are killed. Furthermore, the old mechanic of leaving a copy of the buff for another ally to pick up continues in the game, but now it happens after the second elemental dragon is killed, and is no longer tied to the Jungler completing their item.

Voidborn Scuttler

Scuttlers also have their Void form. When killed, it creates a large vision area around them which reveals all nearby enemy champions and leaves all revealed wards with one health.

Considering the difference in win rates between the blue and red sides given their particularities and differences in viewing angles, Riot took advantage of Season 14 to remodel parts of the map and make it more symmetrical.

The entrances to the jungle are closer to the towers, a new passage was created between the Sentinel wall and the river entrance and the bushes on the middle route are further away, creating a larger space for the route. These changes will directly impact the Jungler's gank ability and vision control of objectives.

Changes to the Infernal Terrain

The infernal Terrain has also been modified: instead of destroying walls and bushes across the map, it now creates infernal cinders in random locations, preferably close to the losing team. Collecting an infernal cinder grants temporary movement speed, as well as granting an ember stack that provides the player with 0.3 permanent ability haste.

Up to five cinder stacks are retained upon death. Of the remainder, part is thrown to the ground and the other part is destroyed. Cinders collected from other players do not grant movement speed.

Another big change in this update is the end of Mythic items. While they provided different and interesting attributes in their passives, they also greatly restricted item construction options.

Furthermore, there were champions who didn't fit well with Mythic items, having a lot of difficulty choosing which one would be used or making them after the third, or fourth item.

Support Items

Unlike previous seasons, there are no longer separate starting items for supports. Now, there is only the World Atlas, with both old passives, being able to obtain gold by damaging champions or enemy structures, or by killing minions.

When you obtain 500 gold with the item's passive, it transforms into a Runic Compass and starts storing ward charges, very similar to the old support items. When you obtain 1000 gold with its passive, it transforms into Bounty of Worlds, which presents the opportunity to transform it into one of the five new support item options that we will cover below:

Celestial Opposition

Celestial Opposition provides the champion with a shield that reduces all damage taken by 25% (ranged) or 35% (melee) for two seconds, resetting after 20 seconds. This item seems to be aimed at supports more focused on dealing a lot of damage, but who don't have much resistance, such as Zyra, Vel'Koz, Heimerdinger and Anivia.

Dream Maker

The Dream Maker provides the champion with one blue and one red bubble every eight seconds. When healing or shielding an ally, these bubbles are consumed to reduce the damage taken by the ally and strengthen their next attack.

Dream Maker was clearly created with Enchanter Supports in mind. Soraka, Nami and Lulu will make great use of this item.

Zaz’Zak’s Realmspike

The third option is Zaz’Zak’s Realmspike. When dealing damage with an ability to an enemy champion, it generates an explosion that deals 50 damage + 3% of his maximum life as magical damage, this effect has a cooldown of 9 to 6 seconds based on your level.

Zaz’Zak’s Realmspike is an interesting option against champions with a lot of health, but it seems to compete with Celestial Opposition, making both items situational.

Solstice Sleigh

The fourth option is the Solstice Sleigh, which, when slowed or immobilized, grants 120 additional health and 90 movement speed for four seconds to you and the closest ally with the lowest current health. This item appears to be aimed at tanking supports such as Braum, Alistar, Nautilus and Rell.

Bloodsong

With Bloodsong, when using a skill, your next attack deals additional damage equal to 150% of your base attack damage and increases the damage taken by the opponent by 12% (melee) or 8% (ranged) for six seconds. This item seems to be focused on the few attack damage supports, such as Ashe, Senna and Pyke.

Rebalancing of other items

In this update, many other items were added or removed. However, they continue to undergo adjustments to better meet the game's balance, so they will be covered in a future article when they are more consolidated.

The Season 14 brings more space to reinvent with its changes, and Riot seemed to find ways to offer an unprecedented experience to its players with the Void mechanics. The map also seemed to gain a new balance and promises to make matches fairer for both teams!

If this information helped you better understand the new season and its changes, or if you felt there was any additional information missing, leave it in the comments!