Riot Games Lines up Minor Nudges to Champions

With the League of Legends World Championship aka Worlds 2022 just around the corner in a few weeks, Riot Games released the preview for LoL Patch 12.18. The international tournament will be played on this patch and it carries a ton of weight. It has been a week since the previous patch of LoL Patch 12.17 dropped and the company is rolling out minor changes to champions in the public beta environment (PBE) cycle before the big patch release. A total of 12 champions have been featured on LoL Patch 12.18.

Lead designer on game balance Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison , “12.18 is our final set of changes for Worlds. Most champions are only receiving small nudges, especially if we suspect recent changes have overshot. We’ve made a significant number of changes since the playoff patches, so we don’t want to completely upend the meta.”

Riot Games has made it clear that the work it put in the patches starting with the Summer Split split paid off and the company is not keen on switching up the meta completely.

There are a total of four champions getting buffed in LoL Patch 12.18. They are as follows:

1. Ashe (attack damage carry [ADC])

2. Thresh

3. Lee Sin

4. Nasus

With Ashe ADC getting buffed specifically, we could see pro teams opt to go for the champion at Worlds. Ashe is extremely good at kiting enemies despite her low mobility. Additionally, her global ultimate can lock down enemies from afar and grant the team immense opportunities and advantages.

We have seen a shift in the support meta with pro players opting for enchanters like Lulu, Nami, Soraka, and Yuumi since the ADCs picked are hyper carries like Zeri, Aphelios, Sivir, and Lucian. With buffs lined up for Thresh, we could see a change in the enchanter lineup.

Interestingly, Lee Sin is a champion who always finds a place back in the meta around the World Championship. The champion presents a lot of ganking opportunities and junglers can truly shine on the pick and show off cool mechanics. It would be interesting to see which direction Riot veers towards in his kit.

Nasus is not usually a prominent pick in pro play and it has to do with the fact that the champion is always isolated on the side lanes. It could be a buff for the solo queue players.

Champion nerfs in LoL Patch 12.18

The following are the champions who are getting their powers trimmed down in the Worlds 2022 patch:

• Miss Fortune

• Kalista

• Hecarim

• Rhaast (Kayn)

• Lulu

• Nocturne

Most of these champions are priority picks in pro play currently and champions like Miss Fortune and Hecarim received huge buffs just last patch. So, Riot Games would hope to bring their kits to a viable place before Worlds.

Apart from the buffs and nerfs, two champions are getting adjusted. They are Maokai and Udyr. While Summoner’s Rift’s tree champion Maokai is getting some role adjustments, Spirit Walker Udyr will be receiving some build adjustments, according to Riot.