League of Legends Patch 12.3 has arrived. With it comes a variety of nerfs to champions who dominate pro play and high elo. Ahri’s mini gameplay rework will also be hitting the rift this patch. The main feature of this patch is a pretty hefty overhaul of fighter items. Here are the biggest changes from League of Legends Patch 12.3. For the full patch notes, click here.
Ahri Rework
Base Stats
Health Growth 92 ⇒ 82
Health 526-2090 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 500-1894 (levels 1-18)
Killing minions or monsters grants Ahri an Essence Fragment. After obtaining 9 Essence Fragments, Ahri consumes them to heal for 40-120 (+25% AP). When Ahri scores a takedown against an enemy champion within 3 seconds of damaging them, she feasts upon their Essence, healing for 80-200 (+35% AP).
Q – Orb of Deception
Damage per Pass 40/65/90/115/140 (+35% AP) ⇒ 40/65/90/115/140 (+45% AP)
Ahri’s abilities no longer deal bonus damage to enemies hit by Charm
R – Spirit Rush
Initial Duration 10 seconds ⇒ 15 seconds
Consuming a champion’s Essence with Essence Theft while Spirit Rush is active extends Spirit Rush’s recast duration by and up to 10 seconds, and grants an additional cast of Spirit Rush (up to 3 casts stored)
VFX & SFX Updates
PASSIVE – ESSENCE THEFT VFX and SFX have been updated for all skins
W – FOX-FIRE Cleaned up VFX and enhanced missile movement
R – SPIRIT RUSH Cleaned up VFX and added new ammo bar icons to indicate number of stored Spirit Rush casts
Ahri is a dated champion to say the least. This laundry list of changes is meant to make her kit feel more fluid and rewarding. The nine stacks of essence on her passive functions the same as before, but the new ability to feast on the essence of champions gives Ahri some in-fight sustain as well. Her Q is getting a 10 percent AP ratio buff at the cost of 15 more mana when maxed. This is technically a 20 percent buff since the ability hits once on the way out and once back in.
Ahri’s W is getting 20 base damage, a reduced mana cost, and an extra half second on the bonus movement speed. Her Charm is also getting 20 base damage, a 20 percent AP ratio, and a reduced mana cost. However, the 20 percent damage amp against charmed targets is gone. This should keep her overall damage against champions similar to what it was before.
Lastly, Ahri’s ultimate now has a reset mechanic. For every champion’s essence that she consumes with Spirit Rush active, Ahri will get another charge of the ability. This will greatly help her clean up fights, since one takedown can easily lead to the next.
All of these changes come at the cost of Ahri’s defenses. Her health growth, base HP, health regeneration, and armor have all taken notable hits with the rework. Its hard to tell how much stronger she’ll come out of this as a result.
Champion Nerfs
Akshan
Passive – Dirty Fighting
Bonus Move Speed Upon Canceling Second Shot 35-75 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 20-75 (levels 1-18)
Akshan is once again on the nerfing block. His early top lane bully power is just too oppressive for the majority of champions in the lane. This change cuts the level one bonus damage in half and reduces the movement speed while canceling by 15 which should make Akshan easier to deal with.
While Caitlyn’s win rate might not be the highest, an adept Caitlyn player is still able to absolutely crush her lane while also scaling into the game. Instead of hitting her lane dominant identity, her AD stat is getting hit alongside her Q AD scaling. This Q nerf only applies to secondary enemies, making it mostly effective in team fights and unchanged for poke.
Corki
Passive – Hextech Munitions
First Package Arrives After 8 minutes ⇒ 10 minutes
Packages Restock Every 4 minutes ⇒ 5 minutes
Corki’s package is one of the most oppressive abilities in the game. When you hear that siren, Corki and his team can win any team fight for free. Lowering the frequency and delaying the first appearance rate of Special Delivery should make fighting for objectives against Corki more favorable.
LeBlanc
W – Distortion
Base Damage 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 75/110/145/180/215
LeBlanc is the strongest AP assassin in League of Legends. Her dominance in pro play has prompted this nerf, a 20 damage reduction on her maxed W. This hurts LeBlanc’s wave clear and burst potential by a decent amount. Keep in mind, her ultimate deals a modified damage number, so this nerf won’t affect Mimic: Distortion.
Senna
Passive – Absolution
Minions and lesser monsters that Senna kills have a 10% chance ⇒7777% chance to spawn a Mist Wraith (all else unchanged)
The buff to Senna’s Q last patch has propelled her into the meta once again. Riot are also trying to keep her to the support role again by nerfing the Soul drop rate on minions that Senna farms. This should drastically lower her ADC pick rate.
TF is a menace as always due to his insane utility and global presence. A nerf to his Q’s base damage and his E’s attack speed will make him less deadly when running the low damage Everfrost, Rapidfire Cannon, Zhonya’s build.
