League of Legends Patch 12.6 Highlights

Champion Nerfs

Hecarim

Q – Rampage

• Base Damage 60/97/134/171/208 (+85% bonus AD) ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+85% bonus AD)

E – Devastating Charge

• Minimum Total Damage 30/50/70/90/110 (+55% bonus AD) ⇒ 30/45/60/75/90 (+55% bonus AD)
• Maximum Total Damage 60/100/140/180/220 (+110% bonus AD) ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+110% bonus AD)

Hecarim is back and is as strong as ever. His high base damages in combination with his tanky builds make Hecarim a dominant force in both pro play and solo queue. These sizable nerfs to his base damages on Q and E should make Hecarim easier to deal with.

Tryndamere

E – Spinning Slash

• Cooldown Reduction per Critical Strike 1 second (2 seconds against champions) ⇒75 seconds (1.5 seconds against champions)

R – Undying Rage

• Cooldown 110/100/90 seconds ⇒ 130/110/90 seconds

Tryndamere is a strong pick right now, in part due to his ability to stick to targets constantly and dive towers for kills in the early game. These nerfs aim to target the annoying aspects of his kit. Each crit against champions now provides a half second less of E cooldown. Twenty seconds on rank one ultimate also means that Tryndamere has a longer window of vulnerability in the early game.

Champion Buffs

Darius

R – Noxian Guillotine

• Minimum True Damage 100/200/300 (+75% bonus AD) ⇒ 125/250/375 (+75% bonus AD)

This top lane juggernaut has struggled to stay relevant in a meta of highly mobile threats. A buff to Darius’s R base damage means that when he does manage to get on his target, he’ll be able to finish the kill. Since his R damage gets doubled with max bleed stacks, Darius now has a max of 50 extra damage in his rotation at rank one.

Jax

Base Stats

• Base Health 593 ⇒ 615

W – Empower

• Magic Damage 40/75/110/145/180 (+60% AP) ⇒ 50/85/120/155/190 (+60% AP)

Jax is one of those picks that can struggle in lane matchups, but scales into his own come a couple of items. An extra 22 base HP never hurt anyone, and this extra 10 damage on his W will certainly be felt. Jax spams his W off cooldown for both farming and trading, so this buff will stack up very quickly.

Nidalee

Human Form

W – Bushwhack

• Mana Cost 40/45/50/55/60 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50

E – Primal Surge

• Mana Cost 50/60/70/89/90 ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70
• Cast Range 600 ⇒ 900 (now matches W – Bushwhack)

Cougar Form

W – Pounce

• AoE Damage Radius 225 ⇒ 250

Nidalee can already be a strong pick in the right hands, but she does have a couple of issues. Mana is one of them, and these reductions to her W and E mana costs will be very helpful in maintaining her mid-late game value of spear and heal spamming. The range increase on E and radius on cougar W are nice for quality of life, but won’t mean much in practicality.

Rengar

Passive – Unseen Predator

• Rengar’s next leap will grant 1 Ferocity only if he has 0 Ferocity ⇒ upon losing all Ferocity stacks (no matter how much Ferocity he gains before his next leap)
• Rengar will be able to leap after 0.35 seconds in brush or camouflage (or Senna’s E – Curse of the Black Mist camouflage) consistently, rather than based on a 0.3-0.45 second timer (Leap range has been slightly increased to offset variability)
• Now has a Ferocity resource bar that indicates how much Ferocity he currently has (Stacks generated by leaps will have a different color so you’ll know if you’ll gain Ferocity on your next leap)
• All Ferocity Stacks Fall Off After 8 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds out of combat
• Bonetooth Necklace Takedown Timer Within 1.5 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds of damaging an enemy champion

Q – Savagery

• Rengar’s Q-empowered basic attack is now always a critical strike. Instead of regular critical strike damage, each 1% critical strike chance increases this empowered attack’s damage by 0.66% (0.99% with Infinity Edge’s Perfection passive)
• Q – Savagery now also applies to basic attacks against towers
• Q – Savagery no longer applies to basic attacks against plants

E – Bola Strike

• Rengar can now throw his E – Bola Strike instantly (with zero cast time) during leaps
• Now grants true sight and normal vision 150 units around the first enemy hit for 2 seconds

R – Thrill of the Hunt

• Now grants not only true sight, but also normal vision 100 units around the nearest enemy

Rengar has received mini-rework levels of changes to his stack system and abilities. The vast majority of changes listed above are buffs, which should increase his power levels by a decent amount. Being able to cast his E during leaps should also help Rengar reliably lock down targets. And of course, getting free AOE vision from hitting E and during his R is great for utility.

Items

Immortal Shieldbow

• Life Steal 10% ⇒ 8% (12% ⇒ 10% for Ornn Masterwork item, Bloodward)
• Shield Amount 275-650 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 275-700 (levels 1-18) (same applies to Bloodward)
• Mythic Passive Empowers each of your Legendary items with 5 bonus AD and 50 bonus health ⇒ 5 bonus AD and 70 health (same applies to Bloodward)

Shieldbow has lost two percent of its Life Steal, but received compensation buffs in the form of an increased shield and 20 more HP per Legendary item. While the reduction of Life Steal and Omnivamp across the board this patch will hurt many Shieldbow users, more shielding and HP will help offset this.

Vampiric Scepter

• Life Steal 10% ⇒ 8%

Vamp Scepter has had its Life Steal reduced by two percent, as has the completed Blade of the Ruined King. Nothing else has changed about these items, so early Vamp Scepter is still a viable buy in certain lanes.

Runes

Ravenous Hunter

• Removed

NEW – Treasure Hunter

• Gain 70 gold when you claim a Bounty Hunter stack. This bounty is increased by 20 gold for each Bounty Hunter stack.

Ravenous Hunter has been removed from League of Legends. The Rune was incredibly polarizing during its time in the game, forcing many champions to take it to keep up with the sustain meta. After countless nerfs, it became a pretty weak option overall.

Taking its place is Treasure Hunter, a Rune all about accelerating gold generation. While some players might take the rune to ensure bigger leads in winning matchups, this Rune will likely pale in comparison to other options in the Domination Tree

Fleet Footwork

• Healing Upon Fully Energized Attack 10-100 (levels 1-18) (+40% bonus AD) (+30% AP) ⇒ 10-100 (levels 1-18) (+30% bonus AD) (+20% AP)

A straight up nerf to Fleet Footwork’s sustain. Will mostly be noticeable in the mid and late game, hurting the scaling of champions who took the rune to get through lane.

Legend: Bloodline

• Life Steal per Legend Stack 0.6% (up to 9% at 15 stacks) ⇒4% (up to 6% at 15 stacks)
• NEW – After reaching maximum Legend stacks, your maximum health increases by 100

Another nerf to sustain Runes, Bloodline now gives three percent less Life Steal at max stacks. This rune wasn’t overutilized, so Riot gave it a compensation 100 HP on completion to keep it competitive.

Those are the most important changes of League of Legends Patch 12.6! While this patch was definitely lighter on champion changes, the updates to the Life Steal and Omnivamp system will be very impactful for the meta. Many players were used to just having enough sustain from items and runes to disregard poke. These changes will take some getting used to.