LoL 14.2 patch notes prepare for next week’s new legend Smolder

League of Legends latest patch has arrived, bringing with it a gamut of changes for the popular MOBA. The patch introduces a number of changes including buffs and nerfs to a number of legends, but the main highlight is preparing the way for the arrival of a new legend.

There’s a lot of patch notes – so we’ll mainly just cover the broad changes here rather than listing the lot (the full list of changes goes across 38 pages) – but the game will also soon be depreciating support for older Windows versions, specifically Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Players will have until patch 14.4, scheduled to release on Wednesday, February 21 to upgrade their operating system.

Before then, new Legend Smolder will be arriving next week, on January 31, 2024. In the meantime, here’s the LoL 14.2 patch notes for this week’s update, care of Riot Games.

League of Legends 14.2 patch notes

Champions

• We don’t believe that Kayn should be able to accelerate passive orb gain through runes. We’ve previously adjusted this with First Strike previously and are now doing the same for Aery now. As such, Kayn’s Passive no longer works with Aery.
• Red Kayn’s R now heals even if the unit dies during the channel.
• Taric E now ghosts units during the cast.
• Rammus will properly play his AA animation when his W ends.
• Kled Q is no longer variable duration, changing from 1.75-2 seconds to 1.75 flat.
• Evelynn now tracks enemies falling under ult threshold much more often.
• Jayce Hammer E now uses regular knockback instead of fixed distance upon the spell being cast.
• Evelynn W can no longer target small monsters (Medium Krug and larger only). It already cannot target minions.
• Heimerdinger Q and R+Q turrets now update their stats every 1 second, reflecting level-ups, rank-ups, and AP purchases. They no longer snapshot their stats when summoned.
• Teemo’s default adaptive force stat changed: Attack Damage ⇒ Ability Power
• Yorick’in-games runes will now replace Glacial Augment with First Strike and Aftershock with Grasp of the Undying. This will affect 0.06% of Yorick players.
• Gragas W now applies against turrets and other structures, dealing 50% normal damage.
• Gragas W now applies damage in an AoE when targeting structures and includes them in its AoE when targeting units nearby.
• Kennen will now respawn with W fully stacked.
• Ornn R and R2 will no longer be able to target allies or the minimap.
• Cho’Gath R now grants +2.5 cast range per stack, maximum +25 range at 10 stacks.
• Cho’Gath R attack range per stack increased: 4.62 / 6.15 / 7.69 ⇒ 4.7 / 6.2 / 7.7
• Cho’Gath R tooltip now displays the range increases if you hold Shift for more info.
• Fizz W now applies to structures at 50% damage. The DoT does not apply to inhibitors.
• Jax W and R now apply to structures at 50% damage.
• Lulu’s Pix moves faster, especially when further away from its target.
• Vayne Q-empowered autos cannot be accidentally canceled.
• Kog’Maw gains an AA range indicator during his W (like Lethal Tempo/RFC).
• Nami R will strike behind her on cast to mirror visuals and similar spells.
• Trundle Q has 25 bonus range.
• Volibear Q has 25 bonus range.
• Nocturne Q trail has 25 units more forgiveness before you count as outside of it.
• Nocturne Q trail now attaches to large and epic monsters in addition to champions.
• Brand now damages every 0.25 seconds instead of every 1.05 seconds.
• Nilah W buffer out of other spells.
• Nilah W can now be cast during other spell windups.
• Nilah EQ is very inconsistent and often doesn’t fire Q—adjusted to be more consistent.
• Wards that would be placed beside a brush are now slightly nudged into them.
• Ziggs’ W should be able to be activated while rooted etc.
• Swain’s Passive will now be tracked in his tooltip and icon.
• Poppy’s buckler will now bounce back to her if her target is dead when it hits.
• Akali’s Passive now extends itself very slightly if attacks are taken in the last few frames before the buff expires.
• Shaco’s clone will now attack the nearest visible enemy champion within 1500 range of it when dead.
• Shaco’s clone will now stop to cast the fake W and will only do so within 300 units of Shaco prime.
• Shaco clone will stop to cast a fake E and will only do so within 575 units of Shaco prime’s E target, this also fakes a missile.

Other Changes

• Scryer’s Bloom will no longer reveal champion pets for longer than champions, as that was unintentionally revealing those characters for longer.
• Shifted Tiamat and Ravenous Hydra actives to use attack timers if those are lower than their cast time.
• Momentum items (Dead Man’s Plate, Trailblazer) will no longer lose Momentum when attacking traps or plants.
• A number of champions properly have cooldowns listed on their passives.

