League of Legends Patch 12.5 Highlights

League of Legends Patch 12.5 is here. In stark contrast to the chaos of the previous few patches, 12.5 is much smaller in scope. The number of champions receiving adjustments are in the single digits. Also, no items or game systems have been touched aside from Hullbreaker. Here are all the most noteworthy changes of League of Legends Patch 12.5. For the full patch notes, click here.

Champion Nerfs

Ahri

W – Fox-Fire

• Damage 60/85/110/135/160 (+30% AP) ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150 (+30% AP)
• Mana Cost 25 ⇒ 30

E – Charm

• Mana Cost 50 ⇒ 60

The 12.3 Ahri mini update has thrust her into the forefront of the meta, both in pro play and solo queue. This nerf is a relatively small one, however, the numbers are a bit misleading. Each of her three Fox-Fires deals damage, but the damage gets reduced when a champ is hit by multiple. Overall, this nerf amounts to a 16 base damage loss when used in fights.

Gwen

Passive – Thousand Cuts

• Maximum Damage Against Monsters 10 (+25% AP) ⇒ 10 (+15% AP)

E – Skip ‘n Slash

• Bonus Attack Range 100 ⇒ 50

Gwen is dominating as the premiere AP fighter. The reduced attack range on her E should make laning into Gwen much less punishing for melee top laners. While the popular Jungle Gwen doesn’t have to deal with this as much, a small nerf to her clear speed on Thousand Cuts should help bring her in line.

Master Yi

Q – Alpha Strike

• Damage 25/60/95/130/165 (+90% AD), reduced by 75% for subsequent hits on the same target ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150 (+60% AD), reduced by 75% for subsequent hits on the same target
• Bonus Damage from Critical Strikes 60% (+ bonus critical strike damage %) ⇒ 50% (+ bonus critical strike damage %)
• Each mark of Q – Alpha Strike now applies on-hit effects including his E – Wuju Style (on-hit effects from subsequent hits are also reduced by 75%)
• Q – Alpha Strike’s cooldown reduction upon attacks now scales down with Ability Haste. For example, if Master Yi has 100 Ability Haste, each on-hit now reduces its cooldown by 0.5 seconds (instead of 1).
• Q – Alpha Strike’s cast time no longer counts against his E – Wuju Style and R – Highlander active durations (similar to W – Meditate)
• Master Yi can now activate E – Wuju Style and R – Highlander during his Q – Alpha Strike

E – Wuju Style

• True Damage 30/40/50/60/70 (+35% bonus AD) ⇒ 30/38/46/54/62 (+35% bonus AD)

While Master Yi isn’t exactly the definition of a strong and versatile champion, his play pattern has been defined by Duskblade invisibility for some time now. Yi’s Q damage has been hit hard as a result. To compensate, Riot have given Yi a bunch of quality-of-life updates that synergize with his non-lethality options.

Xin Zhao

E – Audacious Charge

• Cooldown 11 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds

R – Crescent Guard

• Invulnerability Duration 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds

Xin Zhao is currently one of the best Junglers in the game. He excels at chasing you down and being invincible the moment you try to turn on him. Both of those aspects of his kit are tuned down here. While these nerfs likely won’t remove him from the meta, he should be less annoying to play against.

Champion Buffs

Kennen

W – Electrical Surge

• Basic Attack Bonus Magic Damage at Full Stacks 20/30/40/50/60 (+60/70/80/90/100% bonus AD) (+25% AP) ⇒ 35/45/55/65/75 (+80/90/100/110/120% bonus AD) (+35% AP)

Kennen is one of those champions that is so close to being picked more often. This buff has added back part of the power of his stacked W auto attack that he lost years ago. AD Kennen sends his regards, but this change will most likely just make him slightly better at poking in top lane.

Seraphine

W – Surround Sound

• Mana Cost 50/70/90/110/130 ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90
• Cooldown 26/25/24/23/22 seconds ⇒ 28/26/24/22/20 seconds
• Shield 75-225 (levels 1-18) (+45% AP) ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140 (+40% AP)
• Ally Shields 50-150 (levels 1-18) (+30% AP) ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140 (+40% AP) (Note: Allies now receive the same shield amount as Seraphine)
• Healing (If Already Shielded) 5% (+1.125% per 100 AP) of missing health per ally in range ⇒ 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% (+0.75% per 100 AP) of missing health per ally in range

E – Beat Drop

• Cooldown 13/12/11/10/9 seconds ⇒ 11/10.5/10/9.5/9 seconds

Seraphine’s pick rate is at an all-time low right now. The intention for her to be picked as a mid laner has backfired and most of her plays come from Support. These changes to her W heavily encourage putting points into the ability, something carry Seraphine doesn’t usually do. While Support Seraphine benefits the most from these changes, Mid and ADC should still be net power positive.

Items

Hullbreaker

Passive – Boarding Party

• Bonus Armor and Magic Resist 20-60 (levels 1-18) ⇒ [20-60 (levels 1-18) for melee/10-30 (levels 1-18) for ranged]
• Siege and Super Minion Bonus Armor and Magic Resist 60-180 (levels 1-18) ⇒ [60-180 (levels 1-18) for melee/30-90 (levels 1-18) for ranged]

Hullbreaker has broken out as the most valuable item for many meta Top laners. The sheer value the item brings when your goal is to stay top and push non-stop. The nerfs make it so that ranged picks like Graves and Jayce can’t abuse Hullbreaker to lay down a powerful one-man siege so freely. These champs will likely stop picking up Hullbreaker from now on.

Those are the League of Legends Patch 12.5 highlights! It was definitely a smaller patch overall, but key nerfs to Gwen, Xin Zhao, and Hullbreaker should bring some powerful picks in line. It will be a full month until the release of Patch 12.6, so Riot want to take things easy here and not rock the boat with sweeping changes.