League of Legends patch 12.16 preview: Irelia buffs, Draven nerfs, Diana adjustments, and more

League of Legends patch 12.16 will be one of the first sets of updates that will focus on the 2022 Worlds Championship, which is right around the corner.

While it is not exactly going to be a big patch, Riot Games will introduce minor balance updates to some of the outliers in order to iron out inconsistencies.

According to Riot Phroxzone:

“The first of our World's focused patches. Since some Leagues are still qualifying for Worlds on this patch, we're holding the more speculative changes for 12.17. Looking to tap down a few outliers and bump up others, with Diana nerfs to tank and buffs to AP builds.”

One of the biggest highlights of League of Legends patch 12.16 will be the Udyr rework that’s set to drop next week. However, the other changes that players should be aware of are the buffs to Tristana, Zoe, and Irelia. Additionally, nerfs will be making their way to Zeri, Yuumi, and Draven, with adjustments also hitting Diana.

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League of Legends patch 12.16 preview

Before moving on to the champions set for updates in patch 12.16, it’s important to note that the list of names is tentative and may not entirely reflect in the official update next week.

Riot Games will first introduce the changes to the PBE test server and try them out before shipping them off with the official patch. Hence, the changes may be updated over the next couple of days, depending on how well they fare on the server.

1) Champion Buffs

• Tristana
• Zoe
• Irelia
• Caitlyn
• Kai’Sa
• Jayce
• Vladimir
• Malphite

Kai’Sa, Caitlyn, and Tristana have not had a great time in the current meta. The three AD carries have not enjoyed the same amount of preference and popularity in both pro-play and standard matchmaking.

Riot Games will be showing them a bit of love this time around, and the champions will be up for some much-needed buffs in the upcoming patch.

The Irelia buff is also one of the highlights of the patch, and it will be quite interesting to see the type of changes that the developers will introduce to her kit.

2) Champion Nerfs

• Zeri
• Yuumi
• Draven
• Poppy

Draven and Zeri have been a menace to deal with in the laning phase as well as late-game team fights. This will be another batch of nerfs that Zeri receives to her kit, making her the champion to have received the maximum number of kit adjustments ever since her launch earlier this year.

3) Champion Adjustments

• Diana

4) System Buffs

• Evenshroud

League of Legends patch 12.16 is expected to go live next week on August 24, 2022.