Patch 12.4 notes

Progress comes with a price. Rise to the top with Renata Glasc in patch 12.4!
Game Updates
ahrisoo, Riot Riru, RiotAether

Patches are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get—unless you read the patch notes, that is. (Speaking of surprises, we have a new author today!)

This patch the Chem-Baroness Ms. Renata Glasc begins her corporate takeover of the Rift. We also have a few buffs for Kalista, Lucian, and Xayah to freshen up the current ADC assortment among other balances. Meanwhile in top lane, things have been a little tense with our enchanter friends, so we have some support gold income changes to help address the current situation. Lastly, be sure to keep your heart rate in check as we introduce a new set of stunning Shockblade skins!

And over in TFT, Renata Glasc, Silco, and many more join the updated TFT roster during the mid-set, Neon Nights. Read more about the update over at the TFT patch notes here!
Jina "ahrisoo" Yoon Lilu “Riru” Cabreros Paul "RiotAether" Perscheid

Patch Highlights

Admiral Glasc, Shockblade Qiyana, Shockblade Shen, Shockblade Kassadin, Firelight Ekko, and Brave Phoenix Xayah Prestige Edition will be available February 17, 2022.

Champions

new

Renata Glasc

The Chem-Baroness

Rise to the top with Renata Glasc on February 17!

Aatrox

Q Sweetspot bonus damage increased.

We’re still keeping an eye on the changes to the fighter item system, but it’s clear that Aatrox drew the short sword. This buff should hit the sweet spot.

Q - The Darkin Blade

Sweetspot Damage 150% ⇒ 160%

Amumu

E base damage reduction increased.

Last patch's nerfs made our mummy a little too sad. His E passive's damage reduction is now capped, so we can return some power to the ability by making the baseline stronger.

E - Tantrum

Physical Damage Reduction 2/4/6/8/10 (+3% bonus armor) (+3% bonus magic resist) ⇒ 5/7/9/11/13 (+3% bonus armor) (+3% bonus magic resist)

Ashe

R arrow speed increased.

Ashe has been fairly out of the meta for a while now, so we’re taking the opportunity to give the Frost Archer some more reliable utility with those magical, cross-map ults.

R - Enchanted Crystal Arrow

Missile Speed 1600 ⇒ 1500 (+200 per second of travel time), up to 2100

Blitzcrank

Base health regen reduced.

We're lowering the robot's innate sustain so that he has to be a little more cautious in lane.

Base Stats

Base Health Regeneration 8.5 ⇒ 7.5

Dr. Mundo

AD growth decreased. R cooldown no longer decreases with rank.

Dr. Mundo's been tearing up top lane. We're pulling some of his baseline offensive power so he has to make better use of his medical kit to successfully sedate his patients.

Base Stats

AD Growth 4.2 ⇒ 3.5
Attack Damage 61-132.4 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 61-120.5 (levels 1-18)

R - Maximum Dosage

Cooldown 110/100/90 seconds ⇒ 110 seconds at all ranks

Illaoi

Base attack speed increased. W damage ratio increased.

Illaoi hasn't found her footing yet this season, and the fighter item changes haven't done the priestess any favors either. She can already hit some wildly high highs, so we're bolstering her baselines to help her release the kraken.

Base Stats

Attack Speed 0.571 ⇒ 0.625

W - Harsh Lesson

Bonus Physical Damage 3/3.5/4/4.5/5% (+2% per 100 AD) of target's maximum health ⇒ 3/3.5/4/4.5/5% (+4% per 100 AD) of target's maximum health

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug where, if Illaoi died right after pulling an enemy's Spirit with E - Test of Spirit, nearby Tentacles would not attack the Spirit

Kalista

Base armor increased.

The Spear of Vengeance hasn’t been very scary recently. We’re buffing her so she can play more aggressively early and survive lane more reliably.

Base Stats

Armor 21 ⇒ 24

Lucian

Q mana cost decreased.

The Sentinel of Light hasn't actually seen much light this season, so we're letting him use his shining spells more aggressively before he gets Essence Reaver.

Q - Piercing Light

Mana Cost 50/60/70/80/90 ⇒ 48/56/64/72/80

Nami

E on-hit base damage reverted.

Last patch, we tide a small nerf to Nami's E when we adjusted her passive so that her power would remain at sea level. It turns out she actually sank a bit as a result, so we're reeling that part of the change back in.

E - Tidecaller's Blessing

On-Hit Damage (Per Hit) 20/35/50/65/80 (+20% AP) ⇒ 25/40/55/70/85 (+20% AP)

Neeko

Hitbox is now smaller. Q additional bloom base damage increased. W cooldown decreased.

