League of Legends patch 12.23 notes: More jungle changes, major tank buffs

LoL patch 12.23 is on its way as Riot balances the Season 13 changes. First cabs off the rank are the jungle and tank champions, with both getting significant overhauls to stabilize the meta ahead of the January ranked launch: here are the patch notes.

League of Legends Season 13 has arrived with a bang. With the preseason update going live on LoL patch 12.22, players are slowly but surely getting used to all the new changes.

Across the first couple of weeks there’s been a couple of outliers though. Top lane duelists are incredibly strong with new items and adjustments to the role, leaving tanks in the lurch. Similarly, the jungle is a bit broken with exploits and balancing issues.

Those are the two changes at the top of Riot’s list for LoL patch 12.23 as they look to stabilize the meta over the holidays and ahead of January’s ranked season launch. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming December update.

Riot Games

Zeri is receiving a huge batch of changes in LoL patch 12.23.

When is LoL patch 12.23?

League of Legends patch 12.23 is primed to go live on December 7, 2022, right on schedule.

Note that this will be the final major League of Legends update of 2022. Following the launch of LoL patch 12.23, Riot will be going on holiday over the Christmas break, returning to kick start Season 13 in the new year.

Here are 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 12.23?

Jungle rebalance fixes funnel issue, leashing

With the myriad of jungle changes, there were bound to be issues early in Season 13. LoL patch 12.23 is a first pass at trying to solve all of them ⁠— exploits, general balancing, and all.

Riot is aware of the mid lane funnel strategy revolving around multiple champions purchasing the new jungle pets, and have got a fix in place for the December update. More broadly though, jungle gold will be reduced while experience will be increased slightly.

Specific camps will have reduced auto attack ranges, while all camps will have new leash ranges to be more forgiving to champions who have to kite and move. 

As for individual junglers facing changes, Dr. Mundo is getting a swathe of jungle-centric buffs. Dominant forces Lillia, Shyvana, and Trundle will be nerfed.

Riot Games

Dr. Mundo will be a potential jungle threat after LoL patch 12.23.

Tanks get love despite Heartsteel dominance

Tanks have suffered a bit at the start of League of Legends Season 13, especially in the top lane. With gold and experience reshuffling across the map, and new items favoring fighters and duelists, some tanks have struggled to get a foothold.

While Heartsteel is still a problem, Riot is ignoring it somewhat to try and target individual tank champions with buffs. Amumu, Cho’Gath, Malphite, Maokai, Sion, Tahm Kench, and Zac are the main targets to start, but developers are keeping an eye on things.

“If we observe negative meta effects as a result of Heartsteel or Tank meta, then we’re going to react, but will let it play out a bit for now to stabilize,” Leung-Harrison said. “Tanks getting buffs [this patch] have dropped 2-3% [in winrate].”

You can find the early LoL patch 12.23 notes below, courtesy of Riot. We will keep you updated with the latest changes shipped to PBE right up until the update launches on December 7. 

Winterblessed skins roll out

A new skin line named Winterblessed is hitting the rift with patch 12.23, including new skins for Diana, Swain, Zoe, Shaco, Zilean, and Warwick, who will also be getting a prestige version.

Ashen Graveknight Mordekaiser will also be released come December 8.

Winterblessed Zilean is the timelord’s first skin in three years.

LoL patch 12.23 notes

Champions

Amumu

Base stats

• Health growth per level: 89 ⇒ 100

Q: Bandage Toss

• Mana: 30/35/40/45/50 ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60

W: Despair

• Damage per second: 12/16/20/24/28 + 1/1.15/1.3/1.45/1.6% target max health ⇒ 12/16/20/24/28 + 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2% target max health

E: Tantrum

• Damage: 85/110/135/160/185 ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200

Cho’Gath

Passive: Carnivore

• Mana restore: 3.5-7.75 ⇒ 5-10

W: Feral Scream

• Damage: 75/125/175/225/275 ⇒ 80/135/190/245/300

R: Feast

• Cooldown: 80 seconds ⇒ 80/70/60 seconds

Dr. Mundo

Base stats

• Attack damage per level: 3.5 ⇒ 3
• Magic resist: 32 ⇒ 29
• Magic resist per level: 2.05 ⇒ 2.3

Passive: Goes Where He Pleases

• Cannister health loss: 7% current health ⇒ 3% current health
• Cannister heal: 8% maximum health ⇒ 4% maximum health
• Max health regen per 5 seconds: 0.8-1.6% ⇒ 0.4-2.5%
  • Equal at Level 11

Q: Infected Bonesaw

• Health cost: 50 ⇒ 60

W: Heart Zapper

• Health cost: 5% current health ⇒ 8% current health
• Gray Health heal (no hit): 0% ⇒ 50%
• Damage stored as gray health: 25/30/35/40/45% ⇒ 80-95% based on level in the first 0.75 seconds, then 25% thereafter
• Duration: 4 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds

E: Blunt Force Trauma

• Passive bonus AD: 15/20/25/30/35 + 25/30/35/40/45 based on missing health ⇒ 2.5/3/3.5/4/4.5% max health
• Removed the ability to instantly kill small jungle monsters
• Monster damage: 200% ⇒ 250%

R: Maximum Dosage

• Removed bonus AD
• Missing health as maximum health: 8/11.5/15% ⇒ 15/20/25%
• [New] At Rank 3, both healing effects are increased by an additional 5% per nearby enemy champion

Kassadin

Q: Null Sphere

• Shield Strength: 60/90/120/150/180 (+ 40% AP) > 80/110/140/170/200 (+ 30% AP)
• Shield Spawn Speed: Shield is granted when the Q projectile leaves Kassadin’s hand > Shield is granted when Q is cast

E: Force Pulse

• Cooldown: 5 seconds > 21/19/17/15/13 seconds
• [REMOVED] Stacks Be Gone: This spell no longer requires a certain number of stacks in order to be cast
• [NEW] Send Your Energy: Ally and enemy spells cast near Kassadin reduce E’s cooldown by 1 second

Kayn

Passive: The Darkin Scythe

• Shadow Assassin bonus damage: 8-30% ⇒ 13-40%

E: Shadow Step

• Heal ratio: 35% bonus AD ⇒ 45% bonus AD

Lillia

Q: Blooming Blows

• Damage at edge: 70/100/130/160/190 ⇒ 80/100/120/140/160

Malphite

W: Thunderclap

• On-hit damage: 30/45/60/75/90 (+20% AP) (+10% armor) ⇒ 30/45/60/75/90 (+20% AP) (+15% armor)
• Cone damage: 15/25/35/45/55 (+30% AP) (+15% armor) ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 (+30% AP) (+25% armor)

E: Ground Slam

• Damage: 60/95/130/165/200 (+60% AP) (+30% armor) ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 (+60% AP) (+40% armor)

Maokai

Passive: Sap Magic

• Healing: 4-34 + 4-10% max health ⇒ 4-34 + 4-12% max health

Q: Bramble Smash

• Damage: 65/110/155/200/245 + 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3% target max health ⇒ 70/120/170/220/270 + 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3% target max health
• Bonus monster damage: 80/100/120/140/160 ⇒ 120/140/160/180/200

Mordekaiser

Passive: Darkness Rise

• Procs on all monster hits ⇒ Procs on large monster hits
• Monster damage cap: 180 ⇒ 28-164

Shyvana

E: Flame Breath

• On-hit damage: 3.5% target max health ⇒ 3% target max health

Sion

Base stats

• Mana: 330 ⇒ 400
• Mana per level: 42 ⇒ 52

Q: Decimating Smash

• Damage: 30/50/70/90/110 ⇒ 40/60/80/100/120

Syndra

W: Force of Will

• Bonus damage: 15% (+1.5% per 100 AP) ⇒ 12% (+2% per 100 AP)

E: Scatter the Weak

• AP ratio: 55% ⇒ 45%
• Cooldown: 15 seconds ⇒ 17 seconds

Tahm Kench

Passive: An Acquired Taste

• Damage: 8-60 (+3% bonus health) ⇒ 8-60 (+3% bonus health) (+2% AP per 100 bonus health)

Q: Tongue Lash

• AP ratio: 90% ⇒ 100%
• Self heal missing health ratio: 3-5% ⇒ 5-7%

W: Abyssal Dive

• AP ratio: 100% ⇒ 125%

E: Thick Skin

• Percent damage stored: 13-45% (alone) / 40-50% (near ally) ⇒ 15-47% / 42-50%

R: Devour

• Percent health damage AP ratio: 5% per 100 AP ⇒ 7% per 100 AP
• Shield duration: 2.5 seconds after Devour ends ⇒ Unlimited, but decays by 200 per second after Devour ends until gone

Trundle

Base stats

• Attack speed: 0.67 ⇒ 0.6

R: Subjugate

• Damage based on target max health: 20/27.5/35% ⇒ 20/25/30%

Yuumi

Passive: Bop ‘n’ Block

• Cooldown: 14-6 seconds ⇒ 18-6 seconds

R: Final Chapter

• Root duration: 1.75 seconds ⇒ 1.25 seconds

Zac

Passive: Cell Division

• Healing: 4/4.75/5.5/6.25% max health (based on ultimate rank) ⇒ 4/5/6/7%

Q: Stretching Strikes

• Damage: 40/55/70/85/100 (+2.5% max health) ⇒ 40/55/70/85/100 (+4% max health)
• Cooldown: 15/13.5/12/10.5/9 seconds ⇒ 14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds

Zeri

Base stats

• Move speed: 325 ⇒ 330
• Attack damage: 50 ⇒ 53
• Armor: 20 ⇒ 24
• Health: 600 ⇒ 630
• Attack speed: 0.568 ⇒ 0.625
• Health per level: 109 ⇒ 115

Passive: Living Battery

• Gotta Zip shield bonus: 10% multiplicative move speed ⇒ 10% move speed
• Duration: 3 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Q: Burst Fire

• Fully charged right-click damage: 90-200 (+90% AP) (+1-15% target max health) ⇒ 90-200 (+110% AP) (+1-15% target max health)
• Range: 825 ⇒ 750
• Excess attack speed to attack damage ratio: 60% ⇒ 70%
• Base damage: 8/11/14/17/20 ⇒ 15/18/21/24/27
• Attack damage ratio: 100/105/110/115/120% ⇒ 104/108/112/116/120%

W: Ultrashock Laser

• Damage type: Magic ⇒ Physical
• Damage: 20/55/90/125/160 (+100% AD) (+40% AP) ⇒ 20/60/100/140/180 (+130% AD)
• Cast time: 2.5x attack time ⇒ 0.55-0.3 seconds (based on attack speed)
• Missile speed: 2200 ⇒ 2500
• Beam cast time: 0.75 seconds ⇒ 0.85 seconds

E: Spark Surge

• Mana: 80 ⇒ 90/85/80/75/70
• Cooldown: 24/22.5/21/19.5/18 seconds ⇒ 22/21/20/19/18 seconds
• [NEW] For 5 seconds, Zeri’s Burst Fire does additional magic damage to the first enemy hit and pierces targets
  • Bonus magic damage: 20/22/24/26/28 (+20% AP)(+12% bAD)
• [NEW] Now deals up to 65% bonus damage based on critical strike chance
• Pierce damage falloff: 60/70/80/90/100% ⇒ 80/85/90/95/100%
• Ability and attack damage reduces the cooldown of Spark Surge by 0.5 seconds (1.5 seconds for critical strikes)
• Reveal range through walls: 850 ⇒ 1500

R: Lightning Crash

• [REMOVED] Bonus magic damage
• Chain Lightning range: 450 ⇒ 650
• On-cast magic damage: 150/250/350 (+80% AP)(+80% bAD) ⇒ 175/275/375 (+110% AP)(+100% bAD)
• If Lightning Crash hits at least one champion, Zeri gains 10% move speed, 30% attack speed, and chain shots for 5 seconds. Hitting champions refreshes this buff by 1.5 seconds, up to 5 seconds total.
• Hitting champions grants Zeri 1 stack (3 per critical strike) of Overcharge for 1.5 seconds. Zeri gains 0.5% move speed for each stack of Overcharge, stacking infinitely.

Items

Ravenous Hydra

• Omnivamp from full stacks removed
• Splash damage: 60% (melee) / 30% (ranged) ⇒ 50% / 25%

Sunfire Cape

• Combine cost: 1000 gold ⇒ 900 gold
  • Total cost: 2800 gold ⇒ 2700 gold
• Health: 400 ⇒ 500

Systems

Jungle adjustments

Miscellaneous pet changes

• Base true damage for pet: 20 ⇒ 16
• After first evolution, consume two bonus treats on kill of large monster and get said benefits
• Native 20% damage amplification no longer works on epic monsters
• 10% of bonus armor and magic resist is converted to true damage for pet
• Bonus health ratio: 4% ⇒ 3%
• Monster kill health per level: 3 ⇒ 6
• Monster kill mana per level: 2 ⇒ 4
• Treat gold: 50 gold ⇒ 35 gold
• Experience multiplier: 1/1/1.025/1.075/1.15/1.15/1.25/1.25/1.35 (Levels 1-9) ⇒ 1/1/1.025/1.075/1.2/1.2/1.3/1.3/1.45 (Levels 1-9)

Monsters

• Gromp auto attack range: 175 ⇒ 150
• Large Razorbeak auto attack range: 300 ⇒ 200
• Leash range centers have been offset from camp spawn location, giving more space for champions to move and kite

Mosstomper

• Tenacity buff duration: 3 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds
• Tenacity type: Item ⇒ Champion

ARAM Updates

Frostgates

• [NEW] Frostgates will be present from the beginning of the game and will teleport you directly from your Nexus to your outer tower. Once your first tower is destroyed, the Frostgate will then link to your team’s inhibitor tower where it will then stay for the remainder of the game.

