It’s the last patch of the year, 12.23 is here!
Welcome to the ARAM/post-Preseason patch! This week we have a few large changes shipping to the Howling Abyss—like Frostgates, bridge repairs, and landscaping—so make sure you give them a try in our first-ever, free-to-enter ARAM Clash! We also have some Preseason follow ups shipping this patch to help a few struggling tanks, power down some overperforming junglers (Mordekaiser), and a shocking Zeri update.
(Author’s Note: This is going to be a long patch as many of us will be on a Riot-wide break for the end of December. We’ll likely have mid-patch updates before we head out and when we get back, so if there are any big issues we’ll do our best to tackle them but we appreciate your patience!)
Thanks for playing with us in 2022 and we’re looking forward to seeing you in 2023!
We’re also shipping our 8th TFT set this patch! It’s a monster of a new set, so make sure to check out the TFT patch notes here!
This update goes out to our ARAM players! From the new stat adjustments introduced in the last patch to falling towers and Frostgates, new and exciting updates are coming to the Howling Abyss this patch.
A lot of the fun in ARAM happens when you're fighting, poking, or womboing your opponents—not when you're walking back to the fight. To help you get back into the action faster we're introducing Hexgates to the Howling Abyss!
Some parts of the bridge have been showing their age recently and are starting to fall apart. Our goal with falling towers is to create more interesting situations on the map that break away from the usual straight line of ARAM. Now you’ll have new choke points to think about, Fog of War to hide in, and terrain you can experiment with to create new plays!
Alongside the ARAM changes we figured we'd also do some landscaping on the bridge to help freshen things up a bit.
We finally got around to making some repairs on Howling Abyss! With the new falling towers mechanic we wanted to make the bridge a bit more spacious to compensate for the space now taken up by tower rubble.
Adding a few quality of life updates to the current Battle Boost feature.
Go forth and get S rank on all the champs (or as many as your team's RNG will allow)!
Mosstomper has come out of the gates as one of the stronger jungle companions introduced in Preseason. We’re making a few adjustments to Mosstomper’s current Tenacity bonuses so that enemies have a few more counterplay opportunities.
We overshot a bit with Hydra’s overall stats, making it a much too efficient item for the gold that it cost. We’re preserving its niche as a rush item for champions that like the AD, but are reducing its AoE damage and pulling out the Ominvamp from stacks that was really pushing this item over the edge.
With the recent downgrade to Sunfire Aegis we expected tanks to farm less effectively than they could with the Immolate passive. Unfortunately the changes landed a bit weak in 12.22 resulting in tanks opting to just not buy the item which, in turn, resulted in a loss of farm for top lane tanks (jungle tanks made out alright though thanks to the companions). We still want Sunfire to be a useful tool for tanks as a first or second item, but not mandatory. So this patch we’re addressing these issues by buffing the tanks whose ability to farm was impacted most and increasing the state efficiency of Sunfire so that it's a more reliable tank damage option.
Health growth increased. Q mana cost increased. W damage increased. E base magic damage increased.
Despite his newfound companions in the jungle, Amumu has been a sad mummy. The new tank items and jungle changes really hurt his ability to clear come mid- to late-game relative to other junglers, so we’re shifting some of his power to cover these weaknesses without buffing his already strong Support power.
Passive mana restoration increased. W base damage increased. R cooldown now decreases with rank.
The lack of early access to Immolate and overall tank item changes have resulted in a pretty sizable power loss for Cho. In order to help him feel like a good chonky monster again we’re putting some more power into his passive mana sustain and letting him feast on enemies a bit more often.
All abilities adjusted.
Dr. Mundo hasn’t been living up to his unkillable late game fantasy lately, so the good doctor has received some treatment in order to help him out. We’ve made a bunch of changes to Mundo’s medical tools, but the biggest changes were to his Heart Stopper and Maximum Dosage which have been adjusted to be significantly stronger in the late game. Now get out there, throw some Qs, and be unkillable.
Base health regeneration increased, health growth increased. E adjusted.
K’Sante has been a tad weak in average skill brackets, so we’re giving him a few quality of life upgrades that should help him perform better in the hands of average players without pushing him over the line in elite play.
Q base shield increased, shield AP scaling decreased. E adjusted.
