Patch 12.13 Overview

Cristian Lupasco -

Patch 12.13 is the second balance patch following the release of the latest Dragonlands set. While the set has been out only for a couple of weeks, there have been a couple of outliers that have been dominating the current set. Riot has nerfed a couple of the outliers while also buffing various units and traits to bring them in line with other powerful compositions.

Systems

In order to reduce the game time, Riot has shortened the duration of a couple of stages:

  • Stage 2-1, 3-2, and 4-2 (Augment Rounds) were shortened by 10 seconds.
  • Stage 4-7 (Treasure Dragon) was shortened by 10 seconds.
  • Stage 5-1 (After Treasure Dragon) was shortened by 10 seconds.

Augments

The popular Best Friends augment was targeted in the latest patch alongside Blue Battery. While the first one was nerfed, the second one was adjusted, making it no longer stack with Blue Buff.

  • Best Friends bonus Attack Speed: 15/25/35% reduced to 10/20/30%
  • Blue Battery now sets the units’ Mana to 20 after casting instead of granting 20 Mana after casting.
  • Cluttered Mind XP if your bench if full: 3 increased to 4
  • Cybernetic Implants Attack Damage: 10/20/30 reduced to 8/15/25
  • Double Trouble Armor/Magic Resist/Attack Damage/Ability Power: 30/40/50 reduced to 22/33/44

Traits

The second balance patch brings a lot of nerfs to top-performing traits  while buffing or adjusting some of the less picked traits to make them more desirable to build a composition around.

  • Assassin Critical Strike Damage: 15/30/50% decreased to 5/25/45%
  • Astral: Players must field Astral units before they can receive Astral Shops and orbs. A new Refresh button with a counter helps you track your progress towards Astral Shops. It also reflects the quality of your Astral orbs.
  • Trainer Nomsy base Health: 500 decreased to 400
  • Trainer Nomsy Fireball Damage: 100/125/150/175 increased to 100/130/160/200
  • Trainer Nomsy’s Fireball now causes burned enemies to suffer 50% reduced healing for the duration of the burn (8 seconds)
  • Warrior increased Damage on enhanced attack: 120/200/350% increased to 120/220/420%
  • Ragewing Attack Speed: 50/125/225 increased to 50/135/250%
  • Ragewing Omnivamp: 30/50/70% adjusted to 25/50/75%

Units

Units across all tiers went through various changes to keep their power in line with each other. Aurelion Sol was reworked due to him being underwhelming compared to other dragons.

  • Aurelion Sol REWORKED ability: Aurelion Sol now summons an unstable black hole underneath a random enemy. After 2 seconds it implodes, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the area and increasing their damage taken by 20% for 10 seconds. Black holes generated after 20 seconds of combat are larger and deal 50% more damage.
  • Aurelion Sol Mana: 40/90
  • Aurelion Sol Black Hole Damage: 350/475/5000
  • Aurelion Sol at 3-Stars creates a cosmically large black hole
  • Nidalee Primal Surge bonus Attack Speed: 45% decreased to 40%
  • Nidalee Primal Surge 3rd hit Attack Damage ratio: 250% decreased to 225%
  • Nami Mana: 50/90 changed to 25/75
  • Tristana Attack Speed: 0.75 decreased to 0.7
  • Daeja Windblast wave Damage: 225/350/1500 increased to 250/375/1800
  • Daeja Windblast passive Magic damage: 30/45/200 decreased to 25/40/150
  • Shyvana Mana buff: 45/75 changed to 30/60
  • Shyvana Armor & Magic Resist: 60 reduced to 55
  • Shyvana Flame Breath max Health percent burn Damage: 45/60/300% increased to 50/66/500%

Meta Implication

While some overperforming units and traits were nerfed, they are still going to be quite strong. Varus and Xayah can still be prioritized in every game while the recently buffed Mages will be making a resurgence. While the set has been only out for a couple of weeks, the meta keeps evolving every patch due to the huge changes that Riot is doing to both overperforming compositions and underperforming ones to promote a diverse meta where players can have strong builds regardless of what options they're being given.