Less lane swaps in pro play? Finally.
The regular League of Legends patch preview showed Riot Games pushing back against the lane swap meta that surfaced in the recently concluded Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). Check out how they plan to deal with lane swaps and more in the LoL patch 14.11 preview.
Lead gameplay designer Matthew "Riot Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison posted the patch preview on X. This is the first major update after the heavy-hitting patch 14.10 that included the Corki rework as well as the big item changes. The League of Legends patch 14.11 preview showed intended changes to lane swaps, marksmen, and K'Sante.
Will LoL patch 14.11 kill lane swaps?
According to the patch 14.11 preview, it doesn't seem that Riot Games intends to fully gut it from the game. "While we think some of the [lane swaps in MSI] was teams adapting to player matchup diffs [...] it's more optimal than we'd like (e.g. double ranged bot lanes)," said Riot Phroxzon. "While a few lane swaps every now and then is favorable for the viewer experience, every game is too far," he continued.
![G2 BrokenBlade, “I do hope [lane swapping] gets removed” preview image](https://admin.esports.gg/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/53701281862_e1a14d3273_k-640x360.jpg)
The patch preview did not contain exact changes. However, Riot Phroxzon said that the changes would be to the fortification and first turret gold. Most likely, the top-lane tier-one turrets would be tankier and first turret gold higher to discourage teams from lane-swapping often.
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Other changes in the LoL patch 14.11 preview
Riot Phroxzon continued to talk about the changes to arrive in LoL patch 14.11. He touched on K'Sante and how the champion was "generally not exploitable enough" for enemies.
The intended changes for K'Sante lean toward lowering the damage reduction on his W. This is a small change, but K'Sante haters need not worry. "We intend to take a larger stab at some of his kit shape to give him sharper strengths and weaknesses, but that will take some time," said Riot Phroxzon.
The rest of the changes are a result of the massive marksman item overhaul that they did in LoL patch 14.10. Champions heavily affected by the item tuning, like Ezreal, Draven, and Smolder, will get a slight pick-me-up to keep them up to par.
League of Legends patch 14.11 is scheduled to go live on May 30, 2024.
