League of Legends patch 4.12 is live and Riot Games has released the very lengthy patch notes. With just a short time between now and the League of Legends World Champsionships, the focus of this update, Riot says, is on the competitive scene "and things we can do to ensure the landscape is diverse and healthy." To that end, patch 4.12 addresses champions who are "skewing champion select in one way or another," while also tweaking "heatlhy 'almost there' champions."
"For either side (strong or weak champions), our main philosophy is to look for strengths to highlight while also emphasizing weaknesses. This ensures a champ can hold onto their strategic value while still having meaningful tradeoffs," Riot explains.
In addition to champion tweaks, patch 4.12 also introduces jungle timers as well as changes to Twisted Treeline. Below are some of the key highlights in patch 4.12.
Jungle Timers
- Jungle timers have been added to the game!
- Jungle timers currently track the next spawn time of: enemy / team Elder Lizard, enemy / team Ancient Golem, Dragon, and Baron
- Timers will only start tracking a camp if you or a teammate directly witness a monster camp being fully cleared (similar to minimap icons)
- If you manage to snipe Baron or Dragon without vision, the timer will set itself off
- You can access jungle timers by pressing TAB (default key) through the scoreboard. They'll be at the top of the screen.
- We've also updated monster minimap icons! Check them out!
Intro Bots
- Intro is now the default level of Co-op vs. AI for new players
- Players above Summoner Level 10 will receive reduced IP/XP rewards and can't earn their First Win of the Day bonus from the Intro Bots queue
- Smoothed out a few small delays when the item shop, options menu and death recap are opened for the first time in a match
- Fixed a graphical bug with start-of-game tips
- Fixed a bug that occasionally applied duo queue restrictions to queues other than ranked solo/duo
- Players who have negative LP from dodging ranked queues can no longer automatically reset their LP to 0 with a single ranked win
- Fixed a bug that occasionally caused players with low LP to be demoted when losing a ranked match that would drop them to 0 LP
- Fixed an issue with ranked teams sometimes not being promoted after winning a promo series
- Fixed an issue with players sometimes being unable to join a new ranked team after leaving another
Champions
Ahri
Q – Orb of Deception
COST 70/75/80/85/90 mana ⇒ 55/60/65/70/75 mana
ABILITY POWER RATIO 0.325 (total: 0.65) ⇒ 0.35 (total: 0.7)
Alistar
Passive – Trample
REMOVED JUNGLE COW No longer deals double damage to monsters
Q – Pulverize
STUNNING LANDING Pulverize now correctly matches its visuals by applying a 1.5 second knockup ⇒ 1 second knockup followed by a 0.5 second stun (functionally should remain the same)
COST 70/80/90/100/110 mana ⇒ 65/70/75/80/85 mana
W – Headbutt
COST 70/80/90/100/110 mana ⇒ 65/70/75/80/85 mana
R – Unbreakable Will
NEW YOU CAN'T MILK THOSE Damage reduction now applies instantly, rather than after the spell animation
DAMAGE REDUCTION 50/60/70% ⇒ 70/70/70%
Kassadin
W – Nether Blade
COOLDOWN 6 seconds ⇒ 9 seconds
E – Force Pulse
SLOW DURATION 3 seconds ⇒ 1 second
SLOW AMOUNT 30/35/40/45/50% ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90%
Lucian
General
ATTACK RANGE 550 ⇒ 500
BASE MOVEMENT SPEED 330 ⇒ 335
BASE HEALTH 470 ⇒ 500
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE 49 ⇒ 52
Passive – Lightslinger
THE DOUBLE TAP RULE Fixed a bug where sometimes Lightslinger would fail to kill a champion because it incorrectly predicted that the first shot would be enough and would use the second shot to last hit a minion. Lightslinger will now always follow the double tap rule by shooting a near-dead champion twice to secure the kill.
Q – Piercing Light
NEW FARMCIAN Piercing Light now deals 75% ⇒ 100% damage to minions
CAST RANGE 550 ⇒ 500
COST 60/65/70/75/80 mana ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70 mana
E – Relentless Pursuit
NEW NOW WITH MORE RELENTLESSNESS Cooldown is now reduced by 1 second per Lightslinger (passive) hit, doubles against enemy champions (2 second reduction per hit, 4 seconds total for a full passive proc)
NEW NOW WITH MORE PURSUIT 60/45/30/15/0 mana ⇒ 0 mana at all ranks
NEW SMOOTH SHOOTER Lucian now resets his basic attack timer upon dashing
COOLDOWN 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
REMOVEDCULLED Relentless Pursuit no longer resets on kill during The Culling
These are just some of the changes to champions in the new update. To view the full patch 4.12 notes, including the changes to Twisted Treeline and item tweaks, head over to the League of Legends website.