Patch 12.12 Overview

Cristian Lupasco -

Patch 12.12 is the first balance patch following the release of the latest Dragonlands set. While the set has been out only for two weeks, Riot is already making significant adjustments to systems, augments, traits, and units.

Systems

The Treasure Dragon's automatic shop refresh is no longer triggered at the start of round 5-1 since it often led to awkward scenarios of forgetting to lock the shop or pick up a unit according to Riot.

To accelerate the pace of combat, multiple traits granting bonus health or shields were nerfed to create opportunities for more compositions to pop up which focus on the earlier stages of the game.

Augments

Various underperforming augments were changed to bring them in line with the current most picked options.

  • Binary Airdrop now additionally grants a random item component
  • Cannoneer Crown grants a Giant Slayer ⇒ Runaan’s Hurricane
  • Jade Soul grants an Ionic Spark ⇒ Titan’s Resolve
  • Trade Sector+ NEW: Gain a free Shop refresh every round. Gain 5 gold now
  • True Twos REWORKED: Gain 1 random 2-star Tier 1 champion and 1 random 2-star Tier 2 champion
  • Built Different REWORKED: Stats now scale with Stage number from Stages 2 to 5 (Stages 4 to 8 in Hyper Roll)

Traits

The first balance patch brings nerfs to top-performing traits while buffing some of the less legendary traits to make them more desirable to build a composition around. Shimmerscale is also tweaked to make the trait more consistent.

  • Cannoneer Attack Damage scaling on 5th shot: 150/175/225/275% increased to 150/200/250/300%
  • Assassin bonus crit Damage: 20/40/60% decreased to 15/30/50%
  • Legend Ability Power Steal: 40% increased to 50%
  • Ragewing Attack Speed: 50/150/250% decreased to 50/125/225%
  • Ragewing Omnivamp: 30/50/80% decreased to 30/50/70%
  • Shimmerscale item, Heart of Gold units per gold: 2 increased to 3
  • Shimmerscale item, Draven’s Axe Gold per Cash out: 10g decreased to 8g
  • Shimmerscale exclusive Items granted: 1/2/3/5 increased to 1/2/4/5

Units

Units across all tiers went through various changes, but the most impactful ones are for the tier 1 units, which felt a little too powerful for their cost. As a result, Riot has decided to bring their power down across the board in line with their rarity.

  • Ezreal Mystic Shot Damage: 175/250/350 decreased to 150/225/300
  • Heimerdinger Mana nerf: 40/80 decreased to 50/100
  • Heimerdinger Egg TossDamage: 225/300/400 increased to 225/325/450
  • Heimerdinger Egg Toss Stun Duration: 1.5/1.75/2 sec decreased to 1.5 sec
  • Karma Inner Flame Damage: 225/300/375 decreased to 200/275/350
  • Sett Knuckle Down Attack Damage Ratio: 170% decreased to 150%
  • Tahm Kench Thick Skin shield: 250/300/425 decreased to 250/300/350
  • Lee Sin Dragon’s Rage Damage: 275/325/425 increased to 300/375/500
  • Lee Sin Mana nerf: 0/70 increased to 40/100
  • Volibear Relentless Storm bonus Health on activation: 375/650/1200 increased to 550/1000/1800
  • Daeja Windblast wave Damage: 100/175/1000 increased to 225/350/1500

Meta Implication

With most low tier units nerfed across the board, the meta will undergo significant changes considering how rampant and popular are the low tier units in every powerful composition right now. While the meta isn't solved yet since the set has been live only for 2 weeks, Riot has decided to step in with significant changes that might completely revamp the priorities and shift the meta from cheap units to compositions that want a strong late-game carry to dominate the match.