League of Legends patch 12.18 details have been revealed by Riot lead designer, Matt ‘Froxjon’ Leung-Harrison. Hoping not to shake things up too much before Worlds, MOBA’s biggest event of the year, the changes seem low-key, bringing back things the team may have ‘overshot’ with previous patches.
Looking through these Patch notes, it’s clear how safe Riot is to play – patches 12.16 and 12.17 have yet to be played professionally. Many of these changes are base stat, health and armor increases, the only real major changes are the Maokai and Udire.
Champion Buffs
ash
- Ranger’s Focus (Q): Attack Speed 20-40% > 25-55%
This certainly isn’t a change that will see people returning to Ashe ADC, but a full 15% late-game attack speed increase with items under your belt should see a decent increase in damage until this ability is available. .
threshing
- HP Increase: 115 > 120
- Flay (E): Damage 65-185 > 75-215
More HP and more damage to Flay can only be a good thing for Chain Warden in the long run. They’re already a solid choice for support, and can beat your ADC so being able to deal more damage is never a bad thing.
Lee Sin
- HP Increase: 99 > 105
- Safeguard (W): Vamp 5-23% > 5-27%
There has to be some conspiracy bingo card somewhere lurking in the buff with Lee Sin just before Worlds. More HP and more life steal will translate into a tankier Blind Monk – will that be enough to see him play competitively?
Champion Nerfs
unfortunate
- AD increase: 2.7 > 2.4
- HP Increase: 107 > 103
Miss Fortune’s growth slows a bit after her recent buffs. This is not something that will be noticeable extra In-game, especially as the match goes on.
Kalista
Low base health for Kalista can mean she’s easy to burst during the early game – if you can hit her, that is.
Hekarim
- Base Health: 650 > 625
- Rampage (Q): Bonus AD Ratio 95% > 90%
- Rampage (Q): Ramp damage 6% per 100 bonus AD > 5% per 100 bonus AD
- Spirit of Dread (W): Heal 25% (+2% per 100 bonus AD) > 25% (+2% per 100 bonus AD)
Hekarim’s damage reduction and healing will hurt his survivability in teamfights, as he won’t be able to heal as much from groups of enemies, and his new aversion to tank items can put him out of action.
Rust (Why)
- Ripping Slash (Q): HP% Ratio per 100 Bonus AD 5% > 3.5%
Changing a champion’s damage percentage often has a much greater impact than the base stats. Kayn’s Darkin Transformation loses a large portion of its maximum health damage on enemies – meaning that Rhaast loses a fair amount of scaling power in the process.
lulu
- Whisi (W): Movement Speed 30% > 25%
- Humsi (W): poly duration 1.25-2.25s > 1.2-2s
- Whissy (W): Cooldown 17-13s > 17-15s
Going up against polymorphs can be an absolute nightmare; It’s basically a much nicer version of Silence and is incredibly effective in team fights. These changes reduce the amount of time you spend as a harmless critter, while also increasing the cooldown between casts.
nocturnal
Nocturne’s attack damage increase is staggered with this change, which wouldn’t really be apparent if they had a few items in their inventory.
Champion combination
Maokai
- Sap Magic (Passive): Healing 4.8-14% > 4.5-12%
- Bramble Smash (Q): Monster Bonus Damage 40-120 > 80-160
- Chara Toss (E): AP Ratio 42.5% > 40%
- Chara Toss (E) Emp AP Ratio 85% > 80%
If the recent Maokai recycling did not plant the tree as firmly as the forest, this change may occur. Monsters’ bonus damage should see his clean up much faster, giving him more opportunities to gank lane earlier in the match.
Udir
- Health per level: 106 > 98
- Armor per level: 5.2 > 4.7
- Wilding Claw (Q): Mana cost 45-28 > 20
- Wilding Claw (Q): Empowered Lightning Ratio +0.6% per 100 AP > +0.08% per 100 AP
- Wilding Claw (Q): [NEW] The first two hits gain 50 attack range
- Wilding Claw (Q): [NEW] Awakened version deals an additional 2-5% (+0.03% bonus AD) max health physical damage on first two attacks
- Iron Mantle (W): Healing 1.2-1.5% > 1.2%
- Iron Mantle (W): Slope 2-4% > 2-3.5%
- Iron Mantle (W): Life Steel 15% > 15-20%
- Wingborn Storm (R): Magic Damage 20-110 (+0.4% AP) > 20-100 (+35% AP)
- Wingborn Storm (R) Minion damage 50-80% > 40-85%
There’s a lot going on here, but what it boils down to is simple: fewer tanks and more damage. Iron Mantle’s overall power is reduced, with much of that power being transferred to Woody’s Q for damage, with maximum health damage, range, and speed being effective.
It’s not clear how Pro-View is going to look when they get their hands on the latest build; Some teams that rely on certain champions or strategies can upend their game plans.
For a list of changes currently in effect, you should check out the League of Legends Patch 12.17 article. The nerfs list is almost always longer than the buffs when these patch notes roll, and if you’ve ever wondered how Riot determines which champions are next on the chopping block, this piece by League of Legends’ Jerry Nerfs explains the criteria a bit.