Our curious chameleon has been sitting at a low winrate for quite some time and could use a little love. We're trimming down her THICC hitbox to match those of similar characters and giving her more access to her tricks. An extra boost to her blossoms should help her waveclear so she can roam to other lanes more using her camouflage, as well as make her combos really pop-blossom off.

Base Stats

Gameplay (Hitbox) Radius 80 ⇒ 65

Q - Blooming Burst

Additional Bloom Damage 40/60/80/100/120 (+20% AP) ⇒ 40/65/90/115/140 (+20% AP)

W - Shapesplitter

Cooldown 20/19/18/17/16 seconds ⇒ 16/15/14/13/12 seconds

QoL Changes

  • NEEKO'S REAL SHO'MAWhen playing as Neeko, your center HUD (i.e. the buff icons above your skills) will now always display your actual buffs, rather than the buffs of the ally you are disguised as if using Passive - Inherent Glamour. Enemies who click on you will still see the buffs of the ally you are disguised as in the target UI at the top of their screen.

Nunu & Willump

Health growth decreased. Q base damage and healing from champions decreased.

Nunu has been playfully toeing the line into OP territory across all brackets for a while now, but this last patch finally broke the ice. We're bringing him and William Willump back into a more reasonable state by tapping down on their general tankiness rather than detracting from their jungle clear and signature snowy skills.

Base Stats

Health Growth 82 ⇒ 76
Health at Level 18 1934 ⇒ 1832

Q - Consume

Healing From Champions 60/88/116/144/172 (+72% AP) (+8% bonus health) ⇒ 45/66/87/108/129 (+54% AP) (+6% bonus health)

Qiyana

Passive AD scaling decreased.

The empress continues to be a little too oppressive in higher levels of play, so we’re reducing the AD scaling on her passive to curb her waveclear and snowball potential.

Passive - Royal Privilege

Additional Physical Damage 15-83 (levels 1-18) (+55% bonus AD) (+30% AP) ⇒ 15-83 (levels 1-18) (+45% bonus AD) (+30% AP)

Rumble

Base armor increased.

Rumble is weak, especially in the top lane. We're fortifying him to be more in line with other melee laners so he can get scrappier with his enemies.

Base Stats

Base Armor 31 ⇒ 36

Sett

Health growth increased.

The Rift’s #2 mama’s boy (just behind the new patch notes author) has dropped in effectiveness and winrate a bit more than other fighters last patch, so we’re giving him a small buff.

Base Stats

Health Growth 93 ⇒ 100
Health at Level 18 2181 ⇒ 2300

Veigar

Base armor decreased; armor growth increased. E cooldown increased early.

Veigar is standing head-and-shoulders above the competition. His shadow is especially tall in bot lane, so we’re adjusting his scaling in a way that’ll impact him more in bot lane than in mid.

Base Stats

Base Armor 23 ⇒ 21
Armor Growth 3.75 ⇒ 4.0
Armor at Level 18 86.75 ⇒ 89

E - Event Horizon

Cooldown 18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds ⇒ 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

Bugfixes

  • Fixed Q - Baleful Strike's tooltip to correctly state that last hitting enemy champions grants 1 stack of Phenomenal Evil, not 3

Xayah

E damage amp based on crit chance increased.

While we're happy that Xayah has lethality options, they've been overshadowing her crit builds. The Rebel's gameplay is healthier and better suited to her identity when she builds at least some attack speed, so we’re increasing the crit scaling on E - Bladecaller to bring back her fast and furious feathers.

E - Bladecaller

Critical Strike Chance Damage Multiplier Deals 0.5% ⇒ 0.75% more damage per 1% critical strike chance

Zeri

Uncharged basic attack base damage and AP ratio decreased; damage amp against low-health enemies increased. Charged basic attack slow rate and duration decreased. Q base damage decreased but now also multiplied in crits; excess AS to AD ratio increased. W slow decreased early; cooldown increased early but now decreases with rank. E cooldown decreased. R bonus attack speed no longer increases with rank.

Zeri's spark still has a bit more shock than she needs, so we're nerfing her overall power in a way that should hit her bruiser builds harder than her crit builds.

Uncharged Basic Attack

Magic Damage 15-40 (levels 1-18) (+4% AP) ⇒ 10-25 (levels 1-18) (+3% AP)
Damage Increase 300% ⇒ 500% against enemies below 35% health

Charged Basic Attack

Slow 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 14/23/32/41/50% (based on Q rank)
Slow Duration 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second

Q - Burst Fire

Damage 10/15/20/25/30 (+110% AD) ⇒ 9/13/17/21/25 (+110% AD)
updatedBURSTIER BURSTS Burst Fire's critical strikes now also multiply its base damage (in addition to its AD ratio)
Excess Attack Speed to AD Conversion 50% ⇒ 60%

W - Ultrashock Laser

Slow 50/55/60/65/70% ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70%
Cooldown 10 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 13/12/11/10/9 seconds

