It’s time to unleash the spirits and start stance dancin’—welcome to patch 12.16!
With World’s slowly sneaking up on us, we wanted to let you know that this will be the first of several patches that will address balance issues at the highest levels of play. That said, this patch Udyr’s VGU will be hitting the Rift so be sure to give it a try! We’re also making quite a few ARAM balance adjustments, introducing a super-secret-special game variant to Ultimate Spellbook, and rotating the Mythic Shop.
In other news, it's the last patch before TFT's midset, Uncharted Realms, so come on over to the Dragonlands to hit those ranked goals before exploring the new traits and units! Read more about the last patch changes here.
Commune with spirits as you walk the wilds of the Freljord with Udyr's VGU releasing this patch!
We're introducing a set of five new icons to match Spirit Guard Udyr's new look. The original icons will no longer be obtainable, but they'll stick around in your inventory if you've got 'em. You'll get the new ones automatically when you buy Spirit Guard Udyr, and if you already own him you can pick them up in the store for 5 RP.
Passive AD ratio increased. R now has bonus damage that scales with critical strike chance.
Caitlyn is a step behind other current top tier marksmen, especially when compared to those that scale heavily with attack speed. We want to emphasize the more unique parts of her crit-heavy builds, so we’re giving her more crit synergies to help her hit a little harder.
Passive cleave damage decreased. E AP scaling increased.
Diana has been finding success with tanky builds recently. While AP bruisers should be able to flex into more durable itemizations, we want to make sure they’re still rewarded when opting for riskier, full damage builds. We’re shifting her numbers so that her tank builds do a bit less damage and her AP-heavy builds do a bit more.
Q base damage decreased.
Draven has been an axe juggling terror in Elite brackets of play since his post-Durability Update buffs in patch 12.10. We’re rolling back the base damage portion of these buffs which helped him reach dominance in the bot lane.
Base magic resist increased, armor per level increased.
Irelia is a tad weaker than her skirmisher friends in both the top and mid lane. We’re giving her a small power-up so that she has a better chance to succeed in a meta focused around safe, scaling laners.
Hammer form Q damage increased. Hammer form E damage based on target’s maximum health increased.
Jayce’s melee form hasn’t been the shining innovation of Piltover (or his kit) it once was. We’re putting some more Hextech power into his hammer by increasing its damage output so that it remains a viable tool for Jayce, even in later stages of the game.
Passive on-hit damage increased. Q AP scaling increased. R AP scaling increased.
Kai’Sa has been struggling recently, particularly when it comes to her more attack speed or AP-oriented build paths. We’re giving her some scaling power, but in a way that should avoid buffing her problematic full-AP-W-hits-for-half-my-health builds.
Passive cooldown decreased early. W cooldown now decreases with rank.
Malphite’s currently stuck between himself and a hard place in the top lane. We’re giving him some more early game durability by bringing down his passive cooldowns and giving him some rock solid damage gains in the mid and late game in the form of more Thunderclaps.
Q damage to minions and monsters decreased.
Poppy has been the shining hero of the jungle in Professional play to the point where she’s starting to look more like a villain. In order not to nerf her in top lane, we’re giving her some jungle specific nerfs to slightly reduce her current clear speed.
Q bonus attack speed increased.
The Yordle Gunner hasn’t been seeing much love recently, so we’re making her Rapid Fire a little more rapid in the hopes she’ll be a more appealing pick in the bot (and possibly mid) lane.
E bonus move speed scales less with AP, cooldown increased late game.
Yuumi has had a very high pick rate in Professional play recently given that she synergizes well with a lot of the current meta picks and has strong scaling into the late game. We’re taking a little bit of the zoom out of her Zoomies so that her friends are a little less unkillable.
Q AD scaling decreased. W AD and AP scaling decreased.
Zeri has remained at the top of the Professional meta despite repeated changes over the past several patches. We’re nerfing her for now so we can reassess her state and path forward after Worlds. We’re also taking this opportunity to nerf the AP ratio on her W, as this play pattern has gameplay issues similar to AP Kai'Sa.
W adjusted. E base damage increased, AP scaling increased, pop damage increased.
Like other burst mages, Zoe hasn't been having the most fun after the Durability Update. We’re adding a little boost in damage when she hits her Trouble Bubble and helping her grab a few more spells in mid-to-late game for teamfights.
E adjusted.
We’re making an adjustment to Zyra’s animation lock after she casts her E so it’s now more consistent when used. This should result in a small buff for more skilled Zyra players.
Enchanters are still overshadowing other support classes, so we’re looking to put some more power into tank supports to even the playing field. So we’re buffing Evenshroud’s damage amplification systems which took a small hit with the Durability Update.
Team formation for the first weekend of the Noxus Cup starts on August 29, and the tournament days are on September 3 and 4.
The Mythic Shop rotates this patch! This is a small rotation, meaning only the unvaulted Prestige skins and new Mythic Chroma are rotating. The next large rotation will be in patch 12.18.
We have some VFX updates for Fizz’s base and older skins coming this patch!
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: