League of Legends nerfs to Health potions and Biscuit Delivery will punish losing lanes even more post patch 12.14

Health potion and biscuit delivery nerfs will have a serious impact on losing lanes (Image via Riot Games)
Health potion and biscuit delivery nerfs will have a serious impact on losing lanes (Image via Riot Games)

Health potions and Biscuit Delivery are two major sustainability tools in League of Legends getting nerfed with patch 12.14. The developers claim this change will help bring more balance to the game, especially during the laning phase.

The problem is that these changes will be a nightmare for the losing lanes within League of Legends. Lanes consistently getting harassed and suffering from poke damage will have to practically run away, making the game state really awkward.

It seems Riot Games is trying to help the winning lanes scale even faster with the changes above. However, this is something that might make team fights less valuable due to the farm discrepancy between the two sides within the summoner's rift.


Healing item changes targetted towards balance in professional games within League of Legends

Before proceeding, it is vital to look at the exact changes being brought along with League of Legends patch 12.14 in terms of healing items. The changes are as follows:

Health Potions

  • 150 Healing >>> 120

Refillable and Corrupting Potions

  • 125 Healing >>> 100

Biscuit Delivery

  • Restores 10% Health/Mana >>> 8%
  • Increase Max Mana 50 >>> 40
  • Manaless Health Restored unchanged

Now, based on the changes being introduced, it will make sense that the solo-queue will not be affected as much. This is because, in an average solo-queue match in League of Legends, players are not that good at micro-managing healing potions.

Therefore, losing lanes often get bulldozed by the opposition, and the game ends. However, in the case of professional matches, that is not the case.

This is especially true after the durability update, where users in the losing lanes use their health potions optimally to gather as much farm as possible.

The problem is that with the nerfs to these healing items, losing lanes in professional games will suffer massively. This is because the gamers will heal a lot less, forcing them to return to base or suffer a dive by the enemy jungler or the midlaner.

The worst part is that poke teams will be able to get massive advantages in the lane and gain early tower plates, thereby accelerating the gold lead massively. This will mean that teams winning lanes will get their mythic items quicker, making it difficult for the losing team to fight for a comeback.

If the losing team gets consistently pushed out of the lane or dies 2 or 3 times to the enemy jungler, then late-game team fights will become redundant. In fact, the match might not even proceed to the late game unless the team that got those early laning advantages makes serious mistakes.

The toplane will probably be affected the most, as in the botlane, champions like Nami, Soraka, and Lulu will be able to keep the ADC healthy in a losing matchup. Even then, playing against champions like Ezreal, Pyke, Zeri, Seraphine, and Xayah will be highly loathsome due to the healing item nerfs.

Fans are unhappy with this, even though it primarily affects the professional scene. Maybe the League of Legends developers will make a few changes based on PBE feedback.

Nevertheless, it is essential to remember that this is the final major patch update until Worlds 2022.

Therefore, the key changes featured here will define the meta during the World Championships. Hence, if the changes remain as they are, professional League of Legends will look a lot different for the next four months.

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