League of Legends’ second full patch of the year is just around the corner, and even before it reaches the live servers, players are already contemplating the potential effects the plethora of champion buffs will have on the meta.
But upon looking at the buff list, players have acknowledged several outliers that, while deserving of a bit of help from Riot Games, feel have been “overbuffed” and might be the subject of subsequent nerfs. At this time, Riot has not indicated that any of the planned changes accompanying League Patch 14.2 will be altered, though their testing period on the PBE may result in some adjustments.
While ADCs like Jhin, Miss Fortune, Jinx, and Vayne continue to drive conversations regarding the state of the bot lane meta, it’s one of League’s most popular champions—Ezreal—who has fallen far behind the pack for the first time in a number of patches. As of now, Ezreal floats around a 48-percent win rate according to OP.GG and U.GG, with nearly all of his standard builds being nerfed following the item overhaul that accompanied the start of the 2024 season.
This has placed the champion on the buff list for Patch 14.2, with those changes including increased AD scaling percentages to his Q, W, and R—with many in the community wondering why his W in particular has been increased to a 100-percent bonus AD ratio since it is relatively easy to proc. Others have pointed out that this will allow Ezreal to diversify his itemization a bit more, even expanding into lethality builds using items like Hubris that have been popular with most other ADCs.
Meanwhile, others have noticed an exceptional buff to Karma granting her an additional 20-percent AP scaling on her Q and empowered Q, likely to make her increasingly more viable in both positions. But like Ezreal, these follow a bit of a lull in Karma’s overall win rate in the first few weeks of the season as she also currently sits around 48 percent with numerous other enchanters, like Nami and Milio, simply doing what she does better.
Yet this particular buff has caught the attention of mid laners, who have noticed the potential that this gives Karma as not only a strong poke champion but one that can wave clear with ease. Paired with some of the game’s newest items, such as Malignance, which Karma can proc twice with one use of her empowered Q, the champion will likely jump to the top of the mid lane meta with just this aspect of her buffs.
Small tweaks to Darius’ kit have top lane players worried the champion will once more take over Summoner’s Rift if not dealt with immediately. As of now, Darius is set to receive more damage and healing on his Q, as well as more armor penetration on his E—seemingly in response to the armor penetration lost in one of his core items, Black Cleaver.
This buff appears to be a further attempt from Riot Games to restructure the top lane meta after Patch 14.1B, which addressed the increasingly apparent issue of AP top laners and the items they built. Though players remain undecided on whether Darius has been hit hard by the season 2024 changes, they agree the simplicity of his powerful kit is likely to keep him as one of the most powerful top lane bullies with a high ban rate.
All of the changes listed in the Patch 14.2 preview, including these buffs and a handful of helpful adjustments to champions that have been struggling since the season start, are now available for testing on the PBE. While Patch 14.2 is expected to be released on the live servers on Jan. 25, the exact changes may be altered on the PBE based on player feedback.
