League of Legends Patch 12.16 rundown

Some nerfs directed towards Elite levels of play, the Udyr rework and new futuristic skins highlight patch 12.16 .

Udyr Rework

The long-awaited Udyr rework has finally arrived to Summoners Rift. He was given a fresh look to make sure he fits League in seasons moving forward, without losing his identity. All of his abilities also got tweaked but serve the same purpose. Riot explained that the reason his rework was so delayed, was because he is the owner of League’s oldest Mythic skin.

Nerfs

Draven’s laning prowess has made him a dominant pro play pick for the last two months. Similarly, Poppy has been reshaping the jungle meta this summer as well. That’s why they are both receiving base damage nerfs on their Q abilities. But nothing has been giving Riot more headaches than the Zeri/ Yuumi combo. Yuumi in particular has been the most overpowered enchanter since the durability update since she scales so well and is hard to counter. The balancing nightmare that Zeri brings deserves an entire article despite the champion being less than a year old. That’s why Yuumi’s E ability will now have a longer cooldown and give less movement speed. Zeri is losing AD and AP damage scalings on both her Q and W abilities, making her weaker across the board.

Buffs

It’s been a while since we last saw Caitlyn in the meta and with short-range ADCs like Sivir and Zeri dominating, it’s time Riot brought her back. Her ultimate will now do up to 25% more damage if she has 100% crit, and her passive scales better with AD now. Irelia is becoming tankier with her base armor and magi resist being increased. Jayce will do more damage with his melee E and Q abilities, while Tristana’s Q ability will give her more attack speed. Kaisa got AP buffs on her passive, Q, and ultimate ability, which shouldn’t change a lot.

Adjustments

Tank Diana has been dominating ranked play ever since the durability update and Riot are addressing her in this patch. Her passive will now do less flat damage, but her E ability and passive will now scale better with ability power. Being a single target burst mage has made life hard for Zoe since nothing dies to a single spell anymore. Her E ability got more damage and a lower cooldown, but more importantly, her W ability will now spawn orbs even if her allies killed the minion. She has to be in 1500 range of it, but it’s still a great buff for Zoe on ARAM. Zyra will now stun herself for a shorter period when using her E Ability, and Evenshroud will now have a stronger and longer-lasting effect.

Header: Riot Games