LoL patch 13.12 notes

The LoL patch 13.12 notes have finally dropped, and developer Riot Games is following up on the midseason update to the hit PC MOBA game with a whole host of changes.

In LoL patch 13.12, some of the MOBA game’s items and champions that haven’t quite kept up with the LoL ranks meta are getting some much-needed love. Of course, as with most League of Legends patches, there are also new skins to feast your eyes (and wallets) on – 13.12 will also see the Mythic skin shop rotate.

The LoL patch 13.12 notes feature much-needed buffs to underperforming champions like Ashe, Orianna, and Ryze, and nerfs to heavy-hitters like K’Sante, Milio, and Zeri. Lucian and Rumble have been adjusted.

On the item front, items that have struggled in the meta like Immortal Shieldbow, Moonstone Renewer, and Phantom Dancer have received some love, while overperformers like Bloodthirster, Galeforce, and Imperial Mandate have taken a hit.

Champion Buffs

Ashe

“Ashe has been chilling at a pretty weak spot after the midseason update when compared to other marksmen and supports. Our goal with these changes is to bring Ashe into a more viable state as a marksman by reverting some nerfs made to Volley’s damage in a previous patch. We’re also incentivizing her to opt into crit builds by making some changes to her passive.

We’re also looking to give support Ashe some strength by buffing up the AP ratio of her ultimate which should strictly be a buff to her support playstyles and for the occasional AP Ashe enjoyer.”

[P] Frost Shot bonus damage: 115% (+(75%+35%) of critical strike chance) >>> 120% (+(75%+35%) of critical strike chance)
[W] Volley damage: 10/25/40/55/70 (+100% AD) >>> 20/35/50/65/80 (+100% AD)
[R] Enchanted Crystal Arrow AP ratio: 100% >>> 120%

Gangplank

“Gangplank isn’t the jolly pirate he once was, struggling to find success in the current game where he can’t access Ability Haste as easily. We’re walking back the recharge timer nerf on his barrels with the goal of making him a little more powerful and enjoyable to play.”

[E] Powder Keg recharge time: 18 >>> 18/17/16/15/14 seconds

Kai’Sa

“As a consequence of the new builds introduced in midseason, Kai’Sa’s evolution thresholds now need to be adjusted to better match the items she’s opting into. Our goal with these changes is to make her Q evolution feel better. For example, this should grant her Q evolution at level 9 with Stormrazor, Pickaxe, Doran’s Blade, and 1 Adaptive instead of having to wait until level 11.”

AD per level: 2 >>> 2.6

Nasus

“Nasus has been on a tight leash in solo queue recently. We’re buffing up his passive to help in matchups where he’s able to stay on the minion wave and life steal without affecting counter matchups where he can’t attack and Q as often. We’re also reducing the cooldown on his ultimate in later stages of the game, where he especially relies on it due to the durability and range it gives in teamfights.”

[P] Soul Eater life steal: 9/14/19% >>> 11/16/21% (based on levels 1/7/13)
[R] Fury of the Sands cooldown: 120 >>> 120/100/80 seconds

Orianna

“Orianna is just a little weak right now, coming up just a tiny bit short of the main stage. We’d like to tune Orianna as a fragile, low mobility carry with strong and satisfying spells (more 3k ELO shockwaves), rather than making her more consistent with less high moments. This will help her from being held back for regular players on account of Pro Play.

Long term, we’d like to balance her around her Ult being the highest satisfaction, highest counterplay and most explosive moment of her kit. We’re giving her a wee bit more damage on her ultimate to help give her an extra push that should (hopefully) put her into the spotlight.”

[R] Command: Shockwave damage: 250/350/450 (+90% AP) >>> 250/400/550 (+95% AP)

Ryze

“Ryze is currently one of the weakest mid laners in the game with no presence in Pro. Since he has some room for buffs now, we’re looking to give his passive and E a ratio increase in order to improve his scaling, which is a lower-risk buff for Pro play than other options. We’re also giving a small speed increase to his E, as this will help in close-up fights.”

[P] Arcane Mastery AP ratio: 6% per 100 AP >>> 10% per 100 AP
[E] Spell Flux:
- AP ratio: 45% >>> 50%
- Missile speed: 3500 >>> 4000

Sivir

“Sivir is sitting a bit weaker than her marksmen peers, so we’re looking to revert some previous AD ratio buffs to her Richochet now that she has the space for more power to be added to her kit.”

