LoL Patch 12.02 Highlights

It's the New Year already and Riot is kicking off the celebration with a bang in LoL Patch 12.02! We've got a ton of skins coming out soon, an entire set of balance changes, and even a brand new Champion to join the ranks! It's kind of a lot, so we'll help you cover it all!

So, let’s check out some highlights of LoL Patch 12.02. If you want to learn more about some of the new skins, we've already covered the Porcelain skins here. We also have checked out Firecracker and Crystal Rose.

• Check out our guide for the new champion here!

Zeri Release in 12.02

To start off the new patch we got a brand new Marksman. It's been a year and a half since we got our last marksman Samira. Even though Samira left a big impact on the meta upon release, we believe Zeri will still be able to live up to the bar that Samira set for marksman releases. Zeri is shaping up to be an incredibly exciting champion to play and watch, you can expect her to be viable for the foreseeable future.

In case you missed it, here's a rundown of her abilities: 

• Q - Burst Fire: 
  • Passive: Zeri's basic attack deals magic damage, scales with AP, and is treated as an ability. Moving and casting Burst Fire stores up energy in Zeri's Sparkpack. When fully charged, her next basic attack will slow and deal bonus damage.
    
    
  • Active: Burst Fire shoots a burst of 7 rounds that deal physical damage to the first enemy hit. Burst Fire scales with AD and is treated like an attack, with the first round applying on-hit effects. Its cooldown matches Zeri’s basic attack timer.

• W - Ultrashock Laser: 
  • Zeri fires an electric pulse that slows and damages the first enemy hit.  If the pulse hits a wall it fires a long range laser from the point of impact.

• E - Spark Surge: 
  • Zeri dashes a short distance and energizes her next 3 casts of Burst Fire, causing them to pierce through enemies. She will vault over or grind along any terrain she dashes into, depending on the angle. Hitting a champion with an attack or ability reduces Spark Surge’s cooldown.

• R - Lightning Crash:
  • Zeri discharges a nova of electricity, damaging nearby enemies, and overcharges herself for a moderate duration. While overcharged, Zeri gains increased damage, Attack Speed, and Move Speed. Attacking enemy champions refreshes the overcharge duration and adds another stack of Move Speed. While overcharged, Burst Fire's damage concentrates into a faster triple shot that chains lightning between enemies.

So, what are you waiting for? Test out Zeri as soon as you can in LoL Patch 12.02!

Sona and Vayne VFX Update

Along with all the balance changes in LoL Patch 12.02 Vayne and Sona got some love, updating VFX for all of their skins and even adding some new effects as well.

Vayne's base VFX got updated so those were shipped with all of her skins except for a few. Which were too modern or just received entirely new VFX. 

The updated skins with new VFX are:

• Dragonslayer Vayne: Recolored from base with added smoke and flames
• Heartseeker Vayne: Recolored from base with heart in W decal
• SKT T1: Same as new base, different missiles to match model
• Arclight Vayne: Recolored from base with more golden, divine sparks

Sona got a lot of attention, with brand new effects for her base skin. She got a lot more changes, as many as 9 of her skins got updated, including: 

• Muse Sona: Minor details added to new base
• Pentakill Sona: Same as new base
• Silent Night Sona: Recolored from new base
• Guqin Sona: Minor details added to new base
• Arcade Sona: Complete overhaul
• DJ Sona: Complete overhaul and additional special celebration effects for each passive aura
• Sweetheart Sona: Same as new base, plus some cleanup
• Odyssey Sona: Minimal tweaks
• Pentakill III: Lost Chapter Sona: Minimal tweaks

Chemtech Drake Nerf

After having the Chemtech Drake for a few patches, Riot still feels that it is too powerful, and we don't disagree. They are trying to tone down how oppressive the Chemtech Soul is for the other team.

The undead's health and longevity have been nerfed. Instead of 80% base health and 50% bonus health players will now have 70% base health and 40% bonus. The zombie effect has also been shortened to 3 seconds. Overall, the zombies will die very quickly, and will only have time to get one extra rotation of abilities off, leaving room for counterplay for teams who manage to get away before the zombie's get a chance to respond.

The Chemtech map has also been nerfed. Upon entering the fog, you won’t go stealth until 2.5 seconds after an offensive action. Oh, and that pesky bonus damage against enemies? Nerfed down to 10%.

Tahm Kench Changes in Patch 12.02

Tahm Kench was unbenched in Season 11, and he found his new home in the top lane. Unfortunately he has been too dominant in the top lane and is pretty unhealthy there. So at the start of Season 12, Riot is trying to move the catfish back to his original home in the support role.

To try and make this happen Riot has decided to make his Q slow 50% instead of the previous 40%. Not only that but his E grey health will also be improved when Tahm is near 2 enemies (dead or alive). His ultimate also grants a better shield for devoured allies.

So, will Tahm Kench be a menace in the bot lane again in Patch 12.02? I sure as hell have enjoyed not being gobbled up by him in the recent months, but I don't play top lane so maybe not everyone feels the same way.

What else happened in Patch 12.02?

Along with three new sets of skins you can check out, there's also a new prestige skin for Brave Phoenix Xayah and Porcelain Lux which will ship soon!

Riot has also brought back ARURF. Unfortunately you won't be able to choose your champion in URF this time, so hope you don't get Garen!

Overall LoL Patch 12.02 is a big one, with balance changes, skins, VFX updates, and a new champion! This patch was so extensive it was hard to cover it all, it was more like reading an ecyclopedia than patch notes. Make sure to follow us at Riftfeed so you can stay updated big patches like this and on all things League of Legends!