League of Legends v12.3: Release date, buffs and nerfs, VFX updates, more

League of Legends patch version 12.3 is the next major gameplay update, slated for release in February and also marks the start of the new ranked season.

Removing everything related to the Chemtech Dragon in a mid-patch update recently, patch 12.3 is set to help balance some of the most broken champions currently in the game while also bringing a plethora of changes to many AD-based items.

In addition, developer Riot Games is also preparing a couple of fresh redesigns for two of the best champions in the mid lane. Here's everything we know about the latest League of Legends patch update.

When will the League of Legends patch v12.3 be released?

According to the schedule revealed by Riot Games before the start of the year, League of Legends' latest patch 12.3 will be available on 2nd February 2022.

While Riot Games haven’t yet confirmed the maintenance period; however, servers typically become unavailable at the following times:

• 3 am PT (NA servers)
• 5 am GMT (EU West servers)
• 3 am CET (EU Nordic and East servers)

As always, keep in mind that maintenance will take several hours, so be prepared for some server downtime.

League of Legends 12.3: All champion nerfs and buffs

This time around, only three champions will receive buffs. Most notably, Lillia’s Sleep will be longer at its first two tiers, and Quinn is getting a massive increase at all levels of her W and R stats. There are some big changes for Brand too. His passive will refund him some mana if his spells kill a target, and his Ultimate will now prioritize nearby enemies.

On the other hand, Zeri will receive a slight nerf as her ultimate won’t gain stacks from Runaan’s Hurricane, and Senna’s soul drop rate from minions will be drastically lower. Furthermore, Amumu will receive more damage overall, and both Ahri and Nami will receive adjustments in their passives.

The most remarkable nerfs of the patch will come for Twisted Fate, whose Q’s damage and E’s attack speed will be decreased. In addition, LeBlanc W’s damage, Caitlyn’s AD growth and her Q’s secondary damage will also receive nerfs. Finally, there will be an increase in the Respawn Time of Corki’s Package.

Ahri

• Health Growth 92 ⇒ 82
• Health 526-2090 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 500-1894 (levels 1-18)
• Base Health Regeneration 5.5 ⇒ 2.5
• Armor 21-80.5 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 18-77.5 (levels 1-18)
• Passive - Essence Theft:Killing minions or monsters grants Ahri an Essence Fragment. After obtaining 9 Essence Fragments, Ahri consumes them to heal for 40-120 (+25% AP). When Ahri scores a takedown against an enemy champion within 3 seconds of damaging them, she feasts upon their Essence, healing for 80-200 (+35% AP).
• Q - Orb of Deception: Damage per Pass 40/65/90/115/140 (+35% AP) ⇒ 40/65/90/115/140 (+45% AP), Mana Cost 65/70/75/80/85 ⇒ 60/70/80/90/100
• W - Fox-Fire: Damage 40/65/90/115/140 (+30% AP) ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160 (+30% AP), Mana Cost 40 ⇒ 25, Flame Duration 5 seconds ⇒ 2.5 seconds, Bonus Move Speed Duration 1.5 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds, Updated missile targeting and last-hitting logic
• E - Charm:  Damage 60/90/120/150/180 (+40% AP) ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200 (+60% AP), Mana Cost 70 ⇒ 50, Ahri's abilities no longer deal bonus damage to enemies hit by Charm
• R - Spirit Rush: Initial Duration 10 seconds ⇒ 15 seconds, Consuming a champion's Essence with Essence Theft while Spirit Rush is active extends Spirit Rush's recast duration by and up to 10 seconds, and grants an additional cast of Spirit Rush (up to 3 casts stored)

Akshan

• Passive - Dirty Fighting: Bonus Move Speed Upon Canceling Second Shot 35-75 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 20-75 (levels 1-18), Three-Stack Bonus Magic Damage 20-175 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 10-165 (levels 1-18) 

Amumu

• Armor Growth 3.5 ⇒ 3
• Armor 30-89.5 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 30-81 (levels 1-18)
• E - Tantrum: Maximum Passive Damage Reduction Up to 100% per instance of physical damage ⇒ Capped at 50% per instance of physical damage

Brand

• Passive - Blaze: Mana refund upon killing an enemy now also occurs if Brand's ability last hits a target that was not already Ablaze
• R - Pyroclasm: Pyroclasm's fireball now prioritizes bouncing to nearby enemies before bouncing back to Brand at full range. Pyroclasm will still prioritize bouncing to enemy champions first (before minions or monsters), regardless of range

Caitlyn

• AD Growth 3.8 ⇒ 3.4
• Attack Damage 62-126.6 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 62-119.8 (levels 1-18)
• Q - Piltover Peacemaker: Damage Against Secondary Enemies 60% ⇒ 50%
• Fixed a bug where Caitlyn's ult would incorrectly get a cooldown refund if she was feared during its cast 

Corki

• Passive - Hextech Munitions:  First Package Arrives After 8 minutes ⇒ 10 minutes, Packages Restock Every 4 minutes ⇒ 5 minutes

LeBlanc

• W - Distortion: Base Damage 75/115/155/195/235 ⇒ 75/110/145/180/215 

Lillia

• R - Lilting Lullaby: Sleep Duration 1.5/2/2.5 seconds ⇒ 2/2.25/2.5 seconds 

Nami

• Passive - Surging Tides: Bonus Move Speed 45 (+20% AP) for 1.5 seconds ⇒ 90 (+20% AP), decaying over 1.5 seconds
• E - Tidecaller's Blessing: On-Hit Damage (Per Hit) 25/40/55/70/85 (+20% AP) ⇒ 20/35/50/65/80 (+20% AP) 

Quinn

• W - Heightened Senses: Bonus Attack Speed 20/30/40/50/60% ⇒ 28/36/44/52/60%
• R - Skystrike: Flurry Damage 40% AD ⇒ 70% AD 

Senna

• Passive - Absolution: Minions and lesser monsters that Senna kills have a 10% chance ⇒ 2.7777% chance to spawn a Mist Wraith (all else unchanged)

Twisted Fate

• Q - Wild Cards: Magic Damage 60/105/150/195/240 (+65% AP) ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220 (+70% AP)
• E - Stacked Deck: Bonus Attack Speed 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 10/17.5/25/32.5/40% 

Zeri

• Move Speed 330 ⇒ 325
• Full Charge Damage Based on Target's Max Health 3-20% (based on level) ⇒ 3-15% (based on level)
• R - Lightning Crash: Chain Lightning Magic Damage 10/20/30 (+15% AP) ⇒ 10/15/20 (+15% AP), Chain lightning magic damage can now critically strike
• Zeri's E - Spark Surge will correctly vault over Trundle's E - Pillar of Ice and glide over Anivia's W - Crystallize wall instead of dashing through them
• Fixed a bug where Zeri's Q - Burst Fire would not trigger Runaan's Hurricane's on-hit effect if she was facing away from the target when her rounds hit
• Fixed a bug where several of Zeri's VFX would not display correctly upon reconnecting to the game

Item and system changes

Following the absence of the Chemtech Dragon, for the time being, Riot has set the table for an incredible amount of updates for many powerful items. Accordingly, they are focusing on those who give more HP, AD or shields, with a total of 12 objects getting some kind of adjustment.

According to Riot Phlox, one of the designers on the Summoner's Rift team, this goal will be to “shift light fighters toward lower-durability itemization,” so they will be watching the fallout closely, as “it's 100% a disruptive change.”

Black Cleaver

• Health: 450 ⇒ 350
• Attack Damage: 40 ⇒ 45
• Ability Haste: 25 ⇒ 30 

Blade of the Ruined King

• Total Cost: 3200 gold ⇒ 3300 gold 
• Mist's Edge (Passive): Basic attacks deal [10% for melee/6% for ranged] of target's current health ⇒ [12% for melee/8% for ranged] of target's current health as physical damage (all else unchanged)

Death’s Dance

• Total Cost: 3100 gold ⇒ 3300 gold
• Ignore Pain (Passive): Stores [35% for melee/15% for ranged] of post-mitigation physical damage received ⇒ [30% for melee/10% for ranged] of all types of post-mitigation damage received, (not including true damage), which is successively taken as true damage over 3 seconds instead. Now also applies to damage on shields
• Defy (Passive): Heal for 15% maximum health upon scoring a kill or assist ⇒ 175% bonus AD if a champion dies within 3 seconds after you've dealt damage to them. (all else unchanged)

Divine Sunderer

• Build Path: Sheen + Phage + Kindlegem + 700 gold ⇒ Sheen + Caulfield's Warhammer + Kindlegem + 700 gold
• Health: 400 ⇒ 300
• Attack Damage: 35 ⇒ 40 

Goredrinker

• Build Path: Ironspike Whip + Phage + Kindlegem + 300 gold ⇒ Ironspike Whip + Caulfield's Warhammer + Kindlegem + 300 gold
• Health: 450 ⇒ 300
• Attack Damage: 45 ⇒ 55 

Hearthbound Axe

• Total Cost: 1100 gold ⇒ 1000 gold
• Combine Cost: 450 gold ⇒ 350 gold 

Hexdrinker

• Attack Damage: 20 ⇒ 25 

Maw of Malmortius

• Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 55
• Ability Haste: 15 ⇒ 20
• Shield: 200 (+20% maximum health) ⇒ 200 (+[225% for melee/168.75% for ranged] bonus AD)
• Lifeline (Passive): When Lifeline is activated, gain 12% omnivamp until the end of combat (i.e. have not dealt or taken damage for at least 3 seconds)

Ravenous Hydra

• Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 70 

Sterak’s Gage

• Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 0 
• Gain 40% of your base AD as bonus AD
• After dealing damage to or taking damage from an enemy champion, heal for a portion of your maximum health over 6 seconds
• If you take damage that would reduce you below 30% of your maximum health, gain a shield that absorbs 100 (+[8% for melee/4.8% for ranged] of your maximum health) per stack of Bloodlust) for 4 seconds ⇒ equal to 75% of your bonus health that decays over 3.75 seconds

Trinity Force

• Health: 200 ⇒ 300
• Threefold Strike (on champions or structures): +6% base AD per stack, up to 5 times for +30% ⇒ +4% base AD per stack, up to 5 times for +20% (also applies to Infinity Force)

Turbo Chemtank

• Refuel (Passive) Stacks: Gain 5 stacks per instance of damage dealt against champions and large monsters, and 1 stack for every 15 units traveled ⇒ damage taken from champions and large monsters, and 1 stack for every 25 units traveled (still capped at up to 10 stacks for dashes and blinks)
• Refuel (Passive) Bonus Damage: At 100 stacks, your next basic attack deals magic damage to all nearby enemies, increased by 25% against minions and 175% against monsters ⇒ increased by 30% against minions and 200% against monsters

League of Legends 12.3: New content

In the last patch, we got a big surprise after Riot added 16 new skins to the game to celebrate the Lunar Revel 2022 event. Among the skins were the Firecracker, Withered and Crystal Rose collections and a special series of elegant skins based on Chinese porcelain.

However, due to the number of skins added in the 12.2 and the period of the in-game event, this new patch will be mostly focused on big updates for two mid lane champions, Vel’Koz and Ahri.

For Vel’Koz, its entire VFX set will be updated to a bit more in-line with the rest of the Void champions and (especially) adjust some of his less accurate hitbox indicators, as you can see in the preview above.

Finally, Ahri will be getting a more extensive overhaul, with her VFX and skills changing to lean into her unique mobility and pick niche. This will give her more agency to carry fights and games at the cost of lane safety and a small amount of damage.

Both updates are now available for you to try on the League of Legends PBE server.

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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games.