Season 13 is here for League of Legends, and Patch 12.22 brought a ton of changes, highlighted by the numerous updates to the Jungle with a durability update, along with the introduction of Jungle Pets. As expected when big changes roll out, 12.22 introduced a lot of balance issues into the game, and 12.23 works to specifically tune back some of the fallout. We’ll be diving into what’s coming up in the 12.23 Patch below, which is arriving on December 7th.
Patch 12.23 Key Changes
The quick overview of the patch is that Riot is starting with a nerf to Ravenous Hydra, but avoiding nerfing the champions that commonly build into it. They want to reduce the overall strength of the item without making certain champions completely unviable. They’ll also be buffing the worst performing tanks. With the nerf of legacy tank items and the new tank items failing to make up that gap, tank champions were in need of a little help with many having 46% win rates. However, they specifically will avoid buffing tank items to keep them from becoming overpowered. Their main concern is that tank items will become too powerful, and non-tanks will begin to build into them should they provide too much value.
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Table of Contents
Patch 12.23 Champion Buffs
Here’s a summary of all the champions getting buffs in this patch:
- Sion: base mana, mana growth, and Q damage buffs. These buffs will help him avoid running out of mana and make him more playable, but probably won’t significantly boost Sion’s viability or winrate
- Cho’Gath: passive mana restoration, W base damage, and R cooldown buffs. These are big buffs across the board that should make Cho’Gath much more threatening
- Amumu: health growth, Q mana cost, E damage, and W base damage per second buffs. With all base abilities being buffed and his health being buffed, Amumu becomes stronger as a support, but probably doesn’t rise to a top pick in other roles
- Shadow Kayn: passive damage and E heal ratio buffs. Given the purpose of the durability update, it seems interesting that Riot is buffing Shadow Kayn’s ability to one-shot people. We’ll see how these changes play out
- Maokai: passive healing, Q bonus monster damage, and Q base damage buffs. Maokai will be able to hit harder, and will have his past healing nerfs partially rolled back to increase his survivability
- Zac: passive healing, Q cooldown, and Q base damage buffs. The Q changes will help especially in the late game especially on CC abilities, as well as help him continue to one-shot any squishy champions he comes across with a vengeance
- Tahm Kench: passive damage, Q AP ratio, Q Self Heal, W AP ratio, E % Damage stored, R % Health Damage AP Ratio, R Shield Duration. Tahm Kench has a lot of levers to pull when it comes to adjustments & tuning, so the kit changes can be a bit confusing. The key takeaway is that Top Lane Tahm Kench gets a big buff, while Support Tahm Kench gets a slight buff
- Malphite: W damage and E damage buff. Malphite gets a lot of buffs to his damage, especially when it comes to armor bonuses and becomes a hard counter to armor-based matchups
Patch 12.23 Champion Nerfs
Now we’ll quickly review the champion nerfs coming through:
- Yuumi: passive cooldown and root nerfs. Yuumi gets significant nerfs, making her laning & teamfighting a lot weaker
- Syndra: W damage, E AP ratio, and E cooldown nerfs. This reduces Syndra’s overall damage, especially in the early game, as well as reduces her survivability/escapability
- Mordekaiser: passive procs on large monster hits only and monster cap nerf. These changes are massive, and basically makes jungle Mordekaiser unplayable by nerfing it into the ground
- Shyvana: E on-hit damage nerf. This reduces her damage across the board, as well as her scaling and her anti-tank ability
- Trundle: base attack speed and R damage nerf. Trundle gets a big nerf to his attack speed and will deal a lot less damage across the board, especially to tanks
- Lillia: Q base damage nerf. Lillia gets an early-game damage adjustment upwards, but an overall nerf once you get to the mid and late game when it comes to her damage
Patch 12.23 Item Changes
Two items are getting changed in this patch:
- Sunfire Aegis: cost decrease and health buff. This increases the efficiency of the item and makes it viable to build
- Ravenous Hydra: omnivamp and splash damage nerfs. It will be interesting to see how these play out, as the nerf doesn’t totally address the high damage output of the item
Dr. Mundo Rework
Dr. Mundo’s long-awaited rework will also be coming to 12.23. The goal of the rework is to provide him with a lot of changes meant to help him specifically in the Jungler role. He’ll be able to clear camps faster, however his base stats and early game viability take a nerf. Despite the early game weakness, the champion adjustments will allow for Dr. Mundo to shine in the late game. His E bonus damage is now based off of maximum health, giving a ton of damage potential when paired with items like Heartsteel. Furthermore, his survivability in teamfights increases with his ultimate providing extra healing based on the number of nearby enemy champions. Kassadin will also be receiving changes, but those have yet to be released or confirmed.
Patch 12.23 Jungle Updates
Riot also released specific details on their planned Jungle changes. Jungle Pets will be getting heavily tuned, with the pets getting an overall nerf. Junglers no longer receiving the 20% damage amplification on epic monsters is a massive nerf, and the treat gold nerf from 50 gold to 35 gold cuts back on all of the gold coming out of the jungle. The changes signal that Junglers will have an easier time staying healed up, but that the jungle will now take longer to clear and will generate a little less gold now to prevent the jungle from being too overpowered.
None of these changes are guaranteed to go through, with there being some potential for some last minute adjustments. However, if the patch plays out as laid out, 12.23 addresses a lot of the pain points of 12.22 without overcorrecting in any direction. If you want to check out the specific values & numbers for 12.23 yourself, you can take a look here courtesy of Matt Leung-Harrison of the League Balance Team.
