LoL update 14.8 patch notes, MSI balance changes, Blood Moon & more

The latest patch for LoL is here, and we've got the full rundown for you below. Update 14.8's patch notes bring a lot of balance changes for Champions in the game ahead of MSI, as well as some new Blood Moon skins.

We've got a full breakdown of the patch below, and if you'd like to see when new League of Legends patches are planned to be released, check out our patch notes schedule here.

LoL update 14.8 patch notes highlights

This patch is all about preparation for MSI, so you'll see a lot of balance changes geared towards pro play. However, there are still a few changes worth noting for casual players.

New Blood Moon skins for Zed, Fiddlesticks and Fiora will be hitting the store, as well as a Mythic Shop rotation. ARAM is getting some rebalancing too, and Vanguard is officially being added to the Philippines server.

Champions like Azir, Draven and the newly reworked Skarner are receiving changes in this patch, and you can check out the full list of changes below.

Champion balance changes

Here's the full list of balance changes for Champions in this update:

Akali

Base Stats

• Base Health: 570 ⇒ 600

Azir

Base Stats

• Health Regeneration per 5 Seconds: 5 ⇒ 3.5

W - Arise!

• Magic Damage: 0-77 (based on level) (+50/67/84/101/118) (+55% AP) ⇒ 0-77 (based on level) (+50/65/80/95/110) (+55% AP)

Briar

Base Stats

• Health Growth: 100 ⇒ 95

Q - Head Rush

• Range: 450 ⇒ 475

W - Blood Frenzy

• Bonus Attack Speed: 54/68/82/96/110% ⇒ 55/65/75/85/95%

Draven

Q - Spinning Axe

• Bonus Physical Damage: 40/45/50/55/60 (+75/85/95/105/115% bonus AD) ⇒ 45/50/55/60/65 (+75/85/95/105/115% bonus AD)

Galio

Base Stats

• Base Movement Speed: 335 ⇒ 340

Q - Winds of War

• Cooldown: 12/10.75/9.5/8.25/7 ⇒ 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Graves

Passive - New Destiny

• Attack Speed Scaling: Increased Attack Speed scaling from non-level sources towards reload time by 35%
• Critical Damage Ratio per Pellet: 40% ⇒ 45%

Hwei

Passive - Signature of the Visionary

• Bonus Magic Damage: 35-180 (based on level) (+30% AP) ⇒ 35-180 (based on level) (+35% AP)

Jarvan IV

Passive - Martial Cadence

• Bonus Physical Damage: 6% of target's current health ⇒ 7% of target's current health

Jhin

Passive - Whisper

• Bonus Movement Speed on Critical Strike: 10% (+0.4% bonus Attack Speed) ⇒ 14% (+0.4% bonus Attack Speed)

Q - Dancing Grenade

• Minimum Physical Damage: 45/70/95/120/145 (+35/42.5/50/57.5/65% AD) (+60% AP) ⇒ 44/69/94/119/144 (+44/51.5/59/66.5/74% AD) (+60% AP)

Kai'Sa

Q - Icathian Rain

• Damage per Missile: 40/55/70/85/100 (+50% bonus AD) (+20% AP) ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100 (+55% bonus AD) (+20% AP)

LeBlanc

Q - Sigil of Malice

• Magic Damage: 65/90/115/140/165 (+ 45% AP) ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170 (+ 45% AP)

W - Distortion

• Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 ⇒ 15/13.75/12.5/11.25/10 seconds

Mordekaiser

Q - Obliterate

• Cooldown: 9/7.75/6.5/5.25/4 ⇒ 8/7/6/5/4 seconds

E - Death's Grasp

• Magic Damage: 80/95/110/125/140 (+60% AP) ⇒ 70/85/100/115/130 (+60% AP)

R - Realm of Death

• newDeath Realm Escape Interactions: Champions can no longer escape Mordekaiser's Death Realm by using Quicksilver Sash, Mercurial Scimitar, Alistar's Unbreakable Will, Gangplank's Remove Scurvy, Milio's Breath of Life, Olaf's Ragnarok, or Rengar's Ferocity Battle Roar. However, crowd control immunity will still prevent the application of Realm of Death.

Olaf

Q - Undertow

• Bonus Damage to Monsters: 5/10/15/20/25 ⇒ 5/15/25/35/45

Ryze

W - Rune Prison

• Slow: 35% ⇒ 50%
• Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9 ⇒ 11/10.5/10/9.5/9 seconds

Skarner

Recommended Runes and Items

• Recommended Rune Pages: Updated to offer the following rune pages: Aftershock, Phase Rush, and Conqueror
• Recommended Items: Added Heartsteel, moved Iceborn Gauntlet later, increased priority of Dead Man's Plate

Base Stats

• Mana Growth: 45 ⇒ 40
• Mana Regeneration Growth: 0.45 ⇒ 0.6

Q - Shattered Earth / Upheaval

• Damage per Hit: 10/20/30/40/50 (+40% bonus AD) (+6% of his bonus health) ⇒ 10/25/40/55/70 (+60% bonus AD) (+6% of his bonus health)
• Mana Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50
• Buff Duration: 3.5 ⇒ 5 seconds (Note: the buff will still refresh on attacks and upon casting E)
• Upheaval Recast Lockout Time: 0.75 ⇒ 0.5 seconds
• Shattered Earth Cast Time: 0.5 ⇒ 0.35 seconds (Note: this is how long Skarner stands in place pulling the boulder out of the ground before being able to move or attack)

W - Seismic Bastion

• Mana Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80
• Magic Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% AP) ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150 (+80% AP)

Sylas

Q - Chain Lash

• Damage to Monsters: 70% ⇒ 100%

Thresh

Base Stats

• Base Armor: 31 ⇒ 33
• Magic Resist Growth: 1.3 ⇒ 1.55

Zac

Base Stats

• Base Health Regeneration per 5 Seconds: 8 ⇒ 5

Zeri

Base Stats

• Base Health: 630 ⇒ 600

Systems, Skins & more

Skins

New Blood Moon skins are being added:

• Blood Moon Zed
• Blood Moon Zyra
• Blood Moon Fiddlesticks

Baron Nashor

• Acid Pool Magic Damage: 10% AD ⇒ 200 (+10% AD)
• Acid Pool Slow: 50% ⇒ 60%
• Territorial Baron Pull Magic Damage: 75 ⇒ 300
• Hunting Baron Lightning Magic Damage: 15% of target's current health ⇒ 20% of target's current health
• Acid Shot Magic Damage: 20% AD ⇒ 200 (+50% AD)
• Tentacle Knock Up Magic Damage: 25% AD ⇒ 200 (+25% AD)

Voidgrubs

• Initial Voidgrub Spawn Time: 5 ⇒ 6 minutes
• Touch of the Void Damage per Stack: 6 (halved to 3 for ranged champions) true damage per second over 4 seconds ⇒ 8 (halved to 4 for ranged champions)
• Hunger of the Void Threshold: 5 Touch of the Void stacks, gain a 2nd summon at 6 stacks ⇒ 4 Touch of the Void Stacks, gain a 2nd summon at 6 stacks

Mythic Shop Rotation

Now Available

• Prestige Porcelain Lissandra
• Prestige Bewitching Miss Fortune
• Prestige PROJECT: Sylas
• Prestige Coven Zyra

Leaving the Mythic Shop

• Prestige PsyOps Ezreal
• Prestige Winterblessed Warwick
• Prestige Duality Dragon Volibear
• Prestige Space Groove Nami

ARAM Balance Changes

Buffs

• Illaoi: Damage Taken: 110% ⇒ 105%
• Leona: Damage Taken: 105% ⇒ 100%
• Nautilus: Damage Taken: 110% ⇒ 105%
• Xerath: Damage Dealt: 93% ⇒ 95%
• Ziggs: Damage Dealt: 85% ⇒ 90%

Nerfs

• Vi: Ability Haste: 10 ⇒ 0
• Zyra: Ability Haste: 0 ⇒ -10

Quickplay

• Players' assigned position icons are added to the Quickplay loading screen, offering additional clarity on role assignment for Quickplay before the game starts.

Bugfixes & QoL Changes

Quality of Life Updates

• Updated Guardian of the Sands Skarner's recall animation.
• Chroma names of the April Fools skins released last patch have been updated to be 107% MORE delicious.
• Rengar Q and empowered Q now apply critical strike modifiers from items.
• Malignance will now proc on ultimates that are considered auto attacks, like Warwick or Twitch's R.

Bugfixes

• Fixed various issues related to spell queueing, such as Yasuo being unable to cancel his queued E's with movement commands.
• Fixed a bug that caused Brand's Passive to not proc Dark Harvest.
• Fixed a bug that caused Teemo's E to not proc Dark Harvest
• Fixed a bug that caused Renekton's W to not apply spell effects.
• Fixed a bug that caused Mordekaiser's passive to gain stacks for dodged auto attacks.
• Fixed a bug that caused Shyvana's Dragon form Q to consume Hail of Blades when used as an auto attack reset.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rengar to lose the reduced cooldown gained from Navori Quickblade after becoming unempowered.
• Fixed a bug that caused Blade of the Ruined King to not display its cooldown on the scoreboard.
• Fixed a bug that caused Baron's pull attack to not deal damage.
• Fixed a bug that caused Moonstone Renewer to be audible through the fog of war.
• Fixed a bug that caused the terrain changes to temporarily make the screen jittery when spectating.
• Fixed a bug that caused Skarner's R to not apply a stack of his Passive to minions and monsters when used.
• Fixed a bug that caused Skarner's W to have a small hole in the damage application area.
• Fixed a bug that caused Skarner's exit terrain VFX to trigger later than intended.
• Fixed a bug that caused Skarner's W to not hit all enemies in range if Flash was used during its windup.
• Fixed a bug that caused Volibear's passive attack speed scaling to not include adaptive or converted stats.
• Fixed a bug that caused Battlecast Skarner's walk animation to sometimes override his W animation.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Skarner's second Q cast to dissolve if it was used at the same time as his Flash.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rift Herald to spawn looking towards the right of the Baron Pit as opposed to the entrance.
• Fixed a bug that caused Evelynn's VO to mix up first encounter lines for Brand and Dr. Mundo. I mean, they look kind of similar… right?
• Fixed a bug that caused Evelynn's R VO lines to not play correctly.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain single target abilities to not deal correct amounts of damage to Zyra's plants.
• Fixed a bug that caused Briar's W to not grant vision of the nearest target while she was nearsighted.
• Fixed a bug that caused Taliyah's dance emote to not play the associated VO.
• Fixed a bug that caused Guardian of the Sands Skarner's taunt animation to not include the shockwave VFX.
• Street Demons Zyra's Stranglethorns (R) AoE indicator now renders correctly under impassable terrain.

For more LoL content be sure to check out our homepage. You can also take a look at our patch notes schedule for League of Legends here. Additionally, take a look at our preview for the new TFT set Inkborn Fables if you're a fan of LoL's auto battler spin-off.