Welcome to patch 12.17, the penultimate patch before Worlds!
With Worlds being played on patch 12.18 this is the last opportunity for us to introduce larger scale changes without significantly changing the current state of the meta in Pro play. This patch we’ll be focusing on pulling some power out of picks that have been dominating playoffs throughout the world. That said, we also have quite a few buffs for champions that haven’t been seeing as much play recently, as well as larger scope updates to champions like Maokai and Hecarim. Without further ado, to Worlds we go!
TFT is launching its new mid-set, Uncharted Realms, which brings more Dragons, more Treasure, and more—read about it all over at the TFT patch notes here!
Charm duration decreased early.
Ahri has been charming pros across the globe with her safe playstyle and strong ability to set up plays. We're bringing these strengths down just a tad so that playing into Ahri isn't such a tail order and that players can’t just rely on her charm as a singular strength.
W AP scaling decreased, cooldown increased early. E cooldown increased.
The Emperor of the Sands can quickly become the Emperor of the Mid Lane in Pro play when he's too powerful. We're reducing the safety of his laning phase and bringing down his late game scaling so that he maintains his identity as a hyper scaler, but without scaling too hard.
Passive shields increased. E damage increased.
Camille is currently a cut below other prominent picks in the top lane. We’re giving her a little extra engage and trading power so that she has an opportunity to shine when the conditions are right, but will still be kept in check by champions that counter her.
E cooldown decreased.
Ezreal's lost his place in pro play and solo queue recently (maybe because of his distaste for maps), so we're shifting him into a stronger place by buffing his E to create more windows for clutch defensive or offensive plays.
Q cooldown decreased. R base damage increased.
The current jungle meta favors engage-style fighters that bring a lot of CC and utility to help their teams and Graves hasn’t been able to compete with these picks. So we're giving Graves a bit more power and clear speed to help him find his niche in the jungle once again.
All abilities adjusted.
Hecarim hasn’t been the most stable champion for the past few seasons, either being a dominant Pro jungler or underwhelming in solo queue. He's also been horsing around with a variety of builds ranging from tank, to assassin, to fighter. We believe a Hecarim that's more bruiser/fighter focused is both more rewarding to play and will be less Pro skewed. To that end, we’re saddling Hecarim with some Q and W adjustments that should help his synergies with fighter items. We’re also lowering his base utility power and damage to reduce his strengths as a pure tank. These changes should lead to more damage-oriented Hecarim builds.
Q cooldown decreased, mana cost decreased.
Kassadin has typically found play as a counter pick into mages, so we want to lean into that by giving him some additional power going into those tough matchups. Now he should be able to find some success and get those Kassawins.
Passive, Q, E, and R adjusted.
Maokai has been all bark and no bite for quite some time now. We’re helping this tree rediscover his roots in both the top lane and jungle without removing his ability to be a support.
Q base damage increased late, cast time adjusted. W mana cost decreased, attack speed bonus increased. E cooldown increased, base damage decreased, AP scaling increased, slow now scales with AP.
Miss Fortune has always been able to flex into either crit/attack speed or Lethality builds. Recently, her crit builds have been a bit weak while her Lethality builds opt into spamming E in lane instead of utilizing her Double Up. We’re looking to make MF’s crit/attack speed builds hit a bit harder while incentivizing Lethality builds to use Q as her preferred harass tool.
E electrocute interaction removed.
Electrocute Nami has been Lucian’s best friend given that they could quickly proc Nami’s Electrocute with Lucian’s Q double auto combo. We’re changing how Nami’s E counts toward Electrocute to be more in line with similar abilities. This should also make Nami viable with other pairings. Besides, fish and electrocutions together never go swimmingly.
Base attack speed increased. Passive cooldown decreased.
Nocturne’s been left out in the dark recently, which, while on-point for his theme, hasn’t been as great for his performance in-game. We’re giving him some buffs which should help out his attack speed itemization synergies and increase his clear speed a tad.
W dismounted movement speed increased. E cooldown now flat.
Rell has been out of the spotlight for quite some time now so we’re giving her some small quality of life buffs to help her get back on her iron steed.
