With League of Legends patch 15.1 coming out this Thursday, January 9th 2025 12PM Local time, there are still a lot of questions of what is going to be good, bad, broken, and otherwise going to get you your hard earned LP. The team here at BOTDIFF.LOL are here to share with you some of the biggest changes you need to be ready for.
1. The New Epic Monster, Atakhan
Atakhan is poised to be a game-changer for ranked solo/duo play. The effects of this neutral monster’s buffs could drive a team to an almost flawless victory if utilized correctly. Atakhan will spawn at the 20-minute mark on the side of the map with the highest kills or damage dealt by 14 minutes. Upon defeat, Atakhan will grant the victorious team one of two powerful buffs: (This is ripped directly from the patch notes. This is far too complicated to summarize)
- Voracious Atakhan Buff: Upon taking down Voracious Atakhan the team that slayed him receives a permanent 40 gold bonus to champion takedowns for the rest of the game, and a one time death mitigation effect for the next 150 seconds. If they would die, instead the player will enter stasis for 2 seconds and return to base after another 3.5 seconds. When this happens, the would be killer instead gains 100 gold and 1 Blood Petal for their team.
- Ruinous Atakhan Buff: Upon taking down Ruinous Atakhan the team that slayed him receives 25% increase to all Epic monster rewards for the rest of the game (including rewards already earned like prior dragon stacks), and 6 Bloody Petals immediately and will then spawn 6 Large and 6 Small Blood Rose Plants around his pit.
- Blood Roses and Petals: Each petal gives the player that picked it up’s team 25 XP (increasing by up to 100% based on their K/D/A with a lower K/D/A offering more experience) and 1 to 0.33 Adaptive Force. Petals can be gained primarily through hitting a Blood Rose (a large one drops 3 petals while a small one drops 1), although they can be obtained through other ways like Atakhan.
I am not very excited about this new addition, but I felt the same about void grubs and was pleasantly surprised. While I can’t say I am happy about them bringing back old Chem Soul I am at least impressed by how they are going about it. In ranked games, make sure you prioritize Atakhan’s buff over other neutral objectives. The experience, adaptive force, revives, and permanent buffs it provides are far more gold-efficient than any tier two tower or dragon.
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2. The Feats of Strength System
As a split-pushing top main, my favorite change is definitely the Feats of Strength system. The first team to score 2 out of 3 points earns a permanent buff to their tier two boots and gains the ability to unlock tier three boots once they’ve completed two legendary items. This system completely locks the opposing team out of accessing these powerful new boots, and trust me, these upgraded boots are game-changing.
The points are scored as follows:
- First Blood
- First Tower
- First Team to Slay Three Epic Monsters
These boots come with insane modifiers, like Forever Forward (Synchronized Souls Upgrade), which gives you a permanent +10% boost to all movement speed sources, even temporary ones! My favorite is Armored Advance (Plated Steelcaps Upgrade), which grants both a flat and percentage-based physical shield on a 12-second cooldown. To all the ADC mains out there—better hope your support doesn’t int first blood!
Honestly, I think this change is going to lead to some degenerate gameplay, with teams fishing for invades for first blood and a much higher focus on void grubs for early tower takes. On the flip side, I’m excited about the increased agency for top lane split pushers, as their ability to pressure towers will be a huge factor in securing one of the three points for their team. My advice? Mute all, and pray you don’t get first blooded and flamed.
3. Laning Changes: Teleport, Minions, and Towers
This is a huge change for top laners. Teleport can now be used on both minions and wards, giving you a lot more agency early game for dragon fights, bot dives, and map coverage. The downside? Say goodbye to that sweet, fast instant blink—you’ll now be slowly traveling across the map to wherever you need to go. Honestly, if you manage to teleport behind someone and kill them early game, that’s on them.
The second big change is the overhaul to minion waves. Here’s the rundown: minions will die faster, their XP range is much larger, and they’ll do less damage to turrets. Gone are the days of counterpicking Teemo into Nasus, freezing the wave, and laughing, or crashing the third wave and hitting the Riven Griddy. Minion waves are going to die way faster than before, which opens up matchups that have been practically unplayable for the past few years.
Lastly, the change to turrets is huge, especially if you’re a split-pushing top laner—you’re probably salivating over this one. Turrets are going to deal more damage, making tower dives less appealing and less successful (no more watching your opponent walk away at level 3 with 5 HP). On top of that, the damage reduction to plating is being cut from 80% to 50% before 5 minutes. While these changes take away some diving power, it’s going to make champions like Yorick, Trundle, and Fiora a lot happier when it comes to gaining early priority and snagging that sweet, sweet plate gold.
While I can’t say I love every change, especially for my ADC mains out there—you guys definitely got it a little rough with some of these new additions—overall, I’m excited to see how the meta shapes up from these updates. That said, I do expect some changes, like Feats of Strength, to undergo serious overhauls to better fit the player experience. How do you all feel about these changes? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments!
