Fans have noticed that the Nexus health and other features of base defenses have changed in patch 12.6 despite not being listed in the official patch notes. So just what are those changes, and what do they mean for League of Legends players?
Patch 12.6 has brought plenty of change to League of Legends. In addition to the usual balance changes, some April Fools’ jokes and a hidden change to the durability of base structures were slipped in as well. Fans began to notice that inhibitors, Nexus turrets, and the Nexus itself have all gotten weaker than they were previously. Here are the changes to Nexus health and how they might affect your games.
The Nexus has lost health, and inhibitors, the Nexus, and Nexus turrets have lost the ability to regenerate health. These changes mean that any damage to your opponents’ final defenses is permanent, with no cushioning mechanic to lessen the damage from a partial push. In patch 12.5 the inhibitors had 4,000 health, the Nexus had 5,000, and both regenerated health slowly if they hadn’t been damaged in some time. After patch 12.6, inhibitors still have 4,000 HP, but the Nexus has dropped down to 3,010 maximum HP. That’s a steep drop, nearly cutting the Nexus’ durability in half compared to before.
Patch 12.6 has HUGE secret changes…
Neither of the structures seems to regenerate health anymore either, meaning that any damage done will stick. This could make backdooring an even better strategy than before, better enabling split-pushing champions. The defense change means that teams have to be especially careful about letting a stray split push get too far. Not only is the resulting damage more permanent, but the Nexus is also far easier to kill. All it takes is one aggressively split pushing champion to march into your base and end the game.
It’s unclear if these changes are bugs or intended balance tweaks, given that they didn’t show up in the patch notes. The change was first documented by content creator Vandiril, often credited as the best source for bugs and unintended interactions in LoL. At the time of writing, Riot hasn’t commented officially on the sudden loss of defensive structure durability, so fans can assume it’s a quiet change the developer fully intended to make.
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