League of Legends patch 12.8 official notes: Swain mini-rework, Kassadin buffs, Jinx nerfs, and more

League of Legends patch 12.8 will be the update version on which the Mid-Season invitational will be played. Riot are looking to introduce a plethora of balance updates to this patch and will look to make some of the more underused champions make their way back into the meta.

However, the highlight of the patch will be the mini-rework that Swain will be getting to his kit as a lot of quality-of-life changes will be making their way to him.

Additionally, Kassadin and Ezreal will be up for some buff, while Jinx and Xayah will have their names on the nerf list. League of Legends fans looking for a detailed patch description can look up Riot’s official website.

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However, for a brief overview, here are all the major highlights.

League of Legends patch 12.8 official notes

1) Champions

Swain

Passive - Ravenous Flock

Healing From Soul Fragments: 4/5.5/7% of maximum health >>> 4/5.5/7%/9% of maximum health (at levels 1/6/11)
Maximum Health Increase Per Soul Fragment: 5 >>> 12
[REM] PULL-E MECHANISMS: Swain can no longer use Passive - Ravenous Flock to pull and rip out Soul Fragments from immobilized enemies (see E - Nevermove)

Q - Death's Hand

Damage: 55/75/95/115/135 (+40% AP) >>> 60/80/100/120/140 (+38% AP)
Bonus Damage Per Additional Bolt: 8.25/15/23.75/34.5/47.25 (+6/8/10/12/14% AP) >>> 12/22/32/42/52 (+8% AP)
Maximum Damage (5 Bolts): 88/135/190/253/324 (+64/72/80/88/96% AP) >>> 108/168/228/288/348 (+70% AP)
Cooldown: 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds >>> 7/6/5/4/3 seconds
Mana Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 >>> 45/50/55/60/65

W - Vision of Empire

Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 >>> 60/65/70/75/80
[NEW] VANTAGE ADVANTAGE: Pinging W - Vision of Empire nows display a list of visible enemies within range in team chat (similar to Twisted Fate and Nocturne ults)
E - Nevermove
[NEW] PITIFUL PAWNS: Can now be recast to pull all champions rooted by E - Nevermove, ripping out 1 Soul Fragment from each of them
[REM] SILENT SACRIFICES: Swain's pulls no longer deal damage
[NEW] A TRUE VISIONARY: Now grants vision of all rooted targets
[NEW] DEMON DISCOUNT: E - Nevermove's cooldown is reduced by 20% during R - Demonic Ascension

R - Demonic Ascension

Cooldown: 120 seconds >>> 100/80/60 seconds
Drain Damage Per Second: 35/50/65 (+14% AP) >>> 20/40/60 (+10% AP)
Drain Heal Per Second: 20/35/40 (+16% AP) >>> 15/40/65 (+25%)
[REM] BIG BIRB: No longer grants Swain 125/200/275 bonus health
[REM] ACTIVE DURATION: 12 seconds >>> Based on Demon Power
[UPD] DEMON POWER: Activating Demonic Ascension grants Swain 50 Demon Power, which decreases at an initial rate of 10 per second. After 5 seconds of Demonic Ascension, Swain's Demon Power decreases faster at a rate of 15 per second
[NEW] SOUL STEALER: Swain gains 20 Demon Power per second while draining enemy champions
[UPD] BIG DEMON ENERGY: After 2 seconds of Demonic Ascension, Swain can recast his ultimate as R - Demonflare. R - Demonflare can only be cast once and does not end Demonic Ascension

R - Demonflare

Damage: 100/150/200 (+50% AP) >>> 150/225/300 (+60% AP)
[NEW] CONFLAGRATION: Demonflare now slows enemies by 60%, decaying over 1.5 seconds
[REM] EXPENDED, NOT STORED: Demonflare no longer deals additional damage based on health drained from enemies

Bard

Passive - Traveler's Call

Bonus Magic Damage On Attack: 30 (+12 per 5 chimes) (+30% AP) >>> 35 (+14 per 5 chimes) (+30% AP)

W - Caretaker's Shrine

Maximum Heal: 55/95/135/175/215 (+60% AP) >>> 60/105/150/195/240 (+60% AP)

Ezreal

R - Trueshot Barrage

Cooldown: 120 seconds at all ranks >>> 120/105/90 seconds

Fiddlesticks

W - Bountiful Harvest

Heal Percentage Against Champions :: 30/35/40/45/50% >>> 30/40/50/60/70% (still always 15% against minions)

