Riot Games starts New Year with League of Legends Patch 12.1
League of Legends begins 2022 with new patch 12.1 official notes and updates.
Riot Games is kicking off the new season with a soft reset, changes to decay, and some other visual updates to the user interface. Some champions will also undergo some changes and become more balanced. The update is completed with a shiny new set of Elderwood skins for Gnar and Rek’Sai.
Riot Games also plans to smooth out some of the rough edges from pre-season with the new updates.
Balanced champion changes
The new patch will balance out some of the players’ abilities.
Sona and Rek’Sai will receive some nerfs this time around. Sona’s passive armor growth is nerfed from 3.3 to 3. Her E-Song of Celerity ability will take faster to cooldown, from twelve seconds to fourteen seconds.
While Rek’Sai’s E-Furious Bite will cost more this time around, from 50/60/70/80/90 (+85% bonus AD) to 55/60/65/70/75 (+85% bonus AD), and a longer cooldown time fr E-Tunnel from 26/23/20/17/14 seconds to 26/24/22/20/18 seconds.
On the contrary, Diana and Gankplank will receive some buffs.
Diana’s passive, Moonsilver Blade’s AP ratio will be increased from 40 percent to 50 percent, and the monster damage from 250 percent to 300 percent.
Gankplank’s Q-Parrrley will go through some changes, with mana cost reduced from 60/55/50/45/40 to 55/50/45/40/35, and faster cooldown time from five seconds to four seconds.
Other notable updates for patch 12.1
Aside from champion updates, the new patch will release some tweaks to several items. First, Eclipse’s Ever Rising Moon cooldown will take longer from six to eight seconds.
Force of Nature’s absorbs stack duration is changed from five to seven and higher dissipate magic damage reduction, from 20 to 25 percent.
Immortal Shieldbow’s attack damage is decreased from 55 to 50 and Lifeline shield’s from 300 to 800 (based on level) to 275 to 600 (based on level).
Last but not least, Wit’s Ends magic resist is reduced from 50 damage to 40 damage.
Riot also placed new decay rules for the apex tiers but not Diamond and below, such as Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. They are aimed to correct misplacements and improve the matchmaking experience.
Here are the details of the change: banked days for apex players will be increased from 10 days to 14 days, with the decay rate much reduced from 250 LP per day to 75 LP per day. Apex decay floor is from Diamond I to Diamond II.
For the visual updates, one of the noticeable changes is ranked armor that has been renamed ranked rests. Loading screen borders will also match the new ranked crests. For clarity, several parts of the game lobby UI have been rearranged, so pay attention and make sure you don’t confuse one another.
Riot Games invites players to a special Forge God Clash tournament with the rewards of three trophies, three banners, and five team logos. Players need to take notes that it will only open on one weekend, on January 15 and 16. Team formation opens on January 10.
The Forge God Flash is not a part of the regular season. The first official Clash tournament in 2022 will officially commence in patch 12.4.
As mentioned earlier, there will be bug fixes as well as quality of life changes in this patch. The full list of changes is available to check on Riot Games’ official website.
