Patch 12.9 Notes
NEW CHALLENGES APPROACH! It’s time for patch 12.9, and with it the launch of our brand new Challenges system. Complete them to prove that you really are the best of the best!
Make sure to brace yourselves for more axes and rocks because the mid-scope updates for Olaf and Taliyah go live this patch! Other challenges we’ll be tackling in this edition of Patch Notes include zombies running into towers, capitalist chem-baron monopolies, foxes dashing around the Rift, a not-so-jolly mustachioed man, and cowboys rootin’, tootin’, and (by god?) shootin’ in my Ranked games.
Make sure to follow the Mid-Season Invitational in Busan where Group Stage will be kicking off on May 10! We’ll also be releasing the EDG skinline in celebration of their 2021 World Championship win!
Looking for more challenges? Well, hit the Convergence where Dragon Eggs are shaking things up right before Dragonlands. Read about it in the TFT patch notes here!
Mid-Patch Updates
5/14/2022 Turret Bugfix
Turrets
5/13/2022 Taliyah Bugfix and ARURF Balance Changes
Taliyah
ARURF Balance Changes
Champion Buffs
Champion Nerfs
5/11/2022 Update & Bugfixes
ARURF
Rengar
Sion
Patch Highlights
Challenges
Challenges track your overall progress within League across a ton of categories. Build your legacy through over 300 unique Challenges that celebrate the champs you've mained, modes you've conquered, plays you've made, stuff you've collected, and more.
Show off the Challenges you’re most proud of with Titles and Token. You can see how you measure up in your region with regional leaderboards—now you can finally hit Challenger in something.
No matter how you play, there's a Challenge for you. Learn more about how Challenges work in our full rundown.
Champions
Olaf
Mid-scope update, all abilities adjusted.
Despite Olaf’s popularity in Pro, he’s been one of the least mained champions in League for a while now. The flexibility of Ragnarok as an engage or escape and his fast clear speeds make him the ultimate example of a champ that walks the fine line between OP in Pro and “...meh” in all other levels of play.
With this mid-scope update, we’re aiming to shift some of his power away from his clear speed and into tools that will help players feel stronger and in more control of Olaf’s survivability as he rides the edge of disaster at low health. These changes should not only help better define Olaf’s identity as a Berserker, but also allow him to take a new place as a viable top laner.
Base Stats
Passive - Berserker Rage
Q - Undertow
W - Tough It Out
R - Ragnarok
Taliyah
Mid-scope update, all abilities adjusted.
Get ready to rock and roam because the one and only Stoneweaver is ready to rumble (the ground). Taliyah has been struggling to find footing on the Rift, not only in mid, but in the jungle as well—not to mention the mechanical complexity and punishing nature of her kit.
For Taliyah’s update, we really wanted to focus on making her more fun (especially for players who’ve been playing her frequently), reviving her presence in mid, and increasing the amount of forgiveness in her kit. We’re hoping these changes shake things up and give her a clean slate to start anew!
Base Stats
Passive - Rock Surfing
Q - Threaded Volley
W - Seismic Shove
E - Unraveled Earth
R - Weaver’s Wall
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where Taliyah would sometimes lose her passive permanently if she had a spell shield active
- Fixed a bug where Taliyah would sometimes not get reduced cooldown on her Q - Threaded Volley when cast on Worked Ground
Ahri
E cooldown increased. R cooldown increased at all ranks.
Ahri's been getting a lot of play time since her update. She's incredibly consistent at making picks and assassinating carries, all while remaining relatively safe and just out of reach. We're lowering the uptime on her CC and dashes to add more thrill to the chase.
E - Charm
R - Spirit Rush
Braum
Passive cooldown decreased late. E damage reduction increased.
Everyone’s favorite Poro Protector has been feeling a little left out in the cold recently. We’re hoping to bring a smile back to his glorious mustache (and his poros’ faces) by beefing up his protective power.
