The League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational is fast approaching, and just as developer Riot Games shook up the competitive meta before the annual competition last year, so too is it tweaking the numbers of several champions and items before the players once again return to Iceland this year.
The first of these MSI patches, LoL patch 12.7, not only focuses on bringing some of the more dominant meta picks back into check, but looks to add “some new ones that we haven’t seen”, according to associate game designer Tim ‘Truexy’ Jiang.
According to the expanded 12.7 preview, Lillia, Kalista, and Wukong are all examples of under-utilised picks in pro play which are receiving some love. Arise, Yasuo and Yone mains, as the sword-swinging siblings are also getting buffs on the new patch.
You can see the full list of changes in the tweet below.
Full Patch 12.7 Preview! Some spicy buffs (Wukong?!?) and some tap downs to some strong items/runes pic.twitter.com/zC37kKHUxS
— Tim (@TheTruexy) April 5, 2022
The most significant champion change on this patch comes in the form of further nerfs to Zeri. The latest marksman to grace the game has been a menace on the Rift so far this season, prompting tweaks.
Zeri the carry is still very *checks notes* strong in pro play…
The nerfs hit all builds, but should hurt bruiser more than crit. We're making the ult stack slower and more consistently, no more 2x-5x stacks when hitting a grouped up team, but you get double stacks on crit! pic.twitter.com/74xQnje8RO
— August (@RiotAugust) April 5, 2022
This latest round looks like it’ll further weaken her already pretty paltry early game, as well as her general power throughout the game. She will at least gain some extra health per-level, as well as an interaction with crit on her (Q) Burst Fire – an indication that she’s being pushed towards more traditional bot lane marksman itemisation.
2021’s MSI was played on LoL patch 11.9, so we could be in for a couple more patches before the players from each attending region’s top team make their way onto the stage. Last year’s shakeup brought Lee Sin into the top lane, while Morgana and Rumble in the jungle became mainstays. Hopefully this time round we’ll see plenty of equally-spicy picks make their way into not only the pro meta, but the LoL ranks meta too.