Yasuo and Yone receiving buffs in League of Legends Patch 12.2

Riot Games announced the next set of changes for League of Legends, as Patch 12.2 will bring a slew of new buffs and nerfs. Most notably, two of the most polarizing champions in the history of the game — “wind brothers” Yone and Yasuo are receiving buffs in League of Legends Patch 12.2.

Patch Preview time!

Because I know y'all will be curious: We're buffing the wind brothers because they suffered substantially from the Shieldbow changes and dropped to around 47.5% winrate each, a fair bit lower than intended and lower than the other Shieldbow bound champs. pic.twitter.com/aBqPNsy5wD

— Phlox (@RiotPhlox) January 10, 2022

Yone and Yasuo receive buffs in Patch 12.2

According to Riot, champions Yone and Yasuo have seen their win rates dip to the 47.5% range, which is a “fair bit lower than intended” according to the developers. A quick look at the mid lane tier list confirms that observation. Yasuo is the sixth-worst mid laner in the game at a 47.84% win rate, while Yone is even further down. The Unforgotten has largely been forgotten on the win charts, as his 47.05% win rate is third-worst in the role.

It would seem, then, that Riot is entirely justified in looking to buff these champions. Win rates below 48% are extremely low when dealing with such a large sample size of games, especially when it comes to champions that see play as often as Yone and Yasuo. The problem is in the anecdotal evidence; we all remember getting dumpstered by both of these champions on countless occasions and they never feel weak.

Such is the nature of snowballing hyper-carries. Both champions may be weak overall but, when a player on either character does get fed, it will often be enough to single-handedly carry and end the game. When this kind of thing happens often enough, it’s very hard for players to forget that power level, even if the champion has long since fallen below any respectable win rate thresholds.

Both Yone and Yasuo sport kits that are notoriously “anti-fun” and considered by many in the community as “garbage to play against.” Factors such as Yasuo’s wind wall, Yone’s exceptional mobility, and both champions’ capabilities of flying in from a screen away and instantly zeroing out an opponent, will always make them frustrating to face.

Naturally, champion cases like this are always hard to balance. With buffs on the table for both Yone and Yasuo in Patch 12.2, the Riot Games dev team have their work cut out for them.

Tristana and Nocturne also receive buffs

Along with Yone and Yasuo, buffs are also coming to Nocturne, Volibear, Veigar, Tristana and Senna. This is notable because Nocturne and Tristana, in particular, were exceptionally strong picks for significant portions of 2021. For a majority of the year, both Noc and Trist were close to the top of the board in their respective roles. That they are both now receiving buffs indicates that Riot may have swung the hammer too hard in past patches and are attempting to level them back out.

Currently, Tristana has a paltry 48.49% win rate; the fifth-worst mark among AD carries. Nocturne, a king of the jungle through much of Season 11, sits at an even worse win rate of 47.18%. This is the second-worst mark among all junglers in the game.

Of course, Senna, Veigar and Volibear each have low win rates as well, at this time. All of the champions on this list seem well-positioned and in need for some significant buffs.

Aside from the champion changes, Riot is also introducing buffs for a couple of items in Lich Bane and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter.

League of Legends Patch 12.2 nerf rundown

As far as nerfs go, the list of champions is quite a bit shorter than those receiving buffs. Only Shen, Talon, Qiyana, Lulu and Zed are in line for nerfs in the next patch. However, significant “system nerfs” are coming.

Firstly, the Lethal Tempo rune keystone will be seeing some nerfs. Secondly, and most significantly, Riot is nerfing both new Chemtech and Hextech dragon souls.

Released in the recent preseason patch, the Chemtech and Hextech dragons have had a major impact on League of Legends. The Hextech dragon adds hex gates throughout the rift that allow players to teleport across significant sections of the jungle. The Hextech dragon soul adds an attack buff that damages and slows enemies in a chain similar to the old Statikk Shiv item.

The Chemtech dragon’s rift transformation introduces large sections of invisibility shrouding in the jungle. Its dragon soul gives all members of the wielding team a zombie resurrection ability. This ability, much like Sion’s passive, allows champions to revive upon death with rapidly decaying health. Unlike Sion’s passive, the Chem soul also allows champions to retain the full function of their abilities in their zombie state.

As we’ve seen through countless community complaints, players are unhappy with the Chemtech dragon in particular. While players have expressed issues with the Chemtech rift transformation on its own, much of the community’s frustrations stem from the zombie revive passive. Riot’s focus in this next patch appears to be singularly focused on those soul effects.

The Chemtech and Hextech dragon souls will finally see some nerfs

Frustrated players have speculated that a team securing the Chem soul is essentially guaranteed to win the game. According to League of Graphs, teams securing the Chemtech soul have an 89.9% win rate. The Hextech soul comes in right below that, with an 89.8% win rate. While these numbers may seem astronomical, they aren’t significantly higher than the dragon souls we’ve had long-term. In fact, the worst dragon soul, by the numbers, is the Infernal dragon, which still has an 87.5% win rate. What is often lost in looking at raw win rate numbers is the context. A team that has successfully secured four dragons is likely already dominating and in a position to succeed, regardless of what element the dragon represents.

Oddly enough, players have not complained nearly as much about the Hex soul, despite it sporting nearly an identical win rate to the Chem soul. Perhaps the nature of the Chem soul, a buff that is obvious throughout the course of a teamfight, has caused it to draw more ire.

Either way, Riot has obviously reached the conclusion that there is some validity to the complaints. It seems that they agree the few percentage points in win rate that the Chem and Hex souls have over the other dragons warrants some tweaking.

So far, Riot has only released a cursory glance at the upcoming changes. As specific information becomes available, Upcomer will have it covered in a future article!

All champion win-rate data used in this article was courtesy of U.GG, a League of Legends stats and data site. Upcomer and U.GG are both properties of Enthusiast Gaming.