Q base damage decreased, AD scaling increased.
Renekton is back to his old ways of being a dominant, blind pickable champion in the top lane. Not only can he go head-to-head with the strongest melee champions, but he can also dominate ranged opponents. We’re decreasing his damage output (especially when not itemizing AD) to give other champions some space to play.
W AD ratio increased. E slow increased.
Sett hasn't been getting much face time in the top lane, especially given the amount of tanks we're seeing that he should be a strong matchup into. We're increasing his damage and reliable CC to help this boss beat down his opponents more effectively.
AD growth decreased. W bounce AD ratio decreased.
Sivir's midscope update has succeeded in making her the premiere AOE damage marksman in the game. However, her damage output is currently a bit too reliable. We're pulling a bit of power out of her AOE damage so that she isn't always shoving in her lane opponents and hitting the jackpot come late-game teamfights.
Base health decreased. Q cooldown increased.
Sylas is currently too reliable of a pick between the waveclear provided by his Q max builds and safety/engage options his E provides him in Pro play. We're looking to bring down his laning phase power with some targeted nerfs at his early waveclear and durability.
Base magic resist decreased. E cooldown increased.
Taric has been a little too dazzling in the bot lane recently, excelling at healing and CC in addition to being too durable. We're making him a bit less stunning by reducing the uptime on his... er.... stuns and making him a bit more susceptible to poke in losing matchups.
W cooldown increased at all ranks.
The Troll King has been expanding his domain into the jungle. While we don’t want to kick him out, we are tapping down his W to hinder his clear speed slightly and reduce the effectiveness of his problematic 100% uptime, early W max builds.
Q AP ratio increased. W mana cost decreased.
Despite having an entire deck of cards (okay, only 3 but still), Twisted Fate is forced into drawing blue cards a bit more often than we'd like. In order to help him diversify his draws, we're relaxing his current mana restrictions so players can feel more free to play around his harder hitting red and yellow cards.
Base attack speed decreased. Base move speed decreased.
As opposed to the king of monkeys, Wukong has been the king of the jungle in Pro play for quite some time. We’re looking to dethrone him by bringing his early clear down a few pegs and reducing his ability to move around the map as effectively.
Since its introduction Stopwatch has been a powerful item, not only in solo queue, but especially in Pro play with extremely low ping. We’re increasing its purchase price so that if it's bought as a one-time-use item it sets players back more in the gold department.
Now that Stopwatch is moving up in price, so is Guardian Angel. With stasis being more expensive, players should feel as though they need to deliberately itemize Stopwatch and its corresponding items as opposed to them feeling like auto-buys just because you purchased a Stopwatch.
Seeker’s Armguard has been a relatively weak component for some time now. We don’t want it to turn into an early anti-assassin item that discourages aggression from opponents in lane, so we’re opting to increase its AP stats so it’s more comparable to other Zhonya’s components.
On the same note, due to the Stopwatch price increase Zhonya’s will also be getting a price hike. Hourglass has remained a cheap defensive option with a value defined by its ability to provide Stasis to its users since Season 10. We’re moving the item up to a higher price point so that its offensive capabilities have an opportunity to stand out more.
The following ultimates have been updated to match their original champion’s functionality.
Over the last 8 months since we released our new feeding detection model, we have gained the confidence that allows us to make significant adjustments to what we detect as intentional feeding. We expect an increase in detections and punishments of over 2x. (Reminder that punishments for intentional feeding are a 14-day ban for the first transgression, and a permanent ban for the second.)
Chat restrictions will be visible on the lobbies screen for yourself and any party members, as well as on individual profile pages.
Honor restrictions applied to your account will be visible on your profile page with a lock icon and tooltip.
Summoner’s Rift Ranked queue matchmaking will now focus more on player’s MMR and less on their visible rank (e.g. Silver or Gold).
Team formation for the second weekend of the Noxus Cup starts on September 12, and the tournament days are on September 17 and 18.
Global Defense System has been added! (Have a control ward in the enemy jungle for 65+% of the game.)
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: