League of Legends Patch 12.13: Nilah arrives, Gwen and Sivir overhauled
League of Legends (LoL) Patch 12.13 is finally here! Although it’s one week delayed from the usual schedule, this new patch has some of the most awaited updates of the season.
Patch 12.13 comes the arrival of Nilah, the Joy Unbound, LoL’s newest champion in the bot lane. On top of that, Sivir mains can expect her rework to arrive too, along with a major Gwen overhaul as well.
There’s a lot to cover, so we’ve broken down the biggest updates for you in this article:
Nilah, The Joy Unbound, Arrives
Almost a month ago, Riot gave us a preview of their newest champion in the bot lane: Nilah, the Joy Unbound.
After some testing on the Public Beta Environment (PBE), she’s finally ready to roll onto the public servers. Her amazing kit shows us that she’s the first successful melee ADC skirmisher.
And while initially we thought she could also flex into a support role, we think she’d fit best as the main carry that can synergize well with shielding and healing support champions.
Sivir Rework Arrives
Sivir, the Battle Mistress, is ready to finally get off benches.
Her rework was announced last month, and with Riot’s Gameplay analyst Ray “RayYonggi” Williams constantly communicating with players and testers, Sivir is finally shaping up to feel like a brand new champion.
Get ready for her to shake up the bot lane along with Nilah. The details on Sivir’s rework can be found here.
Gwen gets a Rework too
Back in Spring, Gwen was one of the strongest top laners in the meta for high-level play. She was the fourth top pick at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, with an 87.01% pick and ban rate and a 66.67% win rate.
With 12.10 keeping her in a great spot, the Hallowed Seamstress got nerfed in 12.11.
And with low ELO players already struggling with her, it seemed like that nerf, along with some item and rune changes hit our aqua-haired doll too hard.
She crashed to tier 5 with a sad 46.03% win rate, making her the 8th worst champion in the top lane right now.
Riot’s giving her some buffs across the board, mostly targeted to help her in the early game. However, her late-game burst has been reduced a bit to prevent her from dominating higher-level games. The devs seem to love her in the top lane, so jungler Gwens might feel a huge difference after 12.13.
Base Stats
HP Regen Growth: 0.55 > 0.9 per 5s
Snip Snip! (Q)
Damage Per Snip: 9/12/15/16/21 (+5% AP) > 10/14/18/22/26 (+5% AP)
Final Snip damage: 45/60/75/90/105 (+25% AP) > 60/80/100/120/140 (+35% AP)
Centre Snip: 100% true damage > 75 % true damage
Deals 75% damage to minions
Minions below 20% health take 1000% bonus damage instead of reduced damage.
Hallowed Mist (W)
Bonus Resistance: 12/14/16/18/20 (+5% AP) > 17/19/21/23/25 (+7% AP)
Duration: 5s > 4s
Skip ‘n Slash (E)
Bonus Magic Damage: 10 (+15% AP) > 15 (+20% AP)
Bonus Range: 50 > 75
Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9 > 13/12.5/12/11.5/11
Cooldown Refund: 50% > 25/35/45/55/65%
Needlework (R)
Damage per Needle: 30/55/80 (+8% AP) > 35/65/95 (+10% AP)
[Adjusted] Recast resets after damaging an enemy Champion > Resets after 1s
Champion Buffs
Some burst champions were heavily affected by 12.10, so some “non-burst buffs for burst-oriented champions” were targeted according to Lead Designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, who works on the League Balance Team & Preseason (Summoner's Rift Team).
Elise
Elise was one of the early-game jungler picks affected by the recent updates, so Riot gave her a hand with this patch. Her base HP, starting armour, HP growth, and human form Q (Neurotoxin) damage are all going up.
Evelynn
Evelynn, another AP jungler, is receiving some solid buffs as well. She'll get more healing from her passive, more magic resistance shred from her W, and her ultimate will put her passive on a 1.25-second cooldown.
Buffs on Allure will bring Evelynn's burst closer to what it was before 12.10. Buffs to her passive and improved accessibility after an ult will reward players for properly playing her.
It's not ideal for jungler mains who might come across her, but who knows? She could be powerful enough now to counter Bel'Veth or Volibear. We’ll have to play to find out.
Fiddlesticks
The main villain of this year’s Star Guardian event is getting some love in this patch. He’s not as scary as he was meant to be, so his Terrify’s duration has increased and his ultimate’s damage was given a significant buff too.
Galio
Devs think his “tornadoes have been feeling more like a light breeze recently,” so his Q got a tiny damage increase buff.
Karthus
The last AP jungler to get a buff is Karthus. He’s going to receive increased base armour and health scaling. Jungle clear is the same, so no need to worry, he won’t snowball any harder than he already does.
Kled
This Cantankerous Cavalier has all the reasons to be cranky in the top lane having struggled in tier D for a while now. Riot attempts to cheer him up with some additional damage buffs. The bonus AD from Bear Trap on a Rope (Q) has increased, while the cooldown for Violent Tendencies has been lowered. We see a potential for Kled to make a comeback in the meta, so keep an eye on him after 12.13.
Master Yi
We’ve seen Master Yi in and out of this list many times this year and for this patch, he’s getting some significant changes. For one, you’ll also be able to pick which side of your target you appear on after the Q finishes.
His basic attack range has been enhanced by 50%, while his Q and W cooldown has been decreased from 28 to 9 seconds. However, the mana cost is doubled to 40 plus 6 of his max mana every second, and the ability takes on a whole new identity.
To put it another way, the damage reduction is now at 90% for half a second after he cancels the cast, and the damage reduction will likewise last for that amount of time. In other words, timing the ability well will pay off much more than it did before. Surprisingly, Riot is giving the character greater skill expression while also offering players more alternatives to attempt to outplay their opponents.
Olaf
We’re scratching our heads on that Olaf buff, to be honest. At least in the games I’ve encountered, his rework synced really well with the durability update. He also got a couple of nerfs, so hopefully, it balances him out. It seems like Riot wants Olaf in the jungle, so buffs and nerfs are geared toward enhancing that.
In the early game, his passive bonus attack speed has been enhanced, but his health regen growth has been reduced. His Q's mana accost has also risen. The increased attack speed, on the other hand, will let him clear the jungle much more quickly than before.
Renekton
Our resident crocodile Renekton gets a significant buff. His ultimate now scales with 10% of his bonus attack damage (AD). Renekton mains might find this to be worth it for Bruiser builds, more than Assassin builds. When he's using Conqueror, it'll add some damage to his combo and help him remain relevant in the latter stages of the game.
Taliyah
After a slew of nerfs since 12.10, the Stoneweaver is receiving some love. Her Q's damage increased but its mana cost was reduced. Monster bonus damage has also been reduced. She can also do greater damage to champions now. Her enhanced Q now stuns monsters, and her ultimate has no cooldown if she hits an enemy ward or trap. Not looking forward to a Taliyah ingame!
Vex
An “extra gloomy” Vex is receiving some love too. Some power on her Mistral Bolt has been added and she’s given more access to it, with its cooldown decreased at all ranks.
Champion Nerfs
Only two champions received nerfs in this patch: Corki and Volibear.
Corki
The daring bombardier has been too daring for quite long, and his long-range poke is just dominating the Rift in Competitive Play.
His E's AD ratio was increased, while his ultimate's basic damage and AP scaling were lowered.
Because his ultimate is a great poke weapon that also adds significantly to his damage output during battles, this is a larger nerf than a buff after a level 6.
Volibear
Volibear has one of the highest win rates in the Jungle, sitting at 52.89%. That makes his win rate even higher than Bel’Veth’s!
Devs are "pulling power away from some of his stronger jungling tools like his reliable ganks and extra damage against high-health objectives like Baron and Dragon".
His Q’s damage and bonus movement speed has been decreased and his W and E’s damage has also been reduced.
Items
A couple of buffs are given to lethality items like Demonic Embrace, Liandry’s Anguish, and Duskblade of Draktharr.
The nerfs given to them previously were designed to lower the agency of assassins and weaken burst damage but they were hit too hard.
Gradually, these items are receiving buffs to give them some more viable builds, especially since many assassins have opted into building bruiser builds to adapt.
Divine Sunderer, on the other hand, has been “doing its job a bit too well” with the item helping fighters play into tanks… and everyone else in general.
Its passive effect damage has been adjusted to scale less with max health, but now includes a base AD ratio. Healing has been adjusted from 6% and 3% to 65% of pre-mitigation damage.
Objective Bounties
We're not sure why it took more than six months for Riot to realize that objective bounties were generally unfair, but at least they’ve taken action now.
The devs said that they originally designed this system to help teams to catch up “in a difficult but not impossible way.”
But this became unfair for teams who were only behind by a little, allowing them to run away with the game after the bounties have been claimed. Thankfully, some adjustments were made to mitigate that.
There’s a lot more in Patch 12.13, so if you want more details, you can click here. The Star Guardian event is happening soon too, so watch out for that!
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
For more gaming news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooGamingSEA. Also follow us on Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube, and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page!