Jhin

W - Deadly Flourish

Root Duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds >>> 1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25 seconds
[REM] PUPPET PETS: Damage against monsters no longer reduced by 25% (damage against minions and summons unchanged)

E - Captive Audience

Trap Recharge Rate: 28/25/22/19/16 seconds >>> 24/21.5/19/16.5/14 seconds
[REM] JHINGLE BELLS: First Lotus Trap damage no longer reduced by 35% against monsters and summons (damage against minions and summons unchanged

Jinx

Base Stats

Base Health: 610 >>> 560

Kai'Sa

Passive - Second Skin

Bonus Magic Damage Upon Consuming Full Plasma Stacks :: 15% (+2.5% per 100 AP) >>> 15% (+5% per 100 AP) of target's missing health

W - Void Seeker

Magic Damage: 30/55/80/105/130 (+ 130% AD) (+70% AP) >>> 30/55/80/105/130 (+130% AD) (+45% AP)

R - Killer Instinct

Shield Strength: 75/100/125 (+100/150/200% AD) (+75% AP) >>> 75/100/125 (+100/150/200% AD) (+100% AP)

Kassadin

Q - Null Sphere

Magic Shield: 40/70/100/130/160 (+30% AP) >>> 60/90/120/150/180 (+40% AP)

E - Force Pulse

Magic Damage: 80/105/130/155/180 (+80% AP) >>> 80/105/130/155/180 (+85% AP)

Mordekaiser

Passive - Darkness Rise

Bonus Move Speed: 3% at all levels >>> 3/6/9% at levels 1/6/11

Poppy

W - Steadfast Presence

Cooldown :: 24/22/20/18/16 seconds >>> 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

R - Keeper's Verdict

Uncharged Knock Up Duration: 0.75 seconds >>> 1 second
Charged Missile Speed :: 2000 >>> 2500
Charged Knock Back Distance :: 2400 >>> 3400
Cooldown Refund Upon Canceled Charge :: 30 seconds >>> 15 seconds

Sejuani

Passive - Fury of the North

Frost Armor Timer: Sejuani receives Frost Armor after ||| 12 seconds >>> 12-6 seconds (levels 1-18) of not taking damage from enemy champions or monsters

Soraka

W - Astral Infusion

Heal: 100/135/170/205/240 (+70% AP) >>> 100/130/160/190/220 (+65% AP)

Sylas

R - Hijack

Cooldown: 100/70/40 seconds >>> 80/55/30 seconds

Tristana

Base Stats

AD Growth: 3.3 >>> 3.7
AD at Level 18: 115.1 >>> 121.9

Vel'Koz

Q - Plasma Fission

Magic Damage: 80/120/160/200/240 (+80% AP) >>> 80/120/160/200/240 (+90% AP)

W - Void Rift

Initial Magic Damage :: 30/50/70/90/110 (+15% AP) >>> 30/50/70/90/110 (+20% AP)

Vladimir

Base Stats

Base Armor :: 23 >>> 27

Xayah

Q - Double Daggers

Damage Per Blade: 45/65/85/105/125 (+50% bonus AD) >>> 45/60/75/90/105 (+50% bonus AD)
Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds >>> 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds

Xerath

E - Shocking Orb

Stun Duration :: 0.5-2 seconds (based on distance) >>> 0.75-2.25 seconds (based on distance)

Zoe

Q - Paddle Star

Mana Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 >>> 40/45/50/55/60

R - Portal Jump

Mana Cost: 50 >>> 40

2) Items

Stopwatch

[REM] GOLDEN HOUR :: Stopwatch will no longer be purchasable if you already own Guardian Angel or Zhonya's Hourglass

3) Adjustments to Masterwork Milestones

25 MASTERWORK CHESTS: 5 Mythic Essence and one 1350+ RP tier skin shard >>> 10 Mythic Essence and one 1350+ RP tier skin shard
RETROACTIVE REWARDS: Players who completed the 25 Masterwork Chest milestone before the update will get 5 Mythic Essence for each time they completed it
FREEBIE: Everyone will receive a mission granting 10 Mythic Essence

