Riot reduces Xayah’s damage, Jinx’s health, Kai’Sa’s damage, and introduces huge Swain update in League Patch 12.8

If you’ve been tired of the current bot lane meta in League of Legends, you’ll be happy to know a few dominant picks in the game have been shaved down for Patch 12.8.

Planned Pyke nerfs have been moved from this patch to a future update. But Xayah, Jinx, Soraka, and AP Kai’Sa have all been tweaked by the developers, which could give room for other champions to shine both in solo queue and at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational. The tournament is starting in three weeks, and Patch 12.8 is confirmed to be the version pros will compete on.

First, Jinx is getting hit with a straightforward base health reduction, going from 610 HP to 560. This should help her opponents punish any mistimed skirmishes since she’ll have to either burn her potions faster or return to base earlier. Xayah, on the other hand, is getting a late-game nerf to her Q damage, with the reduction increasing by five at each level. The cooldown is also getting an increase at later levels.

Soraka is also getting hit hard by the nerf hammer this patch and, more specifically, the healing on her Astral Infusion. Healing is being dropped from level two onward, with the max level heal reduced from 240 to 210. The AP ratio on the ability is also getting cut by five percent.

Anyone who has faced off against a strong Kai’Sa that has built AP will know that her poke can be almost unbearable to deal with, especially without some form of healing or lifesteal. Well, worry no longer, because Riot is dropping her W damage significantly from 70 percent AP ratio to 45 percent. To trade off this loss of power, the devs are increasing her passive damage and her ultimate ability’s AP ratio so that she isn’t just relying on landing her poke to deal most of the damage.

Related: Riot sends massive new Swain changes to League PBE

Lastly, Swain’s new adjustments are finally going live.

The General’s new ‘drain tank’ dream has come true with a revamped ultimate that can technically last forever in a teamfight, but he has traded away his ability to pull any enemies affected by crowd control. Even still, we could see the rise of Swain in solo queue as solo laners start to try him out.

Along with the plethora of buffs heading to live servers, League Patch 12.8 should bring a good amount of variety in today’s meta. Keep an eye out for any returning champions that hit the Summoner’s Rift when MSI 2022 begins on May 10.