QoL Adjustments

• Quick Play surrender time adjusted for when 50% of active players vote “yes.” Changed from 15 minutes to 20 minutes.
• Updated Nidalee’s recommended items in shop.
• Removed the pop-out option for chat windows in the League Client.
• Added statue locations for Hubris on maps other than Summoner’s Rift.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that caused kills to sometimes show up as double kills on the scoreboard.
• Fixed a bug that caused Master Yi’s Highlander ability to not block the slow effect from Ahri’s charm.
• Fixed a bug that caused Akali to be unable to cast abilities for about 1.5 seconds if she uses passive auto attack at the last second.
• Fixed a bug that caused Katarina R to get into states where the spell casts but does not deal damage or launch knives.
• Fixed a bug that caused Lux Q to rarely break spell shields but still apply full effects.
• Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W visuals to not properly sync with the faster prep time.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to be able to flash out of grounded zones they had teleported onto if they were spamming the flash key, F.
• Fixed a bug that caused Jhin’s 4th shot, when fired within a few frames of his out of combat reload, to sometimes fail.
• Fixed a bug that caused Heimerdinger’s turrets to have their attack speed slowed by Warden’s Mail and Randuin’s Omen.
• Shaco clone will properly duplicate energized stacks and effects.
• Shaco boxes will proc cosmic drive.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Neeko to get stuck running on all fours for the duration of the game.
• Fixed a bug that caused Arcane Comet to cancel auto attacks if it fires in the windup.
• Fixed a bug that caused Glacial Augment missiles to break spell shields.
• Fixed a bug that caused Sion passive movement speed to decay at variable speeds depending on the other effects acting on him at the time.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rakan’s W to count as an immunity.
• Fixed a bug that caused Irelia’s Q dash to not properly reset if cast at max range and the target dies right before she arrives.
• Fixed a bug that caused Lulu’s R bonus health to be slightly delayed in some rare cases.
• Fixed a bug that caused Lulu to be unable to cast Q when she was CC’d.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rift Scuttler to respawn at 3:32 instead of 3:30.
• Fixed a bug where Rift Scuttler would create inaccurate timers when killed early in the game.
• Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s QQ to sometimes explode when hitting walls or other champion abilities.
• Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s E to sometimes get redirected by walls or other champion abilities.
• Fixed a bug that caused multiple champions to be able to pilot Rift Herald at the same time.
• Fixed a bug that caused Stormsurge to reflect damage back to the caster when attacking Neeko’s clone.
• Fixed a bug that caused Neeko to be able to remove the turret backdoor bonus.
• Fixed a bug that caused Mikael’s Blessing to be able to be used on non-champions.
• Fixed a bug that caused Malignance and Hexplate to sometimes grant too much ability haste to certain champions.
• Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W to be able to be cast repeatedly.
• Fixed a bug that caused Azir to sometimes be knocked out extremely far when charging with Rift Herald.
• Fixed a bug that caused Lich Bane to not show up under the Ability Haste items section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Zeke’s Convergence to not show up under the mana items section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Cosmic Drive to not show up under the health and regeneration section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Anguish passive of Unending Despair to deal less damage after being upgraded by Ornn into Hope Adrift.
• Fixed a bug that caused The Unspoken Parasite to unintentionally grant the user Ability Haste.
• Fixed a bug that caused secondary objective timers over 10 minutes to overlap the icon on the scoreboard.
• Fixed a bug that caused jungle companions to deal more damage than intended when dashing onto a camp.
• Fixed a bug that caused Stormsurge to improperly give kill credit when activated early.
• Fixed a bug that caused Tahm Kench to be able to activate Experimental Hexplate without using his R.
• Fixed a bug that caused Ravenous Hydra’s cast time to not use attack windup values.
• Fixed a bug that caused Void Sentinel and Brambleback to spawn after the first time their draconic counterparts were killed, regardless of the Baron Timer.
• Fixed a bug that caused Verdant Barrier’s cooldown to not be inherited by Banshee’s Veil.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rod of Ages to still display in the Ability Haste section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Stridebreaker to still display in the Ability Haste section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Experimental Hexplate to still display in the armorpenetration section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused some abilities to not receive Ability Haste directly after spawning. For example, as Kathus spawned and was spamming R the ability would sometimes go on
• Fixed a bug that caused Voltaic Cyclosword to be able to slow through Unstoppable and Unslowable states.
• Fixed a bug that caused Spirit Visage’s bonus shielding counter to count Kaenic Rookern’s Magebane passive shield.
• Fixed a bug that caused T.U.R.B.O.’s item icon to not display the item’s passive cooldown.
• Fixed a bug that caused Kaenic Rookern and Celestial Opposition shield sizes to not adjust based on champion size.
• Fixed a bug that caused slows from Hwei’s QE and EE to stack.
• Fixed a bug where Baron could take excess damage from specific abilities when damaged from far away
• Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s spellslot to lock temporarily if he leveled up a skill while opening a spellbook.
• Fixed a bug that caused Imperial Mandate’s debuff VFX to be shorter than the actual debuff duration.
• Fixed a bug that caused Hwei’s Q to be locked into one form if he died while casting QQ as the player was reconnecting to the game.
• Fixed a bug that caused some abilities to be cast backwards when used simultaneously with a blink in conjunction with the Clamp Cast Targeting setting.
• Fixed a bug that caused some ability indicators to point the wrong direction when channeling and moving in conjunction with the Clamp Cast Targeting setting.
• Fixed a bug that caused Zac’s E to sometimes go backwards after maxing the ability.
• Fixed a bug that caused Wit’s End to still appear in the Attack Damage section of the shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused Zoe’s Ravenous Hydra shard to have no effect.
• Fixed a bug that caused Hwei to be able to open a spellbook despite not having enough Mana.
• Fixed a bug that caused Bard’s W animation to be partially skipped when transitioning to the fully charged version.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain jungle monsters to not spawn in the practice tool.
• Fixed a bug that caused Lucian’s passive to sometimes spam the ability’s VFX.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rumble R and Viktor E to have issues when used with Clamp Cast Targeting.

Cosmetic Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where Cosmic Reaver’s Kassadin was missing his parallax textures.
• Fixed a bug where Dawnbringer and Pulsefire Riven’s Shield of Valor (E) VFX was rendering over impassable terrain and structures.
• Fixed a bug where Broken Covenant Riven’s Dance (Ctrl+3), Recall (B), and Revive VFX were cut-off when triggered on lower graphic settings.
• Fixed a bug where Battle Bunny Prime Riven’s feet were sliding on the ground during Idle animations.
• Fixed a bug where Winter Wonder, Bewitching, and Street Demons Neeko’s Pop Blossom (R) outer ring indicator appears skewed under certain circumstances from the enemy’s POV.
• Fixed a bug where Withered Rose Talon’s Rake (W) VFX were extending past the spell’s hitbox.