With the World Championship less than a month away, the League of Legends developers has strengthened a broad variety of champions with patch 12.17.
The high-stakes domestic playoffs that are now underway around the world are ideal for the professional meta, which is in a relatively exciting and stable state. But one of the best parts of the run-up to Worlds is seeing how top-level players adjust to the changes brought about by several League patches in September and anticipating which champions and playstyles will experience a comeback at the esport’s annual championship event.
The League balancing team’s chief designer, Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, tweeted the preliminary list of modifications on Monday night.
Numerous champions that will receive some sort of buff in patch 12.17 have lately enjoyed prominent moments in the spotlight in the League professional scene. Twisted Fate ruled as the best playmaking mid-laner for the better part of the last three years, while Graves was a dominant force in the carry jungle meta of Worlds 2020.
In the lead-up to a major tournament, champions with greater talent expression, or at the very least, more engaging playstyles to witness, are always pleasant sights. A very stagnant mid-lane meta might be excitingly changed by Kassadin improvements, while Sett’s versatility would give draft enthusiasts a lot more to sink their teeth into.
This lengthy list of champions indicates the Worlds patch is drawing near, even if we are still unsure of what patch Worlds 2022 will be played on.
Rell has to be reworked, according to Riot, but it’s unlikely that this set of adjustments will be that rework. The specifics of Miss Fortune’s above buffs have already been made public, making her one of the Worlds 2021 candidates with the highest priority.
It can be difficult to predict whether champion and item modifications will be overall positives or negatives, but the Maokai PBE changes have been made public, and they are most likely to be positives, especially for top/jungle Maokai.
The impact on items that build off of Stopwatch, though, is still unknown.