The Worlds patch hits the live servers on September 21.
Worlds 2022 Play-ins will start on September 29, and we finally have the latest changes that will determine the meta of the tournament. While the balance team had said 12.18 would be a heavy patch preceded by not-so-full patches, the actual notes don’t have many changes as it looks like most of the intended buffs and nerfs were hit in the previous 12.17. Still, there are some good changes that you should be interested for your solo queue journey as well.
A light Worlds patch
Let’s start with what you can expect from the pro-play meta for Worlds 2022. LOL Patch 12.18 itself doesn’t have too many changes solely classified as pro-focused on its highlights, as we saw multiple meta champions get hit by the nerf hammers on 12.17. Kalista got some base health nerfs, which shouldn’t impact the teams willing to play for early game. The biggest change for pro is the heavy nerfs to Lulu’s Whimsy (W), which accompanied by the Zeri/Sivir nerfs could completely change the enchanter dominated bot lane meta.
One other nerf that might impact pro play is Hecarim. The horseman got some adjustments in 12.17, which meant he wasn’t played in any league, and it led to him becoming the single best jungler in the game. These nerfs are not only here to ensure he is not 100% picked/banned at Worlds 2022, but also to curb his impact on solo queue, where he has an astonishing 36% ban rate. The remaining few champion nerfs, or buffs, are either very minuscule ability and base stats changes.
Then there are two more adjustments in this patch again, but not to new champions. Maokai and Udyr both got some major changes, a VGU in Udyr’s case, recently and there are some aspects in their gameplay that can be improved. Maokai adjustments have been a success at making him a top laner again, a full-tank one, but Riot also seems to want him to be playable in jungle, so there will be some jungle Maokai buffs for you to try.
Udyr is getting his abilities’ powers adjusted, as his Iron Mantle (W) and Wingborn Storm (R) are just too overpowered at the moment, while his Wildling Claw (Q) is not even worth putting a point in. This also resulted in his AD builds to be not viable, so Riot is trying to shift some power around in Udyr’s kit. After these buffs, Divine Sunderer Udyr top can be a good strategy to play.
Autofill protection changes
If you are not familiar with what is “autofill” League, Riot sometimes automatically assigns a role, even though they did not select it as their two preferred options, to the players in an effort to shorten the queue times. However, since 2016, there is an autofill protection in the game for the players who’ve recently queued and played as support or fill.
Riot is making a change to this system as support is much more popular nowadays, compared to 2016 when the rule was first introduced. The dev team says in the patch notes, that they made a decision a year ago to “proactively protect players from autofill if they were queuing for high demand positions.”
Now, instead of getting autofill protected when you queue support, you will get it if you select a “priority” tagged role, which will be highlighted in the lobby.
- [New] PICK ME: Selecting a priority role will protect you from being autofilled only in your upcoming game.
- [Removed] SUPPORT SUPREMACY: Guaranteed autofill protection when queuing as support or queuing as fill has been removed.
- [Unchanged] RECURRING PROTECTION: Players will still receive autofill protection for 2 games after having played a game while autofilled.
When does LOL patch 12.18 go live?
Patch 12.18 will go live on September 21.
