With Season 12 launching, League of Legends developers have been gradually releasing new information about the changes that are arriving in the game. Fans won't have to wait long until the turn of the year, and with it, we can expect some major updates to champions and other in-game mechanics, especially for the first patch of the season. Here's some of the more noteworthy reworks, buffs, and nerfs that we know so far, altering the dynamic of League of Legends gameplay in Season 12.

League of Legends Season 12 changes

Janna rework

Revealed on December 10, Janna's kit is getting a rework that will turn the support champion into less of a poke-based, lane-centric one into a more utility-oriented pick. Her base stats will improve through increased Attack Damage and Movement Speed. On the other hand, her auto attacks will have reduced range from 550 to 500 units.

But the biggest change for Janna lies in the buffs to the tornado or her Q, with lower mana costs, longer range, and slightly higher champion damage. Meanwhile, her W or Zephyr ability faces nerfs in terms of longer cooldown times to prevent spamming especially in lane phase, but it will deal more damage and slow down opponents for a longer time.

“The thing that makes the Q stronger offensively is the [minimum] range and travel speed. Max charge Qs are much harder to dodge and snapcast knockups are easier to hit, especially when combo’d with W,” said Riot August in explanation of the rework.

Check the exact list of changes below:

Base stats

  • Attack damage: 46 + 1.5/level -> 52 + 3/level
  • Attack range: 550 -> 500
  • Move speed: 315 -> 330

Passive: Tailwind

  • Gain 8% move speed -> Gain 8% move speed only when moving toward allies
  • Attacks and W no longer deal bonus magic damage based on bonus move speed

Q: Howling Gale

  • Damage: 60-160 + 15-35 per second of charge -> 60-180 + 15-55 per second of charge
  • Deals 80% damage to minions
  • Mana cost: 60-140 -> 60-100
  • Minimum range: 1000 -> 1100
  • Maximum range: 1750 -> 1760
  • Travel time: 1.5 seconds -> 1.25 seconds

W: Zephyr

  • Cooldown: 8-6 seconds -> 12 seconds
  • Damage: 55-175 -> 70-190
  • Passive move speed: 6-10% -> 8-14%
  • Range: 550 (edge-to-edge) -> 650 (center-to-center)
  • Slow duration: 2 seconds -> 3 seconds

E: Eye Of The Storm

  • Cooldown: 16-12 seconds -> 15-9 seconds
  • Time before decay: 0.75 seconds -> 1.25 seconds
  • Slowing or knocking up an enemy no longer shortens cooldown by 20%

Rengar buffs

The new dragons in Season 12, which play a part in transforming the features Summoner's Rift, have significantly nerfed Rengar's kit. For example, the Chemtech dragon map introduces camouflage zones to the jungle, removing brushes which are vital to Rengar's stealthy approach to the game.

Unsurprisingly, the Pridestalker's win rate dropped below 45 percent in preseason. The League of Legends balance team has thus decided to introduce some changes to bring Rengar back up to a decent level of power in the game.

The first change, announced on December 11, involves Rengar's ultimate called Thrill of the Hunt. To buff up the ability, Riot developers have added a new Passive wherein “Rengar will also leap attack when Camouflaged.”

This could do wonders for the champion in allowing him to stay stealthy while ambushing opponents with a decent damage threat, since the passive takes direct advantage of the ult's active that puts Rengar into a camouflaged state. When leaping, the champion deals bonus physical damage and shreds through armor. Moreover, this could work well with the Chemtech dragon map, since Rengar won't have to rely on brushes anymore but can exploit the camouflage zones.

Teleport nerfs

Teleport is one extremely powerful summoner spell not just for top laners, but even mid and ADC positions as of late. Riot is changing this up by limiting where you can use TP, making it a less advantageous or desirable spell to take.

Teleport now comes in two forms: the basic teleport and the Unleashed teleport, the latter of which players can only unlock by 14 minutes into the match. In the basic form, players channel TP for four seconds but can only target allied structures—your own towers. Then, once you get the upgraded spell post-14, you can now TP “as normal” to other structures like minions and wards.

With this change, TP is not as powerful in the early game, especially if you try to support your teammates when a fight suddenly breaks out in the jungle. So the spell can't take you to an exact location anymore, like teleporting to a ward, so you might use it more sparingly or may find that you arrive too late to the fight—at least before 14 minutes.

While these changes are live on the PBE, whether they make it to the final Season 12 patch remains to be seen. Riot could still introduce more tweaks to the numbers and see if these have the intended effects on swinging the balance of the game and altering game state.

Chemtech changes

Riot introduced new dragons for Season 12—Hextech Drake and Chemtech Drake. The latter of the two, however, is proving to have some issues already in terms of giving the team too much of an advantage, particularly when the Chemfog takes over Summoner's Rift and one side claims the Dragon Soul.

As such, the developers plan to add more Scryer's Blooms to the Chemtech Rift when the first patch of Season 12 drops next year. This will give players more vision around the map without burdening them to buy more Control Wards than normal.

Item changes

  • Patch 12.1 item buffs and nerfs (Shieldbow, Eclipse, Force of Nature, Wit's End)

The latest cycle of the PBE, which launched on December 21, before the arrival of Patch 12.1 has rolled out some changes to mythic and legendary items. In particular, players will see a weaker version of Immortal Shieldbow, which took a hit both for the shield and the bonus AD. Wit's End gets a new build path, while Eclipse's cooldown for the move speed and shield proc will increase to eight seconds. Lastly, Force of Nature will receive buffs, improving its magic damage reduction and lengthening the duration for the movement speed buff.

  • (Broad) changes to fighter items

AD fighters, particularly for the top and jungle positions, rely on a particular set of items, including the likes of Sterak's Gage. However, Riot has plans to modify these fighter items, such as Maw of Malmortius and Death's Dance to give players more variety in terms of build options. Hopefully, these could become better alternatives to Sterak's, with the changes expected to be shipped out in the first half of 2022.

Others (broad plans, no specifics yet)

Besides the specific changes detailed above, Riot developers have also revealed their intention for some broad changes. In a Developer's blog posted on December 16, Riot Axes shared that the team is looking to bring some changes to Ahri's kit. We can expect a rework in Season 12, similar in extent to the planned Janna changes. However, no details have emerged as of yet.

Meanwhile, on a more system-wide scale, League developers are also looking at shaking up the meta in terms of reducing the power of burst damage as well as healing and sustain. Burst kills happen too often and too quickly, so they want to introduce more counterplay options without making assassins non-viable. Riot also doesn't want to create a tank meta, so they are being careful with introducing changes. They also plan to nerf some runes and items that are currently providing healers and shielders too much sustain. These two aspects go hand-in-hand in order to improve the overall health of League of Legends.