AD per level: 2.8 >>> 2.5
[W] Ricochet AD ratio: 25/30/35/40/45% >>> 30/35/40/45/50%

Champion nerfs

Gragas

“Gragas has had a high presence in Pro play recently due to his low counterplay trades and his ability to use his passive to sustain himself in lane. Lowering the cooldown of his passive should help make Graggy more manageable to deal with.”

[P] Happy Hour cooldown: 8 >>> 12 seconds

Kha’Zix

“Kha’Zix is currently on the top of the food chain in too many ways: power levels, pick rate, and ban rate. Our goal this patch is to reduce the power (and frustration) that he brings into games, especially at higher skill brackets which should now see reduced raw damage and a slower clear speed.”

Base AD: 63 >>> 60

Kog’Maw

“Kog’Maw has found a lot of success with a shiny new Mythic item that feels good for him to pick up. Due to that, we’re walking back some buffs to his main damage ability without punishing his other spells’ recent updates.”

[W] Bio-Arcane Barrage Bonus Magic Damage: 3.5/4.25/5/5.75/6.5% (+ 1% per 100 AP) of target maximum health >>> 3/3.75/4.5/5.25/6% (+ 1% per 100 AP) of target maximum health

K’Sante

“Despite being relatively weak in the hands of the average player, K’sante is quite popular and powerful in skilled play. Due to this we’ll be giving him a Pro-skewed nerf that will bring him to a more balanced state in higher levels of play while having a minimal impact on his average play win rates.”

[E] Footwork cooldown: 9/8.5/8/7.5/7 >>> 10.5/10/9.5/9/8.5 seconds

Lulu

“Lulu has been a Pro play mainstay for quite a while but isn’t overpowered for most players in other skill brackets. As the laning phase has a large impact in professional play, we’re aiming for the nerf to be pro-skewed while retaining her current power level for other players.”

Base armor: 29 >>> 26
[P] Pix, Faerie Companion damage: 15-117 >>> 9-111 (based on level)
[E-Self/Ally Cast] Help, Pix! shield: 75/110/145/180/215 >>> 75/115/155/195/235

Milio

“Milio is a really cool fire enchanter and is specifically designed to be a defensive one with a team-wide cleanse and tools to keep his whole team cozy and warm. But what isn’t cozy or warm is Milio’s ability to help output tons of damage AND provide his team with such strong defensive tools. He’s the number one support in Pro play so far and definitely one of the strongest champions in League of Legends. Though there are numerous nerfs here, the hope is to land the lad in a balanced spot.”

Base armor: 28 >>> 26
Armor per level: 4.9 >>> 4.6
[P] Fired Up! AD ratio: 15-35% (based on level) >>> 15%

Rell

“After the hotfix in 13.11, Rell is looking very strong in both Support and Jungle. Her Q is still feeling a bit on the slow side which isn’t meeting our goals of smoothing out her kit’s rough edges. So we’re looking to help the reliability and feel of the Q, while still overall lowering her power in both of her roles. We’re also looking to get her epic monster damage to more reasonable numbers while making sure she’ll still have a very powerful smite secure with E and Q. These jungle changes should impact her midgame clear mostly while avoiding hitting her early clear too hard.”

Default adaptive force changed AD >>> AP
[Q] Shattering Strike:
- Damage: 70/110/150/190/230 >>> 60/100/140/190/220
- Cast time: 0.5 >>> 0.4 seconds
- Monster damage: 300% >>> 150/220/290/360/430 bonus damage
[W] Ferromancy: Mount Up/Crash Down:
- [Crash Down] Damage: 70/100/130/160/190 >>> 60/90/120/150/180
- [Crash Down] Monster damage: 300% >>> 150/200/250/300/350 bonus damage
- [Mount Up] Monster damage: 300% >>> 20/50/80/110/140 bonus damage
[E] Full Tilt:
- Damage: 35/50/65/80/95 (+4% target’s max HP) >>> 25/35/45/55/65 (+3% target’s max HP)
- Max HP damage capped at 150 against monsters
- Monster damage: 250% >>> 100/145/190/235/280 bonus damage

Yuumi

“Yuumi is overperforming across all skill brackets, including Pro, and benefited from the 13.10 Support item changes. We’re proactively dropping her general power levels while she’s overperforming across the board with the goal to keep Yuumi playable for the rest of her non-Pro playerbase.

