Patch 14.6 has a little bit of everything as we've got op Champs like Volibear and Smolder being nerfed. Hello summoners, I'm Saurabh and Welcome back again to ModLegends guide! Gallo's passive is getting a mini rework while buffs to many crit items are on the way. With the help of our Challenger players and analyzing the most recent data, let's get you guys set up with everything you need to know for patch 14.6 and a complete update on the solo Q tier list for every single role.
Systems
Let's start off by covering all the item changes. The only ones that will be buffed for this patch are crit-centric items. The crit damage amp on Infinity Edges is being increased from 40% to 50%. This change will most heavily influence ADCs like Samira, Jinx, Aphelios, and Caitlyn, while Yasuo and Yone will also become indirectly stronger. Riot will be providing Quickblades with a boost for this patch as well, with its AD being increased from 60 to 65.
Pickaxe is being swapped out for a BF sword in the build path. There aren't a ton of champions running Quickblades right now, but the ones who will benefit the most include Zed, Gangplank, Nidalee, Sivir, Tristana, Lucian, Xerath, Ezreal, Twisted Fate, Dr. Mundo, and Tryndamere.
Armor pen crit items will receive some added power in 14.6 as the armor pen on both Lord Dominik's and Mortal Reminder is going up from 30% to 35%. Both items are generally later game pickups, so these buffs should not drastically influence the power of any specific ADC but just slightly boost the strength of the role as a whole.
Riot will be completely overhauling a ton of Epic items for this patch, reducing their gold efficiency so that they're between 100 and 110%. In recent patches, we have seen strategies that involve buying epic items early on in the game and just sitting on them, which is likely the reason for this early game nerf to items. Fiendish Codex was one of those items that players were just buying and not completing into a legendary item until much later in the game. These nerfs will look to combat that kind of strategy moving forward.
Melee supports have continued to dominate the solo queue meta, so Riot will be toning down Solari's Locket of the Iron Solari yet again for the third patch in a row. The support item upgrade is being nerfed, and this time the buff duration is going down from 3 to 2.5 seconds while the movement speed is down from 25% to 20%.
Braum, Malphite, Thresh, Rakan, Alistar, and Zilean are a few supports who have been running Locket of the Iron Solari the most in recent patches, so they'll be most negatively affected. Support items are being changed for this patch so that the active gold income is being lowered by 25%. Quest targets, however, are being lowered to compensate, so you'll still be hitting your upgrade at around the same time. This is a nerf though for all supports just due to the fact that you'll now have a lesser gold income overall.
We'll be seeing a change to Void Staff for this patch so that on death instead of a decaying shield, the Void Staff will now gain a decaying heal. There's one more pretty massive change that will affect both jungle and support for 14.6. The World Ender support item and any of the jungle starting items can no longer be paired with a Doran's item.
The main reason Riot's issuing this change is due to a lot of high ELO support players starting the game off with a Doran's item for more early game presence and then waiting until their first base to grab the World Ender. We've seen this quite a bit on Ashe specifically. So if you start the game by purchasing a Doran's item as a support, you won't be able to pick up the World Ender support item anymore on your first base unless you sell that Doran's item, which will completely remove this strategy from the game. With all the system changes covered.
Top Changes
Let's move on to looking at how all the top lane changes will influence the meta. Cho'Gath will be buffed in two different ways for this patch as his W cooldown is being lowered by two seconds at rank one, and his E damage is going up as well, increased from 70 to 82 at max rank. Overall, some pretty solid buffs to tank Cho'Gath, and when you take into account that Heartsteel and Sunfire Aegis were just recently buffed as well, Cho'Gath should be in a respectable spot for 14.6.
We'll be placing Cho'Gath in the top lane A tier as a good solo queue selection. A bit of a random buff to Ornn here, but nevertheless, his E cooldown will be lowered from 16 to 14 seconds at rank one. What makes this change a bit random is the fact that at max rank, Ornn's E is not getting buffed at all, and it is the spell that high ELO Ornn players max out second. I guess since the majority of lower ELO Ornn players max their Q out second, this change will be nice for them. But in the grand scheme of things, if you're playing Ornn optimally and maxing E second, the change isn't all that impactful. We don't see this change moving the needle very much for Ornn, so he will continue to be placed in the top lane B tier.
A Shen buff is on the way for 14.6 with his passive cooldown refund being changed so that it now scales with each level instead of at random levels. Riot has stated that this will be a more significant buff from level 8 to level 16. Shen has been pretty close to breaking into an A tier position in recent patches, so with this buff, we'll be moving him from B into A.
Sion has held one of the lowest win rates for any champion in the game over the past while, so some much-needed buffs are penciled in. Q minimum damage is being lowered early on but buffed at max rank. The same thing for Q max damage: nerfed early but buffed at max rank. W shield is being changed as well as the max health scaling, going from 8 scaling to 12% to 8 scaling to 16%.
Considering how poorly Sion has been performing in recent patches and the fact that his early game is actually becoming weaker for 14.6, we can't see him making any significant move back into the meta, and he will remain in the C tier for now. Trendir will receive a buff for this patch as Riot will be increasing his attack speed scaling from 2.9 to 3.4%.
Tryndamere will, of course, be indirectly buffed due to the Quickblades changes as well. We could see Tryndamere squeezing back into an A tier position due to both of those changes. But much like Sion, he's been underperforming really hard in recent patches, so these buffs may not be quite enough to push him out of the B tier, and he's going to remain there for now.
Gragas has been one of the more dominant solo queue top laners in recent patches, so we have a few nerfs to tone down the fat man a bit. Some of that early game chunkiness will be shaved off for this patch with Gragas' health being reduced from 670 to 640. Q mana cost is nerfed as well, going from 80 scaling to 60 to just 80 flat at all ranks. We've had Gragas rated as an S tier pick over the recent patches, but as a result of these nerfs, we're dropping him into A tier.
Top Tier List
So, looking at how the top lane tier list is shaping up, the OP tier does not change for 14.6 as Urgot remains the most reliable solo queue carry. Volibear and Karma are two champions that will be moved down the top lane tier list, even though their nerfs are more directed towards nerfing them in other roles.
Smolder is another champion who isn't primarily played in the top lane but will be negatively affected as Riot is nerfing Smolder due to his AD dominance after the 14.5 hotfixed nerfs. Combined with these 14.6 changes, we don't see Smolder being a priority top lane pick anymore, and he's being moved into the B tier.
Jungle Changes
Diana will be issued some really nice buffs for this patch, with her attack speed being the main focus. Her attack speed ratio is being increased while attack speed growth is down; however, this is a net buff. Passive attack speed is going from 15 scaling to 40% to 15 scaling to 35% but will now scale linearly instead of at every third level. The active attack speed from Diana's passive is now going to last longer, going from three to five seconds. These buffs are expected to increase the clear speed and overall skirmish power of Diana. We expect these buffs to be quite impactful, so we'll be pushing Diana up into the jungle A tier.
We have another patch with Rek'Sai bug fixes, and this time Riot will be targeting her W and R after last patch's changes. Rek'Sai is settled in as a pretty good jungle pick, and with these changes going live for 14.6, we expect her to be a strong S tier pick. Rek'Sai has been in our jungle OP tier for a while now, so Riot has a few nerfs lined up. W heal is being lowered from 25 scaling to 45% to 24 scaling to 40%, while W attack speed is nerfed as well, going from 55 scaling to 115% to 54 scaling to 110%.
There is one buff being issued, and it revolves around Briar now being able to use her Q to jump toward Ws. Even though Riot intends for all these changes to be net nerfs, just the change so that Briar can now ward hop is pretty massive. The other nerf being issued is to Brier's R base damage, as it's not being touched at all for rank one but will be nerfed at the later ranks. It's really hard to say where Briar will land powerwise for the next patch just due to that ward jump change.
Saying this, we would not be surprised at all if Briar remains an OP pick, even though Riot's intent is to nerf her. For now, we'll be moving Briar from OP and into S tier, and we'll have a more accurate update for you guys in our mid-patch tier list if anything changes.
Volibear shot up being the most broken jungler in 14.5, so Riot's pulling back on the initial buffs they issued a few patches back. Movement speed is going back down a bit at max rank from 32 to 28%. Our cooldown is also being nerfed as it's going from 130 to 140 seconds at rank one. Even with these nerfs, Volibear will still be in a much stronger spot than where he was a few patches ago. By no means will Volibear fall back into the pit of the C tier, as we expect him to remain in that OP or S tier level for now. We'll be leaving Volibear in the jungle OP tier, but a move into S could be warranted for the mid-patch tier list if the changes hit a bit harder than expected.
The final jungler being targeted with changes for 14.6 is Kayn. Riot is continuing to look for ways to shift power away from Blue Kayn and onto Red Kayn. For this patch, they'll be doing this by making a change to how actives interact with Kayn's Q. You will no longer be able to use actives during Q, which nerfs the instant burst power of Blue Kayn when he's building Ravenous Hydra. Our bonus AD ratio is also being lowered from 175 to 150%, so this affects lethality Kayn the most. Red Kayn will be buffed for this patch, with the base percent health damage on Q being increased from 5 to 6%. As a result of these changes, we do expect Kayn to become weaker in 14.6. Red Kayn is just heavily outclassed by Blue Kayn right now, and the buff to Kayn's Q is likely not enough to move the needle. We'll be adjusting Kayn on the jungle tier list, moving him from S into A tier.
Jungle Tier List
So with all those jungle changes covered, here's what the tier list will be looking like in 14.6. Volibear will now be taking up the only OP tier spot, now that Voli and Brier have been nerfed in 14.6. There really aren't any huge outliers that are more powerful than anyone else. We have a lot of champions in the S tier right now for jungle, as there are plenty of strong picks to choose from. If you want to play a tank, both Zac and Rammus are really great options right now. For an assassin, Kha'Zix is one of the best. There are a ton of strong fighter junglers to choose from as well; Warwick has gained priority as of recent, and Rek'Sai is getting better for this patch.
Mid Changes
There aren't very many changes to the mid lane for 14.6, but the ones being issued are quite significant. Karma is finally being nerfed after spending the past few patches on top of the midlane meta. Mana growth is being lowered, while Mana regen growth is going up. Q Mana cost is being heavily nerfed, going from 45 flat to 40 scaling to 80. Passive refund is nerfed as well, dropping from 5 to 4 seconds. R cooldown takes a hit, going from 40 scaling to 31 seconds to 40 scaling to 34 seconds. To try and keep support Karma in a viable spot, Riot will be buffing Karma's Mantra E bonus shield in the early game. Overall, these should be the nerfs that knock Karma off her pedestal and lower her down the midlane tier list.
For 14.6, Galio will receive the most amount of changes for any champion in this patch, as a bunch of his spells are being adjusted. Riot wants Galio to be a bit more consistently impactful throughout a fight instead of just a champion who uses all his spells and then sits around doing nothing. You're going to be rewarded more for weaving in passive procs between spells, as Galio's passive cooldown is going to be refunded by 3 seconds whenever you hit a champion or epic monster with an ability. Passive will now also gain 40% attack speed, so it's going to feel way smoother to use.
Base damage is being lowered, however, from 15 scaling to 200 to 15 scaling to 115. The passive AP ratio takes a hit as well, going from 50 to 40%. Q cooldown is nerfed, but only at the later ranks; Q AP ratio will be reduced from 75 to 70%. W damage reduction is being lowered from 25 scaling to 45% to 20 scaling to 40%. W bonus magic resist scaling is going down from 12% per 100 bonus magic resist to 8% per 100 bonus magic resist. W damage reduction will now scale off 1% per 100 health.
Incentivize for tanky builds, W base damage will be lowered from 20 scaling to 80 to 20 scaling to 60. E base damage is down from 90 scaling to 250 to 75 scaling to 235. E non-champion damage is up, however, from 50 to 80%. Riot wants Galio to become a better skirmisher instead of this one-shot with full combo type of champ. If you're building AP Galio for the next patch, the damage output will be significantly weaker. On the flip side, though, if you're playing tank Galio, the champion should be much stronger. With tank Galio, you'll be able to sit in fights for longer and consistently take advantage of the very low passive cooldown.
With massive changes like this, it's hard to predict exactly where Galio will land power-wise, but what we can say is that AP is heavily nerfed while tank is on the rise. For now, we will be leaving Galio in the mid lane A tier, and we will be sure to update you guys for the mid-patch tier list as to how Galio is performing along with any new builds that pop up throughout the patch.
Mid Tier List
So there's not a whole lot going on for mid lane in 14.6 due to the lack of adjustments for the role. With Karma dropping out of the op tier, taking her spot as the queen of the mid lane will be Ari. Ari is just dominating the mid lane meta right now, and Karma being in a broken state was the only thing holding us back from moving Ari into op sooner. It's just so easy to be impactful with Ari right now due to how broken her two-item core is: malignance and lichbane provide you with so much point-and-click damage, which really lowers the skill required to play Ari, as she can burst out squishy champions quite easily without even landing her charm.
Although the Diana changes are being issued to help her out in the jungle, mid-lane Diana should be an interesting one to track this patch as well. Mid Diana has actually been performing way better than jungle in recent patches, and we've had the champion in our S tier for a while, so as a result of her buffs, don't sleep on Diana mid in 14.6. Yone and Yasuo will be ones to track in 14.6 due to the Infinity Edge buffs. Both champs have been underperforming in recent patches; however, the IE buffs should help to bring back some viability.
ADC Changes
There are just two ADCs being directly nerfed for this patch, and both of those champions were in our OP tier during 14.5. Senna is first up, as Riot will be significantly nerfing the strength of the champion in the ADC role, with her Mist Wraith spawn rate on minion kill being sliced from 8.33% to just 2.8%. It was obvious that the nerf last patch to where Riot reduced Senna's QAD ratio would not affect her power level for ADC at all, but we can't say the same about this change.
This is a nerf that should result in a pretty big drop-off in Senna's viability for the ADC role, so we will be moving her from OP tier and into A. Smolder has been a bit of a balanced nightmare ever since his release, as he's being adjusted for the fourth patch in a row. 225-stack Q execute damage is going down from 7.625 plus 0.025% per Dragon practice stack to just a flat 6.5%.
Execute will now only check after Smolder deals damage instead of any teammate. W missile width is being reduced from 125 to 115. E bonus movement speed will be nerfed from 100 to 75%. The adjustments from last patch ended up increasing Smolder's solo Q viability, but it's without a doubt that these changes will put a dent in his solo Q strength. Definitely not changes that will kill Smolder, but we will be dropping the champion out of the OP tier and down into A.
ADC Tier List
So with both of the OP tier champs from 14.5 dropping down, we have a brand new look to the OP tier for 14.6. This is kind of weird to even say, but the best solo queue ADC is Kog'Maw. It's been a long while since Kog'Maw has been a priority pick for solo queue, but that is the case as we head into 14.6. The buffs from 14.5 are what propelled Kog'Maw up the tier list, and he's only going to gain in priority for this patch due to the Senna and Smolder nerfs.
ADCs that do not build crit, who have already been struggling in recent patches like Kai'Sa, Varus, and Kalista, are only going to become weaker in relation to everyone else.
Support Tier List
Riot is left supporting hanging in 14.6, at least in regards to the champion changes, as there's not a single support champ who will be directly adjusted unless you count Karma. However, she is being nerfed more specifically due to her midlane dominance and not because of support. There are indirect changes that will influence the role for this patch though, and we've made a few changes to the tier list as a result. Solstice Sleigh being nerfed will lower the power of strong champs from 14.5 like Blitzcrank and Maokai, and we believe it will be the tipping point to remove their OP tier statuses.
With Maokai and Blitz leaving the OP tier, moving up and joining Janna will be Zyra, as she's been on the verge of OP in recent patches. Even though the changes to Karma will more significantly affect her power in the mid lane, Karma support will be getting weaker as well. Support Karma has been a rather weak pick already in recent patches, so she's going to be one you want to stay away from in 14.6.
Conclusion
So there you have it, guys, this is what we're looking at as we head into patch 14.6. Thank you all so much for watching. Good luck in Solo queue, and we'll see you back soon.
FAQs
How will the item buffs impact ADCs like Jinx and Aphelios?
The buffs to critical strike items, particularly the Infinity Edge, are poised to enhance the effectiveness of ADCs reliant on crit-based builds, including Jinx and Aphelios. Expect increased damage output and improved scaling in the late game.
Are there any sleeper picks that could rise in popularity due to Patch 14.6 changes?
Champions like Diana and Kog'Maw may emerge as sleeper picks, benefiting from buffs and meta shifts. Their increased viability could surprise opponents and catch them off guard in solo queue matches.
How will the adjustments to jungle champions affect the meta?
The changes to jungle champions like Rek'Sai and Kayn aim to diversify the jungle pool and encourage more strategic diversity. Players may explore new jungle routes and compositions in response to these adjustments.
Which roles are expected to see the most significant shifts in Patch 14.6?
The top lane and ADC roles are likely to experience the most notable shifts, with adjustments to champion balance and itemization influencing their respective metas. Players should anticipate changes in optimal picks and strategies within these roles.
How can players adapt to the evolving meta in Patch 14.6?
Flexibility and adaptability are key to navigating the evolving meta. Experiment with different champions, builds, and strategies to find what works best in the current patch. Stay informed about patch notes, tier lists, and pro player insights to stay ahead of the competition.