The first region that the patch will drop is the Oceania servers at 10 AM AEDT. The rest of the servers will follow suit in the morning hours of their respective regions. Here are the timings for most servers:
- 3 AM PT (NA)
- 5 AM GMT (EUW)
- 3 AM CET (EUNE)
- 8 AM KST (Korea)
LOL Patch 12.18 complete changes
Champion Buffs
Ashe
- Q – Ranger’s Focus
- Bonus Attack Speed: 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 25/32.5/40/47.5/55%
Lee Sin
- Base Stats
- Health Growth: 99 ⇒ 105
- W – Safeguard/Iron Will
- Lifesteal and Spellvamp: 5/9.5/14/18.5/23% ⇒ 5/10.5/16/21.5/27%
Thresh
- Base Stats
- Health Growth: 115 ⇒ 120
- E – Flay
- Magic Damage: 65/95/125/155/185 (+40% AP) ⇒ 75/110/145/180/215 (+40% AP)
Champion Nerfs
Hecarim
- Base Stats
- Q – Rampage
- Physical Damage Bonus AD Ratio: 95% ⇒ 90%
- Increased Damage Per Stack: 4% (+6% per 100 bonus AD) ⇒ 4% (+5% per 100 bonus AD)
- W – Spirit of Dread
- Percent of Post-Mitigation Damage Healed: 30% (+2.5% per 100 bonus AD) ⇒ 25% (+2% per 100 bonus AD) (Note: remains halved for damage not dealt by Hecarim)
Kalista
Kayn
- Q – Reaping Slash
- Darkin Damage: 65% AD (+5% of the target’s max health (+5% per 100% bonus AD)) ⇒ 65% AD (+5% of the target’s max health (+3.5% per 100% bonus AD))
Lulu
- W – Whimsy
- Movement Speed: 30% ⇒ 25%
- Disable duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0/2.25 ⇒ 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2.0 seconds
- Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 ⇒ 17/16.5/16/15.5/15 seconds
Miss Fortune
- Base Stats
- Attack Damage Growth: 2.7 ⇒ 2.4
- Health Growth: 107 ⇒ 103
Nocturne
- Base Stats
- Attack Damage Growth: 3.1 ⇒ 2.6
Champion Adjustments
Maokai
- Passive – Sap Magic
- Heal: 4.8-14% (based on level) ⇒ 4.5 -12% (based on level)
- Q – Bramble Smash
- Bonus Damage to Monsters: 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 80/100/120/140/160
- E – Sapling Toss
- Damage: 55/80/105/130/155 (+ 6% bonus health) (+ 42.5% AP) ⇒ 55/80/105/130/155 (+ 6% bonus health) (+ 40% AP)
- Empowered Damage: 110/160/210/260/310 (+ 12% bonus health) (+ 85% AP) ⇒ 110/160/210/260/310 (+ 12% bonus health) (+ 80% AP)
- Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause Maokai’s Q to pull targets closer to him as opposed to knocking them away
- Fixed a bug that would cause Maokai’s R to be narrower than intended
Udyr
- Base Stats
- Health Growth: 106 ⇒ 98
- Armor Growth: 5.2 ⇒ 4.7
- Q – Wildling Claw
- Mana Cost: 45-28 (based on level) ⇒ 20
- Empowered Lightning Strike AP Ratio: +0.6% per 100 AP ⇒ +0.8% per 100 AP
- [New] BIT OF A REACH: Udyr’s first two attacks gain 50 attack range, matching the functionality of his Awakened Q
- [New] SHOCKER: Awakened Q now deals an additional 2-5% (based on level) (+0.03% bonus AD) max health physical damage on first two attacks
- W – Iron Mantle
- Percent HP Heal: 1.2/1.26/1.32/1.38/1.44/1.5% ⇒ 1.2%
- Percent HP Shield: 2/2.4/2.8/3.2/3.6/4.0% ⇒ 2/2.3/2.6/2.8/3.2/3.5%
- Life Steal: 15% ⇒ 15/16/17/18/19/20%
- R – Wingborne Storm
- Magic Damage: 20/38/56/74/92/110 (+40% AP) ⇒ 20/36/52/68/84/100 (+35% AP)
- Damage to Minions: 50/60/70/80% (levels 1/6/11/16) ⇒ 40/55/70/85% (levels 1/6/11/16)
Mythic shop rotation
Added content
- Prestige Battle Academia Leona
- Prestige PsyOps Ezreal
- Hextech Poppy
- Soulstealer Vayne
- Ashen Slayer Sylas
- Mythic Chroma Ashen Slayer Sylas (Emberwoken)
Removed content
- Prestige Battle Academia Lux
- Prestige PROJECT Zed
- Hextech Ziggs
- Dreadnova Darius
- Ashen Knight Pantheon
- Mythic Chroma Battle Academia Ezreal
Mythic updates
- Emberwoken Chromas of Ashen Knight Pyke and Ashen Conqueror Pantheon now have recolored VFX to match Ashen Slayer Sylas’ (releasing with this patch)
- Ashen Knight Pantheon’s name has been updated to Ashen Conqueror Pantheon
