League of Legends Patch 12.6 features little changes to champions, the only notable changes are those made on Illaoi and Rengar. A lot of healing items, particularly those that build off of Vampiric Scepter, are receiving changes. Runes pertaining to healing are receiving changes too, with Ravenous Hunter even being removed. Phase 1 of the Mythic Content Overhaul is here, and Ashen Knight Pyke comes with it. Speaking of skins, Anima Squad will be available in this patch.

Highlights can be found here.

Champions

Azir

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. 

  • Base Stats
    • Health Growth: 92 >>> 105
    • Health at Level 18: 2110 >>> 2337

Darius

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.) 

  • R – Noxian Guillotine
    • Minimum True Damage: 100/200/300 (+75% bonus AD) >>> 125/250/375 (+75% bonus AD)

Hecarim

 Tankarim is taking over Pro again, so we're nerfing the base damage on some of his abilities to ensure fairer horseplay. 

  • Q – Rampage
    • Base Damage: 60/97/134/171/208 (+85% bonus AD) >>> 60/90/120/150/180 (+85% bonus AD)
  • E – Devastating Charge
    • Minimum Total Damage: 30/50/70/90/110 (+55% bonus AD) ⇒ 30/45/60/75/90 (+55% bonus AD)
    • Maximum Total Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+110% bonus AD) ⇒ 60/90/120/150/180 (+110% bonus AD)

Illaoi

No balance changes here; instead, we fixed lots of bugs and updated Illaoi's ult to give her some more control over her tentacles. 

  • R – Leap of Faith
    • Updated: R – Leap of Faith now casts with Illaoi facing toward your cursor, allowing for more favorable Tentacle spawn locations.
  • Bugfixes
    • When Illaoi attacks a Vessel while empowered by W – Harsh Lesson, nearby inactive Tentacles will now slam her target as soon as they become active (short delay removed)
    • Spell queueing has been added to W – Harsh Lesson and R – Leap of Faith, so you can now buffer other spells while casting them
    • W – Harsh Lesson's visual indicators have been fixed and will show the correct range of her empowered basic attacks
    • Tentacles can no longer spawn on either team's base gates on Summoner's Rift
    • Vessels no longer contribute to Illaoi's creep score when they expire or are destroyed
    • Q – Tentacle Smash and E – Test of Spirit will now be visible to nearby enemy champions when cast from Fog of War

Jax

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. :^)

  • Base Stats
    • Base Health: 593 >>> 615
  • W – Empower
    • Magic Damage: 40/75/110/145/180 (+60% AP) >>> 50/85/120/155/190 (+60% AP)

Nidalee

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. 

  • Human Form W – Bushwhack
    • Mana Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 >>> 30/35/40/45/50
  • Human Form E – Primal Surge
    • Mana Cost: 50/60/70/89/90 >>> 50/55/60/65/70
    • Cast Range: 600 >>> 900 (now matches W – Bushwhack)
  • Cougar Form W – Pounce
    • AoE Damage Radius: 225 >>> 250

Rengar

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.

  • Passive – Unseen Predator
    • Updated: Rengar's next leap will grant 1 Ferocity only if he has 0 Ferocity >>> upon losing all Ferocity stacks (no matter how much Ferocity he gains before his next leap)
    • Updated: Rengar will be able to leap after 0.35 seconds in brush or camouflage (or Senna's E – Curse of the Black Mist camouflage) consistently, rather than based on a 0.3-0.45 second timer (Leap range has been slightly increased to offset variability)
    • New: Rengar now has a Ferocity resource bar that indicates how much Ferocity he currently has (Stacks generated by leaps will have a different color so you'll know if you'll gain Ferocity on your next leap)
    • All Ferocity Stacks Fall off After: 6 seconds >>> 10 seconds out of combat
    • Bonetooth Necklace Takedown Timer: Within 1.5 seconds >>> 3 seconds of damaging an enemy champion
  • Q – Savagery
    • New: Rengar's Q-empowered basic attack is now always a critical strike. Instead of regular critical strike damage, each 1% critical strike chance increases this empowered attack's damage by 0.66% (0.99% with Infinity Edge's Perfection passive)
    • Updated: Q – Savagery now applies to basic attacks against towers
    • Updated: Q – Savagery no longer applies to basic attacks against plants
  • E – Bola Strike
    • Updated: Rengar can no throw his E – Bola Strike instantly )with zero cast time_ during leaps
    • New: Now grants true sight and normal vision 150 units around the first enemy hit for 2 seconds
  • R – Thrill of the Hunt
    • Updated: Now grants not only true sight, but also normal vision 100 units around the nearest enemy.

Tryndamere

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. 

  • E – Spinning Slash
    • Cooldown Reduction per Critical Strike: 1 second (2 seconds against champions) >>> 0.75 seconds (1.5 seconds against champions)
  • R – Undying Range
    • Cooldown: 110/100/90 seconds >>> 130/110/90 seconds

Items

League of Legends Patch 12.6 cracks down on healing, particularly from AD items.

Immortal Shieldbow

  • Life Steal: 10% >>> 8% (12% >>> 10% for Ornn Masterwork item, Bloodward)
  • Shield Amount: 275-650 (levels 1-18) >>> 275-700 (levels 1-18) (same applies to Bloodward)
  • Mythic Passive: Empowers each of your Legendary items with 5 bonus AD and 50 bonus health >>> 5 bonus AD and 70 health (same applies to Bloodward)

Blade of the Ruined King

  • Life Steal: 10% >>> 8%

Vampiric Scepter

  • Life Steal: 10% >>> 8%

Runes

League of Legends Patch 12.6 further addresses the healing problem by removing the Domination rune Ravenous Hunter, which previously healed (vamped) for a portion of damage dealt to champions.

Ravenous Hunter

Removed.

Treasure Hunter

  • Gain 70 gold when you claim a Bounty Hunter stack. This bounty is increased by 20 gold for each Bounty Hunter Stack

Fleet Footwork

  • Healing on Fully Energized Attack: 10-100 (levels 1-18) (+40% bonus AD) (+30% AP) >>> 10-100 (levels 1-18) (+30% bonus AD) (+20% AP)

Legend: Bloodline

  • Life Steal per Legend Stack: 0.6% (up to 9% at 15 stacks) >>> 0.4% (up to 6% at 15 stacks)
  • New: After reaching maximum Legend stacks, your maximum health increases by 100.

LoL Patch 12.6 Bugfixes and QoL Changes

  • Janna W Bugfix/”Nerf”: Fixed a bug where Janna's W – Zephyr range had incorrectly reverted to edge-to-edge. It has been restored and now casts from center-to-center, and its range indicator has also been fixed (Note: This issue had considerable impact on Janna's 12.5 winrates, so we expect this to be somewhat of a nerf)
  • Fixed a bug where, if Tahm Kench R – Devoured an allied Senna while she was inside her E – Curse of the Black Mist, both champions would disappear from enemies' view
  • Fixed a bug where Lux's E – Lucent Singularity projectile would proc spell shields on all enemies it passes through, even though the projectile itself doesn't deal damage or cc
  • Fixed a bug where, if a ward was placed on top of an existing ward, the new one would start dancing moving randomly around the older one~

LoL Patch 12.6 Skins

The Anima Squad assembles in League of Legends Patch 12.6! More details about each skin can be found here. Ashen Knight Pyke also becomes available along with the Mythic Content Overhaul.

Battle Bunny Prime Riven, Battle Bunny Miss Fortune, Battle Bat Vayne, Battle Wolf Sylas, Battle Cat Jinx, and Prestige Battle Cat Jinx will be available March 31, 2022.