Biggest Winners and Losers of League of Legends Patch 13.12

Biggest Winners and Losers of League of Legends Patch 13.12 are varied, with some nerfed champions rising through the ranks.

League of Legends received it’s 13.12 patch this Thursday, which brought a ton of changes: nerfs to meta champions such as Gragas, K’Sante, Zeri and Yuumi, buffs to forgotten heroes such as Ashe, Orianna and Ryze and some adjustments to champs like Rumble and Lucian and a ton of items as well. This changed up a lot in terms of power, with some champions getting much better, while others took a – sometimes understandable and awaited – hit.

Biggest Winners and Losers of League of Legends Patch 13.12

The Winners

Rumble

While stats site Lolalytics classifies the changes to Rumble as nerfs, Riot Games’ changes to the Junkyard Titan was meant to be adjustments, and the Yordle in the mech feels better after his mini-rework into an AP bruiser. With the changes to his Passive, he can manage Heat better, as his maximum Heat is 150 – but the Danger Zone is still at 50, so he can use his empowered abilities more often!

However, the changes to his cooldowns and damage (which now deals % Health, but less flat damage) means that people have to adjust his new playstyle. Overall, he went from a 49% winrate to a 50%+ according to lolalytics in the toplane, and while his midlane winrate decreased, that was the intention of the balance team – it seems like they hit their mark.

Ashe

The Frost Archer made the biggest jump in winrate and popularity as well: she went up to a 52% Winrate as ADC and to a 10,5% Pickrate, which is a huge increase. It’s not surprising though, as Ashe’s Passive – Frost Shot, W – Volley and R – Enchanted Crystal Arrow has been buffed significantly, but the extra damage on her W and Passive is what pushed her into OP category.

In addition to the buffs to Ashe, some of her items got better as well: Phantom Dancer has increased Attack Speed, Bloodthirster’s price went down, while Immortal Shieldbow’s Lifesteal went up, and as Ashe builds Trinity Force, the Galeforce nerfs didn’t really hurt her – pick her up while you can!

Ryze

These are truly the end times as after 13.12, Ryze has an almost 51% Winrate in the midlane, while he has more than 51% in the toplane. In the latest League of Legends patch, Ryze got a huge buff to his Passive, Arcane Mastery, which now gives him 10% Maximum mana/100 AP instead of 6%. His E, Spell Flux is also better, as it’s has a higher missile speed and better scaling, so the Rune Mage can trade better and smoother in both his roles.

Ryze has been one of the worst champions in the game, who had abysmal winrates in Ranked play, and was only picked by the best of the best, such as Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok in competitive, but with this buff, the Blue Man can finally catch a break.

The Losers

Zeri + Yuumi

The name of Zeri and Yuumi have almost fused in the last year, and as they rose together, they finally fall together as well. Zeri lost her ability to steal shields, her Q doesn’t trigger Sheen, so her Trinity Force build is gone, and her E buff didn’t really make up for the nerfs. On the other hand, Yuumi’s W now scales with level, her E has been nerfed in every regard, and the heal of her R also took a hit.

This makes both champions weaker individually, which means that the combo of these champions is much, much weaker than before. While it’s a bit sad to see a character have a 46% or a 45% winrate, if it’s Zeri and Yuumi, not many players will shed tears.

K’Sante

Riot Games have been trying to address the problem of K’Sante since the start of the 2023 competitive season. The Pride of Nazumah struggled with the same issue as Azir or Ryze, namely that he’s extremely strong in the hand of pros, but had a ranked winrate around 47% for a while now. In the last patch, the Hunter received another set of nerfs, this time aimed at his mobility, as his E will have increased cooldown at all ranks.

K’Sante has a very high skill floor, which is the reason for his poor performance in ranked play outside of mains and Master+ tier players, but for pros, he’s one of the only picks which can be reliably swapped between mid and toplaners. He can also do it all, just look at some K’Sante plays from the MSI. However, nerfing a champion to the point of an almost 45% winrate is far from ideal, so Riot Games needs to come up with some ideas for the toplaner in the future.

Lucian

Lucian has got multiple blows in the latest LoL patch. The balance team have changed his passive in a way that even CC heavy tanks can proc his passive, but in return, the empowered shots deal much less damage. This should break the pair of Nami and Lucian up and open up new opportunities for Supports to be paired up with the Lighslinger.

Alongside with the changes to Lucian directly, Riot Games have nerfed Rapid Firecannon, a situational item for the champion, and more importantly, Galeforce, which got hits to both its Attack Damage and the damage of it’s Active, Cloudburst. Lucian’s Mythic choice has been almost exclusively Galeforce, and while all the champions using this item is hurt, Lucian got the biggest hit overall.

While the 13.10 and 13.11 patches tried, but failed to shift the meta of League of Legends, in 13.12, Riot Games have upped the tempo, delivering more meaningful changes to problematic champions. While these changes could mean that the likes of K’Sante, Zeri, Yuumi, Lucian and Milio leave the meta, the balance team needs to find permanent changes to make these heroes healthy for the game. In the meanwhile, you can enjoy the winners of this patch, as Ryze is sure to leave the 50%+ winrate champions – it’s a tradition!