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Gamer Florenz Mendoza/Pexels

The "League of Legends" patch 12.18 was just released in time for the LOL World Championships, which will start on September 29. Once again, Riot Games has nerfed some of the stronger champions while buffing some to level the playing field. Here are some of the biggest losers and winners in the latest update.

Ashe

Riot decided to buff Ashe with an increase in her bonus attack speed. From 20/25/30/35/40%, Ashe's Ranger's Focus bonus attack speed was changed to 25/32.5/40/47.5/55%.
"While Ashe has recently gained popularity as a support, her power hasn't been quite up to par with other marksmen," the developer explained it the "League of Legends" 12.18 patch notes. "We're increasing her damage to help her shine a bit more in a meta that lacks utility ADC options."

Hecarim

Unfortunately for the champion Hecarim, the developers decided to nerf his Q AD ratio (from 95% to 90%) and decrease its Spirit of Dread heal from 30% (+2.5% per 100 bonus AD) to 25% (+2% per 100 bonus AD), reduce his base health from 650 to 625, but increased his damage per stack.

"Hecarim came charging out of the gates after his update [the] last patch," Riot Games explained of the champion's adjustments. "We're bringing down his overall power with these nerfs, but aiming to reduce the strength of his AD builds in particular without bringing tank Hec back from the dead."

Kalista

The champion Kalista also had her base health decrease from 604 to 574. "Kalista's been a popular Pro pick for quite some time now due to her overwhelmingly dominant laning phase," the devs explained. "We're making her a bit more punishable in [the] lane in situations where she overcommits early on."

Kayn

Kayn has been nerfed with his Darkin form Q bonus AD scaling decreased from 65% AD (+5% of the target's max health (+5% per 100% bonus AD)) to 65% AD (+5% of the target's max health (+3.5% per 100% bonus AD)).

"Rhaast has been winning the preferred Kayn form battle in most skill levels recently," Riot said. "Not only does he offer a surprising amount of damage, but he's also proving to be a hard-to-kill drain tank. We want to lean more into his identity as a healing tank, so we're taking his damage down, so he no longer gets the best of both forms."

Lee Sin

The devs want Lee Sin to be in the spotlight once more and have buffed his stats and skills. The champion's health growth increased from 99 to 105, and lifesteal and spell vamp increased (from 5/9.5/14/18.5/23% to 5/10.5/16/21.5/27%).

"Would this even be a Worlds patch without a Lee Sin buff? Jokes aside, Lee isn't in a great spot right now," the developers pointed out. "He hasn't seen much play in Pro recently and has been struggling quite a bit in solo queue, so we're giving this fan and pro favourite some high skill level skewed buffs to help him find his place once again."

Lulu

Unfortunately for Lulu, her movement speed has been nerfed from 30% to 25%, disable duration decreased, and cooldown increased.

"Lulu has been the best enchanter on the Rift as of late," Riot explained. "Not only is she great at keeping her carries alive, but she brings boatloads of utility to her team. We're tuning down one of her most powerful tools in Pro play to bring her in line with other enchanters."

Maokai

For Maokai, the devs opted to decrease his passive heal from 4.8-14% (based on level) to 4.5 -12% (based on level), increased bonus damage to monsters from 40/60/80/100/120 to 80/100/120/140/160, and decrease Sapling Toss damage.

"Maokai's update has been transplanted to the Rift successfully, taking root not only in support but in [the] top as well (which was one of our major goals!)," Riot said. "He's been struggling to branch out into the jungle, so we're giving him some jungle-oriented buffs in hopes they bear fruit while trimming some of his strengths in other roles. We're sorry. These plant puns are just low-hanging fruit."

Miss Fortune, Nocturne, Thresh

Three champions received changes to their base stats. Miss Fortune's attack damage growth was decreased (from 2.7 to 2.4) while attack damage growth was decreased (from 107 to 103), Nocturne's attack damage growth decreased (from 3.1 to 2.6), and Thresh received buffs in his health growth (from 115 to 120) and magic damage increase from 65/95/125/155/185 (+40% AP) to 75/110/145/180/215 (+40% AP).