League of Legends patch 14.23 early notes: Rell & Aurora mini-rework, Smolder changes & more

League of Legends patch 14.23 has some big changes in store, most of which are focused on balancing champions away from pro play without nerfing them out of casual viability.

While we don’t have a full view of the patch’s smaller changes just yet, Phreak has already gone over some of his biggest goals with the patch before the PBE version goes live. Aurora, Rell, and Smolder are the main three champions he highlighted as ones who are getting changed.

Additionally, lead gameplay designer Phroxzon has confirmed that Ambessa will be getting changes, but they’re solely going to be oriented around bugfixes and polish rather than balance. Her win rate has landed low as is typical of new champions, so they’re letting her sit for a bit as players learn her.

However, there are adjustments coming to the bounties system as well to follow up on patch 14.21‘s changes and hone them in. Despite LoL’s blistering pace when it comes to large-scale changes as of late, the game isn’t slowing down either, with Phreak explaining 14.23’s small scale reworks.

Here’s everything we know about LoL patch 14.23 so far:

LoL patch 14.23 early notes

Riot Games

Champions

Ambessa Medarda

According to both Phreak and Phroxzon, they’re happy with where Ambessa has landed. They don’t plan on buffing her as of now, but there are still changes to be made.

• Bugfixes planned for 14.23 including input buffering around her ultimate to make her feel more consistent

Aurora

Aurora dominated Worlds 2024, with the dev team retroactively regretting that they didn’t deliver more nerfs to her before the event started. However, they’re changing that now with a plan to nerf some parts of her kit and buff others to make her easier for casual players and worse in pro play.

A lot of her abilities and the way they function are changing, to the point where it’s a small-scare rework of the champion and how she functions.

Here’s a rundown of the changes Phreak has in mind:

Passive: Spirit Abjuration

• Bonus movement speed removed entirely

Q: Twofold Hex

• +50 range
• Damage increased
• Cooldown increased
• Recast goes off automatically

W: Across the Veil

• No longer gets cooldown reset on takedown
• Cooldown decreased
• Grants movement speed upon being casted

E: The Weirding

• +50 range

R: Between Worlds

• Will now grant W’s movement speed passive rather than the old Passive’s movespeed
• Duration increased
• Now the ring slows rather than trapping enemies inside

Caitlyn

• Nerfs coming soon

Jinx

• Adjustments coming soon

Kha’Zix

• Nerfs coming soon

Kog’Maw

• Nerfs coming soon

Master Yi

• Buffs coming soon

Miss Fortune

• Buffs coming soon

Rammus

• Buffs coming soon

Rell

Phreak claims that Rell has too much CC, skewing her toward pro play relevance because of how difficult she is to counterplay. He wants to nerf her CC but make her more mobile and flexible to make her playable in more broad skill brackets.

Base Stats:

• Mana reduced: 350 >>> 320
• Mana growth reduced: 45 >>> 40
• Base Armor reduced: 36 >>> 30
• Armor growth per level increased: 4.2 >>> 4.3
• Base MR reduced: 30 >>> 28
• MR growth reduced: 2.05 >>> 1.8
• Base movement speed reduced: 330 >>> 315
• Attack speed growth increased: 1.5% >>> 2%
• Attack windup reduced: 21-19.5% >>> 18%

Passive: Break the Mold

• Armor and MR steal increased: .8-2 >>> 1-2
• Now deals 5% of total resistances on hit

W: Ferromancy

• Cooldown decreased: 11 >>> 10
• Knock up duration reduced: 1 second >>> 0.4 seconds
• Now stuns for 0.8 seconds after knock up
  • Mounted
    • 20-40 bonus movement speed
  • Not Mounted
    • Bonus Armor and MR increased: 12% >>> 15%
    • No longer reduces movement speed
    • Bonus attack speed reduced: 30% >>> 20%
    • Shield increased slightly: 15-110 >>> 15-115

E: Full Tilt

• Passive movement speed removed
• Active movement speed while moving toward enemies increased: 200% >>> 250%
• Base damage and AP ratio removed, now deals more % max health damage
  • Max health damage increased: 3% >>> 5-7% (+3% per 100 AP)
• Max health damage cap increased: 150 >>> 150-300
• Cooldown reduced: 15 >>> 14-10

Rengar

• Buffs coming soon

Shyvana

• Nerfs coming soon

Skarner

• Nerfs coming soon

Smolder

Q: Super Scorcher Breath

• Damage adjusted: 15-55 (100% total AD) >>> 65-125 (130% bonus AD)
  • Passive stack scaling ratio decreased: 40% >>> 30%
• T2 bolts increased: 1 >>> 2
• Passive stacks required to get more bolts increased: 67 >>> 125
• T2 bounce damage decreased: 75% >>> 50%
• T3 burn no longer scales with AP and passive stacks
• T3 burn AD scaling increased: 2% per 100 bonus AD >>> 2.5% per 100 bonus AD
• No longer deals 10% bonus damage to champions
• Now refunds 15 mana if at least one target dies

W: Achoo!

• Missile damage adjusted: 45-165 (25% bonus AD) >>> 30-110 (60% bonus AD)
• Explosion damage increased: 25-85 (25% bonus AD) >>> 30-110 (60% bonus AD)
• Mana cost adjusted: 60 >>> 50-70
• Bonus minion damage removed
  • These changes boil down to Smolder’s W doing much less damage to waves but significantly more damage to champions with his AD build. Riot’s trying to kill off AP Smolder so his W damage to champs should level out to be similar to what it was before with AP builds

E: Flap, Flap, Flap

• Damage adjusted: 15-35 (10% bonus AD) >>> 5-25 (10% bonus AD)
• Flat damage per passive stack decreased
• Passive bonus magic damage per stack reduced: 20% >>> 10%
• Passive stacks required for additional bolts decreased: 133 >>> 100

R: Mooommmm!

• Now deals half damage to minions
• Cooldown decreased: 140-120 >>> 120

Tahm Kench

• Nerfs coming soon

Teemo

• Nerfs coming soon

Zac

• Nerfs coming soon

Items

The Collector

• Nerfs coming soon

Youmuu’s Ghostblade

• Nerfs coming soon

Yun Tal Wildarrows

• Buffs coming soon

Systems

Bounties

• Higher caps on objective bounties
• Faster bounty accrual for kills/assists
• Stronger devaluation of bounties on the team that’s losing