We’re giving Kassadin some quality of life updates to his shield so he can perform better into ranged matchups. We’re also adjusting his E so that you can now cast it whenever you want (as long as it isn’t on cooldown)!
Passive Shadow Assassin bonus damage increased. E heal AD ratio increased.
Shadow Assassin Kayn has fallen off over the course of the Durability Update and Preseason. While we were cautious about returning damage to burst characters after the Durability Update, it's been long enough for us to be confident that Shadow Kayn is failing on most fronts to complete his main goal… killing his enemies. We’re returning some damage to his passive and giving him a little more sustainability with some Shadow Step healing.
Q base damage decreased.
Changing Lillia from a ranged champion to a melee champion last patch greatly increased her synergy with Demonic Embrace, Conqueror’s, and Red Buff which resulted in her gaining a little more power than we expected. We’re pulling some of that power out in a way that should hurt her tankier builds a little more than her AP builds.
E base damage increased, armor scaling increased, mana cost no longer increases with rank.
Malphite has had a chip on his shoulder ever since we nerfed his waveclear by taking away his ability to rush Immolate. We’re adding some waveclear power back into his kit in a way that will reward tank builds without over-buffing his AP builds.
Passive heal increased. Q base damage increased, damage to monsters increased.
Similar to other tanks, Maokai’s been missing Sunfire Aegis and Immolate which increased his ability to effectively clear minions and jungle camps. We’re putting a bit more clear power into his Q to help him find his spot in the jungle and top lane once again.
Passive damage cap against monsters decreased, now only procs when hit by large monsters.
Mordekaiser jungle appears to have been a big winner of patch 12.22 thanks to his passive. We’re dialing that passive down a bit by reducing his base damage to monsters and making it specific to large monsters so that it functions similarly in the jungle as it does in the top lane.
E damage vs marked enemies decreased.
Shyvana has been blazing through the new jungle thanks to the Preseason changes that made camps healthier and increased the damage output of her E. We’re taking down her maximum percent HP damage so she isn’t quite so oppressive against camps AND all the tanks seeing more play.
Base mana increased, mana growth increased. Q base damage increased.
Sion, like many other tanks that relied on Immolate for waveclear, is struggling to farm well in Preseason, decreasing his overall power. We’re giving him a bit more mana and Q damage to help him better match his opponent’s waveclear.
Upgraded W bonus damage decreased, AP scaling increased. E AP ratio decreased, cooldown increased. Q bugfix.
Since her mid-scope update in patch 12.19, Syndra’s been slowly gaining winrate and popularity. While she's meant to be a powerful scaler, Syndra's mid-game waveclear and burst potential let her Transcend a bit too safely. We’re cutting back some of her long-range power with Scatter the Weak and shifting a portion of it into Force of Will. Now Syndra needs to be a bit more close and personal before disintegrating her enemies.
Passive AP damage added. Q AP ratio increased, self heal increased. W AP ratio increased. E gray health increased. R AP scaling increased, shield decay adjusted.
AP Tahm Kench croaked a little when the Preseason changes made it to him, resulting in the Kench being downgraded to the bench. We’re giving him some buffs that should help his tank builds while also doing some followup buffs to his AP builds from a few patches ago.
Base attack speed reduced. R damage decreased.
Trundle benefitted a bit too much from the preseason jungle changes, especially now that tanks are seeing a lot more play. We’re bringing down his clear speed to bring him more in line with other junglers while reducing his R percent health damage so he doesn't completely subjugate tanks.
Passive cooldown increased. R root duration decreased.
Yuumi has simultaneously been one of the most frustrating and most popular/played champs in the game. We think there’s a better place for Yuumi where we can deliver on her gameplay fantasy for her players while also making her less frustrating to play against. In this patch, we’re giving Yuumi a decently sized nerf to temporarily address some of her more frustrating features and curbing her power in both Elite and Pro play. However, we definitely don’t see this as the final, long-term solution for this champion.
We’ve started work on a larger scale Yuumi rework to help this cat land in a much healthier spot. We want to highlight what Yuumi as an attached, untargetable enchanter can provide to her team. As an early goal, we want to limit her aggressive CC outputs/damage, emphasize more defensive/enchanter outputs, reduce her scaling, and make her more dependent on her own lane's success to win games. We’ll have some more news to share on this in the future, but for now we appreciate your patience as we work on Yuumi.
Passive healing increased. Q cooldown decreased, health scaling increased.
Zac also made the list of champions that were nerfed now that they aren’t rushing Immolate. In order to add some goop back to this glob, we’re buffing his health scaling a bit to help him synergize better with some of the new Preseason tank items.
All abilities adjusted.
Zeri's been a turbulent champion over the past year, with an electrifying kit, explosive pentakills… aaand a plethora of balance changes. We're taking one more big swing at our favorite lightning-themed Zaunite to address some issues that set her apart as the best marksman in Pro play this year. Zeri's combination of long range, high move speed, and scaling damage gave her little to no weaknesses in a coordinated environment like Pro play. We're shifting Zeri's playstyle by shortening her range so that she has to get up close and personal to make sparks fly and opponents die. This comes with revamped base stats, a higher damage Burst Fire, and an adjusted Spark Surge. So even though Zeri is being amped up, opponents should now have many more opportunities to catch lightning before it bolts off to safety. SPARKS READY!
We’re introducing a few adjustments to help jungle companions scale better with tanks, while reducing the amount of gold they give to their owners, as junglers were often significantly ahead in gold compared to laners.
Making a few follow-up changes to the Preseason jungle adjustments introduced in the last patch.
Most of the communication tools that we’ve had in the past cater towards conveying personal intent, the ability to describe what you and you alone plan on doing. We introduced Objective Planning as a way for people to build alignment across the team as a whole.
So far, we've seen that Objective Planning is allowing players to better align around whether or not to take an objective as a team. However, there are some situations in which the vote is showing up too frequently or at irrelevant moments. When it comes to objective planning, we want to make sure that we’re showing relevant information to players that can help them make better decisions at the right time. We want players to be able to communicate their intent clearly, whether it's being ready and prioritizing for objectives or actually using the tool for alignment.
For now, we’re making some changes to have the voting system better match players' intent and will continue to improve this system as we learn more about how all of you are using it!
As a special thank you to ARAM players everywhere, we’re going to be hosting our last Clash of the year on Howling Abyss! This Clash will be free-to-enter and feature an 8-team bracket where each team gets to play 3 matches. Each player will receive 2 rerolls per game, so make sure you use them all!
Registration for this special, for-fun Clash will begin on December 5 and the tournament days will be on December 10 and 11, 2022.
Players that participate will receive a limited-time, exclusive ARAM clash icon so make sure to mark your calendars!
On a non-ARAM related note, Clash rewards for this year will roll out during patch 12.23, so keep an eye out!
In this Mythic Shop rotation, we’ll have two Unvaulted Prestige skins, two Unvaulted Mythic skins, and a new Seasonal Mythic skin (with accessories). Similar to our End of Year Prestige Point shop, the Mythic Essence icons are returning alongside a couple of previously offered Grab bags.
We want it to be easy to get to the fun of League without having to do a ton of research beforehand. So like we added item recommendations to the shop, we’re also adding a rune recommender in champion select! You can access it by hovering or locking in a champion and clicking the new icon next to the edit rune page button. We have a few more planned additions for this feature and will be keeping an eye on your feedback to improve it over the next few patches!
Draft strategy is an important part of the game in queues that support drafting, so we want to make it easy for your team to optimize its draft for success. Currently there are a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong for players trying to swap their pick order — you have to communicate in chat with the person you want to swap with, have the champion that the other player wants, and then successfully trade champions before the game starts, all while preparing your rune and summoner loadouts. We’ll be streamlining this process by letting you swap pick order with the press of a button!
We’ve heard feedback that with the only difference between ally’s names in champion select being the numbers 1 through 5, it can be difficult to tell who’s speaking, particularly when a lot of people are talking at the same time. So now you all get code names!
End of Season Honor rewards including the new Honor level 5 Malzahar skin reward will be granted according to your Honor level at the End of Season.
The ARAM AFK threshold has been changed to 120 seconds from 90 seconds.
Improving usability around favoriting champions so that you can find them faster in champion select. As a reminder, you can right click champions in champion select to favorite them for a specific role!
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: