The last League of Legends patch before Worlds, 12.14, has been previewed today by the lead designer at Riot, and it’s a hefty one. Overall, it seems that healing has been nerfed quite considerably; a bunch of champion passives have been lowered, as well as nearly every healing item and Summoner Spell.
This comes hot on the heels of the durability patch, something that saw an increase in MR and armour across the board. It seems like a strange shift – reversing some of the work they did earlier whilst potentially leaving champions with built-in healing as OP picks going forward.
The previously planned Teleport changes have been scrapped, much to the delight of top laners everywhere (except you, Singed. Don’t think we don’t see you).
Drakes look like they’ll be receiving quite the change; the buff you get pre-soul has been increased substantially, further emphasising the importance of the lower half of the map. Herald gold has also been increased, as has the health of the Herald summon – it will be interesting to see if this is enough to balance the worth of each objective.
League of Legends patch 12.14: Full notes
Below are the early patch notes for League of Legends patch 12.14, obtained via Riot Games.
Champion Buffs
Pantheon
- Comet Spear (Q): damage to monsters 70% > 105%
The increased damage to jungle monsters will make clearing with Pantheon much faster, making him a much more viable jungler than before.
Jarvan IV
- Dragon Strike (Q): AD ratio 120% > 140%
- Demacian Standard (E): cooldown 12 > 12-10 based on level
Increasing the scaling power of Jarvan’s Q translates to a lot more damage later in games, helping players stay relevant even if they are slightly behind the power curve in terms of items.
Teemo
- Mana regen per level: 20 > 25
- Noxious Trap (R): range 400/650/900 > 600/750/900
- Noxious Trap (R): AP ratio 50% > 55%
- Noxious Trap (R): mana cost 75 > 75/55/35
Quite a significant buff centred around Teemo’s ultimate ability. Raising the AP ratio scaling on his R should see a decent increase in damage if an enemy accidentally triggers his trap. Getting an enemy to step on your mushrooms can be tricky if they have good vision habits, so this increases the value of getting even one trap to trigger.
Nocturne
- Umbra Blades (Passive): 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)
Alistar
- Pulverize (Q): mana cost 65-85 > 55-75
- Pulverize (Q): cooldown 15-11 > 14-10
A small buff that should help Alistar in the early laning phase, being able to cast his Q ability more often and with less of a mana cost should help with those early game trades.
LeBlanc
- Base mana: 334 > 400
- Mana per level: 50 > 55
- Distortion (W): damage 75-215 > 75-235
The damage increase on LeBlanc’s W ability isn’t much to write home about, but the increase in base mana and regen levels should see her have a much easier time sustaining in the laning phase.
Varus
- Base AD: 59 > 62
A small increase in auto-attack damage will help with last-hitting minions and trading in the laning phase. Varus also has AD scaling on his W ability, so this will also see a slight increase in damage.
Champion Nerfs
Sivir
- Boomerang Blade (Q): cast time bugfix 0.25-0.18 > 0.25-0.10
- Ricochet (W): Minion damage 80% > 65%
- Ricochet (W): Bounces will now last-hit minions that are below 15HP
Although the minion damage has been lowered, the minor execute on Sivir’s W ability should translate into an easier time last-hitting minions in lane, especially without any significant damage items.
Yuumi
- Zoomies (E): AP ratio 35% > 30%
Lowers the overall healing output of Yuumi. She should still be strong in the right hands, but could run into even more mana issues now that the heals will have to come more frequently.
Seraphine
- Surround Sound (W): Shield AP ratio 35% > 25%
- Surround Sound (W): Heal AP ratio 0.6% missing HP per 100 AP > 0.4% missing HP per 100 AP
Seraphine has been a bit of a lane bully as of late, with great shielding and healing, as well as being able to output a fair amount of damage and CC. This should lower her ability to sustain both herself and the ADC in lane, potentially skewing the songstress further into the mid lane.
Gnar
- Base HP: 580 > 540
- HP regen per level: 1.75 > 1.25
The durability patch was more profitable for some Champions. Gnar was one of those, and this slight nerf to overall HP should see him brought in line with the rest of the top lane.
Zeri
- Right click (Q): no longer deals 60-150 (+18% AP) damage to enemies below 35% health > now executes enemies below 60-150 (+18%) health
- Burst Fire (Q): ELECTROCUTION – 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)
- Lightning Crash (R): On-hit damage 10/15/20 (+15% AP) > 5/10/15 (+15% AP)
The removal of the damage increase to lower health enemies nerfs Zeri’s poke damage massively. This further nerfs the AP build and may funnel Zeri players into a bruiser/sustain build – she won’t be able to burst Champions down as easily now so consistent damage will hold more value.
Renata Glasc
- Base HP: 595 > 545
- Base AD: 51 > 49
A slight overall nerf to Renata’s base stats.
Champion Adjustments
Wukong
- Base HP regen: 2.5HP per 5 seconds > 3.5HP per 5 seconds
- Stone Skin (Passive): Health regen per stack 0.5% max HP > 0.35% max HP
Shifting some of Wukong’s sustainability from his passive, making him less reliant on damaging enemies to gain health back.
Aatrox
- Health per level: 104 > 114
- Umbral Dash (E passive): Healing 18-26% > 18-24%
- World Ender (R): Healing 25-55% > 25-45%
Although the base health stats are being increased, this can be considered a nerf. The reduction of sustain later on in a match could see Aatrox fall off in viability, especially if the opposing team has itemised correctly against healing.
Rhaast (Red Kayn)
- Health per level: 104 > 114
- Passive healing: 25-35% of damage dealt to champions > 20-30% of damage dealt to champions
Again, another change that could be considered a nerf. Although higher base health will make Kayn seem much tankier, not being able to gain as much health back in team fights ultimately means he won’t be able to stay in the fray for long.
Janna
- Eye of the Storm (E): Bonus heal/shield power 20% > 15%
- Eye of the Storm (E): Shield 65-165 > 75-175
- Monsoon (R): Heal 90-200 (+45% AP) > 100-200 (+50% AP)
Shifting the healing/shielding from Janna’s E ability to her R. The value here is going to be using her ultimate ability in team fights, healing a lot more in a shorter space of time. Her laning power has been slightly reduced with more consistent healing/shielding being nerfed.
Gangplank
- Base Health: 640 > 600
- Health per level: 104 > 114
- Base armour: 35 > 31
- Trial by Fire (passive): Damage 55-310 (+100% bonus AD) > 55-310 (+100% bonus AD)(+250% critical strike chance)
- Parrrley (Q): Base damage 20/45/70/95/120 > 10/40/70/100/130
- Powder Keg (E): Slow amount 40-80% > 30-60% (+0.25% per 1% critical strike chance)
- Powder Keg (E): Bonus physical damage 80/105/130/155/180 > 75/105/135/165/195
- Powder Keg (E): Bonus damage on critical strike chance 25% > 10%
The idea behind these changes, as explained by the Lead Designer, was to weaken Gangplank’s early game laning power. They are moving some of his critical strike damage from barrels into what they call ‘more committal’ damage, whilst still leading players towards a critical strike item build.
System Nerfs
Potions
- Health Potion: Healing 150 > 120
- Refillable and Corrupting Potion: Healing 120 > 100
Summoner Spells
- Challenging Smite: Damage reduction 20% > 10%
- Exhaust: Damage reduction 40% > 30-40% (levels 1-9)
Runes
- Biscuit Delivery: Health/mana recovery 10% > 8%
- Biscuit Delivery: Max mana increase 50 > 40
- Bone Plating: Cooldown 45 > 55
- Conditioning: Gain 9 armour/magic resist and 4% total armour/magic resist > gain 8 armour/magic resist and 3% total armour/magic resist
- Guardian: Cooldown 70-40s > 90-40s
- Scorch damage: 15-35 > 20-40
- Second Wind: Healing 6 (+4% missing health) > 3 (+4% missing health)
- Sudden Impact: 7 lethality and 6 magic penetration > 9 lethality and 7 magic penetration
- Unflinching: 10-30% tenacity and slow resist > 5-25% tenacity and slow resist
- Time Warp Tonic: Movespeed 4% > 2%
Items
- Sunfire Cape: Base immolate damage 12-30 (+1% bonus health) > 15 (+1.5% bonus health)
- Chempunk Chainsword: Total cost 2600 > 2800, Combine Cost : 300 > 500
Enchanter Items:
- 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
Objective Changes
Elemental Drake Buffs
- Mountain Drake: 6% armour/magic resistance > 9% armour/magic resistance
- Ocean Drake: 2% missing health per 5s > 3% missing health per 5s
- Infernal Drake: 4% bonus attack damage and ability power ⇒ 6% bonus attack damage and ability power
- Hextech Drake: 6% attack speed and 6 ability haste > 9% attack speed and 9 ability haste
- Cloud Drake: 3.5% slow resist and out-of-combat movement speed > 7% slow resist and out-of-combat movement speed
- Cloud Soul: 10% bonus movement speed and 50% bonus movement speed on ultimate cast for 6s > 15% bonus movement speed and 50% bonus movement speed on ultimate case for 6s
Elemental Drake Health
- Health damage on attacks: 7% > 5%
- Health pre-Rift transformation: 2650 (+240 per level) > 3450 (+380 per level)
- Health post-Rift transformation: 4350 (+240 per level) > 6950 (+380 per level)
Base Damage
- Cloud Drake: 50 >35
- Mountain Drake: 150 >105
- Ocean Drake: 100 > 70
- Infernal Drake: 100 > 70
- Hextech Drake: 66.7 > 47
- All Drakes percent current health on auto: 7% > 5%
Elder Dragon
- Health: 6400 (+180 per minute) > 6400 (+290 per minute)
- AD: 150 > 105
Rift Herald
- Gold Reward: 100 to killer > 100 to killer + 200 local gold
- Chonky: Summoned Herald now has 75% more health.