Passive - Concussive Blows
E - Unbreakable
Hecarim
Q AD scaling increased. W cooldown decreased.
Hecarim is hecc'in weak after the last set of nerfs targeted at his tank build. We're helping him get his hooves back in the game (while being careful to avoid reintroducing his one-shot E build) by buffing his item scaling and increasing the horsepower behind his key survivability skill to more evenly distribute his power across his kit. These should help Hecarim find a more stable place in today’s meta without turning him into a pseudo-assassin race horse.
Q - Rampage
W - Spirit of Dread
Master Yi
R bonus attack speed reduced.
The Wuju Bladesman has gotten a little too fast at killing his enemies, especially in late game. We're reducing his DPS scaling to slow him down and give his foes a chance to keep up.
R - Highlander
Nidalee
Base health reduced.
Nidalee's been catching prey left and right with her recently increased spell output, especially at higher levels of play. We're bringing down her early dueling power so she doesn't get such an easy Nida…lead.
Base Stats
Pyke
Passive grey health conversion increased. Q mana cost increased, mana refund increased, now refunds mana upon hitting an enemy champion. R cooldown decreased, “Your Cut” opportunities reduced.
Pyke's been a littleboneskewed toward mid ever since his changes long ago in Season 9, so we're reverting them to bring the Bloodwater Ripper back to bot lane. We're also adjusting some other parts of his kit to further tune him toward the unconventional support he is. Kills (and bags) secured.
Passive - Gift of the Drowned Ones
Q - Bone Skewer
R - Death From Below
Renata Glasc
Base armor decreased. Passive damage decreased.
Renata Glasc is on her way to monopolizing bot lane at all levels of play, and business is really starting to boom in Elite. She's been getting a bit too much valuepropout of her passive, whereas her return on investment for damage-oriented support items has been relatively low. These small adjustments toward AP item scaling should help balance and diversify her build portfolio.
Base Stats
Passive - Leverage
Renekton
Health and AD growth increased. W base damage increased, cooldown increased early and decreased late. R base damage increased.
Renekton has largely disappeared from Pro after the fighter item changes in 12.3. We're looking to add some scaling back so he feels a bit better as the game progresses. We're also reducing the gap between his W and E second max builds since that choice leads to some serious win rate losses in Average play. You heard it here first, crocs are back in fashion.
Base Stats
W - Ruthless Predator
R - Dominus
Rengar
W damage against monsters decreased.
Rengar’s changes in 12.7 helped this kitty adapt a little too well to the outdoors to the point where he’s now the top cat in the jungle. We're reverting a buff to his clear (and that buff only) to otherwise leave him as is.
W - Battle Roar
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where Rengar’s empowered abilities and W - Battle Roar’s heal would sometimes play through the Fog of War
Shyvana
W damage tick rate decreased.
We’re introducing some small quality of life changes and a batch of bugfixes to help fan Shyvana’s flames.
W - Burnout
E - Flame Breath
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where Shyvana’s Q - Twin Bite would not attack player-created targets (like Teemo’s Mushrooms or Illaoi’s Tentacles) twice
- Fixed a bug where Shyvana’s Q - Twin Bite’s second attack would not deal damage if the enemy was running away from her
- Fixed a bug where Shyvana’s W - Burnout VFX were not correctly displaying when inside of Mordekaiser’s R - Death Realm
Sion
Undead Sion's Passive damage against structures reduced.
Sion's been a bit too glorious in death. Although "inting Sion" had a good run, we believe it isn't a sustainable direction for him or League in the long term. Taking down towers by split pushing should certainly be doable even while behind, but when the strat requires repeatedly dying, it’s not very fun for all parties involved. We're nerfing undead Sion's split pushing power in order to restore some balance to his circle of life.
Passive - Glory in Death
Thresh
Passive AP and Bonus Armor per Soul increased. W shield strength scaling with Souls increased.
