League of Legends Patch 7.2: 5 things to know

New Warwick is here!!!

By Pete Volk@Pete_Volk Jan 24, 2017, 2:02pm EST

After two weeks on Patch 7.1 in the new year, it’s time to head forward in Season 7 with it’s second official patch. Riot Games released the patch notes for League of Legends Patch 7.2 Tuesday, with Warwick’s long-anticipated rework and plenty of other important changes to the game.

While there were plenty of balance changes to individual champions (hello, Nidalee buffs and Darius nerfs), most of the important changes this time around target non-champions, like items, the jungle and summoner spells.

Here are the five things you really need to know before stepping onto the rift on Patch 7.2. For a list of all the changes, click here.

1. New Warwick is here!

That moment you’ve been waiting for is finally here. After years with a useless Warwick in the game, the werewolf you all know and fear is back and ready to take over the rift. Go ahead and watch the awesome and scary teaser video for his release again.

You can also check out his kit here and we’ll have a guide for you soon, so stay tuned!

2. Three crucial jungle changes

Junglers’ power in the early game continues to be something Riot monitors, and a trio of changes in this patch look to address some of those issues.

For starters, jungle monsters spawn three seconds later, which means you might need to smite the first camp if you don’t want your bottom lane to miss some of its minions.

The damage output from two of the jungle camps has also been increased: Gromp and Krug both do significantly more damage at the beginning of the game, so be careful. It’s worth noting Gromp’s attack damage falls off over the course of its attacks.

Finally, the initial spawn window of Honeyfruit has been delayed. One of the new plants added to the game in the preseason, Honeyfruit allows champions to restore health and mana just by stopping by the river. This has been particularly helpful for junglers to sustain themselves in the early game as they continue to farm and gank. The first Honeyfruit will now spawn a minute later “to give laners some breathing room.”

3. Another boost for AD assassins

Of the mid lane champions targeted by the preseason assassin rework, only the AP ones (LeBlanc and Katarina) have really had staying power at the highest levels of play. AD assassins in the jungle like Rengar and Kha’Zix have seen much success, but mid laners like Zed and Talon have been left behind.

In an attempt to give those champions more power, especially in the early game, Riot has increased the early effectiveness of Lethality (the stat that replace armor penetration in the preseason) and buffed a pair of underused items intended for AD assassins.

Previously, Lethality started each game at 40 percent effectiveness, scaling with the enemy’s level (eventually getting to 100 percent when the enemy is at level 18). Now, it’ll start the game at 60 percent effectiveness, giving more early game power.

Example: 10 lethality now grants 6 flat armor penetration up front (instead of 4) plus 0.22 per enemy level, capping at the full 10 once enemies are level 18

As for the items, Duskblade of Draktharr and Edge of Night are getting small buffs. The damage on Duskblade’s unique “Nightstalker” passive has been increased from 50 to 75, while the cooldown on Edge of Night’s ability-blocking active has been decreased from 45 to 30 seconds.

What does this mean for champions like Rengar, Kha’Zix and Jayce, who are already strong and use Lethality? Well, if you play those champs, congrats!

4. Courage of the Colossus nerfed (again)

Added with the preseason, Courage of the Colossus is both the newest keystone mastery and one that has proven to be very difficult to balance. It grants a shield to champions when they apply crowd control on enemies, with the idea being giving added survivability for diving champions jumping into an entire enemy team.

The problem? Waaaay too much power in 1 vs. 1 situations, giving what was supposed to be a team-fighting keystone a lot of strength in laning. After first attempting to lessen the strength of the shield and increase the cooldown, further nerfs (and bigger changes) are coming.

For starters, the duration of the shield has been reduced to three seconds from four. But the biggest change is the shield now scales based on how many opponents are nearby. Simply put: the more champions around, the bigger shield you’ll have.