Zeri
Base Stats
Move Speed 330 ⇒ 325
Basic Attack
Full Charge Damage Based on Target’s Max Health 3-20% (based on level) ⇒ 3-15% (based on level)
Chain lightning magic damage can now critically strike
Zeri has been abusing her Triforce build to become an uncatchable speedster. Riot is cutting down on her base movement speed, her full charge auto damage at later levels, and her ultimate at later levels. With this on top of a Triforce nerf, Zeri should see a notable loss in power.
Zeri has seen a rise in win rate and play rate due to her Triforce build. (Image Credit Riot Games)
THREEFOLD STRIKE (ON CHAMPIONS OR STRUCTURES) +6% base AD per stack, up to 5 times for +30% ⇒ +4% base AD per stack, up to 5 times for +20% (also applies to Infinity Force)
The three fighter Mythic items have all seen their HP values equalized to 300. The goal is to keep AD fighters at lower HP compared to bruisers or juggernauts. Divine Sunderer and Goredrinker were given compensation AD, which fighters love. Triforce on the other hand lost AD to raise its HP value.
Death’s Dance
Total Cost 3100 gold ⇒ 3300 gold
IGNORE PAIN (PASSIVE): Stores [35% for melee/15% for ranged] of post-mitigation physical damage received ⇒ [30% for melee/10% for ranged] of all types of post-mitigation damage received, (not including true damage), which is successively taken as true damage over 3 seconds instead. Now also applies to damage on shields
DEFY (PASSIVE): Heal for 15% maximum health upon scoring a kill or assist ⇒ 175% bonus AD if a champion dies within 3 seconds after you’ve dealt damage to them.
Sterak’s Gage
Attack Damage 50 ⇒ 0
THE CLAWS THAT CATCH (PASSIVE): Gain 40% of your base AD as bonus AD
BLOODLUST (PASSIVE) After dealing damage to or taking damage from an enemy champion, heal for a portion of your maximum health over 6 seconds
LIFELINE (PASSIVE): If you take damage that would reduce you below 30% of your maximum health, gain a shield that absorbs 100 (+[8% for melee/4.8% for ranged] of your maximum health) per stack of Bloodlust) for 4 seconds ⇒ equal to 75% of your bonus health that decays over 3.75 seconds
Death’s Dance and Sterak’s Gage are the two main items meant to give AD fighters more survivability. Prior to now, Sterak’s was the go-to for pretty much every AD melee champion. Now that its AD comes from base AD and the shield scales off bonus health, fighters will likely opt into Death’s Dance. While the stored damage did get nerfed on it, the healing returned on takedown should be a net buff for fighters.
Blade of the Ruined King
Total Cost 3200 gold ⇒ 3300 gold
MIST’S EDGE (PASSIVE): Basic attacks deal [10% for melee/6% for ranged] of target’s current health ⇒ [12% for melee/8% for ranged] of target’s current health as physical damage
BOtRK is a fairly niche item build by champions who can abuse it best, such as Irelia. Whenever the item gets buffed like this however, its use sees a large increase among other picks who couldn’t abuse it before.
Black Cleaver
Health 450 ⇒ 350
Attack Damage 40 ⇒ 45
Ability Haste 25 ⇒ 30
Health decrease with an AD and ability haste increase, similar to the fighter Mythics.
Ravenous Hydra
Attack Damage 65 ⇒ 70
Five free AD for Ravenous Hydra. Watch for edge cases such as poke Corki and Ezreal to continue picking the item up, as well as the usual split push fighters like Fiora.
Turbo Chemtank
REFUEL (PASSIVE) STACKS Gain 5 stacks per instance of damage dealt against champions and large monsters, and 1 stack for every 15 units traveled ⇒ damage taken from champions and large monsters, and 1 stack for every 25 units traveled (still capped at up to 10 stacks for dashes and blinks)
REFUEL (PASSIVE) BONUS DAMAGE At 100 stacks, your next basic attack deals magic damage to all nearby enemies, increased by 25% against minions and 175% against monsters ⇒ increased by 30% against minions and 200% against monsters
Chemtank was being abused by Akali due to her ability to constantly earn stacks. Now that the main source of stacks comes from taking damage, Turbo Chemtank should be back to a tank only Mythic item.
Those are the biggest changes of League of Legends Patch 12.3. Almost no champions received changes that will affect them outside of professional play. Most of the shifts we’ll be seeing come from the fighter item changes. Builds will shift, and the champions that can abuse the new items will rise.
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Zakaria Almughrabi
Author
Zakaria is a former professional TF2 player turned caster and analyst. He has had a passion for gaming and esports for years and hopes to use his skills and experience to convey why gaming is so great. His specialty games are League of Legends, CS:GO, Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, and PUBG.