E - Spark Surge

Cooldown 23/21.5/20/19.5/17 seconds ⇒ 23/22/21/20/19 seconds
Cooldown Reduction 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second per champion hit with charged basic attacks or abilities

R - Lightning Crash

Bonus Attack Speed 30/35/40% ⇒ 30% at all ranks

Bugfixes

  • Q - Burst Fire crits will no longer trigger Navori Quickblades' passive to reduce the cooldown of Q - Burst Fire
  • Tear of the Goddess now correctly treats Q - Burst Fire as a basic attack and will no longer grant stacks when it is cast; Zeri's right-click basic attack will continue to be treated as a spell and trigger Tear stacks

Items

newAlly Item Pings Now Available!

You can now display your allies' item cooldowns and charges in-game by pinging an item's icon in the "Tab" scoreboard! Item icons in the scoreboard will also have timer VFX to visually indicate their status, similar to those on Summoner Spells.

Rejuvenation Bead

Buying three Rejuvenation Beads has recently cropped up as a powerful item start strategy. However, it offers weak early game champions a bit too much sustain without asking for enough tradeoffs mid-game. We're adjusting it to require some more commitment and will look at changing Doran's items if players struggle to survive, especially in tough solo lanes.
Total Cost 150 gold ⇒ 300 gold
Base Health Regeneration +50% ⇒ +100%
Sell-Back Ratio 70% (sells for 105 gold) ⇒ 40% (sells for 120 gold)

Crystalline Bracer

Total Cost 650 gold ⇒ 800 gold
Base Health Regeneration +50% ⇒ +100%

Knight's Vow

Combine Cost 700 gold ⇒ 400 gold (total cost unchanged)
Base Health Regeneration +150% ⇒ +200%

Warmog's Armor

Combine Cost 650 gold ⇒ 500 gold (total cost unchanged)

Systems

Support Gold Income Items

Spellthief's Edge, Relic Shield, Steel Shoulderguards, & Spectral Sickle

Recently, there's been an increase of enchanter support champions in solo lanes who use support gold income items to gain money passively while roaming the map rather than playing in their lane. While we do value creativity in League of Legends, we believe this specific strategy goes over the line for what a healthy amount of early game roaming looks like. It also denies their lane opponents the opportunity to use early-game strengths to build leads during lane phase, which is a core part of each game.
These issues definitely call for a more robust solution and we're in the process of developing one. In the meantime, we're adjusting a few systems to minimize the effects on other parts of the game. In particular, both objective and CS bounties don't yet account for unconventional income strategies, which can waterfall into unhealthy game states. We're also increasing the minion farming penalty on these support gold income items during the first 5 minutes of the game so that laners can't just farm as usual, then grab-and-go once the timers kick in.
GOLD VALUE BOUNTIES Gold value bounties (a.k.a. CS bounties) are now based on the number of support gold income items on each team, rather than assuming each team has one support gold income item
OBJECTIVE BOUNTIES Enemy gold leads are now significantly less likely to lead to Objective Bounties activating if there are two or more support gold income items on your team
TRIBUTE/SPOILS OF WAR (PASSIVE) - MINION FARMING PENALTY Receive diminishing gold from excessive (4 minions per minute) ⇒ (2 minions per minute until 5 minutes; 4 minions per minute thereafter) minion kills. This diminished gold penalty is now also more severe during the first 5 minutes of the game. (All else unchanged)

Objective Bounties

Unrelated to the gold income items above, we're also shortening the deactivation timers for Objective Bounties to address some extreme swing cases. When an Objective Bounty period ends, the losing team should still be behind, but the lingering duration allowed some cases where a losing team could catapult ahead after claiming multiple bounties in a row.
BOUNTY LINGER PERIOD 15 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds after Objective Bounties fall off

ARAM

Champion Buffs

Camille +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken ⇒ +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken, +20% Shielding
Darius -5% Damage Taken ⇒ -5% Damage Taken, +20% Healing
Garen -5% Damage Taken
Hecarim +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken, +20% Healing
Jarvan IV -5% Damage Taken ⇒ +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken
Lee Sin +8% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken, +20% Healing, +20% Shielding
Nocturne +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken, +20% Healing
Olaf -5% Damage Taken ⇒ +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken, +20% Healing
Rek'Sai +10% Damage Dealt, -15% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -15% Damage Taken, +20% Healing
Riven +5% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken, +20% Shielding ⇒ +5% Damage Dealt, -8% Damage Taken, +20% Shielding
Ryze +8% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken
Talon +5% Damage Dealt, -8% Damage Taken ⇒ +10% Damage Dealt, -8% Damage Taken
Zeri -5% Damage Taken

