If you wanna be the very best, catch all your patch changes (and Monster Tamers) here!
In this week’s installment of Patch Notes we’re giving energy based champions a little boost, doing some follow-up fine tuning to Master Yi and Sivir, and buffing up some engage supports. We’re also tapping down Divine Sunderer and First Strike’s power so they aren’t always super effective. Now come with me, the time is right — it’s patch 12.15!
Looking to go on adventures in a different realm? Well check out the TFT patch notes here!
W energy restoration and maximum energy bonus increased.
As a system, energy is intended to give champions spikes of power that fall off with extended combat times. Given the current state of the game and more extended fights, champions that use energy as a resource have found it more difficult to find success before their energy depletes (note: this section is repeated for energy users in this patch). In Akali’s case, we’re slightly increasing the amount of energy she gains from her shroud to help her squeeze in an additional ability or two per fight.
Q true damage conversion decreased.
Gwen’s changes in 12.13 achieved our goals of making it easier for players to lane with her and execute her combos, but they were a bit too effective at the highest levels of play. We intend to keep her identity as a powerful scaler, but we’re trimming just a bit of damage from her late game.
Base attack damage decreased.
Kalista has been dominating the bot lane in professional play recently as a powerful early game pick. We’re bringing down her damage a tad in order to make her a little less oppressive in the very early stages of the game.
W cooldown decreased early, magic damage increased. R ability power scaling increased.
Our electric yordle doesn’t have the same energy issues as other champions being adjusted this patch, but has been struggling for entirely different reasons. Shocker. With more durable targets Kennen has found it difficult to establish himself as either a lane bully or a teamfight winner. We’re putting some more power into his teamfighting identity by increasing his ability to win fights with a slight boost to his W and R damage.
Q, W, and E reactivation energy costs decreased.
As a system, energy is intended to give champions spikes of power that fall off with extended combat times. Given the current state of the game and more extended fights, champions that use energy as a resource have found it more difficult to find success before their energy depletes (note: this section is repeated for energy users in this patch). In Lee Sin’s case, we’re slightly decreasing the energy he needs so that he has a bit more leeway to recast his spells during combos.
Q mana cost decreased at all ranks. R crowd control duration increased.
Engage supports are currently a bit weaker than where we’d like them to be post-Durability Update. Now that enemies are more likely to survive her engages, we’re giving her a little more power in extended fights and when she can successfully land her skill shots.
Passive damage cap against monsters increased.
Lillia’s been a bit weak in the jungle at all skill brackets. We’re giving her some jungle-oriented buffs that should help with her clear speed without her becoming a nightmare in the top lane.
E cooldown no longer decreases with rank.
Master Yi has been doing pretty well with the last set of changes, achieving a relatively equal win rate across various skill levels of play. He’s still a bit stronger than we’d like him to be so we’re taking down his access to his E and true damage, especially in cases where Yi is opting to max E first.
Passive bonus attack damage scaling decreased. First Strike bug removed.
Qiyana’s been the empress of the Rift lately, partly due to a bug which allowed her to proc her passive twice with First Strike. We’ve removed that bug and are nerfing First Strike which should result in an overall nerf, but also taking a little bit of power out of her passive so that she’s a bit less oppressive.
R cooldown adjusted, base cast range increased, dash range growth increased, minimum and maximum dash speed increased.
With the 12.14 changes to tank items, Rammus hasn’t been rollin’ around with the enthusiasm he once had. We’re opting to return some power to his kit with a few quality of life adjustments to his ultimate to which Rammus would respond by saying “OK.”
E passive energy refund increased late.
As a system, energy is intended to give champions spikes of power that fall off with extended combat times. Given the current state of the game and more extended fights, champions that use energy as a resource have found it more difficult to find success before their energy depletes (note: this section is repeated for energy users in this patch). Shen is doing relatively okay in terms of energy efficiency, so we’re just giving him a tiny buff to help him in the late game.
Passive bonus movement speed increased, per-target cooldown decreased. R bonus stats increased early.
Now that the days of predator Singed mid are behind us, we’re reverting some changes we made to decrease his durability in patch 12.12 and buffing up his passive so that it feels better in teamfights. Now he’ll be able to zip around and flip his enemies to his Chem-infused heart’s content.
Attack damage growth decreased. E cooldown increased at all ranks. R cooldown increased at all ranks.
Continuing work on Sivir’s midscope update, she’s successfully found her spot as a hyper-scaling AOE marksman on the roster. With this set of changes we’re looking to take away a little bit of her late game power and create more windows of opportunity for her opponents to challenge her.
E cooldown increased at all ranks. R wall duration decreased.
Taliyah’s Unraveled Earth is a great tool for stalling teamfights and creating a danger zone to scare off opponents. However, it’s currently creating a bit too much time for herself and allies. We’re taking down her ability to cast it quite as frequently, but she should still be able to use it twice or more in late game fights.
Q cooldown decreased at all ranks, magic damage increased at all ranks.
Like other engage supports, Thresh has been struggling to capitalize on his ability to start fights which really takes the death out of Death Sentence. We’re lowering the cooldown and increasing the damage so that his hooks are a bit deadlier.
E energy cost decreased.
As a system, energy is intended to give champions spikes of power that fall off with extended combat times. Given the current state of the game and more extended fights, champions that use energy as a resource have found it more difficult to find success before their energy depletes (note: this section is repeated for energy users in this patch). In Zed’s case, we’re lowering the energy cost on his E and giving his shadow a little freedom so it doesn’t always need to walk beside him.
Now that the dust has settled from the Divine Sunderer changes on patch 12.13 it’s still performing a bit stronger than we’d like it to. We’re opting to decrease the amount of healing this item provides to bring it more in line with other mythic options.
Mercurial Scimitar hasn’t been as appealing recently given its role as an important itemization option that provides magic resist, critical strike chance, and a built-in cc removal effect. We’re increasing the benefits that come with this item to make it a little more tempting of an option compared to the other sword items carries can opt for.
While it’s not quite as weak as Mercurial Scimitar, Silvermere Dawn is also underperforming as a whole. We’re opting to increase its defensive capabilities as well, but not quite as much as its counterpart.
First strike has risen to prominence as the go-to choice for burst champions in the current meta. We’re reining in a bit of its burst potential which should also decrease the amount of gold this Rune can generate.
Team formation for the second weekend of the Zaun Cup Clash starts on August 15, and the tournament days are on August 20 and 21.
The Star Guardian event may be ending, but Ultimate Spellbook is sticking around for a little while longer!
As a reminder, starting on August 19 Pacific Time, RP and TFT coin prices will increase in most Riot regions. For more information about the price increase check out our full article here.
Having a premade duo is a slight advantage, and while current Apex Tier (Masters, Grandmaster, and Challenger) players aren’t able to duo with anyone, the system only works off current rank. With this change, we’re tightening up the Apex Tier restriction to apply to MMR as well.
The goal of this is to prevent climbing smurfs from being able to duo queue into Apex Tier. That said, decayed Apex Tier players and the highest skilled Diamond I players may also be impacted by this change.
Up until now these players could duo and reliably get into Apex Tier games, which isn't fair when the people they're playing against can't duo. If this change works as expected, we'll evaluate shipping it to the rest of the world with plans to re-evaluate before Season Start.
We first rolled out this change back in patch 12.10 on the NA and KR servers as a trial and the results have been positive, so we’re rolling it out to the rest of the world. From now on, players with an MMR correlating to Master or above will no longer be able to duo queue in Ranked Solo/Duo, even if their rank is not Master or higher.
The following skins will be released in this patch: