Squad up for patch 12.6!
Anima Squad up, that is. It's been a hot minute since the mid-patch 12.5 balances, so there's a lot in store this week. In addition to some spunky new sci-fi skins, we have buffs and nerfs galore, a set of adjustments to Rengar, and systemic changes to sustain items and runes. Phase 1 of the Mythic Content Overhaul is also finally here! Keep reading to find out more about Mythic Essence, the Mythic Shop, unvaulted Prestige skins, and an update on Phase 2.
Anyway, back to the Rift—heard norms are looking kinda sus this week, gonna go check that out...
Your crime-fighting mecha crew not online for Flex 5s yet? No worries—you can always read about your favorite autoBattle Bunnybattler while you wait for 'em over at the TFT patch notes here!
We’re currently working on resolving a large number of bugs that were shipped in patch 12.6 and exclusively affect Summoner’s Rift normal draft and blind pick game modes. (Ranked queues are unaffected.) To assist our investigation, please take screenshots or short recordings of any bugs found and tag us on Twitter @LeagueOfLegends so we can address the root cause.
We're aiming to ship a batch of fixes on April 2 at 10:00pm PST for all issues we identify. We've included a preliminary list below, though we believe there are more still to be found. Thanks for your patience.
Health growth increased.
A little birdy told us that Azir's been weak, and the numbers told us the birdy was right. His lack of Pro presence in a scaling meta that should favor him was the final confirmation, so we're giving him some base stat power that should help the Emperor of Shurima in all skill brackets.
R base damage increased.
Darius has been lagging behind other juggernauts after the fighter item changes, so we're giving him a beefy damage boost. (As a reminder, his ult's total damage can increase by up to 100% based on his passive stacks.)
Q and E base damage decreased late.
Tankarim is taking over Pro again, so we're nerfing the base damage on some of his abilities to ensure fairerhorseplay.
QoL change on R and several bugfixes.
No balance changes here; instead, we fixed lots of bugs and updated Illaoi's ult to give her some more control over her tentacles.
Base health increased. W base damage increased.
Jax has been mediocre for a while, so we're giving him some early game power to help him get to his item power spikes. He may not have a real weapon at first, but now he can buy one a little sooner. :^)
Human W cost decreased; E mana cost decreased late and cast range increased. Cougar W damage radius increased.
Human-form Nidalee is a mana-hungry huntress, but her overall kit is much more compatible with the non-mana mage Mythics. We're giving her more access to her utility spells as well as making her AoE range bigger so she can claw enemies and jungle camps more effectively. Lastly, her heal cast range was pretty restrictive (especially for a character with so many other positioning constraints), so we're increasing it to match that of her Bushwhack trap placement. All in all, this should make her more accessible and stronger across all skill brackets.
Passive adjustments to Ferocity, leaps, and Bonetooth Necklace; new Ferocity resource bar added. Q basic attacks now always crit; damage now scales with crit chance; now applies against towers; no longer applies against plants. E cast time during leap removed; now grants true sight and some vision around target. R now also grants some vision around target.
Our big kitty finally has some big changes coming to his kit! Our goals were to smooth out Rengar's gameplay, keep his current playstyle, and clarify his builds. We're going to keep a close eye on the Q crit damage ratio so he doesn't get too out of line. We also know that Q no longer applying on plants can be painful for seasoned players who used this mechanic to optimize Ferocity stacks, but we strongly believe it wasn't healthy to support long term and have instead moved that power to more accessible parts of his kit.
E cooldown reduction per crit decreased. R cooldown increased.
Tryndamere is too strong at the highest levels of play. His kit scales too well with Ability Haste, so we're readjusting his cooldowns to account for the higher amounts of Ability Haste available to him through items.
Many sustain options were added with the introduction of Mythics last year, especially for early game itemization. We believe sustain is still a compelling choice for Mythic slots, but these options just give a bit too much bang for your buck as they are today.
To make the tradeoffs between sustain and power more significant, we're adjusting some life steal choices in a way that better reflects their cost and value. Hopefully you'll see less of those draintanking plays that can happen when these items are stacked, as well as fewer lanes where sustain washes out trades too quickly. Lastly, we've left the fighter system items out of this list since they were recently adjusted and have landed in a pretty good spot in terms of balancing sustain and power.
