Hello, Librarian Husky here! Riot is going to be boosting certain champions’ AP Ratios quite significantly for this patch. Blade of the Ruined King is receiving a solid nerf. Despite holding a 47% win rate in Solo Q, Corki is getting nerfed once again due to pro play. We’ve got all this and so much more to cover in today’s article, as we bring you completely up to speed with every single change that’s going to be headed to live servers on August 14th for patch 14.16.

Item, Rune, and Miscellaneous Changes

As always, let’s start by taking a look at the item, rune, and miscellaneous changes that the patch has to offer. Black Cleaver is in line for a buff as you’ll no longer require a 0.01-second delay between each stack.

Black Cleaver Buff Details

Now, what this means is that if multiple different stacks hit an enemy all at once, you’ll now gain a stack for all those attacks instead of just one. A really good example of this is for Illaoi’s tentacles. If she has multiple tentacles spawned around her, they’re going to all slam the enemy at the same time when she uses W.

Illaoi and Other Champions

In previous patches, if three tentacles hit the enemy, she would only gain one stack of Black Cleaver, but now she’ll gain three. Illaoi is definitely the one champ that we think is going to benefit the most from these Black Cleaver changes. Riot hopes that Illaoi and many other on-hit fighters are going to see more viability with Black Cleaver as well.

Item Nerfs

We’ve got a nerf to Doran’s Blade on the way as its health is going to be dropping from 100 to 80, and life steal is going down as well from 3.5% to 3%. Blade of the Ruined King is going to receive a couple of nerfs as its AD is dropping from 55 to 50, attack speed is going down from 30% to 25%, while melee on-hit damage is up from 9% to 10%.

Impact on Champions

These changes result in a flat-out nerf for ranged champions and what should still end up being a net nerf for melee champions as well, just not as severe. Death timers are going to be adjusted for this patch, as from levels 1 to 8 you’re now going to take four extra seconds to spawn from death. At level 9, it’s going to be two extra seconds, and then from level 10 onwards, death timers are unchanged.

Homeguard Movement Speed Boost

The Homeguard movement speed boost that you receive after coming off of death is now going to last longer moving forward, as the duration is being increased from 5 to 8 seconds. The Homeguard timer is now going to start when you leave the fountain instead of instantly, which means if you’re taking a bit longer to find items in the shop, you’re no longer going to be punished for a slower walk back to lane.

Champion Buffs

We’ve got some buffs to Azir. Nothing too crazy here, as health regen is going up from 3.5 to 5, while base armor is being increased from 22 to 25. Orianna has been in a weaker state for solo queue for a while now, so she’s getting a buff. It’s a pretty small buff, though, as Orianna’s Q AP ratio is going up from 50% to 55%.

Champion Buffs Details

Syndra has actually been in a decent spot as of recent, so this buff should solidify her as a good solo queue pickup for 14.16. Syndra‘s R damage per sphere is going up from 90 scaling to 170 to 100 scaling to 180. Riot ended up missing the mark with the 14.15 Sylas adjustment, so they’re buffing him up for 14.16. Base health is getting a boost, going from 575 to 600. Passive damage AP ratio is going up from 25% to 30%, and W base damage sees a nice uptick as well, being increased by 10 at all ranks.

Katarina Adjustments

Katarina is going to be getting a nice boost in damage on her Q, as the base damage is going up from 200 to 240 at max rank, while the AP ratio is going up from 35% to 45%. However, Katarina will be losing some damage on her E to compensate, as it’s dropping by 20 at max rank. Her on-hit effectiveness is also being nerfed from 30% scaling to 40% to 25% scaling to 35%.

Impact on Builds

Blade of the Ruined King is Katarina’s most popular rush item in solo queue right now, so with the item being nerfed combined with her Q AP ratio going up, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with her builds for this patch.

Buffs to Champions

We’ve got a buff to Vi’s Q damage headed to live servers as it’s being increased by 10 damage at all ranks. It wasn’t very surprising that the 14.15 Skarner buffs did absolutely nothing to help increase his solo queue viability, so Riot has more buffs planned for 14.16. Base health is going up from 610 to 630, base AD is being increased from 60 to 63, and Q bonus AD ratio is going up as well from 60% to 80%.

Wukong Buffs

Wukong hasn’t actually been performing badly analytically in the top lane as of late; he’s just incredibly underplayed right now. These buffs should look to spike up that play rate just a little bit. Wukong is going to be receiving two different buffs: his passive armor per stack is going up by one, and the second buff revolves around E attack speed being increased by 5% at all ranks.

Corki Nerfs

The only champion that’s being directly nerfed for this patch is Corki. Now, of course, these nerfs are going to be issued because of pro play, as even though Corki has a pretty miserable win rate for solo queue, pro players continue to put high priority on him. Q cooldown is taking a hit, being increased by 1 second at all ranks. The mana cost on Q is also going up by a whole 20 early on, as it’s being adjusted from 60 scaling to 80 to just 80 flat.

Lucian Changes

It’s not just Corki, but also Lucian who’s been showing up in the mid lane as of late for pro play, so Riot is issuing some changes to nerf mid but lessen the blow to bot lane.