Subscribe
Follow Us
Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, Lead Designer for Game Balance in Riot Games, shared a preview of what's coming in League of Legends Patch 12.11.
Since this is the patch right after the big Champion Durability Update, Riot Phroxzon said that he and his team are “being careful to not undo what we just did and are doing our best to maintain item choice, champion feel and identity, role balance, etc.” in his Tweet.
System Buffs
- Crown of the Shattered Queen
- AP Mythic Items are being rebalanced.
- Hextech Rocketbelt
- Change reverted, see June 7 update at the end of this article.
- Night Harvester
- Goredrinker
- Overnerfed (some assassins don't have a better option and are buying)
- Duskblade of Draktharr
- Assassins are weak across the board. Being careful to not return too much burst, and also reduce incentives for fighter builds on Assassins.
- Changes reverted, see June 07 update at the end of this article.
- Eclipse
- Prowler's Claw
- Axiom Arc
- Serpent's Fang
- Sterak's Gage
- Item has been weak after fighter item changes, buffing towards juggernauts.
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Overnerfed
- Bami's Cinder
- Tanks became weaker than 12.9 with a few exceptions, bringing them back up
- Frostfire Gauntlet
- Turbo Chemtank
- Sunfire Aegis
- Randuin's Omen
- Spirit Visage
- Abyssal Mask
- Zeke's Convergence
- Knight's Vow
System Nerfs
- Tower Damage
- Outer turrets are hitting too hard, leaving others [as is] for now.
- Everfrost
- AP Mythic Items are being rebalanced.
- Liandry's Anguish
- Tapping sustained damage AP Mythics down a bit
- Nerf is “not too big”
- Riftmaker
- Umbral Glaive
- Item is denying a tad too much vision
- Maw of Malmortius
- These items have been strong since fighter changes. Tapping them down a bit after seeing how they landed post durability update
- Death's Dance
- Lethal Tempo
- Better balancing sustained item patterns vs alternatives
- Change reverted, see June 7 update at the end of this article.
- Kraken Slayer
System Adjustments
- Grievous Wounds
- Decreased 30/50% >>> 25/40%, items compensated appropriately to be power neutral
Champion Buffs
- Xin Zhao
- Nunu and Willump
- Ryze
- Taric
- Rakan
- Samira
- Caitlyn
- Aphelios
- Tahm Kench
- Irelia
- Gragas
- Lee Sin
- Tryndamere
- Sylas
Champion Nerfs
- Lillia
- Top lane Lillia specifically
- Wukong
- Master Yi
- Swain
- Taliyah
- Gwen
- Kayn
- Rhaast form
- Brand
- Kog'Maw
- Rengar
- Veigar
- Senna
- Olaf
- Top lane Olaf specifically
Champion Adjustments
Zeri will see a huge change to how her kit works. As shared by August “Riot August” Browning, the following changes will go live on League of Legends Patch 12.11.
- Q – Burst Fire
- Active damage increased 7/9/11/13/15 (+110/112.5/115/117.5/120% AD) >>> 8/11/14/17/20 (+110/115/120/125/130% AD)
- Passive charge attack damage increased from 90-200 (+80% AP) + 1-10% max health >>> 90-200 (+90% AP) + 3-15% max health (based on level)
- REMOVED: Passive charged attack no longer slows.
- W – Ultrashock Laser
- Slow decreased 30/40/50/60/70% >>> 30/35/40/45/50%
- AD ratio increased 140% >>> 150%
- Cooldown reduced 13/12/11/10/9 >>> 12/11/10/9/8 seconds
- NEW: If W – Ultrashock Laser hits a wall it will critically strike champions and monsters
- E – Spark Surge
- Cooldown reduced 26/24.5/23/21.5/20 >>> 22/20.5/19/17.5/16 seconds
- Cooldown reduction per hit reduced 1 >>> .5 seconds (cooldown reduction on crit reduced 3 >>> 1.5)
- R – Lightning Crash
- Cooldown reduced 120/95/70 >>> 100/85/70 seconds
- Movespeed per stack decreased 1.5% >>> 1%
- Stacks per champion hit by activate AoE 4 >>> 8
These changes aim to reduce utility and high-end mobility in exchange for more damage, lower cooldowns, and giving W the ability to crit.
Fizz will also receive some adjustments.
League of Legends Patch 12.11 Preview
In a follow-up tweet, Phroxzon listed some champions that “missed the cut” for this patch: Janna, Singed, Trundle, Shyvana, Mordekaiser, Ivern, Renekton, Soraka, Alistar. According to him, these champions were “borderline, but are either affected by other changes in the patch or just missed per the champion balance framework.”
Gangplank is also being considered for adjustments slated for either patch 12.12 or 12.13. Phroxzon stated that it will be “larger frustration changes and incentives to build crit that aren't damage.
Updated June 07, 2022: Riot Phroxzon announced that the changes to the Lethality items (except Umbral Glaive), Hextech Rocketbelt, and Lethal Tempo have been removed from this patch. This is to give the team time to “evaluate the magnitude and direction of these changes.” He also gave more context as to why these decisions were initially made and then removed afterwards.
Due to the Champion Durability Update in 12.10, assassins tended to build towards fighter items. According to Riot Phroxzon, this breaks assassin champions' fantasy and their strength and weakness profiles. To become “useful” and to fulfil said fantasy, assassins need to have a kill threat. Apparently in the higher ranks, about 25% of mythic items purchased on assassins were fighter items, and about 20% for Legendary items. This put the balance team in an odd spot, since nerfing the fighter items like Goredrinker, Black Cleaver, and Stridebreaker would hurt fighter champions more.
The balance team consider a certain champion “balanced” if their winrate sits between 49% and 53%, with “lots of nuance for skill bracket, frustration, pro, etc.” This is a huge range, and balancing champions got trickier with the Champion Durability Update. They also previously mentioned that they're being careful to not return the game to its previous state.
Click here for more League of Legends news.