These changes should help address the current issues we see elevating Yuumi into Pro. Long term, we intend to continue to balance her away from Pro and Elite play and to work towards making her a champ suitable for newer players to the game, especially with friends.”

[W] You and Me! Best Friend Bonus Heal and Shield Power: 10-20% >>> 5/7.5/10/12.5/15% (based on spell rank)
[E] Zoomies bonus attack speed: 35% >>> 25/27.5/30/32.5/35%
[R] Final Chapter heal per hit: 35/50/65 >>> 25/40/55

Zeri

“Zeri has made a resurgence thanks to her tanky Trinity Force build and the return of certain enchanters. In this patch we have two goals for Zeri: stop her from itemizing like a bruiser and removing her synergies with shielding enchanters.

Zeri’s mobility is one of the core parts of her design, zipping and zapping all around the Rift like a lightning bolt. However, given this mobility we don’t think it’s okay for Zeri to easily pick up health so that she becomes both hard-to-catch AND hard-to-kill. Due to this we’re removing Q’s synergy with Sheen that allowed Zeri to itemize as a bruiser and her shield sapping passive which gave her too much damage mitigation.

On the second goal, Zeri’s shielding passive has proven to be much too
powerful when paired with the right enchanters which meant Zeri’s strength was always tied to her support’s strength and balancing her always meant balancing around enchanters. Charging Zeri up with the right support really overloads her in Pro play in particular, so we’ve opted to rip off the band-aid here by removing her passive altogether. With this change we’ll be able to balance Zeri more around her own personal power and less around her support which will let us get her into a better spot long term.”

Move speed 330 >>> 335
[P] Living Battery:
- Shield steal and move speed buff when shielded removed
- [Q] Burst Fire passive moved here
- Fully charged Basic Attacks now activate Sheen (like an ability)
[Q] Burst Fire changes:
- [Q] Basic attack passive moved to [P] Living Battery
- No longer activates Sheen (like an Attack)
[E] Spark Surge on-hit damage critical strike chance ratio: 65% >>> 85%

Champion Adjustments

Lucian

“Lucian performs exceptionally well with a few enchanters due to them having plenty of abilities that instantly proc Vigilance by healing, shielding, or buffing Lucian. Nami and Milio are particularly strong due to the buff proc synergizing well with Nami’s E and Milio’s passive which has really limited the amount of other Champions Lucian can lane with.

To address this, we’ll be replacing the buff proc of Vigilance with nearby ally immobilization, which should increase Lucian’s viability with many Champs. Lucian will still have synergy (increased synergy in some cases) with many enchanters—this will just limit the amount of stacks an enchanter can give Lucian without first engaging their opponents.

Our goal with these changes is to help Lucian players confidently lock in their Champion with or without enchanters, and that we can see some exciting new lane partners for Lucian in Pro play.”

[P-Vigilance] Lightslinger changes:
- Damage: 14 (+20% AD) >>> 10 (+15% AD)
- Activation Conditions: When Lucian is empowered by another ally, his next two basic attacks will deal bonus magic damage >>> When Lucian is healed or shielded by an ally, or when a nearby enemy champion is immobilized, his next two basic attacks will deal bonus magic damage.

Rumble

“Rumble has historically had a higher play rate in top than in mid and we’ve let those players down over the years by not maintaining top Rumble as viable. He’s also an extremely Elite-skewed champion due to his primary strength around pushing and roaming to bot lane. These changes are meant to lower his early roam threat and give him melee 1v1 power and late-game scaling in its place. Reshaping his heat structure is an attempt to make the Danger Zone more forgiving, his heat costs more intuitive, and lessen Overheat’s punishment.

We’re hoping for a result where top lane becomes Rumble’s best role with jungle and mid lane being viable alternatives for fans of those play styles. Though he’s got new incentives to build health, we’re not hoping to turn him into a juggernaut, just simply make him a bit more durable in the mid game.”

