LoL Patch 12.9: Riot Goes Light on Balance Changes This Time

Riot Games revealed the patch notes for LoL Patch 12.9 as 12.8 has been up and running for almost a week now. Riot has made it clear that the Mid-Season Invitational shall be played on LoL Patch 12.8 and so the changes in LoL Patch 12.9 have no bearing on the first international tournament of this year. Lead designer of game balance and preseason Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison posted the patch preview on Twitter and said that Riot would be rolling out a larger update to increase champion durability in the next patch after LoL Patch 12.9.

He added, “In light of the upcoming durability changes, we're going light on balance changes in this patch. The 12.10 changes are intended to increase durability, which has a greater effect on burstier champions. We're holding off on adjusting most of those champions this patch as a result.”

Notably, LoL Patch 12.9 will be introducing two mid-scope updates to the game to bring Taliyah and Olaf back into the meta. A total of fourteen champions have made the list this time around, and from the looks of it, Riot is hoping to bring in major changes to the jungle meta.

LoL Patch 12.9 Buffs

Four champions are getting buffed in LoL Patch 12.9. They are:

• Hecarim

• Varus

• Braum

• Thresh

Braum and Thresh will soon receive buffs to their kits, and maybe it will bring in a shift in the enchanter support champion meta which is currently popular on the Summoner’s Rift.

Nerfs in LoL Patch 12.9

A total of six champions are getting their powers trimmed down in LoL Patch 12.9 and three of them are jungle champions. They are:

• Rengar

• Master Yi

• Nidalee

• Ahri

• Renata Glasc

• Sion

Master Yi has once again landed on the nerf list after the back and forth experimentation Riot did with his kit. Midway through LoL Patch 12.5, Riot rolled out hotfix nerfs for him after his initial nerfs ended up being a huge, unintentional buff.

With regards to the “mid-scope updates” Riot Games has time and again said that these updates are not complete reworks but rather slight adjustments to champion’s kits. These updates are aimed at improving the champion’s pick rates in League of Legends and helping them regain their charm. Taliyah and Olaf will don a revamped ability kit in LoL Patch 12.9 as Riot is currently experimenting with the ratios on the Public Beta Environment. Meanwhile, the company is also testing out new things with Pyke, his ultimate, and his passive.

The most significant change coming our way in LoL Patch 12.9 is probably the change to Hullbreaker. Hullbreaker, a legendary item in League of Legends, presents immense split-push opportunities, thanks to its passive. Players build it on top-laners and unmindfully push the side lanes. Riot already partially nerfed Hulbreaker in LoL Patch 12.5 but is again taking a closer look at the item in this patch. The description for Hullbreaker in the image posted by Proxzon says “Rush” in parentheses. It is possible that Riot is changing the recipe for the item, and making sure that players are not able to rush it in the early to mid-game.

Proxzon also wrote, “I realized that I neglected to mention that we are also making some changes to Renekton to adjust his scaling over game time.” So players will be looking at a Renekton update in the coming updates from Riot.

Details on what aspects of these champions are getting tweaked along with the actual numbers will be revealed in the coming week with an expanded patch preview from Riot. LoL Patch 12.9 is expected to go live on the servers on 11th May, according to the official patch schedule.