Falling Towers

• [NEW] Tower Rubble: When outer towers are destroyed they will collapse and leave behind a pile of rubble which will be treated as new terrain.

Brush Changes

• [NEW] Brushing Up: There is now one new brush in the middle bottom side of the bridge. The brushes between the outer and inhibitor turrets have also increased in size.

Bridge Repairs

• [NEW] Under Repair: The gaps on the bottom side of the bridge have been filled in and are now traversable

Battle Boost Quality of Life Updates

• [NEW] Not so Fast: Players will no longer be able to active battle Boosts within the last 10 seconds of champion select
• [NEW] You’re Welcome: Allies will not be able to tell which player gifted their team a Battle Boost.
• [NEW] Master them All!” Players will now be able to see which champions they have not yet received S-Rank Chests for in ARAM champion select.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where some champion’s icons would briefly flicker on the minimap at their last known location when they exit the Fog of War elsewhere

• Fixed a bug where Gnar’s Q would veer off in an unexpected direction if a movement command was issued right when the boomerang was about to return
• Fixed a bug that caused Singed and Cassiopeia’s on-hit VFX to not be visible
• Fixed a bug where Yasuo’s Windwall would not correctly block Syndra’s spheres if they were pushed by her E
• Fixed a bug where Sion’s R would not proc Radiant Virtue if he used his R during his passive
• Fixed a bug that allowed Ivern to Smite jungle monsters not marked by his passive. Camps are friends.
• Fixed a bug where Karma could extend the cast time of her R by casting W or E on champions very far away from her
• Fixed a bug where Skarner’s W would reset an in-progress basic attack
• Fixed a bug that would disable Viego’s W if he ended possession of K’Sante while casting K’Sante’s W
• Fixed a bug that was causing Samira’s E+Q combo to be counted as one spell for effect like Conqueror or Electrocute
• Fixed a bug where Sylas’ could cast his R to steal Tahm Kench’s ultimate faster than he could use it to steal other champion’s ultimate abilities
• Fixed a bug where K’Sante could cast R – All Out and move Mordekaiser outside of his Death Realm
• Fixed a bug where Caitlyn would not attack enemies that taunted her if she was taunted while casting her R
• Fixed a bug where undoing selling Ravenous Hydra would cause the item to lose all acquired stacks
• Fixed a bug that caused Ravenous Hydra to stop functioning correctly ~40 minutes after purchasing the item
• Fixed a bug where Jak’Sho’s percent Armor and MR increase would not correctly calculate with other Armor and MR increases
• Fixed a bug where Jak’Sho the Protean would generate stacks of Voidborn Resilience after a champion’s death
• Fixed a bug where Xayah’s W feathers were not receiving Navori Quickblade’s Impermanence’s bonus damage
• Fixed a bug where Tahm Kench could re-proc Radiant Virtue after using his R
• Fixed a bug that caused Pyke’s R to proc Radiant Virtue, but not heal himself or allies
• Fixed a bug that would cause the bonus HP from Radiant Virtue to not be converted into AD with Pyke’s passive
• Fixed a bug that was caused Taliyah’s and Anivia’s ultimates to not proc Radiant Virtue
• Fixed a bug where jungle companions would separate from their champions to path around walls
• Fixed a bug where non-champion primary targets would not be crippled by Iceborn Gauntlet’s effect
• Fixed a bug where Rek’Sai’s R would not proc Radiant Virtue’s passive
• Fixed a bug where enemies could tell which Shaco was the clone due to Radiant Virtue’s VFX
• Fixed a bug that was causing Guinsoo’s Rageblade’s On-Hit damage to be counted as magic damage
• Fixed a bug that causes K’Sante’s bonus Armor and MR from sources like Hullbreaker to not reduce his Q cooldown
• ⦁ Fixed a bug that cause K’Sante to temporarily lose Hullbreaker’s bonus stats while casting his R
• ⦁ Fixed a bug that caused jungle camps to not properly aggro summoned units like Shaco’s boxes or Elise’s spiderlings
• Fixed a bug that was caused Draven’s VO’s to not play correctly when catching his axes with Q
• Fixed a bug that caused the practice tool drake soul to be infernal 100% of the time
• Fixed a bug that caused the VO lines announcing tower plating will soon fall to not play
• Fixed a bug that was causing some of Neeko’s VO lines to not play
• Fixed a bug that caused Program Camille’s VOs to play globally for allies and enemies if she was outside of the Fog of War
• Fixed a bug that caused Clash capsules, orbs, banners, and trophies to not be awarded correctly

Quality of Life updates

• Updated Death’s Dance so that its bleed will no longer interrupt recalls
• Empyrean Pyke’s R – Death from Below distortion visual effects will now be disabled when Eye Candy is turned off in the game options