The new split has started in the top leagues and we received the first changes of the new season with Patch 12.2.
You can find all the details here, but let’s breakdown everything in this article.
Champion Changes
Zeri
Playable now!
Our 158th champion of the game is now playable. She is a newbie at the Rift so before commenting on what she will bring to the game, it is healthier to give her some time. But as we saw so far, she is a mixture of poking, mobility, high damage hybrid carry, similar to Kai’Sa/Ezreal.
Janna
Base stats and all abilities adjusted.
Janna was one of the annoying supports to play against because of her W spamming. After these changes, instead of a lane bully wannabe, she will be played as a more protective role like Lulu or Yuumi.
Lulu
W cooldown increased.
Speaking of Lulu, she was one of the most powerful picks of the Meta in both pro-play and solo-queue.
This tiny nerf will not change her importance you should be more careful while turning your enemy into a critter.
Nocturne
Health growth increased. Q damage ratio increased.
After nerfing Nocturne’s passive a couple times, he was sadly no longer a viable pick.
I am not sure if buffing health growth is the best way to help him or not but Q ad ratio buff will make his skirmish much stronger.
Qiyana
Base health regen decreased. Brush Q zone duration decreased.
For junglers, health regen buffs/nerfs are irrelevant as they use lifesteal from the jungle camps all the time but if you like playing Qiyana at the mid lane, this nerf will limit your trade advantage.
Although she is still a good pick for the jungle, I would not recommend picking her for the mid lane after this nerf.
Rengar
R passive now enables leaping from camouflage.
Rengar was unplayable in Chemtech Rift because of the removal of the brushes.
With this change, he will be at the same strength with the other maps but playing a Senna-Rengar duo is also fun.
Samira
R base damage increased.
Samira was already a good situational pick in pro-play so I must say I am surprised to see this buff.
Her pick/ban status would not change but she can be more effective in the games that she is a goodcounter-pick.
Senna
Q now slows enemies.
After Glacial Augment changes, Senna was not a viable pick because the only thing she brought to the early game was removed.
With this change, her utility will be like what it used to be so we can see some increase in her pick/win ratios.
Shen
Q damage decreased.
After the teleport changes, he is the only champion (except Twisted Fate) that can join the fights at the bottom lane before minute 14.
You can still use this advantage to help your teammates but with this nerf, his laning will be harder.
Tahm Kench
Q slow increased. E adjusted. Damage stored as grey health decreased (unless near multiple enemies). R ally shield increased; now grants move speed upon devouring ally.
In my opinion, these kinds of changes are the most confusing ones.
Riot changed this champion at Patch 11.13 and made him a solid top laner.
For some reason, now they are trying to force him to be played as support again. I am not sure if Tahm Kench will ever be an S Tier support again but crippling him at the top lane is not the best way to achieve this.
Talon
W monster damage ratio decreased.
Talon was one of the best junglers in the game because of his high mobility.
Because of that, his w damage ratio on jungle camps is nerfed?!
His early game took a big hit with this nerf and because of that, playing him in the jungle will be a huge gamble. Focusing on better alternatives such as J4 or Diana is the smartest thing to do for now.
Tristana
Base health and health regen increased.
I will quote from what I wrote to Diana’s updates at ‘patch 12.1’: Diana is always a solid jungle pick as long as her ‘numbers’ are good enough.
It also goes for Tristana for bot lane. By buffing his health and health regen ratios, I am sure she will be played again in both solo-queue and pro-play.
Veigar
Q cooldown decreased; stacks from large monsters and minions increased.
In my opinion, Veigar is one of the most underrated mid laners of the Meta. With his insane scaling, I always thought he should be played much more but now, this patch will make this happen!
This champion has only 1 weakness: mobility. If you help Veigar at his laning and play according to his strengths and weakness, you can win many games with ease.
Volibear
Base AD growth increased. E cooldown decreased.
Volibear is unplayable after nerfing his mobility and this patch will not make a huge difference.
Yasuo
Q damage ratio increased.
Immortal Shieldbow nerf had a huge impact on Yasuo’s strength as he is an item-dependent champion. He needed some love from Riot and this is a fair and good buff.
Yone
Q damage ratio increased.
1. Check Yasuo patch notes.
2. Copy.
3. Paste.
Zed
R base damage ratio decreased.
Zed is a feared champion as long as his ultimate is up.
His ratios were so high that he was able to kill the squishy targets by only using R and 1 auto-attack, which was not fair.
With this nerf, you need to hit a couple shurikens after using your ultimate.
Item Changes
Lich Bane
Build path changed, ability haste added,spellblade damage ratio decreased, spellblade cooldown decreased
Although Lich Bane is not a core item for many champions, it is still important for champions such as Nidalee, Fizz, Viktor, or maybe even Gwen!
With this buff, I believe it became much stronger with the addition of ability haste and the reduction of spellblade cooldown.
Rylai’s Crystal Scepter
Combine cost decreased, ability power decreased, health increased
AP mythic items are already cheap and decreasing the cost of a non-mythic item is a bigger buff than it seems.
Even after the ability power nerf, it will be stronger than before.
Turbo Chemtank
Refual damage and movement stacks changed
After buying Turbo Chemtank, champions who have dashes in their kits were too strong because they were able to use the passive again after using it once. (Hello Akali) This nerf is needed and I believe is very accurate.
Jungle Changes
Chemtech Drake Soul
Zombie health and duration decreased.
Chemtech soul is the most powerful soul inthe game right now. To make it more balanced, these nerfs are good starting points. Even after these changes, the soul is still insanely powerful.
Chemtech Rift
Offensive action camouflage timer increased, bonus damage increased.
Fighting in a Chemtech Rift is a nightmare for the team that is behind. These changes will give that team some more advantage.
Hextech Drake Soul
Chain lightning true damage decreased.
Hextech Soul was also much stronger than the other souls so it is also nerfed. The real question is: Isn’t buffing other drakes a better solution?
Runes Changes
Lethal Tempo
Attack speed per stack decreased at early, increased at late game.
After the update of lethal tempo, almost all the basic attack-dependent champions started to use it, and to be honest, it was OP.
Making the rune weaker at the late game is accurate but also its late game will be scary as hell!
That concludes patch 12.2.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog.
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