Riot Games has released the patch notes for League of Legends update 14.5 and they include some big changes to two troublesome champions; Seraphine and Rek’Sai. There’s also the launch of the controversial Vanguard anti-cheat for one region and some fancy new skins.
Leading the big champion changes is Rek’Sai who has proven to be troublesome for a while. After a big rework, her popularity improved but the win rate continued to be lackluster so some buffs are coming her way. Her attack animations are being sped up significantly, which should make her feel much better to play, and her E and R are getting some big damage buffs to make her a little more lethal. On paper, these seem like some big buffs and could swing things too far in the opposite direction, but we will have to wait and see when patch 14.5 launches on March 6.
The other champion getting some big changes is Seraphine, and it's a mixed bag in terms of what the changes are intended to do. Seraphine has been played as both a support and a bot lane AP carry, which makes balancing her a bit of a challenge, but the Riot balance team is giving it a go. To make support play a little stronger her manna is being skewed more towards regen and her move speed is getting a buff. While those playing her in a core role can enjoy buffs to her Q and E that will result in more damage to champions but overall reduced minion damage.
New champion Smolder also gets some changes, despite landing in a good place since launching. The changes are mostly aimed at influencing what builds Smolder can go for, with an attempt to reduce the viability of tanky builds but also open up a wider range of damage builds.
Elsewhere the full 14.5 patch notes feature changes for a lot of champions, including a lot of nerfs to some of the more troublesome champs over recent weeks. There are also some new PROJECT skins being added this patch, with Gangplank, Jax and Naafiri, which look great.
Rounding out the League of Legends patch is the news that the controversial Vanguard anti-cheat software is finally being turned on for this patch, but for the time being it's only a test in the Philippines. If you are playing in the Philippines you will have to have Vanguard installed to be able to play LoL from now on, but assuming there are no major issues found with the test that is likely to be the case worldwide within a couple of weeks.