Base HP: 659 >>> 625
HP per level: 99 >>> 105
[P] Junkyard Titan changes:
- Maximum Heat: 100 >>> 150 (Danger Zone unchanged at 50)
- Overheat duration: 5.25 >>> 4 seconds
- Overheat attack speed: 20-80% >>> 50-130% (based on level)
- Overheat monster damage cap: 80 >>> 65-150
[Q] Flamespitter changes:
- Damage: 180/220/260/300/340 >>> 135/150/165/180/195 (+6/7/8/9/10% target’s max HP)
- Monster damage cap added: 65/125/185/245/305
- Minion damage: 60/65/70/75/80% >>> 55/60/65/70/75%
[W] Scrap Shield:60/90/120/150/180 (+45% AP) >>> 25/55/85/115/145 (+25% AP) (+4% max HP)
[E] Electro Harpoon Heat generated: 10 >>> 20
[R] The Equalizer cooldown: 100/85/70 >>> 130/105/80 seconds

System Buffs

Immortal Shieldbow

“Players have (for the most part) identified that Shieldbow is not a good first item. Unfortunately, the item just isn’t very strong when purchased later, either. This is a relatively light buff, but one that crit users should be able to feel in the mid game.”

Life steal: 7% >>> 10%

Midlane Gold

“A fair bit ago we nerfed mid lane minion gold to reduce mid lane agency at early points in the game. While this was successful, the risk of nerfing mid lane mages over roamers has indeed become a reality and placed mages in a not-so-great position. This is certainly not the only issue with mid lane mages, but is one that we think we can mitigate now.”

-1 Gold per minion kill removed

Moonstone Renewer

“Moonstone is weak on every champion that isn’t named Soraka. We’re changing the formulas to always give the values that allies of level 14+ were getting in most cases. This typically ends up augmenting the value of heals and shield by ~5% per cast, and giving shields more leniency due to them feeling less disruptive.”

Echo Heal: 20-40% (1-18 ally level scaling) >>> 35%
Echo Shield: 30-40% (1-18 ally level scaling) >>> 40%
Same target heal bonus: 15-30% (1-18 ally level scaling) >>> 25%
Same target shield bonus: 20-30% (1-18 ally level scaling) >>> 30%
Mythic Passive: 5 Ability Haste >>> 5% Heal & Shield Power

Phantom Dancer

“Phantom Dancer is underperforming compared to other mid-range crit items so it’s just receiving a small buff this patch.”

Attack speed: 30% >>> 35%

Statikk Shiv

“Statikk Shiv is meant to be your best source of wave clear without just
one-shotting the caster minions. It’s still a bit underpowered, so the damage is being ramped up in early game in order to more closely align with minion health bars.”

Electroshock damage: 80-190 (level 7-18) >>> 100-180 (level 6-18)

System Nerfs

Ardent Censer

“Ardent Censer is providing a lot of damage to marksmen, contributing to ADC death ball and limiting support output diversity. It’s the most common enchanter legendary at the moment, which is a space that should be competitive with Redemption, Mikael’s, and other options.”

On-hit damage: 15-30 (level 1-18) >>> 15

Bloodthirster

“Bloodthirster is the ultimate greed item for ADCs who can stay safe and deal high damage from the back line. We’re upping its cost to be in line with that role as the item is currently overtuned.”

Price: 3200 >>> 3400 gold

Galeforce

“Galeforce is a bit overpowered on marksmen and overperforms substantially on both Yasuo and Yone, so the critical strike ratio is being replaced with an AD one. The risk here (and the reason it initially had crit scaling) is poaching by assassins, but an overall reduction in power should keep the item in line for all users across the board. Some players (and one champion) might be pleased to know it takes 444.4444 bonus attack damage to match the damage from the old crit scaling.”

AD: 55 >>> 50
Active damage: 150-350 + 200% Crit >>> 150-350 + 45% bonus AD – this is a nerf until 445 bonus AD

Imperial Mandate

“Imperial Mandate has found itself a new home as a legendary support item and has quickly become one of the default purchases as enchanters’ second item. While that’s awesome, the item is overpowered and is contributing to League being at one of its burstiest points in recent memory. Overall, these changes are intended as a small nerf, particularly targeting the item’s burst output.”

Damage 1: 35-75 (level 1-18) >>> 40-60 (level 8-18)
Damage 2: 70-150 (level 1-18) >>> 80-120 (level 8-18)
Move speed: 20% >>> 25%

Overheal

“Overheal was meant as an avenue for disenfranchised ADC players to opt into more durability for the games where they needed it. In reality, most players don’t typically mess with their rune pages, but pros sure do. Moving Overheal back to a maximum health ratio will open its users up to self-sustaining fighters and tanks while nerfing it for marksmen. Technically, Aphelios gets more shielding levels 1-5, but this is overall a significant nerf otherwise. Meanwhile, it’s substantially stronger for high health champions like fighters. Overall, this is still the strongest or second strongest Overheal has ever been.”