We have a few changes to runes related to the sustain item changes above. Most notably, we're replacing Ravenous Hunter with a new, shiny, and not-sustain-related rune: Treasure Hunter. Ravenous Hunter was too prevalent in the sustain system as it was too easy to access and stack with other runes, items, and abilities. This meant we’ve had to tune down the rune to a pretty sad state to mitigate its potential sustain power.
Sustain also felt a bit out of place in Domination, a rune tree that's supposed to be all about aggression. This replacement will give us more room to let sustain shine in the limited places where it still exists, and also reward those aggressive champions that are really looking to ca$$$h in.
Phase 1 of the Mythic Content Overhaul has arrived! Here are all the details, as well as a couple of changes since our original announcement.
Gemstones and Prestige Points are combining into a single new currency that never expires: Mythic Essence! Mythic Essence—ME for short—can be obtained everywhere Gemstones or Prestige Points were previously earned. You can spend Mythic Essence in the Mythic Shop for special skins, accessories, and more.
The new Mythic Shop features content that rotates on a regular basis, including the return of past Prestige skins!
Mythic skins and accessories in the Mythic Shop will rotate every three months (every 6 patches). New Mythic skins debut at 100 ME and will cost 125 ME in future unvaults. Legacy Mythic skins that were once purchasable via Gemstones (such as Hextech Annie, Soulstealer Vayne, etc.) will also be available in the shop and cost 100 ME on first unvault, and 125 ME on future ones. Here's what's on offer for this patch rotation, as well as other options that will be available year-round.
Prestige skins can only appear in the Mythic Shop at least one year after their original release. They'll cost 125 ME the first time they're offered in the Mythic Shop, 150 ME on the second, and 200 ME if they've been unvaulted three or more times.*
Usually two Prestige skins will be unvaulted at a time and will be available in the Mythic Shop for one month (2 patches). However, to celebrate the new shop's launch, we're unvaulting six Prestige skins that will be available for three months (6 patches)!
To recognize the higher investment required to obtain Prestige skins in 2018 and 2019, players who owned these skins before patch 12.5 will receive additional, exclusive 2022 editions of these skins. Commemorative Prestige skins will never be available via shops, loot, or rerolls. The following skins will be gradually distributed to original owners over the next month:
To highlight the release of new Mythic and Prestige skins, limited edition loading screen borders and summoner icons can now only be obtained by purchasing the skin in the Mythic Shop or event Token Shop during the skin's initial debut period. Once a Mythic or Prestige skin is no longer available in these shops, it will be added to the regular loot drop and skin shard reroll pools without the limited edition loading screen border and summoner icon. This means that Mythic and Prestige skins can still be obtained via loot drops or skin rerolls but only AFTER their debut period ends, and WITHOUT their matching borders and icons.*Note: This is another change from our original plan of removing Mythic and Prestige skins from loot drops and rerolls permanently, based on player feedback. This option grants players exclusive content for unlocking skins during debut periods and also allows collectors to obtain these skins via loot and rerolls without needing to wait for them to unvault.
All of the above announcements are just Phase 1 of the Mythic Content Overhaul! While we're not launching Phase 2 just yet, we do have one big update to share regarding Showcase and Masterwork Milestones, which are reward tracks that will replace much of what was offered through Prestige Points in the past.
We've adjusted our plans for Showcase Milestones, and Prestige skins that debut during Showcases will be available for purchase in the Mythic Shop for 125 ME rather than as the final reward of a Showcase Milestone track! Once the Showcase ends, the Prestige skin will immediately retire from the Mythic Shop and become available via loot drops and rerolls without its border and icon, just like other vaulted Prestige skins. We'll be adjusting the Showcase milestone rewards track to accommodate this update.
And last but not least, don't forget—there's also a Phase 3 of the Mythic Content Overhaul! Stay tuned for more details later this year.
Unrelated to the above, we're removing the ability to activate loot shards to rent champions, skins, and ward skins for 7 days. Virtually no one used the rental system; many players didn't even know it existed (heh). Any rentals that are currently active will still stay active for their remaining duration.
The ability to upgrade shards into permanents, reroll them into permanents, or disenchant them into essence is not affected by any of these changes.
Team formation for the second weekend of the Freljord Cup starts on March 28, and the tournaments will be on April 2 and 3.
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: