LoL: News, Patch Notes, Weekly Sale, Champ Rotation (2024)

Quick Patch Highlights (14.17) Buffs and Nerfs

Several champions have undergone buffs and nerfs in patch 14.17! Here’s a quick rundown of the buffs:

• Caitlyn
• Graves
• Kindred
• Ryze
• Varus
• Twisted Fate
• Lissandra

Patch 14.17 Champion Nerfs (aww….)

And now for the nerfs:

• Ashe
• Aurora
• Ezreal
• Katarina
• Kennen
• LeBlanc
• Pyke
• Rumble
• Senna
• Seraphine
• Sylas

Rio has taken a swing at off-meta ADC players in this patch. They’ve essentially nerfed classic ADC solo lane champions, like Ezreal and Ashe, in an effort to kick them back to the bot lane (where they’ll inevitably be ganked 24/7). It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, although I have my doubts about how effective the changes will actually be. I also personally don’t like the idea of restricting champions to specific lanes — what happened to freedom, Rito?

Riot has also implemented a few other noteworthy changes:

• Balancing adjustments, such as increasing off-role parity and changes to rectify the red vs blue side imbalance
• A fix for the infuriating leaver penalty bug (now you can finally report AFKers and feel justice has been served!)
• Changes to the Ready Check system to prevent stream sniping (and to keep Tyler1’s mental zen)

Current Event Overview: N/A

There are currently no events active in League of Legends. Check back later.

Latest Skins to Hit the Shop

Battle Queen Skins

This skin line takes slaying in style literally, and I’m here for it! Massacaring your enemies while rocking good ol’ frills and sparkles isn’t just hilarious — it’s sure to tilt your enemies and give you that mental “pay2win” advantage.

Jokes aside, the skins are all well-executed, with solid character models, slick animations, and eyecatching splasharts.

My fave out of the bunch has to be Battle Queen Fiora, mainly because it honors her champion lore and complements her voice lines beautifully.

• Battle Queen Fiora: 1350 RP
• Battle Queen Gwen: 1350 RP
• Battle Queen Miss Fortune: 1350 RP
• Battle Princess Annie: 1350 RP

Divine God Skins (Exclusive Mythic Variants)

Right. I’ll address these briefly. These skins are obtainable through Riot’s new cash grab gacha system. They’ll cost you up to $200 and are essentially just… fancy chromas. Are they badass? Yes. Are they worth $200? No, unless you have money to burn. So yeah, I’d personally give these skins a miss unless you’re a proud whale.

The skins in this line include:

• Divine God-King Darius: 1350 RP
• Fallen God-King Garen: 1350 RP

T1 Worlds Skins

The Worlds skins have finally been released, and they’re sure to win the heart of any SKT lover out there. While I do usually find Worlds skins a bit gimmicky, I seriously love the designs and color choices here. Plus, Bard’s T1 skin is downright adorable.

The available skins are:

• T1 Bard: 1350 RP
• T1 Jayce: 1350 RP (+ Prestige edition available)
• T1 Jinx: 1350 RP
• T1 Lee Sin: 1350 RP
• T1 Orianna: 1350 RP

Anima Squad

The Anima Squad skin line has finally made a comeback! Each skin is packed with anime goodness, bright colors, playful outfits, and sharp visual effects.

The available skins are:

• Battle Bat Xayah 1350 RP
• Battle Bunny Aurora: 1350 RP
• Battle Dove Seraphine: 1820 RP
• Cyber Cat Yuumi: 1350 RP (and Prestige edition)
• Primordian Aatrox: 1820 RP (Legendary)
• Primordian Bel’Veth: 1350 RP
• Primordian Briar: 1350 RP
• Primordian Rek’Sai: 1350 RP

I absolutely adore these new Anima Squad skins. I mean, what can I say? I’m a sucker for flashy, sparkly things and I’m also an otaku at heart. It’s literally a skin line made for me. However… while the skins are all visually impressive and come with equally awesome splash arts, I do have one major gripe: Riot gave a skin to Xayah, but not Rakan. As a Rakan main, I feel betrayed. I hate that Riot continues to create awesome skins for Xayah and not show Rakan that love. It’s injustice.

Latest Champion: Aurora

The next champion to hit the Rift is a magical bunny mage known as Aurora, who is sure to enchant your world!

I am so, so excited and happy that Aurora has finally hit the Rift! I love practically everything about this champion, from her adorable bunny character design to her hoppin’ high mobility playstyle. Her kit is definitely going to take some time to master, but it is versatile and packed with plenty of damage and carry potential. I also seriously love the sound effects.

However, I will say that I am concerned about how vibrant and visually explosive her abilities are, especially her ultimate. I feel the visual clarity is lost here, and playing against her kit in teamfights is going to be an absolute nightmare. It will make it so much harder to see other champions’ abilities. I haven’t had a chance to properly experience her yet though, so I’ll wait until I play a few more games with her before I complain any further.

You can find an in-depth breakdown of her abilities right here.

Current Champion Rotation Pool

Owning every champion in the game is not an easy feat — unless you’re willing to fork out on RP or grind Blue Essence for hours on end. Luckily, Riot helps out us peasants with the champion rotation pool, a schedule of over 20 champions that are made available for everyone to play, regardless of whether you actually own them. 

As of September 1st, here are the champions that are currently free to play:

• Braum
• Cho’Gath
• Evelynn
• Ivern
• Janna
• Kennen
• Mordekaiser
• Nami
• Pantheon
• Qiyana
• Quinn
• Renekton
• Samira
• Sylas
• Talon
• Twitch
• Vi
• Volibear
• Xayah
• Yasuo

I highly recommend taking the time to explore Nami if you haven’t done so already. She’s a support with an effective yet simple-to-master kit that can work well in practically any elo, and she’s fairly strong in the meta right now!

Weekly Sale (Skins and Champions)

Want to spruce up your main champion with a new, flashy skin? Then don’t fork out just yet; every week, Riot puts several skins on sale in the shop, with some skins even having a staggering 60% discount. 

As of September 1st, the current skins on sale are:

• Toy Terror Cho’Gath
• PROJECT: Jax
• Porcelain Protector Aurelion Sol
• Spirit Blossom Syndra
• Graceful Phoenix Seraphine
• Ruined Karma
• Infernal Karthus
• Mecha Kingdoms Leona
• Omega Squad Teemo
• Definitely Not Udyr
• Dragonslayer Braum
• High Noon Yasuo
• Full Metal Pantheon
• Blade Mistress Morgana
• Karate Kennen

Happy bargain hunting!

Several champions also go on sale every week, though I don’t recommend ever spending RP on a champion unless you’re desperate. They can all be unlocked with Blue Essence, the free in-game currency that you earn while playing matches.

That said, the current champions on sale are:

• Nilah
• Jinx
• Fiora
• Skarner
• Evelynn

Ranked Split 2 2024

Ranked Split 2 2024 has officially hit the Rift! Here’s a brief overview of the main changes made to this season’s ranked system:

• Players can now place up to Diamond III after provisional games (previously Emerald I)
• Demotion protection between divisions removed
• Demoting from tiers will now place players at 25 / 50 / 75 LP, depending on MMR
• Master duo is now enabled in most regions

I get scared whenever Riot makes changes to the ranked system, but all in all, I’m pretty happy with what they’ve done so far. I particularly love the demoting from tiers change; now you’ll know exactly just how bad you are… Which is equally hilarious and equally soul destroying.

Riot has officially announced that Split 2 will be coming to a close on September 24th. So, make sure to grind it out to accumulate as much LP as possible before the next split!

What’s Coming Up in LoL

There’s a whole lot to look forward to over the next few months, with the most noteworthy being a new PVE game mode and a Teemo visual update. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect to see coming to the Rift:

• A new vampire-themed PVE game mode will be hitting the Rift later this year in the summer.
• Teemo will be receiving a visual update later in the year. Sadly, it was delayed slightly due to complications.
• A bunch of new skin lines, including a return of old (but awesome) skin thematics too.
• Riot teased lots of new Arcane content recently and the show looks absolutely phenomenal so far! The second season is set to hit our screens in November 2024.

Upcoming Champions

Ambessa Medarda will also be added to the Rift. As a hardcore Arcane fan, I can’t wait to battle it out as Medarda. She’s a total badass in the show and I hope Riot will do her justice in the LoL universe too! We haven’t had much information yet about what her kit will look like, but the devs have confirmed it will revolve around speed and strength.

Riot have also teased that the next champion after Aurora will have a darker, more monstrous theme. We don’t have any more information currently, and it’s possible that the devs are actually referring to Medarda. We’ll just have to wait until more information is released!