League of Legends patch 12.20 notes: Aatrox & Maokai nerfs, Gwen buffs

League of Legends patch 12.20 is here as Riot starts warming up for Season 13. There are some final adjustments for the final ranked push yet with major top lane meta changes, as well as some item adjustments ahead of the new releases: here’s the patch notes.

League of Legends Season 13 is around the corner, and LoL patch 12.20 is one of the last with the old systems. Come November, top lane and jungle will be overhauled, plus a bevy of new items added to Boris’ arsenal.

However before then, Riot is still keeping Season 12 balanced for that final ranked push. Top laners need to worry the most about LoL patch 12.20 with a handful of balance changes to popular champions in the role, as well as some item adjustments.

Also if you’ve been having fun with jungle Blitzcrank since his random off-meta buff, there’s more to come if Riot’s preview is to be believed. Check out the full LoL patch 12.20 notes below, including details around its release date.

What’s changed in LoL patch 12.20?

Big top lane champion changes: Aatrox, Gwen, Maokai, more

The top lane isn’t just one of Riot’s focuses for League of Legends Season 13 ⁠— it’s getting some late love in Season 12 too. A big meta shift is lined up for LoL patch 12.20 with major shifts to popular champions.

This includes Aatrox, Sett, and Maokai nerfs. While the latter two are flexed across the Rift, they have all been a potent force in League of Legends’ top lane and it’s something Riot are looking at.

These will be matched with buffs to some undervalued top laners like Jayce, Gwen, and the controversial Wukong who could find himself back in the meta after tearing things up in the second half of the year.

Blitzcrank adjustments to fine-tune dominant Steam Golem

Another major point of LoL patch 12.20, balancing-wise, is Blitzcrank. After he was given some off-meta buffs in the previous update, he has risen to become the best support in the game. That’s far from the intentions Riot set out on.

There will be some further adjustments to tinker with his power as a jungler versus a support, the two roles developers are catering for now with the Great Steam Golem. Some of the attack speed buffs are being reverted, but he’s getting more bonus damage against monsters to help boost his jungle power.

Buffs to Evelynn, Rammus, and Ziggs are also planned for LoL patch 12.20, as well as a quality-of-life change for Elise. And with League of Legends Season 13 in testing, a number of items will be adjusted to exist alongside the game’s new additions.

Bewitching skins launch alongside new Worlds 2022 event questline

New Bewitching skins are coming as part of LoL patch 12.20 — and Halloween, of course. The witch-themed skinline will also tie into the current Worlds 2022 in-game event with a second set of missions for players to tackle.

Anivia, Cassiopeia, LeBlanc, Neeko, and Senna are receiving the purple and orange accented skins, with chromas also dropping for each of them. There won’t be any Prestige skins as part of this release.

Enchant and enthrall. pic.twitter.com/YMCA5oOWjG

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) October 4, 2022

You can find the full LoL patch 12.20 notes below, courtesy of Riot.

LoL patch 12.20 notes

Champions

Aatrox

Passive: Deathbringer Stance

• Heal: 100% of post-mitigation damage ⇒ 80% of post-mitigation damage

Akshan

E: Heroic Swing

• Swing Duration: 3 seconds ⇒ infinite
• Fixed some bugs that would cause Akshan to spin in place when using his E in certain locations. We’re still hammering out all of these locations, but this should be a noticeable improvement.

Blitzcrank

Base stats

• Attack damage: 62 ⇒ 60
• Attack speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.625

Passive: Mana Barrier

• Shield Amount: 30% of maximum mana ⇒ 15-45% of maximum mana (levels 1-18)

W: Overdrive

• Damage to monsters: 60-180 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 60-220 (levels 1-18)
  • No longer scales linearly, instead as follows: 60/80/100/120/140/160/165/170/175/180/185/190/195/200/205/210/215/220

E: Power Fist

• Empowered Auto Attack Damage against Champions: 200% total AD (+ 25% AP) ⇒ 175% total AD (+25% AP)
• Blitzcrank now has a chance to uppercut monsters to the moon when overkilling them

Elise

Q: Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite

• Human cast range: 625 ⇒ 575
• Human hitbox: Edge of Elise to center of target’s hitbox ⇒ center of Elise to edge of target’s hitbox

Evelynn

Q: Hate Spike

• Bonus magic damage to marked targets: 10/20/30/40/50 (+25% AP) ⇒ 15/25/35/45/55 (+25% AP)

W: Allure

• Charm duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds ⇒ 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds

Gwen

Q: Snip Snip!

