League of Legends' Next Patch Won't Release at the Normal Time

Patch 8.13 for League of Legends just went live and rereleased the now update Aatrox, but the next update won't be coming the usual two weeks apart like players would expect.

Just after the release of 8.13, Riot Games said that the next patch, 8.14, will be three weeks away instead of two weeks. This means that everything that's been shipped in this most recent patch will be the buffs, nerfs, and features that players have at their disposal until mid-July when Riot Games releases the next update.

The breakaway from the usual patch schedule comes as a necessity for Riot Games to prepare for events later on in the year. This means that Riot has to do a three-week patch at some point, the decision being made to do that with Patch 8.13. This means everything included in Patch 8.14 will spend longer on the PBE, but the patch will release as it usually would once the three-week period is up.

Players won't be totally without changes for the three weeks though with Riot Meddler saying on the League boards that Riot has plans to release a micropatch called 8.13b, much like it did last year.

"To reduce the time between balance adjustments though we'll be doing a mini patch via micropatching halfway through the 8.14 development cycle," Riot Meddler said. "An 8.13b basically, like we did 7.24b last year before the holidays. Details of what will go in that next week once we've got them figured out, will primarily be needed balance changes that shouldn't have to wait another week and a half until 8.14."

Last year's micropatch that released to keep the schedule aligned was one that players will remember as the fighter-focused patch called 7.24b. This was the update that bridged the gap between Patch 7.24 and Patch 8.1, the latter being the first of the current season. That update contained only balance changes and no new features or skins, so it'd be wise to expect the same from this update.

That's not to say that hotfixes can't come either, but now that the post-patch window of 8.13 has passed, the possibility of hotfixes seems less likely as the more apparent issues have been addressed. Aatrox was hotfixed shortly after the patch went live to buff the reworked champ, but Riot Meddler said the darkin might show up in the micropatch as well.

"The micro patch added quite a bit of power to him," Riot Meddler said in a comment referring to Aatrox. "We want to wait a while and see where his learning curve takes his performance for now. If he's struggling next week would be a potential candidate for 8.13b, trying to avoid over buffing though."

Patch 8.13b should be releasing three weeks from the last on July 18, but look for the PBE changes before it goes live to see what's included.