League of Legends Patch 9.12 Notes Breakdown and Analysis

Another week (or two), another dose of League of Legends patch notes! This time it’s Patch 9.12 and we’ll be breaking it down and analyzing it right here!

It was Yuumi four weeks ago, it’s Mordekaiser this week, and it won’t be long before Qiyana joins the fray! Riot is hitting us with champion after rework after champion recently and you’ve got to love it (or hate it)! Patch 9.12 is on the larger size when it comes to League of Legends patches as Riot sticks to the plan of BIG PATCH/little patch/BIG PATCH/little patch that was set out during pre-season.

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Throughout the patch notes, there are champion changes, champion changes, and more champion changes. No fewer than 13 (THIRTEEN) champs have been updated, buffed, nerfed, or reworked heading into Patch 9.12, leaving room for a single item at the bottom of the page. Here we’ll be breaking down every change and telling you what to expect going into solo queue for the next fortnight!

Champions

Mordekaiser

We’ve already broken down Morde’s new kit, as well as how to use his new ultimate to the best effect. But if you need a quick and dirty breakdown, here are the top five things you need to know about new Mordekaiser (LINK)!

Ryze

Oh lord, another rework to this perpetually unbalanced champion. Insert the “here we go again” meme and let’s see what we’re dealing with.

"Base Stats Mana: 400 –> 300 Mana Regen: 6 –> 8"

In general, having more mana to spam spells with early is better than having extra mana regen. Ryze, especially, wants mana for his spells early. Decreasing the mana pool is going to hurt his early game, even if it’s offset by mana regen increase, although this does force him to be a bit more of a late-game carry.

"Q – Overload Ranks: 6 –> 5 Damage: 60/85/110/135/160/185 –> 80/105/130/155/180 [Removed] Shield: No longer grants a shield after consuming 2 Runes [Updated] Spell Damage Bonus: 40/50/60/70/80% (based on Spell Flux’s rank) –> 10/40/70/100% (based on Realm Warp’s rank)Bonus Movement Speed: 25/28/31/34/37/40% –> 20/25/30/35/40%"

Interestingly, by removing on skill rank of Q – Overload, Ryze becomes stronger at rank one (by 20 damage). He’s ultimately going to be stronger at every rank individually, even if his overall damage is nerfed.

Removing the shield after consuming Runes is incredibly welcome, as is reducing the bonus movement speed. They’re also making the bonus damage scale with his ultimate rank (I’m assuming the 10% damage he gets right off the bat) so he’ll be at about equal power at level 6 (40% bonus) and slightly stronger at level 11 (now 70% versus currently 60%) but ultimately Ryze will scale harder into the late game.

"W – Rune Prison Ratio: 1% bonus mana –> 4% bonus mana Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 mana –> 40/55/70/85/100 mana Base Crowd Control: Rooted for 0.75 seconds –> Slowed by 35% for 1.5 seconds Spell Flux Bonus: Increased root duration –> Converts Slow to Root."

It’s a huge nerf to Ryze that he loses the base root, but I’m a fan of this change. Giving a champion a point-and-click hard CC ability makes them very hard to balance. Now, at least Ryze will have to consume runes in order to get it. The mana cost going up late isn’t a big deal, since he should have built a huge mana pool by then, and the decrease early really helps given his shrunken mana pool. Giving him 3% more bonus mana ratio could be problematic, though.

"E – Spell Flux Damage: 70/90/110/130/150 –> 60/80/100/120/140 Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 mana –> 40/55/70/85/100 mana [New] Bounce House: Now always bounces off the primary target. [Removed] Ping Pong Pain: Bounces no longer damage enemies. [Removed] Flux Bomb: No longer spreads Flux to nearby enemies on unit kill."

Damage is down, but so is the mana cost early (needed given his lowered mana pool). Now that it always bounces off the primary target, allowing Ryze to have a bit more control over how to combo with his Q and W, I think he’ll be a bit more friendly to solo queue players (closing the skill-gap between high and low MMR players).

"R – Realm Warp Ranks: 2 –> 3 [New] Warp Damage: Overload damage bonus against targets with Flux increased to 40/70/100% [New] Close Enough: Immediately casts at max range when attempting to cast beyond that. Minimum Cast Range: 730 –> 1000 Maximum Cast Range 1750/3000 –> 3000 Cooldown: 180 seconds –> 210/180/150 seconds"

Wow, so they are giving Ryze a ton of extra range on this ability. It’s now longer than Nocturne’s rank one ultimate (but shorter than his rank two ult). I also like that they’re raising the CD on it early.