League of Legends Patch 14.12

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Star Guardian! Nope, it’s patch 12.14!

It’s a Bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Star Guardian? Nope, it’s patch 12.14 bringing you your biweekly dose of gameplay changes and updates!

This patch includes several healing targeted updates to bring League’s hyper healers (and their items) to justice. We’re also making some adjustments to drakes, Elder Dragon, and Rift Herald as well as a few runes and summoner spells. Lastly, we’re welcoming the second half of everyone’s favorite high school superheroes, the Star Guardians, to the Rift this patch! Fight on Star Guardians!

Everyone nowadays is a high school superhero, but I’ll tell you what, back in my day we had a handful of gold coins, and some powerful Dragons to buy. Speaking of, you can learn all about our changes in TFT: Dragonlands at the TFT patch notes here!

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

CHAMPIONS

Aatrox

Health growth increased. E’s healing passive decreased late. R bonus healing decreased late.

With the Grievous Wounds nerf in patch 12.11 Aatrox’s life-stealing drain tanking has gotten a bit out of hand. We’re shifting his power a bit by bringing down his overall healing in favor of increasing the Darkin’s baseline durability.

Base Stats

Health Growth 104 ⇒ 114

E – Umbral Dash

Passive Healing 18/20/22/24/26% ⇒ 18/19.5/21/22.5/24%

R – World Ender

Increased Healing 25/40/55% ⇒ 25/35/45%

Alistar

Q mana cost decreased at all ranks, cooldown decreased at all ranks.

Compared to other melee supports, Alistar has been falling behind the herd. We’re looking to increase the uptime of his Q – Pulverize so he can more often use a second Pulverize in fights—especially when he has his ultimate going.

Q – Pulverize

Mana Cost 65/70/75/80/85 ⇒ 55/60/65/70/75

Cooldown 15/14/13/12/11 ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10

Base health and base armor decreased, health growth increased. Passive now scales with crit chance. Q base damage decreased early, increased late. E slow reduced, slow now scales with crit chance, bonus physical damage decreased early and increased late, bonus damage on crits reduced.

One of Gangplank’s most defining features is his ability to turn the tides of a fight with late game barrel chains and critical strikes. However, getting to those late game power spikes shouldn’t be smooth sailing. We’re opting to weaken his laning phase by reducing his harass strength and making him a bit squishier early while maintaining incentives for him to itemize crit.

Base Stats

Base Health 640 ⇒ 600

Health Growth 104 ⇒ 114

Base Armor 35 ⇒ 31

Passive – Trial by Fire

Damage 55-310 (based on level)(+100% bonus AD) ⇒ 55-310 (based on level)(+100% bonus AD)(+200% Critical Strike Chance)

Q – Parrrley

Base Damage 20/45/70/95/120 ⇒ 10/40/70/100/130

E – Powder Keg

Slow Amount 40/50/60/70/80% ⇒ 30/37.5/45/52.5/60% (+0.25% per 1% Crit Chance at all ranks)

Bonus physical damage 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 / 180 ⇒ 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195

E bonus damage on crit 25% ⇒ 10%

Gnar

Base health decreased, health regeneration growth decreased.

Mini Gnar hasn’t been quite as vulnerable during his laning phase as we’d like. We’re looking to reduce his base health and health regeneration growth so that he’s a bit more punishable at close range, similar to other ranged top laners.

Base Stats

Base Health 580 ⇒ 540

Health Regeneration Growth 1.75 ⇒ 1.25

Janna

E base shield amount increased at all ranks, bonus heal and shield power decreased. R heal per second increased at all ranks, AP scaling increased.

In this patch one of our objectives is to nerf overtuned healing and shielding champions and items. In an effort to bring healing systems back in line, we needed to take a little bit of the wind out of Janna’s sails since her shield and heal power stood out compared to the other item stats we’re updating this patch. Shifting her power more into her base heals and shield should help keep her more in line with her enchanter friends.

E – Eye Of The Storm

Shield Amount 65/90/115/140/165 ⇒ 75/100/125/150/175

Bonus Heal and Shield Power 20% ⇒ 15%

R – Monsoon

Heal per Second 90/145/200 (+45% AP) ⇒ 100/150/200 (+50% AP)

Jarvan IV

Q AD scaling increased. E cooldown now decreases with rank.

Jarvan IV has been struggling in a world of extended combat duration and our last round of buffs in patch 12.12 didn’t aid the King as much as we had hoped. This time around we’re increasing his ability to make plays by increasing the uptime of his flag and drag combo.

Q – Dragon Strike

Damage 90/130/170/210/250 (+120% bonus AD) ⇒ 90/130/170/210/250 (+140% bonus AD)

E – Demacian Standard

Cooldown 12 seconds ⇒ 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 seconds

Kayn

Health growth increased. Passive Rhaast healing based on damage dealt decreased.

Red Kayn/Rhaast has been running rampant due to the Grievous Wounds nerfs in 12.11 leaving his healing unchecked. Like Aatrox, we’re shifting his power by reducing his healing and increasing his base durability.

Base Stats

Health Growth 99 ⇒ 109

Passive – The Darkin Scythe

Rhaast Passive Heal 25-35% (based on level) of damage dealt to champions ⇒ Heal 20-30% (based on level) of damage dealt to champions

LeBlanc

Base mana and mana growth increased. W base damage increased late.

LeBlanc has taken quite a hit after the Durability Update, unable to keep up with everyone’s increased stats. We’re looking to snap her back into reality by relaxing her ability’s mana constraints and giving her more mana to poke her opponents down into her kill range.

Base Stats

Base Mana 334 ⇒ 400

Mana Growth 50 ⇒ 55

W – Distortion

Damage 75/110/145/180/215 (+60% AP) ⇒ 75/115/155/195/235 (+60% AP)

Nocturne

Passive adjusted.

We’re giving Nocturne a small quality of life update so that he isn’t punished by his passive when trying to tax

last hit minions.

Passive – Umbra Blades

Minion Damage No longer deals 50% reduced damage against minions that are the primary target (note: will still do 50% reduced damage to all other minions damage by Nocturne’s Passive)

Pantheon

Q damage to monsters increased.

Despite recent efforts to strengthen Pantheon in solo lanes he hasn’t been able to pick up much traction. Given that we’re in a slower, low kill meta, we’re reverting the changes made in patch 11.3 to help Pantheon make a grand starfall

re-entrance into the jungle to help spice up the early game.

Q – Comet Spear

Minion and Monster Damage Deals 70% damage to minions and monsters ⇒ Deals 70% damage to minions and 105% to monsters

Renata Glasc

Base health and base AD decreased.

Renata’s corporate takeover of the bot lane has come to fruition recently, solidifying her place as a top support. That said, nothing lasts forever. We’re taking Renata down a notch by lowering her base stats so she has to be a little more calculated when picking trades in the early game.

Base Stats

Base Health 595 ⇒ 545

Base AD 51 ⇒ 49

Seraphine

W shield and heal AP scaling decreased.

Seraphine’s taken center stage as a result of the Champion Durability Update and her recent buffs in 12.12. While she shines brightest as a bot carry, her mid and support performances are also extraordinary. In order to help tone her down we’re reducing how effectively she can support allies when itemizing AP by decreasing her AP ratios.

W – Surround Sound

Shield 50/70/90/110/130 (+35% AP) ⇒ 50/70/90/110/130 (+25% AP)

Heal Per Ally 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% (+0.6% per 100 AP) missing health ⇒ 5/5.5/6/6.5/7% (+0.4% per 100 AP) missing health

Sivir

Q bugfix. W damage to minions decreased, now executes minions below a certain threshold.

Sivir hit the jackpot with her mid-scope update and landed in a pretty strong spot, particularly in the waveclear department. We’re looking to tone down her ability to waveclear so effectively by reducing the amount of damage her W does to high health minions, but adding an execute so that she can still haul in the gold by last hitting effectively.

Q – Boomerang Blade

CAST TIME BUGFIX 0.25-0.18 seconds scaling down with Attack Speed ⇒ 0.25-0.10 seconds scaling down with Attack Speed

W – Ricochet

Damage to Minions 80% ⇒ 65%

newGOLD IS FOREVER Bounces now execute minions that are hit by a ricochet and would have been left at less than 15 health

Teemo

Mana growth increased. R range increased early, AP scaling increased, mana cost now scales down with rank.

After the Durability Update Teemo’s shrooms haven’t been hitting as hard as they once did. To help out the Swift Scout, we’re buffing his mushroom power and increasing his placement range in the early stages of the game. We’re also relaxing some of his mana restrictions, so that he’s gated by R’s cooldown instead of mana issues.

Base Stats

Mana Growth 20 ⇒ 25

R – Noxious Trap

Placement Range 400 / 650 / 900 ⇒ 600 / 750 / 900

Damage 200 / 325 / 450 (+ 50% AP) ⇒ 200 / 325 / 450 (+ 55% AP)

Mana Cost 75 Mana ⇒ 75 / 55 / 35 Mana

Varus

Base AD increased.

Varus hasn’t been hitting the mark in either Pro Play or Solo Queue, so we’re giving him a straightforward buff that should help, regardless of whatever build he opts for.

Base Stats

Base AD 59 ⇒ 62

Wukong

Base health regeneration increased. Passive health regeneration per stack decreased.

With the value of healing having gone up in the Durability Update, the value of Wukong’s passive has gone up as well, especially in the later stages of the game. We’re putting a stop to this monkey business by shifting his health regen from his passive to his base stats. This should result in his laning phase feeling roughly the same, but reduce his scaling regeneration a bit.

Base Stats

Base Health Regeneration 2.5 ⇒ 3.5 per 5 seconds

Passive – Stone Skin

Health Regeneration Per Stack (max 10) 0.5% ⇒ 0.35%

Yuumi

E AP scaling decreased.

Yuumi’s been having as much fun as a cat with a ball of yarn since the Durability Update. As one of League’s premier enchanters we’re dampening the amount of healing she can output to bring her more in line with other supports.

E – Zoomies

Heal 70/90/110/130/150 (+35% AP) ⇒ 70/90/110/130/150 (+30% AP)

Zeri

Q Passive adjusted. R bonus magic damage decreased.

Zeri’s ability to win duels and wavepush due to her increased damage to low health enemies has made her unfair-y to her opponents. We’re opting to preserve this mechanic as a tool to help her last hit minions, but eliminating its strengths when it comes to dealing with low health enemies more broadly.

Q – Burst Fire

newELECTROCUTION Right clicks executes enemies with health under 60-150 (levels 1-18)(+18% AP) (note: Damage to shields or invulnerabilities does not proc this execute)

removed LOW ON BATTERY Uncharged Zeri’s right click attack no longer does increased damage to enemies below a certain health threshold

R – Lightning Crash

Bonus Magic Damage 10/15/20 (+15% AP) ⇒ 5/10/15 (+15% AP)

ITEMS

Chempunk Chainsword

With our changes in patch 12.11, Chempunk Chainsword became an incredibly gold efficient item, even with its reduced Grievous Wounds effects. Instead of nerfing the item’s stats we’re opting to increase its cost to bring it more in line with other Legendary Fighter item options.

Combine Cost 300 ⇒ 500

Total Cost 2600 ⇒ 2800

Enchanter Items

Enchanters as a whole were the big winners of the Durability Update, even after the systematic nerfs we did to heal and shield power in 12.10. They’re harder to kill early, are buffing more durable targets, and benefit from weaker Grievous Wounds. We think there are a lot of beneficial aspects to having enchanters be more durable, but they’re currently much too effective at keeping allies and themselves alive come mid to late game. We’re nerfing all of their common items so that there are more opportunities to kill that out-of-position carry with an enchanter behind them.

Forbidden Idol Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%

Ardent Censer Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%

Mikael’s Blessing Heal and Shield Power Increase 20% ⇒ 16%

Redemption Heal and Shield Power Increase 20% ⇒ 16%

Staff of Flowing Water Heal and Shield Power Increase 10% ⇒ 8%

Moonstone Renewer Maximum Stacks 5 ⇒ 4

Sunfire Aegis

Sunfire Aegis has started to emerge as a powerful second item for DPS champions. While Fighters have dipped into other Tank items before, Sunfire offers the most stats and potent damage compared to other options. We’re adjusting Sunfire so its damage output is more strongly tied to health stacking.

Immolate Damage 12-30 (based on level) (+1% bonus health) ⇒ 15 (+1.75% bonus health)

POTIONS AND RUNES

After the Durability Update we’ve seen kills in the early game decrease substantially, especially in professional play.

Overall, we believe that the amount of damage post-laning phase is in a good spot. However, it’s currently too difficult to create meaningful leads in lane due to the amount of strong defensive runes and potions. We’re opting to nerf these sustain options so that getting early advantages is a bit more achievable.

Potions

Health Potion Healing 150 ⇒ 120

Refillable Potion 125 ⇒ 100

Corrupting Potion 125 ⇒ 100

SUMMONER SPELLS

Challenging Smite

With champions being more durable, the damage reduction aspect of Challenging Smite isn’t as necessary as it once was. Now that we’re giving junglers a bit more early game influence with the objective changes we’re looking to pull a bit of power out of this summoner spell.

Smite Target Damage Reduction 20% ⇒ 10%

Exhaust

Exhaust has become a common summoner spell for marksmen recently, making it a bit too hard to all in and kill enchanter supports in the bot lane. We’re toning down its power to make it a bit less exhausting to play against.

Exhausted Target Damage Reduction 40% ⇒ 35%