Riot Games is not shying away from big, game-changing patches in League of Legends. After the Durability Update, the company has been hard at work when it comes to balancing the state of gameplay and making sure that no role is hit hard during the transition. One of the major in-game systems that received a big update in LoL Patch 12.14 is the dragon and Rift Herald power spike. After the change to durability, players have been prioritizing the late game and are not inclined to pick up early advantages. Therefore, the early game phase, both in pro play and in Solo Queue, is incredibly slow. As a result, Riot Games has buffed the stats for dragons and the Herald.

Why is Riot Games changing dragons and Herald in LoL Patch 12.14?

The Durability Update resulted in teams opting to scale well into the late game by playing it safe early on. Especially in pro play, the kills in the early game have gone down substantially. Riot Games felt that the amount of damage post-laning phase is in a good spot but it is difficult to create a lead in the lane because of defensive runes and potions. Likewise, players have also become comfortable trading early game objectives to reach their win conditions in the late game.

As a means to tackle this meta shift, Riot Games has increased the rewards for early dragons and Rift Herald secures. The main reason teams focus on getting dragons is to build towards a potential dragon soul secure and not for the individual dragons themselves. Additionally, in order to force teams to fight over objectives early on, Riot has also increased the value of Herald. Now securing Shelly will drop local gold. It added, “We’re also increasing the amount of health on the second Herald to increase its value and priority relative to the first so that it's ignored less often.”

What are the stats that are changing in LoL Patch 12.14?

The following are the stats that have been changed in LoL Patch 12.14:

Dragons

Changes to all drakes

• Percent current health damage on attacks: 7% > 5%

• Health pre-rift transformation: 2650 (+240 per level) > 3450 (+380 per level)

• Health post-rift transformation: 4350 (+240 per level) > 6950 (+380 per level)

Cloud drake

• Attack damage: 50 > 35

• Cloud drake dragon slayer buff: 3.5% slow resist and out-of-combat movement speed > 7% slow resist and out-of-combat movement speed

• Cloud soul dragon slayer buff: 10% bonus movement speed and 50% bonus movement speed for six seconds after casting Ultimate > 15% bonus movement speed and 50% bonus movement speed for six seconds after casting Ultimate

Hextech drake

• Attack damage: 66.7 > 47

• Hextech drake dragon slayer buff: 6% attack speed and 6 ability haste > 9% attack speed and 9 ability haste

Infernal drake

• Attack damage: 100 > 70

• Infernal drake dragon slayer buff: 4% bonus attack damage and ability power > 6% bonus attack damage and ability power

Mountain drake

• Attack damage: 150 > 105

• Mountain drake dragon slayer buff: 6% bonus armor and magic resist > 9% bonus armor and magic resist

Ocean drake

• Attack damage: 100 > 70

• Ocean drake dragon slayer buff: 2% missing health per 5 seconds > 3% missing health per 5 seconds

Elder dragon

Health: 6400 (+180 per minute) > 6400 (+290 per minute)

Rift Herald

• [New] Rift Herald now has 75% more health when summoned with Eye of the Herald for the second time

• [New] Rift Herald now grants 200 local gold to the team that killed it