Source: Riot Games — Aatrox

On Tuesday morning Riot released Patch 8.14 to live servers following a three week hiatus, the longest break without an update since pre-season. This patch attempts to address major balance issues that have emerged over the course of the last three weeks in both solo queue and pro play, such as the growing prevalence of the gold-funnel strategy and the overabundance of teleports in the bottom lane.

Source: Riot Games — Patch 8.14 Notes

First of all, the balance team set their sights on the recently reworked Aatrox, targeting his early game power with nerfs to his base health, Q damage and E cooldown. These nerfs were compensated with late game buffs in the form of a reduced E cooldown, at ranks 4 and 5, and increased damage on his ultimate, World Ender.

After two weeks and 130 games of pro play in the top five competitive regions, Aatrox sits at a 96% presence in pro drafts (the highest of any champion on this patch), making him the most powerful champion on Patch 8.13. Whilst the majority of the Darkin Blade’s power and dominance derives from his presence in lane and ability to build early game leads, these nerfs do not appear significant enough to dethrone him.

Rather than looking to shift Aatrox’s power from his laning phase to the mid and late game, perhaps Riot would have made more of an impact by avoiding compensation buffs and instead looking towards reducing his sustain in the early game. As it stands, it is likely that we are looking at another patch of Aatrox superiority in both top and mid, with very little change to his P&B rate on Patch 8.14.

Source: Riot Games — Patch 8.14 Notes

Challenging Aatrox for the most obnoxious strategy on Patch 8.13 was gold funnelling, a playstyle that entered the meta at the start of the Summer Split involving the directing of two sources of gold and experience into a single carry. Since its inception in pro play on Patch 8.11, every competitive league has received a taste of what gold funnelling brings and Riot have finally taken a stand this week.

These changes introduce a lane minion gold cap for champions with a tier 1 or 2 jungle item and gold advantage over their team-mates. This will reduce the efficiency of the strategy by delaying the completion of the jungle item, making gold funnelling less attractive for teams and probably reducing its prevalence in both pro play and solo queue. That being said, this may not be the end of gold funnelling as teams will undoubtedly look for ways around these adjustments, finding alternative routes to channel gold into a single carry.

Source: Riot Games — Patch 8.14 Notes

With the influx of early game bruisers and mages in the bottom lane, along with the growing focus on one or two item spikes, Teleport has quickly gained popularity in the Summer Split. The ability to recall with the gold for your first item and return to lane without allowing time for your opponent to push in a wave and pummel down your tower is deemed too powerful at the moment to forgo. As a result we are often seeing 7 or 8 teleports in a single game with top, middle, bottom and sometimes support players all utilising the summoner spell.

Increasing the cooldown of Teleport by a whole minute (and 40 seconds when cancelled) will definitely make players consider alternatives in the future, instead looking towards combat summoners to gain an edge in their respective lanes. While we’re likely to see no change in top lane summoner selection, this change will probably have a large effect on both mid and bottom lane in solo queue and pro play. With average game times being so short, reducing the maximum usage of a summoner to 3 or 4 channels in a single game is enough of a deterrent for us to witness a change in the coming weeks.

Source: Riot Games — Patch 8.14 Notes

Sticking with the theme of nerfs, Riot eyed some of the more oppressive champions of Patch 8.13 with these changes, three of the most significant being Dr. Mundo, Swain and Wukong. The first two boast a 78% and 89% presence in the top five leagues (LCK, LPL, LMS, EU LCS, NA LCS) on Patch 8.13, leading the way in terms of pick rate on top and bot lane respectively. On the other hand, Wukong has been a terror in solo queue, brandishing a 55% win rate in three different roles on the most recent patch, triggering action from the balance team.

Firstly, Dr. Mundo’s changes are healthy as they significantly reduce his sustain in lane by increasing the health cost of hitting his Q and making it more difficult for him to safely last hit. Therefore it is likely that we see a drop in Mundo’s top lane presence, taking him from a 78% pick/ban rate to something more like 60% as other champions may offer more than him after this change.

Secondly, the nerf to Swain’s maximum R damage offers similar circumstances. Although it is a positive move in terms of reducing his effectiveness and power in the bottom lane, it is not going to see him fall majorly below S Tier. Once again, we are likely to see a drop in the presence of the Noxian Grand General, but he’ll still remain a power pick in solo queue and pro play.

Finally, while not seeing any pro play this season, Wukong has recently cropped up as a powerful pick in high elo solo queue with high win rates in the top, middle and bottom lanes. The Monkey King’s power revolves around his one-shot potential, particularly after getting a lead and picking up a few lethality items. The change to his Nimbus Strike reduces his damage potential at all ranks, however it is doubtful that this will make a huge difference as Wukong currently over-kills his targets and losing 20 damage at level 6 is unlikely to make the champion significantly weaker.

Source: Riot Games — Patch 8.14 Notes

Indisputably, the focus of Patch 8.14 has been to nerf the most powerful picks and strategies in the current meta rather than buffing champions to contest the top picks. Nevertheless, there is something to look forward to (or perhaps, dread) with the rise of Voidborn duo, Rek’Sai and Vel’Koz.

Burrowed away since 2017, Rek’Sai has been a rarely utilised champion this season in comparison to her earlier tank iterations, due to the push to make her damage-oriented rather than a beefy, knock-up bot. Nonetheless, these buffs are definitely helpful in bringing back Rek’Sai, albeit in a more attack damage focused build. The changes aren’t enough to propel her back towards the most powerful picks but are definitely something for pros and high elo players to consider on Patch 8.14 and onwards.

By comparison, Vel’Koz has been a niche but semi-regular feature in pro play this split, with the likes of Crown, Deft and Kramer picking up the Eye of the Void in recent weeks. With Vel’Koz lingering at a 49% win rate in solo queue and the occasional pro pick, one could question whether Riot have an agenda to push the champion up the tiers with this generous damage buff on his most important ability. If the change provides a large boost to his damage output, it is very likely that we’ll see a rise in the popularity of Vel’Koz in the future.

Overall, the balance team are heading in the right direction with these changes, nerfing a number of oppressive and obnoxious picks in solo queue and pro play. That being said, there seem to be a number of changes missing with champions like Taliyah, Nocturne and Heimerdinger seeing no change from their Patch 8.13 state. On top of that, delaying any future changes to gold funnelling until pre-season is a potentially risky move considering we haven’t seen the effects of the most recent changes in pro play yet.