LoL Patch 12.8: Xayah, Jinx, Soraka Nerfed, Kai’Sa & Swain Adjusted

The League of Legends (LoL) community is finally getting ready to bid adieu to the Jinx-Aphelios picks in the bot lane with LoL Patch 12.8 ready to release ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). As we now know, the meta has been quite stale with the same champions and picks making the rounds in both Solo Queue and League of Legends esports. Even with the current patch of 12.7, Riot Games wanted to bring back champions that have not been picked in quite some time.

However, Riot has removed Pyke from the list of champions that are getting their powers trimmed in LoL Patch 12.8. He has been moved to a future patch to allow for the upcoming changes.

While Soraka, Xayah, and Jinx have been listed in the nerfs section, Kai’Sa and Swain are listed for adjustments.

Notably, the 2022 MSI will be played on LoL Patch 12.8, which is slated to be released on the live servers on 27th April. This gives the teams participating in the event close to two weeks to practice on the new patch.

Champion nerfs in LoL Patch 12.8

Jinx and Xayah are the attack-damage carry (ADC) champions who are getting nerfed in LoL Patch 12.8.

Riot Games is outright reducing Jinx’s base health from 610 to 560. For Xayah, her Q - Double Daggers’ damage has been decreased and its cooldown has been increased in the later levels. Her Q damage is now 45/60/75/90/105 and its cooldown will be 10-8 seconds based on level.

Soraka is the support champion who is getting her powers checked by Riot Games in LoL Patch 12.8.

The healing on her W - Astral Infusion has been decreased from level two and at the max level on the ability, it will be 210 with its ability power (AP) ratio dropped to +65%.

Champion adjustments

Riot has already addressed the changes that are coming our way for Swain through the mid-scope update in LoL Patch 12.8. These changes are aimed at making Swain a better solo-laner whilst also helping him thrive as a support champion.

Associate Game Designer Tim “Truexy” Jiang wrote on Twitter, “This version of Swain aims to pull some [of] his burst power into investing in Swain's fantasy of becoming a drain-tanking terror while in R. We've shifted the power from his Passive pull off allies into more agency for the Swain player themselves within the Q/E/R changes. As always, numbers are always subject to change pre-ship.”

Meanwhile, AP Kai’sa is getting targeted by Riot since she slowly rose to fame in the mid-lane, both in Solo Queue and pro play. With LoL Patch 12.8, Riot is reducing the AP ratio on her W - Void Seeker to 45%. To offset this, the AP ratios on her R - Killer Instinct and her Passive - Second Skin are getting amped up to 100% and 5% per 100 AP, respectively.

It will be interesting to see how these changes affect the pick and ban phase in MSI 2022, which is going to be hosted in Busan, Korea. LoL Patch 12.8 will go live on 27th April and since this is only a patch preview, the numbers detailed are subject to change before the patch goes live on the servers.