Teamfight Tactics patch 12.18 notes

Patch 12.18 is our first patch of Uncharted Realms! We're focused on buffing comps that aren't working, including reroll comps!
Game Updates

EVENT DELAY
Patch 12.18’s Secrets of the Shallows event, originally scheduled to launch tomorrow, has been delayed. All cosmetic content (including Dragonmancer Chibi Kai'Sa) will still be available tomorrow! We'll follow up shortly with the new launch date.
Grab your snorkel gear and dive in!

Wait, don’t dive, it’s actually quite shallow. This patch is full of buffs to underperforming comps, with a focus on reroll comps and a few Dragons. We also shipped a number of balance changes last week during a mid-week update you can catch up on here. But in addition to all that, the Secrets of the Shallows event begins, allowing you to join Pengu and Co on an adventure to chart the Uncharted Realms.
Rodger “Riot Prism" Caudill Jonathon “More Synergy" Stebel

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

SECRETS OF THE SHALLOWS

Starting this patch, you’re invited to join Pengu and Co on an adventure to chart the Uncharted Realms with the Secrets of the Shallows event! You’ll have until patch 12.20 to explore the lands of our new Origins (Lagoon, Darkflight, and Nomsy’s home) and earn free content. Learn more here. There’s plenty of personalization content to explore too! Check it out below:

SECRETS OF THE SHALLOWS EGGS


The Secrets of the Shallows Eggs (390 RP) have a 2% chance to drop Chibi Dragonmancer Kai’Sa whose signature Finisher will leave your foes wiping water (and tears) from their screen.

Other eggs contain new variants for Hauntling and Silverwing that are inspired by the Dragon Souls of Summoner’s Rift. These variants can also be purchased directly for 925 RP! Check out our spookiest Little Legend’s new variants: Infernal Haunting, Elder Haunting, Ocean Haunting, Mountain Haunting, Cloud Haunting.

And now for Silverwing’s new variants: Cloud Silverwing, Infernal Silverwing, Ocean Silverwing, Mountain Silverwing, Elder Silverwing.

CHIBI KAI’SA


Icathian Rain? No, this is just a drizzle. Chibi Kai’Sa is available for direct purchase for 1900 RP. She comes with her own custom boom, Icathian Rain.

LARGE CHANGES

Large, like reroll Bonkeykong’s staff!

TRAITS


With our Astral changes, Astral orbs will improve with each and every Astral star level. We’re also using this change to buff the trait.

Cannoneer is melting everything way faster than it should, so we're firing off a large nerf at 4, and a smaller nerf at the harder to reach 6 Cannoneer breakpoint. This is a large hit to the Cannoneer Darkflight comp that's been overperforming, due to a huge part of Graves's damage coming from those cannon shots.

Shimmerscale's payoff hasn't been high enough to warrant investing in the trait. By buffing the underperforming Shimmerscale items we not only increase the power of the Trait, but we also even out the power distribution of the items. But in case these buffs aren’t enough, we’re giving Jax some love later on.
  • Astral orb quality now only counts star levels from unique units. Stacking duplicate 3-star 1-cost units won’t result in an increase in quality beyond the first one
  • Astral Orbs quality now increases at every single star level, rather than at specific cumulative star level “breakpoints.” This means average orb quality is up across the board. Item components and full items can drop earlier than before.
  • Cannoneer cannon shot Attack Damage ratio: 150/300/475% ⇒ 150/250/450%
  • Dragonmancer bonus Health: 250/600/900/1200 ⇒ 250/600/800/1000
  • Dragonmancer bonus Ability Power: 18/30/50/75 ⇒ 18/30/50/70
  • Mage Ability Power buff/debuff: 75/100/125/150% ⇒ 80/110/140/170%
  • Ragewing enraged Attack Speed: 50/100/175/250% ⇒ 50/100/150/250%
  • Shimmerscale item, Crown of Champions charge up time: 6 ⇒ 5 sec
  • Shimmerscale item, Determined Investor Gold granted: 10 ⇒ 15
  • Shimmerscale item, Needlessly Big Gem Units per Gold: 3 ⇒ 2
  • Shimmerscale item, Goldmancers Staff chance to proc: 33% ⇒ 40%
  • Shimmerscale item, Goldmancers Staff base Ability Power & Mana: 15 ⇒ 20
  • Shimmerscale item, Mogul’s Mail Base Health: 200 ⇒ 350

UNITS: TIER 1


Bonkeykong.
  • Wukong Crushing Blow Attack Damage ratio: 165/180/195% ⇒ 185/200/230%

UNITS: TIER 2


Lagoon vertical has been struggling—and it’s not just because I am getting contested in every lobby. The comp likes to be played as a reroll comp with so many low-cost (potential) carries. To help the Lagoon-squad out, we’re shipping a series of buffs to its stars that are worth staring up!