Shield: 20-300 (based on level) >>> 11% max HP – This is a nerf for marksmen after level 5 and a buff for fighters

Rapid Firecannon

“Rapid Firecannon got substantially stronger when its stat profile moved toward attack damage and away from attack speed. Since the AD on the item naturally scales with critical strike chance, the Energize damage doesn’t need to be anywhere near as high as it was before.”

Energize damage: 60-140 >>> 60

Red Buff

“Red buff is way more prevalent now that Buff Sharing exists. Due to this we’ll need to bring its power levels down a tad by reducing its late game damage output and retaining its slow and regeneration properties.”

Damage: 6+6* level (12-114) >>> 6+4* level (10-78)
Slow: 10/15/25 >>> 10/15/20
Health Regen: 1/3/9% of Max HP >>> 1/3/5%

System Adjustments

Duskblade of Draktharr

Bug fix: now works properly with Samira [R] Inferno Trigger and Katarina [R] Death Lotus

ARAM Adjustments

Buffs

Anivia: 100% Damage Dealt >>> 105% Damage Dealt
Jax: 100% Damage Dealt >>> 105% Damage Dealt
Twitch: 100% Damage Taken >>> 95% Damage Taken
Warwick: 100% Healing Done >>> 105% Healing Done

Nerfs

Akali: 85% Damage Taken >>> 90% Damage Taken
Cho’Gath: 100% Damage Taken >>> 105% Damage Taken
Ivern: 100% Shield Strength >>> 80% Shield Strength; 95% Damage Dealt >>> 90% Damage Dealt
Malzahar: 92% Damage Dealt >>> 90% Damage Dealt; 108% Damage Taken >>> 110% Damage Taken
Vex: 100% Damage Dealt >>> 105% Damage Dealt

Themed Clash

The Bandle City Cup Clash continues this weekend!

Weekend 2 Registration Begins: June 12 @ 11:00 AM (Local Time)
Weekend 2 Tournament Dates: June 17 and 18 (~4-7 PM Local Time, varies by region)

Mythic Shop Rotation

Mythic Shop Updates

We’re making some changes with the way content rotates in and out of the shop. Going forward, each rotation will have four Prestige skins (previously two). The timing of every other patch will remain unchanged unless otherwise noted.

This patch also marks the start of our new Mythic thematic, Crystalis Motus. Crystalis Motus Leona is the first of the new skin line and will be present in the shop for the usual six patches.

Mythic Skins Now Available:

Prestige True Damage Qiyana
Prestige Obsidian Dragon Sett
Prestige Debonair Brand
Prestige K/DA Akali
Hextech Jarvan IV
Hextech Sejuani
Crystalis Motus Leona + Border + Icon
Mythic Chroma Crystalis Motus Leona (Reclaimed) + Icon
Crystalis Motus Leona Emote
Mythic Chroma High Noon Lucian
Prestige DRX Aatrox (NOTE: This skin will be leaving in Patch 13.13 on June 29)

Leaving the Mythic Shop:

Prestige Phoenixmancer Xayah
Prestige Firecracker Vayne
Lancer Zero Hecarim
Hextech Tristana
Ashen Guardian Shen
Mythic Chroma Ashen Guardian Shen (Emberwoken)
Ashen Knight Ward Skin
Ashen Guardian Shen Emote

Upcoming Skins & Chromas

Shan Hai Scrolls Bard
Shan Hai Scrolls Kog’Maw
Shan Hai Scrolls Lillia
Shan Hai Scrolls Tahm Kench

Bug Fixes

For a full list of LoL 13.12 bug fixes, click here.

And that’s all we have on the LoL 13.12 patch notes for now. With the LoL meta starting to settle in the wake of the midseason tweaks, we can imagine there’ll be plenty more changes on the horizon as we move through the Summer Split.

If you know someone who’s salivating at the thought of picking up one of the new skins on this patch, then an RP card – which you can find in the widget below – is an ideal gift.

Meanwhile, if you’re new to League, then be sure to check out our LoL beginner guide for tips and tricks that’ll help take you from bot games to LoL Worlds. That is, if you choose to make that climb.