League of Legends Patch 12.14 Highlights

Champion Nerfs

Aatrox

Base Stats

• Health Growth 104 ⇒ 114

E – Umbral Dash

• Passive Healing 18/20/22/24/26% ⇒ 18/19.5/21/22.5/24%

R – World Ender

• Increased Healing 25/40/55% ⇒ 25/35/45%

With Grievous Wounds effectiveness at an all time low, champions like Aatrox have been running rampant. These nerfs to his late game healing should make him less frustrating to kill in team fights. Some compensatory Health per level was given back, but Aatrox will lose far more effective HP from the nerfs to his E and R.

Gangplank

Base Stats

• Base Health 640 ⇒ 600
• Health Growth 104 ⇒ 114
• Base Armor 35 ⇒ 31

Passive – Trial by Fire

• Damage 55-310 (based on level)(+100% bonus AD) ⇒ 55-310 (based on level)(+100% bonus AD)(+200% Critical Strike Chance)

Q – Parrrley

• Base Damage 20/45/70/95/120 ⇒ 10/40/70/100/130

E – Powder Keg

• Slow Amount 40/50/60/70/80% ⇒ 30/37.5/45/52.5/60% (+0.25% per 1% Crit Chance at all ranks)
• Bonus physical damage 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 / 180 ⇒ 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195
• E bonus damage on crit 25% ⇒ 10%

Gangplank has been the king of top lane for quite a while now. It just wasn’t fair for one of the best lane game champions to also have a dominant laning phase with almost no bad matchups. These nerfs serve to cut his early durability and damage output in exchange for more later. Since GP was already amazing in the late game, making it harder for him to get there is definitely on the nerf side despite the compensation buffs. Crit is also now more favorable now due to the Passive and E changes.

Kayn

Base Stats

• Health Growth 99 ⇒ 109

Passive – The Darkin Scythe

• Rhaast Passive Heal 25-35% (based on level) of damage dealt to champions ⇒ Heal 20-30% (based on level) of damage dealt to champions

Same deal as Aatrox, less healing, more base Health. This is a fairly impactful nerf, since Rhaast is all about spamming spells to stay in the fight. Losing about 20 to 15 percent of that healing will definitely be felt.

Seraphine

W – Surround Sound

• Shield 50/70/90/110/130 (+35% AP) ⇒ 50/70/90/110/130 (+25% AP)
• Heal Per Ally 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% (+0.6% per 100 AP) missing health ⇒ 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% (+0.4% per 100 AP) missing health

Seraphine is starting to move back into relevancy as a scaling and team fight menace in either Mid, Bot, or Support. These AP ratio nerfs to her W’s shielding and healing should reign her in. Keep in mind, Seraphine’s W could support up to five champions, making this nerf potentially five times more impactful than just the raw number implies.

Sivir

Q – Boomerang Blade

• CAST TIME BUGFIX 0.25-0.18 seconds scaling down with Attack Speed ⇒ 0.25-0.10 seconds scaling down with Attack Speed

W – Ricochet

• Damage to Minions 80% ⇒ 65%
• Bounces now execute minions that are hit by a ricochet and would have been left at less than 15 health

The queen of wave clear is back in business after her mid-scope update. She’s landed on the strong side, so a nerf was definitely in order. The first thing that Riot chose to target was some of that wave clear, reducing Ricochet’s damage to minions by another 15 percent. Sivir will still be a fantastic team fighter, but she’ll take longer to start evaporating your wave.

Yuumi

E – Zoomies

• Heal 70/90/110/130/150 (+35% AP) ⇒ 70/90/110/130/150 (+30% AP)

The cat is getting hit with the spray bottle this patch. While not a massive nerf, five percent AP on her heal (which scales with healing and shielding power) is a non-negligible amount. Coupled with nerfs to enchanter items later down this patch, Yuumi should feel a touch weaker.

Champion Buffs

Jarvan IV

Q – Dragon Strike

• Damage 90/130/170/210/250 (+120% base AD) ⇒ 90/130/170/210/250 (+140% base AD)

E – Demacian Standard

• Cooldown 12 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

Jarvan is slowly climbing back up the ladder of playability. An extra 20 percent base AD on his Q coupled with a lower cooldown on his Flag n’ Drag combo means that Jarvan will have an easier time sticking in the new prolonged skirmishes post-Durability update.

LeBlanc

Base Stats

• Base Mana 334 ⇒ 400
• Mana Growth 50 ⇒ 55

W – Distortion

• Damage 75/110/145/180/215 (+60% AP) ⇒ 75/115/145/195/235 (+60% AP)

As an assassin, LeBlanc did see a win rate decrease when everyone else got tankier. She’s still one of the better assassins though, and these buffs could actually make her quite desirable. Not only will LeBlanc have much more mana to rotate spells off cooldown; the 20 base damage buff to her primary fighting and wave clear tool will be quite impactful.

Pantheon

Q – Comet Spear

• Minion and Monster Damage Deals 70% damage to minions and monsters ⇒ Deals 70% damage to minions and 105% to monsters

Pantheon’s best role is now jungle, not much else to see here.

Teemo

Base Stats

• Mana Growth 20 ⇒ 25

R – Noxious Trap

• Placement Range 400 / 650 / 900 ⇒ 600 / 750 / 900
• Damage 200 / 325 / 450 (+ 50% AP) ⇒ 200 / 325 / 450 (+ 55% AP)
• Mana Cost 75 Mana ⇒ 75 / 55 / 35 Mana

That’s right, Teemo buffs. Some quality-of-life changes to his notorious mushrooms, as well as a five percent AP ratio increase. With lane sustain being brought down this patch, Teemo might actually see a spike in pick rate.

Items

Chempunk Chainsword

• Combine Cost 300 ⇒ 500
• Total Cost 2600 ⇒ 2800

This item became so broken that every AD fighter could rush it first. Increasing the cost by 200 gold will hopefully put a stop to that.

Enchanter Items

• Forbidden Idol Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%
• Ardent Censer Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%
• Mikael’s Blessing Heal and Shield Power Increase 20% ⇒ 16%
• Redemption Heal and Shield Power Increase 20% ⇒ 16%
• Staff of Flowing Water Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%
• Moonstone Renewer Maximum Stacks 5 ⇒ 4

With fights being more drawn out and healing/shielding being better as a result, enchanters have risen to the top of the support food chain. These systematic nerfs across the board should bring down the power level of the class by a bit.

Sunfire Aegis

• Immolate Damage 12-30 (based on level) (+1% bonus health) ⇒ 15 (+1.75% bonus health)

Gone are the days of Sunfire Diana one-shotting you while not being able to die. This massive nerf to the max burn damage of the item with a shift to bonus HP scaling will help take it out of the hands of bruisers and put it back into those of tanks.

Potions

• Health Potion Healing 150 ⇒ 120
• Refillable Potion 125 ⇒ 100
• Corrupting Potion 125 ⇒ 100

Riot wants to bring lane sustain down overall. This nerf to all potions, as well as the following nerfs to many runes, is meant to accomplish this goal. It will take a while to get used to the reduced healing from potions, since it’s been the same for so long.

Runes

Biscuit Delivery

• Health and Mana Restoration 10% of missing Health/Mana ⇒ 8% of missing Health/Mana
• Increase to Maximum Mana 50 ⇒ 40

Bone Plating

• Cooldown 45 seconds ⇒ 55 seconds

Conditioning

• Base Stat Increase 9 Armor and Magic Resist ⇒ 8 Armor and Magic Resist
• Total Bonus Stat Increase 4% increase to total Armor and Magic Resist ⇒ 3% increase to total Armor and Magic Resist

Guardian

• Cooldown 70-40 seconds (based on level) ⇒ 90-40 seconds (based on level)

Second Wind

• Heal Regenerate 6 (+4% Missing health) over 10 seconds ⇒ Regenerate 3 (+4% Missing health) over 10 seconds

Time Warp Tonic

• Bonus Move Speed while under the effect of a potion or biscuit 4% ⇒ 2%

Unflinching

• Bonus Slow Resist and Tenacity 10-30% based on missing health ⇒ 5-25% based on missing health

Nerfs to tons of sustain-focused runes in the Inspiration and Resolve trees. All of these runes were very frequently taken by almost all champions. The Biscuits & Time Warp combo has remained prevalent despite being nerfed over and over. Hopefully this is the change that makes people stop taking it for no reason.

Scorch

• Damage 15-35 (based on level) ⇒ 20-40 (based on level)

Sudden Impact

• Bonus Lethality and Magic Penetration 7 Lethality and 6 Magic Penetration ⇒ 9 Lethality and 7 Magic Penetration

Conversely, these two early-game damage runes were almost never being taken in any meaningful capacity. These buffs, combined with the earlier nerfs, should greatly shake up preferred runes for many champions and matchups.

Summoner Spells

Challenging Smite

• Smite Target Damage Reduction 20% ⇒ 10%

Exhaust

• Exhausted Target Damage Reduction 40% ⇒ 35%

Exhaust and its annoying brother Challenging Smite are having some of the damage reduction shaved off. Challenging Smite is being hit harder since it already has a number of functions and should have lost this one long ago. Exhaust’s nerf is smaller, but still impactful enough to reduce its pick rate. That said, a Heal buff would do more for shifting the bot lane Summoner Spell meta.

Systems

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)

Every Drake will now deal less damage to champions, but be more difficult to take down. This will have the effect of drawing more players to the neutral objective in the hope of forcing more early game fighting. To double down on this intent, Riot has also buffed the effects of every Elemental Drake and further reduced their damage.

Cloud Drake

• Attack Damage 50 ⇒ 35
• Cloud Drake Dragon Slayer Buff 3.5% Slow Resist & Out-of-Combat Movespeed ⇒ 7% Slow Resist & Out-of-Combat Movespeed
• Cloud Soul Dragon Slayer Buff 10% bonus move speed and 50% bonus move speed for 6 seconds after casting Ultimate ⇒ 15% bonus move speed and 50% bonus move speed for 6 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

Rift Herald

• Rift Herald now has 75% more health when summoned with Eye of the Herald for the second time
• Now grants 200 local gold to the team that killed it

Further emphasizing the want for more fighting, the rewards for taking down the Rift Herald have also increased.

Those are all the biggest changes of League of Legends Patch 12.14. Yet another massive patch has hit the Rift, meaning that there will be a lot of changes to test out. The champion balancing, the nerfs to recently popularized builds, and the sweeping changes to neutral objectives will all have a big effect on the meta.