League of Legends patch 12.18 is on its way — and it’s the Worlds update. A dozen champions are on the chopping block. Lee Sin is floating his way back into the meta, while flavor of the month picks like Miss Fortune and Hecarim are being nerfed: here’s the patch notes.
It’s Worlds time. League of Legends patch 12.18 will be the update pro players will take battle on during the illustrious championship — although Udyr will be disabled for the event.
Riot are finetuning the meta with one last set of changes affecting a dozen champions, including the aforementioned Spirit Walker. The developers are primarily targeting two roles, jungle and AD carry, although the changes likely won’t be as drastic as the previous couple of updates.
We’ve got everything you need to know about LoL patch 12.18 right here, including when the changes go live.
When is LoL patch 12.18?
League of Legends patch 12.18 is primed to go live on September 20, 2022, right on schedule.
The eighteenth major patch of 2022 will start rolling out on Oceanic servers at 10AM AEST, with a worldwide rollout taking place across the rest of the day.
Here’s the key timings:
- 3AM PT (NA)
- 5AM GMT (EUW)
- 3AM CET (EUNE)
- 8AM KST (Korea)
There’ll be a few hours of downtime when patching begins, and matchmaking queues will be taken offline about three hours beforehand.
What’s changing in LoL patch 12.18?
Maokai overhaul gets another set of changes
Maokai has been missing from the top lane and jungle for years since his League of Legends rework, with players preferring to take the Twisted Treant down bot as a support. That was meant to change in LoL patch 12.17, but it hasn’t quite hit the mark yet.
The Twisted Treant has a much better play rate in top than previously — up to 40% of all Maokai games — but jungle is still lagging behind support at 20% versus 37%. What exact middle ground Riot are trying to find remains to be seen, but more adjustments are coming to both support and jungle.
Udyr is also facing some adjustments as Riot tinkers with the recently reworked Spirit Walker. They are looking at transforming his build further, forcing him to build bruiser with reduced tankiness rather than the dominant AP build making use of his R, Wingborne Storm.
Major jungle changes with Lee Sin buffs, Hecarim nerfs
On top of the Maokai and Udyr changes which will affect the role, four more junglers find themselves on the LoL patch 12.18 change list.
It truly wouldn’t be Worlds without Lee Sin, and Riot are making sure of that with some buffs to the Blind Monk, helping his sustain. On the other end of the scale Hecarim, Kayn, and Nocturne have been a little dominant across all levels — Hecarim especially.
Kayn and Nocturne’s nerfs are negligible, but Hecarim is receiving a big hit to his Q damage and W sustain.
This means half of the 12 champion changes in the final League of Legends update before Worlds will target the role and perhaps drastically shift the meta just weeks out.
AD carry meta targeted with Ashe, Kalista, Miss Fortune changes
Jungle isn’t the only role Riot has their eyes on. AD carry has been a contentious point recently with Sivir and Zeri running amok on the meta. LoL patch 12.18 won’t be hitting those two specifically, but three others are being changed.
Ashe is the only one facing buffs — marksman specific ones for her Q, so nothing to help the Imperial Mandate support build. Kalista and Miss Fortune on the other hand are facing nerfs. This also comes after the latter received a huge boost in LoL patch 12.17, forcing a hotfix within hours.
Fright Night skin collection goes live, along with Worlds Azir
After winning the skin thematic poll earlier in 2022, the Fright Night skins are coming to League of Legends in patch 12.18.
The gothic-themed skins for six champions — Annie (rework), Draven, Nautilus, Renata Glasc, Trundle, and Urgot — come with eight chromas a piece, with the base art featuring plenty of black and white shading. Each champion also has an individual color pop associated with it.
On top of the Fright Night skins, the Worlds 2022 Azir skin is on its way, following in the footsteps of the yearly Championship skins around the major tournament. A new Ashen Knight skin for Sylas is coming for those with plenty of Mythic Essence too.
They’re heeere 👻Fright Night creeps onto the PBE. pic.twitter.com/fv6y8PtLUu
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) September 8, 2022
You can find the full League of Legends patch 12.18 notes below, courtesy of Riot. These are still tentative to change on the PBE server, so as they shift we’ll keep you updated here.
