S12 catch up
Table of Contents
Big changes #
System #
Teleport #
Can only target towers until 14 minutes. 6 minutes cooldown early.
If you get behind in lane and you’re running teleport, you’re gonna have a rough first 14 minutes.
It should still be a good top lane spell in pro play, but I think this should push it back on mid laners.
Bounties #
In LoL games, the team leading at 14 minutes was winning ~90% of the games. I understand why Riot added those bounties to make more comebacks possible.
Looking at the parameters, it should not be a huge factor in pro play. Dragon souls and nashor will still be the game deciders.
It is designed to help create more comebacks, which makes scaling champions better. You still need to be able to fight between 15 and 20 minutes, but now a single fight win can get you back into the game.
Herald/Drake trades heavily favor the losing team now.
Jungle #
New drakes are pretty much just additional infernal drakes. Now 50% games have an Infernal soul-like buff, and damage output is increased on average.
Imo, this makes soul-focused compositions even better, as they have a much higher chance of getting a damage-oriented soul.
RiP scuttle fights.
Items #
Overall, I’d need to take a look at gold efficiencies to really take conclusions here.
Ironspike whip #
Moving from Total AD to Base AD does change the power level of the item considerably and makes it a much worse scaling option in damage builds (Talon, Nocturne, Riven,…).
Crown of the shattered queen #
This is really just an anti-assassin item. If it sees use in pro play without assassins, it means it is vastly overtuned.
Evenshroud #
Looks pretty sexy to me for pro play. Damage is usually better than survivability as you have more agency on how you will use it.
Axiom Arc #
Looks fun but this is not a pro-focused item, as kill-focused items usually are.
Shadowflame #
With Shadowflame + Sorcerer’s boots + Luden’s Tempest you get 49 Magic Pen on 2 items, which should really delete squishies. Maybe the build lacks AP, but it does look pretty strong and should help burst mages more than needed.
Winter’s approach #
Does not solve current tanks issues, which is hard access to resistances.
Force of nature #
Actually looks good now.
Cosmic drive #
Looks like a strong 2nd item but worse than Shadowflame for damage output.
Runes #
First strike #
Sounds very snowbally, where certain lanes become unplayable because of it. I don’t feel like a rune that is that skewed is good design.
Good with some type of fast burst for early-game gold generation if I understand it properly?
Glacial augment #
Wow, 15% damage reduction on a single CC hitting sounds a bit too much. Not sure about the range but it does sound like a great option on a lot of supports. It should replace Guardian in most cases.
Lethal tempo #
Very good on any champion that can trigger it.
Champions #
Graves #
RiP, nerfed very harshly imo.
Renekton #
Welcome back king 👑
Early 12.1 stats #
- Rumble highest winrate -> makes sense due to high base damage
- Assassins still have high soloq winrates, but I don’t think it will translate to pro
Thoughts #
Fuck dem tanks
- % penetration is better
- It’s still super hard to get resistances
- Why even try and play tanks when you could just be drain tanking people.
Fuck dem assassins
- No more Goredrinker builds
- Crown of the shattered queen
Drakes got even better
- 3 damage-oriented drakes
- 3 damage-oriented souls
- Playing for drakes is even better, so 1-2 items spiking champs should still be the norm
Objective bounties should not have a big influence on pro play
- Makes hard early-game focus (Rek’Sai) champions even worse when they were already weak
Teleport changes should make mid laners pick other spells imo
This is a burst mage’s with ignite kind of season imo