• Damage per snip: 10/14/18/22/26 (+5% AP) ⇒ 10/15/20/25/30 (+5% AP)
• Final snip damage: 60/80/100/120/140 (+35% AP) ⇒ 60/85/110/135/160 (+35% AP)

Jayce

W: Lightning Field / Hyper Charge

• Melee mana restoration: 6/8/10/12/14/16 ⇒ 10/12/14/16/18/20

R: Mercury Cannon / Mercury Hammer

• Melee bonus armor and magic resist: 5/15/25/35 ⇒ 5/15/25/35 (+7.5% bonus AD)

Kennen

E: Lightning Rush

• After ending his E, Kennen’s bonus attack speed buff will now allow him to surpass the 2.5x attack speed limit.

Maokai

Passive: Sap Magic

• Healing: 4.5-12% max health ⇒ 4-10% max health

R: Nature’s Grasp

• Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds ⇒ 120/110/100 seconds

Rammus

W: Defensive Ball Curl

• Self slow removed

R: Soaring Slam

• Dash speed: 105% of move speed ⇒ 110% of move speed

Sett

Base stats

• Magic resist: 32 ⇒ 28

Passive: Pit Grit

• Health regeneration per 5% of mission health: 0.25/0.5/1/2 ⇒ 0.15/0.5/1/2
• Right punch AD ratio: 50% bonus AD ⇒ 55% bonus AD

Wukong

R: Cyclone

• Physical damage per cast: 8/12/16% of target’s maximum health (+ 220% AD) ⇒ 8/12/16% of target’s maximum health (+ 275% AD)

Ziggs

Q: Bouncing Bomb

• Damage: 85/135/185/235/285 (+65% AP) ⇒ 95/145/195/245/295 (+65% AP)

Items

Demonic Embrace

• Health: 450 ⇒ 350
• Ability power: 60 ⇒ 75
• Ranged burn damage per tick: 1% max health ⇒ 0.8% max health

Frozen Heart

• Cost: 2500 gold ⇒ 2700 gold
  • Combine cost: 600 ⇒ 800
• Armor: 80 ⇒ 90
• Rock Solid base reduction: 7 (+3.5 per 1000 health) ⇒ 5 (+3.5 per 1000 health)

Mortal Reminder

• Cost: 2500 gold ⇒ 2600 gold
• Attack damage: 25 ⇒ 35
• Attack speed: 25% ⇒ 20%

Sterak’s Gage

• Bonus attack damage: 45% base AD ⇒ 50% base AD
• Shield amount: 75% bonus health decaying over 3.75 seconds ⇒ 80% bonus health decaying over 4.5 seconds

Runes

Lethal Tempo

• Bonus auto attack range: 50 for melee champions, 75 for ranged ⇒ 50 for melee and ranged champions

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that was causing HP bar visual issues on champions like Kled or Galio to only show the top half of the bonus/shielded health
• Fixed a bug that was causing Gragas’ ultimate airborne effect to last for a shorter duration than intended
• Fixed a bugged interaction with Fiora’s W and Darius’ Passive that caused the bleed to deal 1 true damage at the end of the duration of Fiora’s W despite being properly parried
• Fixed a bug that caused Syndra’s E to be able to damage Gwen inside of her W
• Fixed a bug that caused Syndra to not gain Splinters of Wrath when getting minion credit from an ally’s support item
• Fixed a bug that was causing Viego’s empowered auto attacks to be audible from the Fog of War
• Fixed a bug that was causing players to not receive the “Wave Goodbye” challenge after killing 20 minions within 3 seconds
• Fix a bug that was causing “The Jukes” Challenge to not progress when dodging 5 skillshots quickly
• Fixed a bug that was causing “The Disrespect” Challenge to behave incorrectly when players used champions with clone abilities
• Fixed a bug that was causing Rekindled Eternals’ personal best appear as locked when it was hovered over
• Fixed a bug that was causing Mythic Item borders to appear on other items if the items were moved around within players’ inventories
• Fixed a bug where clicking on the “X” button while search is open in the shop would only close the search function and not the entire shop interface
• Updated the Challenges token menu to sort correctly by rarity under the Identity Customization menu when using filters
• Updated the Challenges title menu to sort correctly by time earned under the Identity Customization menu when using filters