League of Legends Meta guide: What to abuse in preseason 12

Preseason madness is well underway, and the new ranked season doesn’t start for at least two more weeks. That leaves plenty of time to try out and experiment with new builds, runes and see which champions are the strongest in the meta. While this preseason didn’t bring as many changes as the previous one, those that did happen dramatically altered the meta.

Lethal Tempo is still overpowered

One of the most impactful changes that happened this preseason has to be the one to Lethal Tempo. The changes made the rune extremely good for melee champions giving them 15% attack speed per stack and 50 range at a maximum of six stacks. That meant that mele champions could get a 90% attack speed increase at level one which gave them a lot of skirmishing power.

To give perspective, to achieve that with items you would have to spend 2200 gold on daggers alone. And that gold value doesn’t even take into account the 50 range increase which is especially valuable for melee champions. It’s the difference between flashing in to secure a kill or saving it.

They nerfed it on patch 11.24 and it now gives 78% at max stacks which is still considered overpowered. The champions that benefited the most from this are the ones that auto-attack a lot or have some on-hit passive. The top lane has felt the most impact of these changes, with Lethal Tempo Jax, Irelia, Yone, Yasuo, Gwen, and Tryndamere looking unstoppable.

Junglers like Nocturne, Vi, Volibear, Udyr, Warwick, Trundle, Kindred, and AD Shyvana are all having increased success using this rune. Almost every marksman can viably use this rune but some are better suited than others. Jinx, Aphelios, Xayah, and Vayne all possess major carry potential with this rune. Even stuff like Twitch, Azir, and Kog’maw like the extra range, while Kayle at level 16 with fully stacked Lethal Tempo has 700 range. And that doesn’t account for the wave splash damage.

Mana items are the best buy

The narrative for season 11 was that the mages were bad and it wasn’t wrong. The addition of many sustain and defensive items made it really hard for mages to make an impact. Deathcap got nerfed, Oblivion Orb got changed and the removal of Hextech GLP really made the power spikes for mages less noticeable. But in season 12 all that stands to change.

So far in the preseason, the new Mythic item for mages called Crown of the Shattered Queen has been dominating the game. The damage reduction on its passive has been a major factor in bringing mages back to relevance. Mages like Viktor, Lux, Vex, and Syndra are all seeing better win rates and pick rates since the item was introduced. The item costs just 2800 gold, which means it’s a lot easier to rush in bad matchups.

Everfrost also costs 2800 gold and is great on some combo layering mages such as Sylas and Ryze, but the real kicker are the Tear items. Archangel’s Staff got changed this preseason and now is more of a utility item, offering mana, health, and cooldown reduction on top of the passive that heals you based on mana spent. This change and its reduced price to 2600 gold has brought a lot of battle mages back into the mid lane. Kassadin got hotfix nerfed because he had too much synergy with these items as well as being a natural counter to mages.

Anivia and Cassiopea are doing great with a 53% win rate on an increasing play rate, and even Ryze got better in Solo Queue. Hecarim, Singed, Poppy, Taric, Nasus, and other mana-hungry bruisers and tanks are enjoying the addition of Fimbulwinter to the game. Of course, mana scaling champions like Ryze and Kassadin are also trying the new Tear item for tanks combining it with Frozen Heart to become super tanky while dealing decent damage over time.

AD Assassins dominate the jungle

The Goredrinker mini rework didn’t convince the junglers to stop playing AD assassins. But rather the bonus damage to monsters that Talon, Zed, and Qiyana received on patches before Worlds only made them more viable. The buffs to Ghostblade before the season ended and the addition of Axiom Arc only encouraged the playstyle. Their clear speed is similar to the best farming and scaling junglers, but with Electrocute they have enough damage to kill you in a level three gank.

Some of them even take Ignite because the mobility in their kit allows them to play without Flash. The truth is these are all hard champions to pick up and master but if you have already played them before, picking them up in the jungle should be considered free LP. If you can’t play these champions, Kha’zix and Shaco do similarly well with the same playstyle and items, while being more native to the jungle.

The build usually consists of a Ghostblade or Axiom Arc rush, depending on the game, followed up by building Eclipse for better skirmishing and Serylda’s Grudge as a 3rd item. Situational items like Black Cleaver, Serpent’s Fang, and Death’s Dance can follow suit if the game isn’t over by then.