LoL’s major Patch 14.19 item nerfs are biggest shakeup in years

The next patch for League of Legends is making major changes to the game’s items, shaking up the game like we’ve never seen before, a step in the right direction for the community.

Having played League of Legends for about 11 years, I’ve seen a wide range of metas throughout my time. Whether that be the Iceborn Gauntlet Sunfire Cape tank meta, the double defensive ADC meta, the Feral Flare jungle meta, and much more.

One thing that has changed the most, even with the introduction of new champions, new systems like runes and map changes throughout the years, is items. Items and what champions build are often key to their identity, with many relying on specific legendaries for their power.

That’s why the universal round of nerfs to items coming in Patch 14.19 will be great for the game. Specifically, the way in which Riot is nerfing items should make the game far less bursty, resulting in longer fights and more readability for the game.

Riot is nerfing multiple items in Patch 14.19. The devs are specifically reducing the amount of offensive stats that many items give, while also buffing the amount of defensive stats they provide. According to the dev blog, they’re removing about 5-15% stat efficiency of every Legendary item in the game, severely dropping their power.

This should significantly reduce the amount of power almost every champion has, which will also make fights last much longer. This means longer fights, more space for outplays and less getting one shot across the board.

It’s a great step in the right direction and harkens back to earlier days in League of Legends when players were less skilled, which resulted in less gold and less power in the game in general.

Not only will this make fights take longer, but it’ll make the game a bit more readable. Since items have less power in general, players won’t need to contemplate how much stats their opponents are gaining from them. This once again means that you’re more focused on the enemy champion you’re versing, not what they’ve built.

All in all, these large sweeping changes are a great step that should refresh how League of Legends is played. It’s great to see that the devs are still willing to make big changes to the MOBA, and should hopefully mean an interesting pre-season.