Lux feels like a great unit to itemize, but her cast animation feels slow. We're speeding up her cast animation which will help, especially when double-casting with Mage, but we’re also slightly dropping her flat damage as compensation for the increased casts she’s going to get with this buff.
  • Aphelios Attack Speed: 0.75 ⇒ 0.7
  • Kai’Sa Tidal Burst Damage: 35/55/75 ⇒ 40/60/85
  • Lux Cosmic Spark animation is now slightly faster
  • Lux Cosmic Spark Damage: 350/425/575 ⇒ 325/400/500
  • Lux Cosmic Spark now travels straight after hitting the initial target
  • Zac Unstable Current Heal: 200/220/270 ⇒ 220/250/300

UNITS: TIER 3


Dragonmancer Nunu has quickly become one of the most dominant comps. In addition to the Dragonmancer trait nerfs at higher levels, these changes to Nunu should result in a meaningful hit to the comp.

Zippy has been hopping and bopping folks all over the Convergence, but he’s been a bit overstimulated and missing his mark—we’re fixing a bug with Zippy’s targeting to make his Somersault Assault victim selection more consistent.
  • Nunu Consume Damage Amplification as True Damage: 33% ⇒ 20%
  • Nunu’s amplified Consume damage no longer scales multiplicatively with Giant Slayer’s damage amplification
  • Volibear Relentless Storm 3rd attack damage: 110/155/215 ⇒ 125/175/240
  • Zeri Watershock Laser Damage: 160/240/420 ⇒ 200/300/475
  • Zippy Bugfix: Zippy should more reliably attack the target of Somersault Assault after cast
  • Zippy Attack Damage: 80 ⇒ 85

UNITS: TIER 4


Daeja’s attack damage was lowered to 0 to remove her synergy with the Whisper Emblem, but the Emblem was causing problems for more than just Daeja, so we yeeted it out like a rage quitter during Dragonmancer Yasuo’s finisher. With the Emblem part of ancient Dragonlands history, we’re reverting Daeja to her earlier, easier to itemize, and simpler form—call it Daejavu.

Also, we are buffing the underperforming Dragons for my favorite verticals, and Darkflight. GO DRAGONS GO!
  • Daeja RE-REWORKED: Now deals physical damage with her passive Windblast barrages, and can now equip AD items like Deathblade and Runaan’s Hurricane
  • Daeja Attack Damage: 0 ⇒ 20
  • Daeja Windblast passive Barrage Damage: 40/60/180 ⇒ 25/40/150
  • Shi Oh Yu Jade Form Damage Reduction: 15/20/50% ⇒ 20/25/50%
  • Shi Oh Yu Jade Form Attack Damage ratio: 230/250/1000% ⇒ 250/275/1000%
  • Sohm Tideblossom 3rd cast vortex Damage: 275/375/1500 ⇒ 300/420/1500
  • Swain Dragon Master’s Decree missing Health heal: 11% ⇒ 12%

UNITS: TIER 5


Another buff to vertical Astral if you ask me.
  • Aurelion Sol Black Hole Damage: 325/550/4000 ⇒ 350/575/4000
  • Aurelion Sol Black Hole Damage increase after 18 seconds of combat: 15% ⇒ 20%

ITEMS


Last Whisper has been the backbone for many of our overperforming Attack Damage comps.
  • Last Whisper Armor Penetration: 60% ⇒ 50%
  • Eternal Whisper (Radiant) Armor Penetration: 60% ⇒ 50%

AUGMENTS


Dragonmancer have dragonmanced(?) a new Augment into existence.

