Riot will release patch 12.7 for League of Legends on April 12th, but LOL developers have already published a sneak peek at it. With some immense changes, Riot is hoping to fix some of patch 12.6 errors and help some struggling champions. Moreover, the League of Legends team is directing these changes towards pro-play; as patch 12.7 comes just before MSI’s mid-season invitationals. As such, the changes will surely reshape the highest level of play, but how?
Patch 12.7 Champion buffs
Most buffs are focused on top lane, jungle, and mid lane; while Kalista is buffed in the bot lane.
Gwen’s cooldowns will be reduced to improve her fighting power.
- E cooldown refund augmented: 50% → 60%
- R cooldown reduced: 120-80 seconds → 100-80 seconds
LOL forgot about Pantheon, but these buffs will put him back in the spotlight.
Some Pantheon buffs that are on PBE right now. Posting them here since they're a bit harder to find if you're just looking through PBE. pic.twitter.com/Da22qgeBbJ
— Tim (@TheTruexy) March 30, 2022
Yasuo is being buffed after 12.6’s life steal nerfs.
- Base health increased: 490 → 520
- Ultimate cooldown reduced: 80-30 seconds → 70-30 seconds
Brothers int together, so 12.7 buffs Yone too.
- Ultimate cooldown reduced: 120-80 seconds → 120-60 seconds
Developers massively buff Wukong, as Riot wants to make him jungle-viable.
- Q cooldown reduced: 9-7 seconds → 8-6 seconds
- W cooldown reduced: 20-16 seconds → 20-12 seconds
- Wukong can now go over walls using W
- E extra damage on monsters increased: 150% → 180%
- E AP ratio increased: 80% → 100%
Neeko gets an improved W (the return of AD Neeko?).
- W extra damage increased: 50-130 → 50-170
- W movement speed buffed: 10-30% → 10-40%
Gangplank’s passive and mana usage get a good buff (melee top laners will love this).
- Passive damage increased: 55-225 → 55-310
- W mana cost reduced: 80-120 → 60-100
Kalista receives decent stat buffs, but nothing really crazy.
- Base mana increased: 250 → 300
- Base movement speed increased: 325 → 330
- Attack speed per level increased: 4 → 4.5
Lillia gets a passive buff and some extra damage to make her jungling faster and her skirmishing better.
- Passive healing ratio increased:12% AP → 20% AP
- W damage increased: 70-150 → 80-160
Finally, Karthus’ damage against monsters is getting buffed to make his jungle better.
- Q extra damage against monsters increased: 85% → 95%
Patch 12.7 Champion nerfs
On the other hand, this patch’s champion nerfs will really target pro play; as all of the affected champions are very viable picks in the highest level of play.
Firstly, this patch will hit Zeri’s whole playstyle, as patch12.7 heavily nerfs her bruiser build but rewards crit builds. Riot wants to make her a real ADC, as it was intended in her release.
Zeri the carry is still very *checks notes* strong in pro play…
The nerfs hit all builds, but should hurt bruiser more than crit. We're making the ult stack slower and more consistently, no more 2x-5x stacks when hitting a grouped up team, but you get double stacks on crit! pic.twitter.com/74xQnje8RO
— August (@RiotAugust) April 5, 2022
Then, Riot will reduce Ryze’s viability by reducing his Q power (even if he holds a 45% win rate in solo Q).
- Q mana ratio decreased: 3% bonus mana → 2% bonus mana
- Q AP ratio increased: 45% → 50%
Lee Sin is a very good bruiser, with a good damage-tankiness balance. Yet, LOL’s design team has decided to tackle his immense damage output.
- Base AD reduced: 68 → 66
- Q1 and Q2 damage reduced: 55-155 → 50-150
Lastly, Jayce has been dominating the top lane for quite a while now, and Riot has decided to fix his fighting power by reducing his tankiness.
- Base health reduced: 560 → 520
- Health per level increased: 90 → 95
- Base armor reduced: 27 → 22
- Armor per level increased: 3.5 → 3.8
Patch 12.7 Champion adjustments
Meanwhile, the patch’s champion adjustments focus on fixing Rengar’s power level. Riot mini-reworked Rengar in the last patch, but he has been quite overpowered. Hence, 12.7 is here to try and balance his effect on games (although the community asks for more nerfs).
- Q bonus damage reduced on structures by 40%
- W bonus damage on monsters increased: 65-130 → 85-150
(Dekar173 video on current Rengar state)
Patch 12.7 System buffs
Simultaneously, in this patch Riot has decided to buff some forgotten items that the LOL community does not really use in order to give them a new life.
Developers introduced the umbral glaive in the 2020 preseason, but the community has proven that the item is not too popular. Mostly assasins pick this item, but its passive obliges the player to face check bushes, which is not great to do when you are squishy. However, Riot is trying to make the item more cost-effective in this patch.
- Cost reduced: 2400 gold → 2300 gold
- Passive cooldown reduced: 45 seconds → 35 seconds
At the same time, the tank item Abyssal Mask is getting some love. Tanks have not really used the item since its rework in patch 11.23 and prefer to use Force of Nature instead. Yet, Riot has decided to buff the items’ passive to see if it can come back into the meta.
- Max magic resistance shred increased: 20 → 25
- Shred health ratio increased: 1% bonus health → 1.2% bonus health
Patch 12.7 System nerfs
Finally, the LOL developers have decided to nerf some of the strongest items in the game to prepare for MSI. In the same way, they have decided to tone down an overused rune for pro-play.
Firstly, Riot will nerf Winter’s approach and its evolution, Fimbulwinter, to tone down its versatility.
- Cost increased: 2600 gold → 2700 gold
- Health provided decreased: 400 → 350
Since its release in patch 10.23, most enchanter supports have chosen Moonstone renewer as their predominant mythic item. As such, Riot is tuning down its healing capabilities.
- Heal/shield power per stack reduced: 7% → 6%
- Maximum stacks reduced: 35% → 30%
In the same fashion, most ADCs have predominantly opted to choose Galeforce as their mythic item. Few items match its mobility and damage, so Riot wants to balance its pick rate by nerfing the cooldown.
- Active cooldown increased: 90 seconds → 110 seconds
Last but not least, Riot has decided to decrease the power of Time warp tonic; a rune predominantly used in pro-play to survive longer in the laning phase.
- Immediate potion health and/or mana restore decreased: 50% → 30%
- Bonus movement speed provided reduced: 5% → 4%
Patch 12.7 Skins
Along with the previously mentioned changes to the game, experts think that Riot will release the new Arcana skins. The lucky champions will be Ahri, Xayah, Rakan (at last, the lovers can be together again), Ryze, and Hercarim; and they will join the group of skins previously formed by Xerath, Tahm Kench, Lucian, and Camile. The quality or price of the skins has not been leaked, but they will probably be epic and cost 1350 RP.
✨Let Arcana reveal your fate… 🎴 pic.twitter.com/vi8W5fNHsC
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) March 30, 2022
What do you think of this heavy patch? Do you think that LOL’s team has made the right decisions prior to MSI mid-season invitationals?
laura
main zeris are shaking
sandra
I’m really excited for this update!!