What is the value of a soul? (Currently, not very much… ) Thresh has fallen off quite a bit, particularly in Average and Skilled play, so we're increasing his scaling power by making it more worthwhile to collect the essence of the dead. Gotta catch 'em all.
Passive - Damnation
W - Dark Passage
Varus
Passive attack speed gained on minion and champion kills increased. W magic damage on-hit increased.
Varus has been relatively weak since his Lethality nerfs last season. We're buffing his on-hit builds back up to make his vengeance viable again.
Passive - Living Vengeance
W - Blighted Quiver
Items
Hullbreaker
Hullbreaker is an important tool for empowering split pushing, but when rushed as a first item, its bounty-ful bonus resists can invalidate laning and lead to unpleasant experiences. We still think it's a valuable addition to the game since, unlike past split push items like Zz'Rot, Hullbreaker requires champions to stay in the lane they’re split pushing. So we're nerfing its early game potency.
MSI Clash
MSI 2022 is here, and so are the MSI-themed Clash tournaments! Team formation for the Clash MSI Cup started on May 9, and the tournament begins on May 14 and 15! Team formation for week 2 of the Cup will start on May 16 with the tournament days being May 21 and 22!
As part of MSI Clash, players who purchase a Premium Ticket during Clash are eligible for the following rewards: (NOTE: JP region is excluded from this reward due to legal restrictions.)
Players who place 1st through 5th in the tournament will receive a random legacy Conqueror Skin Permanent
Players who place 6th-8th will receive a legacy Conqueror Skin Shard
Client Update
We have removed the self-repair button from the League of Legends client settings menu as it was a redundant feature. Client self-repair can still be accessed through the Riot Games client settings menu.
Bugfixes & QoL Changes
- Fixed a bug where Swain’s old ability descriptions were displaying in the Champion Details Page
- Fixed a bug where Swain could reactivate his E - Nevermove to pull enemies closer to him even if they had cleansed the Root effect
- Fixed a bug where Rengar could still deal damage with his Q - Savagery when blinded by Teemo’s Q - Blinding Dart
- Fixed a bug where Chaos (Red) side inhibitors would display blue icons when selected
- Fixed a bug where Kayle’s movement and attack VO lines were not playing correctly while Ascended
- Fixed a bug where Elise’s W - Volatile Spiderling was ignoring Baron and not exploding
- Fixed a bug where Nocturne’s R - Paranoia VO line would play louder than intended if players had visibility of more than 1 champion affected by nearsightedness
- Fixed a bug where Black Belt Udyr’s Bear Stance was not displaying the correct visual textures
- Fixed a bug where Irelia would only receive stacks of her Passive - Ionian Fervor for Champions hit when hitting Champions and minions/monsters simultaneously
- Fixed a bug where Lillia was not receiving the correct among of healing from her Passive - Laden Bough
- Fixed a bug where the sound effects for Ashe’s W - Volley would stop playing if it was leveled up to Rank 2 on-cast
- Fixed a bug where Gangplank’s R- Cannon Barrage would cancel allies’ auto attacks if it was upgraded with Raise Morale
- Fixed a bug where Ekko’s Q - Timewinder tooltip was displaying the incorrect AP ratio
- Fixed a bug where the damage from Janna’s Q - Howling Gale was not correctly factoring in the ability’s base AP ratio
- Fixed a bug where Wukong’s E - Nimbus Strike into Q - Crushing Blow combo would fail to stack Conqueror
- Fixed a bug where Turrets would prioritize and target enemies damaged by Kog’Maw’s Passive - Icathian Surprise
- Fixed a bug where Master Yi’s Q - Alpha Strike sound effects would sometimes be audible to the enemy team in the Fog of War
- Fixed a bug where Shaco’s Passive - Backstab was sometimes audible to the enemy team from the Fog of War
- Fixed a bug where Aphelios’ gun swapping and ability sound effects would sometimes be audible from the Fog of War
- Fixed a bug where the sound of Scuttle’s shield breaking would play through the Fog of War
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: