A Breakdown of League of Legends Patch 12.1

League of Legends Season 12 begins soon, which is an opportunity for Riot Games to make a few last-minute changes. League Patch 12.1 adjusts champions and items, mostly related to melee champions and physical damage.

In a nutshell, Immortal Shieldbow finally gets the nerf it deserves. He had been a staple of competitive play for most AD/C roles during the preseason. The fresh mechanic for Teleport now makes it harder to get early ganks, as well as setting a pace for team fights to mid-to-late game phases. Lastly, Rengar gets his abilities and passive buffed to make jungling and ganking much easier.

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League Patch 12.1

Champion Updates

The previous League of Legend patch nerfed spell-reliant champions like Lux, Kaisa, or Kassadin too hard. LoL Patch 12.1 seeks to balance out primarily melee or physical-damaging champions. For example, it moderately changes how Rengar works, allows Diana to farm monsters much more effortlessly, and also provides Gangplank with more poking potential.

Additionally, nerfs to Sona and Rek’sai will come with the update. However, the effective statistical changes are yet to be revealed. As mentioned last December, the promised all-around buffs for Janna have yet to arrive in patch 12.1. Instead, they have been rescheduled to 12.2, coming on January 20.

Rengar’s passive and abilities primarily received statistical updates. The champion can now stack with his passive more comfortably. Bola Strike (E) has no cast time and reveals the target for two seconds. Lastly, the initial camouflage of Thrill of the Hunt (R) decreases from 2 seconds to 1 and gains 60% movement speed and True Sight near enemy champions for 20 seconds.

Diana receives a passive ten percent buff in AP ratio and an increase in passive damage output against monsters. Jumping from 250% to 300% is a big deal, making jungling a more viable role option. Gangplank can poke quicker now with Parrrley (Q) as it will have its cooldown slightly reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds. Furthermore, its mana cost saw some changes, from 60-40 to 55-35.

Item Changes

One of the more defining changes is definitely the nerf to Immortal Shieldbow. Most AD/C roles have used and abused this item. So, its attack damage suffered a downgrade to 50, while its shield went from  300-800 to 275-650.

Although not statistically altered, Wits End’s build path will change too, using Null-Magic Cloak instead of Negatron Cloak and Pickaxe replacing Long Sword. Eclipse and Force of Nature will have mostly their durational stats changed.

Eclipse’s buff effect reverts back to 8 seconds from 6 and Force of Nature will receive an additional 5% damage reduction boost, putting it at 25%. Subsequently, the effect duration for Force of Nature will rise by 2 seconds.

Additionally, as revealed in the last patch, Teleport will change entirely, prohibiting players from making cheeky ganks behind or near enemy lines. The new mechanic sort of sets the pace for most win-making decisions to the mid-game phases and beyond. Teleport will now only be castable on allied turrets for the first 14 minutes of the game. After 14 minutes, Teleport becomes Unleashed Teleport and has a 270-second cooldown. Unleashed Teleport allows players to teleport to any allied turret, ward, player and grants a 50% movement speed boost for 3 seconds.

Lastly, new skins for League champions, Firelight Ekko, Elderwood Gnar, and Rek’sai will make way to the in-game shops in patch 12.1. League of Legends’ first season update arrived on PBE test servers yesterday but will hit live servers for players worldwide on January 7 with Season 12.

Written by Jay Hunter

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