League of Legends Patch 11.2 Update

            The new League of Legends patch, patch 11.12, is live. Some big changes in this one, a bunch of stuff we are excited to talk about. Nerfs, buffs, and even a fun Dr. Mundo rework for us to take apart and check out how it’s going to work. We’ve got a lot of stuff we want to talk about so we are just going to jump right in.

Let’s start with the buffs!  Rammus has gotten a damage buff onto their defensive roll ability and they have gotten a cooldown reduction on his R ability. This buff was made after the 11.11 nerf was poorly received and they wanted to give Rammus a little more mobility and power to make up for it.

            When it comes to Hecarim buffs, the devs definitely think that this champion needed its last patch and this patch. So they are reverting some earlier nerfs and adding buffs on top of that, giving him increased base armor and an increase to the damage ratio to his Q ability.

            So, there is a lot of complex changes to Aphelios and the devs are saying the intent is a buff and is supposed to act as a buff. But a lot of numbers are getting moved around so it’s sort of hard to get into the nitty-gritty, but the gist is that they are trying to make Aphelios more viable in play and help sort of break his slump.

            Draven is getting a flat buff to the damage on the Q ability. This is supposed to just make Draven more viable with how he is supposed to play. We are excited to see if it works out.

            Illaoi has a smaller base mana pool than most other champions and the devs feel this makes her lag behind. So just giving her a bit of a budge in the right direction will help her keep up with everyone else.

            Some of the recent nerfs have made the devs feel that Malphite isn’t living up to his design. So they give W ability a bit more of a punch so he can be the hard hitter he is supposed to be.

            Devs obviously want to see more of Ziggs. And we get it, Ziggs seems fun. If they were more viable we would totally play more Ziggs. And the buffs for this patch are nice, increased Q damage is always good. What we are very excited about is the speed increase on the Ultimate, giving Ziggs some real firepower. We love to see ult buffs, especially when it means bigger explosions.

            The last buff we are going to talk about is for Jarvan. The devs noticed that Jarvan was losing too much steam early so decreasing the cooldown on his W ability is going to help him keep the momentum he needs.

            Next, we get to talk about everyone's favorite part of these updates, the nerfs.

            The first up on the chopping block is Varus. Varus is being seen as being a tad too powerful, so they are going to reduce the damage of his W ability.

            One of our personal favorites, Nasus, is also getting nerfed. His ability to farm health is seen as a tad too strong as it currently is so 11.12 is going to trim that down just a bit. We don’t love to see it but we understand why Riot does it.

            Kai’sa needs to be tuned down just a bit because she is building up too much momentum early game. Momentum can make or break a character, and they want to see Kai’sa on an even playing field with everyone else. So Kai’sa Q ability cooldown is being lengthened, but just early on and having it speed back up late game. A gentle nerf, if you will.

            They knew they would have to nerf Wukong when he received buffs over the last several patches. They just weren’t sure exactly what sort of changes needed to be made. In the end, they decided to nerf his base damage growth and reduce the damage ratio of his Q ability. Hopefully, this will even Wukong out with hampering him too much.

            We aren’t exactly sure about the Renekton nerf, the reduction of non-champion healing in his abilities, but we are interested in seeing how that plays out.

            Talon’s changes are technically a nerf, including a reduction to his W abilities initial damage. But they clearly like where Talon is because they want this changed to be minimized. They even included a bit of a buff to the secondary effect of the W ability.

            Gnar is a powerful little baby, ain’t he. We love it! But the devs think that he might be just a little bit too much of a crybaby. So they are going to tap down his base damage and hope that matures his just a bit.

            Last nerf, or kind of nerf because it’s compensated by a different buff is for Udyr. The devs want his builds to be a little more diversified, so his R cone damage will be decreased but the same attack will see an AD increase. An interesting change to be sure.

            Lastly, we have the very intriguing Dr. Mundo rework. Two of Dr. Mundo’s abilities have been completely replaced, which is what we are primarily going to talk about. This champion’s original self-damaging ability, Burning Agony, has been changed to Heart Zapper which causes AoE damage while healing Dr. Mundo. The second big change is the replacement of the masochism ability with Blunt Force Trauma. BFT is still about building momentum, increasing attacks based on the damage Dr. Mundo has taken rather than magical defense as well as dealing extra active attack damage if BFT kills its target. These abilities are somewhat similar in composition to the old builds but are better oriented for being the momentum-based tank that the devs think Dr. Mundo should be.

            And that covers are the big changes in the 11.12 patch to League of Legends. We are excited to see how all these changes pan out as these changes have a noticeable effect.  While all these changes may be overwhelming, both new and veteran players can buyLeague of Legends smurf accounts to test the waters without affecting their main account’s ELO.