Champion Nerfs

Alistar -5% Damage Dealt, +5% Damage Taken, -10% Healing ⇒ -5% Damage Dealt, +10% Damage Taken, -20% Healing
Ashe -15% Damage Dealt, +5% Damage Taken ⇒ -15% Damage Dealt, +10% Damage Taken
Lillia -5% Damage Dealt
Maokai -15% Damage Dealt, +10% Damage Taken, -20% Healing ⇒ -15% Damage Dealt, +10% Damage Taken, -40% Healing
Miss Fortune -8% Damage Dealt, +8% Damage Taken ⇒ -10% Damage Dealt, +10% Damage Taken
Seraphine -15% Damage Dealt, +15% Damage Taken, -20% Healing, -20% Shielding ⇒ -15% Damage Dealt, +15% Damage Taken, -40% Healing, -40% Shielding
Sona -15% Damage Dealt, +15% Damage Taken, -20% Healing, -20% Shielding ⇒ -15% Damage Dealt, +15% Damage Taken, -40% Healing, -40% Shielding
Tahm Kench +5% Damage Dealt, -10% Damage Taken ⇒ 0% Damage Dealt, -5% Damage Taken
Vel'Koz -5% Damage Dealt ⇒ -5% Damage Dealt, +5% Damage Taken
Ziggs -20% Damage Dealt, +18% Damage Taken ⇒ -20% Damage Dealt, +20% Damage Taken

Ionia Cup

The 2022 Clash Season begins! Team formation for the first weekend of Ionia Cup starts on February 14, and the tournaments take place on February 19 and 20. Team formation for the second weekend starts during patch 12.5 on March 1, and the tournaments take place on March 5 and 6.

Behavioral Systems

  • updatedIntentional Feeding Detection: A new system for detecting intentional feeding was successfully launched last month! Further enhancements have been made to the detection model's accuracy to improve the player experience.

Personalization

  • updatedSummoner Icons: You can now sort and search your summoner icons when selecting one to display! Summoner icons now display informational tooltips when you hover over them.
  • updatedSummoner Level Icon Borders: You can now select any of the summoner level icon borders you've earned so far, rather than just your highest level one. (Your selection will not appear in game loading screens just yet.)

Bugfixes & QoL Changes

  • Fixed a bug where champions would be able to cast some Summoner Spells while traveling through Hextech Gates (including Smite)
  • Fixed a bug where Ahri's Passive - Essence Theft could obtain essence from champion clones
  • Fixed a bug where Janna would incorrectly gain E - Eye of the Storm's passive heal and shield power boost upon slowing or knocking up enemy champions, even when she hadn't learned the skill yet
  • Fixed a bug where Senna’s R - Dawning Shadow would change direction if you casted it while your cursor was hovering over Senna’s champion icon in your central HUD
  • Fixed a bug where you would sometimes still receive some of Death's Dance's Ignore Pain's stored damage, even after triggering Defy with a champion takedown
  • Fixed a bug where Yorick’s Maiden of the Mist would get stuck inside structures when walking near them. The Maiden will now be Ghosted and move through structures and units in true ghost-like fashion
  • Kai'Sa’s ability tooltips and evolution trackers for her Passive - Second Skin's Living Weapon have been fixed and will correctly account for her bonus attack damage and attack speed
  • Fixed a bug where, if Zed casted his W - Living Shadow and recasted it while his Q - Razor Shuriken was in flight, both shurikens would launch from Zed’s new position (as opposed to 1 shuriken from each location)
  • Fixed a bug where Gangplank would receive a Tear of the Goddess stack upon casting E - Powder Keg
  • Fixed a bug where, if Tahm Kench applied three Passive - An Acquired Taste stacks on an enemy champion, he would sometimes still be able to R - Devour them after his stacks expired if he used certain item actives
  • Zoe's W - Spell Thief ability icon will now display the correct damage value for stolen Smites
  • Fixed a visual bug where Aphelios’ casting bar would not animate properly when upon activating W - Phase
  • Fixed a bug where players would receive an incorrect notification if they tried to change lobbies while in queue
  • The SFX that plays when creating a game lobby has been restored
  • PsyOps Pyke's W - Ghostwater Dive SFX that plays for enemies with low health (below his ultimate's execute threshold) has been adjusted for gameplay clarity
  • PROJECT: Jinx's critical strike hit SFX have been restored
  • The debuff VFX on enemies hit by Ahri's E - Charm have been fully restored
  • Teleport and Unleashed Teleport's tooltips have been fixed and will display accurate cooldown timers
  • The information displayed in the Dragon Soul buff's scoreboard tooltip has been corrected
  • Watchful and Vigilant Wardstones' tooltips have been fixed to display the correct number of wards currently placed
  • Smite’s tooltips in Champ Select and Collections have been restored

Upcoming Skins & Chromas