LoL patch 12.18 notes
Champions
Ashe
Q: Ranger’s Focus
- Attack speed: 20/25/30/35/40% ⇒ 25/32.5/40/47.5/55%
Hecarim
Base stats
- Health: 650 ⇒ 625
Q: Rampage
- Bonus AD ratio: 95% ⇒ 90%
- Ramp damage: +6% bAD ⇒ +5% bAD
W: Spirit of Dread
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- Healing: 30% (+2.5% bAD) ⇒ 25% (+2% bAD)
Kalista
Base stats
- Health: 604 ⇒ 574
Kayn
Q: Reaping Slash
- Darkin Slayer maximum HP damage ratio: 5% ⇒ 3.5%
Lee Sin
Base stats
- Health growth: 99 ⇒ 105
W: Safeguard / Iron Will
- Omnivamp: 5/9.5/14/18.5/23% ⇒ 5/10.5/16/21.5/27%
Lulu
W: Whimsey
- Movement speed: 30% ⇒ 25%
- Polymorph duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds ⇒ 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2 seconds
- Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 seconds ⇒ 17/16.5/16/15.5/15 seconds
Maokai
Passive: Sap Magic
- Healing: 4.8-14% ⇒ 4.5-12%
Q: Bramble Smash
- Bonus monster damage: 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 80/100/120/140/160
E: Sapling Toss
- AP ratio: 42.5% ⇒ 40%
- Empowered AP ratio: 85% ⇒ 80%
Miss Fortune
Base stats
- Attack damage growth: 2.7 ⇒ 2.4
- Health growth: 107 ⇒ 103
Nasus
W: Wither
- Attack speed slow: 50% of move speed slow ⇒ 75% of move speed slow
R: Fury of the Sands
- Cooldown: 120 seconds ⇒ 110/100/90 seconds
Nocturne
Base stats
- Attack damage growth: 3.1 ⇒ 2.6
Thresh
Base stats
- Health growth: 115 ⇒ 120
E: Flay
- Damage: 65/95/125/155/185 ⇒ 75/110/145/180/215
Udyr
Base stats
- Health growth: 106 ⇒ 98
- Armor growth: 5.2 ⇒ 4.7
Q: Wilding Claw
- Mana cost: 45-28 ⇒ 20
- First two hits now gain 50 attack range
- Awakened version deals an additional 2-5% (+0.03% bAD) max health physical damage on the first two attacks
- AP ratio on each lightning strike: 0.6% per 100 AP ⇒ 0.8% per 100 AP
W: Iron Mantle
- Percent health heal: 1.2/1.26/1.32/1.38/1.44/1.5% ⇒ 1.2%
- Percent health shield: 2/2.4/2.8/3.2/3.6/4% ⇒ 2/2.3/2.6/2.9/3.2/3.5%
- Life steal: 15% ⇒ 15/16/17/18/19/20%
R: Wingborne Storm
- Magic damage: 20/38/56/74/92/110 (+40% AP) ⇒ 20/36/52/68/84/100 (+35% AP)
- Damage to minions: 50/60/70/80% at levels 1/6/11/16 ⇒ 40/55/70/85%
Skins
Ashen Knight Sylas
Fright Night Annie
“Awful Orphan Annie comes home from school each day; A lonely little lady with whom no one will play; Now all her family’s fled (or dead or gone away); She can depend on Mr. Tibbers to make her new friends stay!”
Fright Night Draven
“Draven’s vivid violence gives everyone a fright; Hide ‘n’ seek is higher stakes these days at night; ‘There’s no escape for you,’ he cackles with delight; But say his name three times with praise, and he might forget the fight!”
Fright Night Nautilus
“Strange and ghoulish screaming woke Nautilus into being; He made his way outside to find them most displeasing; These lousy, no good neighbors, always there sightseeing; ‘What kind of butler would I be if I don’t send them fleeing?'”
Fright Night Renata Glasc
“Tender loving care and spoons of sugar spice; And all the other things that make a mommy nice; It choked her throat and lungs and showed her virtue’s vice; Some chosen children love the dark, that’s Mother Glasc’s advice!”
Fright Night Trundle
“Teenage nightmare Trundle leaves everything distressed; But he won’t lift a finger cleaning up his mess; Howling, growling, scowling, his chores he won’t address; For he has a team (or two) of Scareball players to impress!”
Fright Night Urgot
“Unctuous Uncle Urgot has no nose to smell; No feet or toes to stink, but he’s still feeling swell; ‘Cause visitors arrive and ring the household bell; With new parts not so rotten for him, and tummy snacks as well!”
