League of Legends patch 12.15 rundown

Champions that dominate in the professional play got nerfed and champions that use energy got buffed. QSS items got adjusted, while Sivir and Master Yi got tuned down.

Energy champion buffs

The durability update made extended team fights much more common, and that is something assassins didn’t like. On top of that, most of them use energy instead of mana, which is by design less valuable in extended combat. Playing Akali or Zed without a blue buff can be painful, so these buffs should help.

Akali’s Shroud will now give more energy regen, while Zed’s E ability will now cost 10 less energy to cast. All of Lee Sin’s abilities will now also cost 5 less energy, and Shen will now refund more energy when using the passive on his E.

Kennen, despite being an energy champion, is not getting the same type of adjustments. Instead, he is getting more damage on his W and Ultimate to help him be the team fight threat he is supposed to be. His W ability will also have a lower cooldown by half a second at every rank.

Engage and Solo Queue champions

Engage champions have been struggling since Enchanters took over the meta, so Riot is giving Thresh a lower cooldown and more damage on his Q ability. Leona’s Q now also costs less mana and her ultimate now stuns and slows for 0,25 seconds more. Rammus’s Ultimate will now have a shorter cooldown, jumping further and faster, while Singed’s Ultimate will now give more bonus stats.

As if Riot had seen our article about the worst scaling champions in the game, in which we mention Singed’s ultimate as one of the sore points. Singed’s passive is also getting buffed with a 5% movement speed increase. Qiyana ‘s passive bonus attack damage is getting nerfed but what might hurt her more is the removal of the First Strike bug she had. All those tanks in the jungle only made sense that Lillia should see an increase in play rate, and that’s probably why Riot is buffing her passive damage against monsters.

Recent reworks adjusted

Sivir and Master Yi have been dominating ever since they got mini reworks, with Sivir being the repeat offender. She was already hotfix nerfed the day after the update hit live servers and now she is getting tuned down across the board. Her attack damage growth per level is lowered by 0,3 and both her E and Ultimate are getting cooldowns increased at all ranks.

Master Yi has been viable with multiple different builds after the last update, and most of them rely on players maxing his E ability first instead of his Q. Riot apparently didn’t like this, so he’s getting a flat E cooldown of 18 seconds, meaning it doesn’t scale down with ranks but only with ability haste.

Pro play adjustments

Taliyah, Kalista, and Gwen have been mainstays in pro play for the last two months, so it was only expected that Riot would address them before the Worlds patches. Taliyah’s E and Ultimate take up way too much space, especially in coordinated play, so they’re getting nerfed their cooldowns and duration.

The true damage conversion that Gwen has on her Q has been melting the tanks picked in the jungle and top lane, so it will now convert 50% instead of 75%. Kalista has been in the vicious cycle of pro play balancing for more than six years and is getting her legs broken again. Losing 3 base attack damage is a massive nerf to any champion let alone to Kalista, considering her abilities don’t do damage and all she does is auto attack and jump around. This will likely be the last we will see of Kalista until the next season starts when she gets buffed again.

Items and Runes

We did an entire article covering how First Strike is overpowered, and Riot seems to agree with us, as the developers are lowering the bonus true damage on it by 1%. Divine Sunderer has been overpowered for almost a year but is especially now in this tanky meta. That’s why the heal on the Spellblade is getting lowered by 10%.

Since the item rework in preseason 11, the QSS items have been in the dumpster, never getting over a 1% play rate. Since you can’t QSS knock-ups anymore, the mythic item importance and the three-item Infinity Edge power spike, these items have become obsolete. That’s why Riot is buffing the magic resist they give by 10 and 5 and increasing the duration of their effects.

Header: Riot Games