League of Legends Patch 12.12 Highlights

Champion Nerfs

Bel’Veth

Base Stats

• Basic Attack Range 125 ⇒ 175
• Health Regeneration 8.5 ⇒ 6
• Health Regeneration Growth 0.85 ⇒ 0.6
• Regeneration at Level 18 22.95 ⇒ 16.2

Passive – Death in Lavender

• Bonus Attack Speed per Lavender Stack 0.25-1.25% (levels 1-18) ⇒ 0.28-1% (levels 1-13)
• Bel’Veth now gains 1 Lavender stack per large minion

E – Royal Maelstrom

• Minimum Damage per Hit 8/11/14/17/20 (+6% AD) ⇒ 8/10/12/14/16 (+6% AD)
• Life Steal 20/22/24/26/28% ⇒ 20/21.5/23/24.5/26%

R – Endless Banquet

• Explosion Damage Based on Target’s Missing Health 25/30/35% ⇒ 25% at all ranks
• Bonus Attack Range 50/75/100 ⇒ 50 at all ranks
• Void Remora Health 70% ⇒ 50/60/70% of minion’s maximum health

Bel’Veth is one of the most complex champion releases in the past couple of years. She’s not anywhere close to solved yet, but she appears to have “Master Yi Syndrome” where she’s stomping in low elo while not being great in high elo. These changes include nerfs to Bel’Veth’s damage and sustain, but also a big basic attack range buff. Her win rate should suffer in those low elos, but good Bel’Veth players might be able to make up for the loss in damage with better auto spacing.

Dr. Mundo

Passive – Goes Where He Pleases

• Health Regeneration 1-2% maximum health (levels 1-18) ⇒ 0.8-1.6% maximum health (levels 1-18)

R – Maximum Dosage

• Increased Base Health 10/15/20% missing health ⇒ 8/11.5/15% missing health

Dr. Mundo has taken full advantage of the tankiness increase and Grievous Wounds value decrease to become a powerful heal tank. His healing numbers are being cut slightly to compensate, which should be enough to bring him back in line.

Janna

W – Zephyr

• Bonus Move Speed 6/7.5/9/10.5/12% (+2% per 100 AP) ⇒ 6/7/8/9/10% (+2% per 100 AP)
• Slow 24/28/32/36/40% (+6% per 100 AP) ⇒ 20/24/28/32/36% (+6% per 100 AP)

E – Eye Of The Storm

• Shield 75/100/125/150/175 (+60% AP) ⇒ 65/90/115/140/165 (+55% AP)

With less damage output coming from the bot lane, Janna has risen to new heights. It’s incredibly difficult to actually kill Janna, since she can just tank the damage and run away. This nerf to her W, as well as her E, will make Janna less efficient at both surviving and peeling.

Katarina

Passive – Voracity

• Magic Damage Upon Retrieving Dagger – Bonus AD Ratio 75% ⇒ 65%

E – Shunpo

• Damage 15/30/45/60/75 (+50% AD) (+25% AP) ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80 (+40% AD) (+25% AP)

R – Death Lotus

• Physical Damage per Dagger 16% (+12.8% per 1.0 total attack speed) bonus AD ⇒ 16% (+16% per 0.7 total attack speed) bonus AD
• On-Hit Effectiveness per Dagger 25/30/35% ⇒ 28/33/38%

Katarina’s Divine Sunderer build has been frustrating players for a while now. Not only does she still one shot you, she’s super tanky and heals for a ton too. Riot have attempted to remedy this with nerfs to her AD ratios and a buff to on-hit damage on R. This is all a big math equation, but basically Katarina will still have similar, if not higher damage output with a Blade of the Ruined King and Kraken Slayer build. She’ll be significantly less tanky with these items at least, and hopefully that’s enough to keep her from actually raising her win rate.

Lucian

Base Stats

• Base AD 62 ⇒ 60

Q – Piercing Light

• Damage 95/130/165/200/235 (+60/75/90/105/120% bonus AD) ⇒ 95/125/155/185/215 (+60/75/90/105/120% bonus AD)

When Marksmen lose 2 AD, it can be a bigger deal than expected. Pile on a 20 damage nerf to Lucian’s Q at max rank and you get a sizable nerf to a very strong early-mid game AD carry. Lucian will likely fall in priority as a result.