We’re adding a lucky number (3) of quality of life buffs for Lucky Gloves to make the Augment feel and perform luckier.
  • Cutthroat (Assassin) Mana Reave: 50% ⇒ 65%
  • NEW Silver Augment: Dragonmancer Conference. Every 2 rounds, a random Dragonmancer appears on your bench. Gain a Kai'Sa.
  • Hero-In-Training (Dragonmancer) Buff percentage: 50% ⇒ 66%
  • Lucky Gloves: Frontline Attack Damage-focused champions will now receive a more well-curated selection of items
  • Lucky Gloves: Now always grants full items instead of components (even at earlier Stages)
  • Lucky Gloves: Removed some weaker options to improve the average strength of the Augment
  • Ricochet (Cannoneer) Bounce Damage Reduction: 33% ⇒ 40%
  • Verdant Veil Crowd Control immunity duration: 15 ⇒ 20 seconds
  • Weakspot Armor Penetration: 20% ⇒ 10%

SMALL CHANGES

Smaller, but holistically impactful changes to help bring some comps in line while letting others shine brighter.

TRAITS


Giving the Scalescorn less Scaling with a nerf in the form of a scorning.
  • Scalescorn: Bonus Magic Damage: 15/50/115% ⇒ 15/50/100%

UNITS: TIER 1


In effort to make more reroll comps viable we’re taking our cheapest dates out to a buffet.
  • Karma Inner Flame Damage: 210/280/350 ⇒ 210/280/420
  • Nasus Fury of the Dawn Health Increase: 225/350/550 ⇒ 225/350/650
  • Nasus Fury of the Dawn Damage per second to adjacent enemies: 70/100/170 ⇒ 70/100/185
  • Sett Knuckle Down Attack Damage ratio: 150/155/160% ⇒ 150/155/170%

UNITS: TIER 2


He may not need a real weapon, but he could use 5 extra Armor and Magic Resist.
  • Jax Armor & Magic Resist: 40 ⇒ 45

UNITS: TIER 3


Apparently it’s the World’s patch for League of Legends. They’re buffing Lee Sin cause they want to see him make sick plays, but he’s already making sick plays here so I don’t see the problem.
  • Lee Sin max Mana nerf: 30/80 ⇒ 30/90

ITEMS

  • Sunlight Cape (Radiant) burn range: 4 ⇒ 3
  • Bulwark’s Oath (Radiant) Shield duration: 3 ⇒ 4 seconds
  • Bulwark’s Oath (Radiant) Ally Armor & Magic Resist: 30 ⇒ 35

AUGMENTS

  • Dragon Imperialist max Health execution threshold: 15% ⇒ 18%
  • Pandora’s Bench Gold: 5 ⇒ 7

MODES

HYPER ROLL

  • Shimmerscale item, Goldmancers Staff Base Ability Power: 15 ⇒ 20
  • NEW Dragonmancer Conference (Augment): Every round, a random Dragonmancer appears on your bench. Gain a Kai'Sa.

BUG FIXES

  • Our fix for the Skipping Stone Boom has been delayed to patch 12.19
  • Darkflight now sacrifices the champion when Darkflight is activated from a Darkflight unit being auto placed onto the board at the end of the shopping phase when you have an empty unit slot
  • Darkflight now shows the sacrifice hex and chain VFX for away players and ghosts properly
  • Cult expansion: Fixed a rare issue where ghost armies could have multiple sacrificed champions and thus gain multiple items
  • Undeserved credit: Nilah no longer resets if her target dies from damage other than her spell.
  • Zippy should more reliably attack the target of Somersault Assault after cast
  • Nilah now recasts on the nearest unit rather than the farthest when she gets a reset
  • Nilah now properly recasts when she kills a cornered target.
  • Nilah’s damage should now line up better with her animation.
  • Freebies: Mirage (Pirate’s Bounty) no longer grants a chest after NPC rounds.
  • Pandora’s Bench and Recombobulator will now pull the correct number of units from the pool when transforming 2* and 3* units.
  • The following Augments will no longer be offered to players who picked Built Different: Age of Dragons, Ancient Archives II (Ancient Archives I is already blacklisted), Dragon Imperialist, Dragon Soul
  • Hyper Roll: Fixed a bug where you would gain extra experience during Treasure Dragon rounds.
  • Minor Tooltip Changes: Scalescorn tooltip update to accurately represent how the trait functions.