4) Bugfixes & QoL Changes

Nexus turrets with active Objective Bounties will now correctly have bounty healthbar indicators and display bounty information in chat when pinged
Fixed the bug where Nexus hitboxes were unintentionally larger than they appeared
Fixed a rare bug that would permanently reduce a turret's resistances if certain conditions were met when plating fell
Being in an enemy turret's range with an enemy Sion, Kog'Maw, or Karthus passive zombie as it dies will no longer make that turret's aggro switch to youGhost Poros have been restored and will once again grant normal vision, NOT true sight
QoL Change: Illaoi's E - Test of Spirit will now grant assist credit, even if the Vessel does not take any damage
Fixed a bug where, if you casted Illaoi's Q - Tentacle Smash during her E - Test of Spirit animation or while she was locked out of her abilities (e.g. in stasis), she would instantly change direction to face your cursor
Fixed a bug where Vessels spawned from Illaoi's E - Test of Spirit would be invisible if the tethered champion was camouflaged and being revealed by a control ward
Fixed some strange Vessel interactions that would sometimes benefit Illaoi's enemies upon expiring, like healing them if they had Omnivamp... :3
Fixed a bug where Illaoi's W - Harsh Lesson-empowered basic attacks would not trigger nearby Tentacles to slam her target if she had an active spell shield
Fixed the bug where Taliyah would not be able to use her Passive - Rock Surfing for the rest of the game if someone broke her Banshee's Veil spell shield while she was Rock Surfing again
Fixed a bug where, if an enemy champion got DUNKED by Sett's R - The Show Stopper into Tahm Kench's R - Devour, they would first reappear at the original Devour point before quickly sliding to the actual Regurgitate destination
Fixed an uncommon bug where Viego could become permanently attached to an ally champion if he possessed Yuumi under certain conditions
Sona will no longer be able to reset her basic attacks against wards by casting an ability when she has full stacks of Passive - Power Chord
Fixed a bug where, if Elise casted E - Rappel on herself while an enemy champion was right next to her, she would ascend and immediately descend upon on them despite not having recasted the ability
Fixed a bug where, if you spammed Pantheon's Q - Comet Spear or Sett's E - Facebreaker while the ability was on cooldown, it would sometimes cancel your attacks and movements
Black Cleaver's passive interactions have been fixed so that you will correctly gain only one stack of Carve per basic attack, even if you purchased Titanic Hydra first
Lulu's interactions with Spellthief's Edge and Spectral Sickle have been fixed so she will once again receive a stack of Tribute whenever Passive - Help, Pix! damages an enemy champion, too
Rengar will no longer receive a Navori Quickblades stack upon hitting a plant with a Q - Savagery-empowered basic attack
Axiom Arc's passive has been fixed and will correctly grant Tahm Kench partial refunds on his R - Devour for scoring takedowns
Fixed a bug where Teemo couldn't gain Manamune stacks if he had ranked up E - Toxic Shot at least once. Unfortunately, this bug did not make Teemo players any less toxic.
Fixed a bug where the Ornn Masterwork items Caesura and Eternal Winter did not grant the correct amounts of AP
Fixed a bug where certain skillshots would not play their hit confirmation SFX if they hit a target in Fog of War (e.g. Ahri's Q - Orb of Deception passthrough sound)
Nocturne's R - Paranoia VO volume has been fixed and is no longer much louder than intended
Ivern and his friends are on speaking terms again (his jungle camp VO lines have been restored)

5) Upcoming Skins & Chromas

The following skins will be released in this patch:

Lunar Eclipse Aatrox & Sun-Eater Kayle
Lunar Eclipse Senna
Prestige Lunar Eclipse Senna
Solar Eclipse Sejuani
Solar Eclipse Sivir
Gangplank the Betrayer
Sea Dog Yasuo

Chromas

Lunar Eclipse Aatrox
Lunar Eclipse Senna
Solar Eclipse Sejuani
Solar Eclipse Sivir
Sun-Eater Kayle
Gangplank the Betrayer
Sea Dog Yasuo

About the author

Armed with his Master's degree in English Literature, Abhishek Mallick ventured into journalism propelled by his simple love for video games. Over four years, Abhishek has made significant contributions to Sportskeeda Esports & Gaming as a content manager and writer and holds particular expertise and influence within the competitive gaming landscape. Inspired by gaming legends like T1 Faker, Abhishek closely follows the professional League of Legends scene, finding fascination in the strategic depth and skillful plays showcased by top players and teams.

After his first childhood favorite, the 1997 platformer Claw, Abhishek's gaming pursuits evolved to encompass titles like Monster Hunter World, where he finds thrill in the exhilarating hunt for formidable monsters. These days, Abhishek's genre of choice is JRPG, where he enjoys confronting deities in epic battles.

In his reporting endeavors, Abhishek stays up-to-date with current news and trends to ensure his articles provide readers with accurate and timely information. Beyond gaming, Abhishek dives into fiction through his love for reading.

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Edited by Yasho Amonkar