Soraka

R – Wish

• Heal 125/200/275 (+50% AP) ⇒ 150/250/350 (+50% AP)
• No longer removes Grievous Wounds from targets

Soraka’s ultimate was given a Grievous Wounds cleanse last season which turned her from a seldom played enchanter to a common pick. Now that GW has been thoroughly nerfed, that cleanse has been removed. The base heal number was brought up a bit to compensate, but any GW application will cause her ultimate to heal for less than it did last patch. And lets be honest, everyone gets GW against Soraka.

Viego

Passive – Sovereign’s Domination

• Base Heal Upon Possession 2.5% ⇒ 2% of target’s maximum health

E – Harrowed Pass

• Casting E – Harrowed Pass while charging W – Spectral Maw no longer instantly stealths you

R – Heartbreaker

• Bonus Physical Damage 15/20/25% (+3% per 100 bonus AD) ⇒ 12/16/20% (+3% per 100 bonus AD) of lowest health or closest enemy’s missing health

Viego is back to dominating the jungle. With tons of damage, crowd control, mobility, and tankiness, the Ruined King has everything he needs to succeed. This patch, Riot targeted his healing upon possession and damage on R. In addition, a strong gank strategy of insta-stealthing was removed. While these nerfs won’t remove Viego from the meta, he’ll be much more manageable to play against now.

Yuumi

Passive – Bop ‘n’ Block

• Shield 56-360 (varies, levels 1-18) ⇒ 60-380 (varies, levels 1-18)

E – Zoomies

• Heal 70/100/130/160/190 (+35% AP) ⇒ 70/90/110/130/150 (+35% AP)
• Bonus Move Speed 15% (+6% per 100 AP) ⇒ 20% (+6% per 100 AP)

Yuumi is listed as an “Adjustment” in the patch notes, but these changes are easily a net nerf. She lost a massive 40 base healing (which increases based on heal and shield percent) in exchange for granting an extra 5 percent movement speed and 4-20 shielding on passive. Assuming a level 11 Yuumi, its an extra ~14 shield that is much harder to proc off cooldown than her E.

Zeri

Base Stats

• Health Regeneration Growth 0.55 ⇒ 0.7
• Health Regeneration at Level 18 12.6 ⇒ 15.15

W – Ultrashock Laser

• Damage 10/45/80/115/150 (+150% AD) (+70% AP) ⇒ 20/55/90/125/160 (+130% AD) (+60% AP)
• Critical Strike Damage 17.5/78.75/140/201.25/262.5 (+262.5% AD) (+122.5% AP) ⇒ 25/96.25/157.5/218.75/280 (+227.5% AD) (+105% AP)

Following the wonderful decision to let Zeri’s W crit though terrain, Riot decided to increase the base damage in exchange for hitting the ratios hard. With an added health regen buff, Zeri is coming out positive in the early game, but quickly loses value as she builds items. A net nerf, but still annoying.

Champion Buffs

Amumu

Q – Bandage Toss

• Mana Cost 70 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50

R – Curse of the Sad Mummy

• Damage 150/250/350 (+80% AP) ⇒ 200/300/400 (+80% AP)

Last season, Amumu had his first time in the spotlight in many, many years as an engage Support. He was then immediately kneecapped and has been irrelevant ever since. By decreasing the mana cost on his Q, Amumu may actually be able to use abilities in lane now. Jokes aside, that 50 damage buff on his ultimate gives Amumu a very threatening all-in at level 6. He may start to see some fringe play yet again.

Ivern

Passive – Friend of the Forest

• Base Health Cost 23.5-6.5% (levels 1-18) ⇒ 20-3% (levels 1-18)
• Base Mana Cost 34.5-9% (levels 1-18) ⇒ 30-4.5% (levels 1-18)

E – Triggerseed

• Shield 70/100/130/160/190 (+75% AP) ⇒ 80/115/150/185/220 (+75% AP)

R – Daisy!

• Daisy – Health 1250/2500/3750 (+50% AP) ⇒ 1300/2600/3900 (+50% AP)
• Daisy – Armor & Magic Resistance 15/40/90 (+5% AP) ⇒ 20/50/100 (+5% AP)

Ivern was never the highest damage champion, but the Durability Update made him essentially deal zero damage. Instead of trying to make Ivern something he’s not, Riot gave him a big boost to his clear and utility. Reducing the resource cost to take his camps makes Ivern much safer early. An extra 30 shielding on E is huge, and Daisy being tankier is always helpful.

Jarvan IV

Base Stats

• Mana Growth 40 ⇒ 55
• Mana at Level 18 980 ⇒ 1235

Passive – Martial Cadence

• Cooldown 6 seconds ⇒ 6/5/4/3 seconds (levels 1/6/11/16)

Jarvan’s burst builds died on arrival of the Durability Update, leaving tank/bruiser as his main build. This buff to his passive cooldown and mana pool are phenomenal for these builds. Jarvan will be outputting a lot more damage in extended fights on League of Legends Patch 12.12.

Seraphine

E – Beat Drop

• Cooldown 11/10.5/10/9.5/9 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds
• Slow/Stun Duration 1 second ⇒ 1.5 seconds

Seraphine was already a strong mid-late game team fighting carry, but she could struggle to be effective before hitting her break point. This buff to her E’s cooldown and crowd control duration is nice for her, as she’ll be able to peel threats and follow up on engages more reliably. This buff might push more people to try Seraphine and realize how good she is.

Shaco

Base Stats

• Health Growth 103 ⇒ 99
• Health at Level 18 2381 ⇒ 2313
• Armor Growth 4.7 ⇒ 4
• Armor at Level 18 109.9 ⇒ 98

Q – Deceive

• Physical Damage 25/35/45/55/65 (+25% bonus AD) ⇒ 25/35/45/55/65 (+40% bonus AD)

W – Jack In The Box

• Magic Damage 10/15/20/25/30 (+9% AP) ⇒ 10/15/20/25/30 (+12% AP)

E – Two-Shiv Poison

• Magic Damage 70/95/120/145/170 (+70% bonus AD) (+50% AP) ⇒ 70/95/120/145/170 (+75% bonus AD) (+60% AP)

Shaco has greatly suffered as a result of the Durability Update. Most of the targets of his burst assassination playstyle could just survive it now. To counteract this, all of his basic abilities have been given damage ratio buffs. The clown will hurt much more than before, at the cost of a bit of his late game tankiness.

Items

Serpent’s Fang

• BUGFIX: Serpent’s Fang no longer applies additional shield reduction beyond 50% based on enemy’s bonus heal and shield power

Shadowflame

• BUGFIX: Shadowflame’s additional magic damage based on ignored MR is no longer mitigated by target’s MR

Both Serpent’s Fang and Shadowflame were affected by performance altering bugs last patch. Serpernt’s was much stronger than intended, reducing more shields than it should have. Shadowflame on the other hand was worse than intended, not actually mitigating the proper Magic Resist. With those bugs fixed, Serpent’s will perform worse and Shadowflame better.

Runes

Predator

• Maximum Bonus Move Speed 45% ⇒ 25-50% (levels 7-18)
• Damage 40-120 (levels 1-18) (+20% bonus AD) (+10% AP) ⇒ 20-180 (levels 1-18) (+25% bonus AD) (+15% AP)
• Cooldown 90-60 seconds (levels 1-18) ⇒ 120-60 seconds (levels 1-18)

In the hands of a Jungler or roaming Mid laner, Predator is a guaranteed ganking tool that can instantly snowball a game. It feels awful to get cheesed by a Predator cast cruising into your lane and taking you out of the game for existing. These nerfs heavily reduce the movement speed and the cooldown early on, allowing for some more counterplay and safety when a gank fails.

Those are all the biggest changes of League of Legends Patch 12.12! We’re continuing with the trend of big patches with many sweeping changes to champions. This will likely continue until Riot feels like they’ve struck a good overall balance after the massive Durability Update. With the recent announcement of Nilah, as well as updates to multiple champions on the way, there’s a lot of work to be done.