Wukong
Credit: Riot Games

Is Wukong jungle gone?

Patch 12.12b Win Rates: Jungle Wukong hit hard, Katarina the biggest winner


  • All nerfed Champions trending down in win rate
  • Nerfs to Wukong’s clear speed make him weaker in the jungle
  • AP Katarina buffs increase her Solo queue presence and win rate



League of Legends’ Patch 12.12b, a micropatch, went live on June 30th with nerfs to strong meta Champions such as Wukong, Bel’Veth, Seraphine, etc., who were performing a bit too well. It also improved a few Champions that got hit too hard on the previous patch.

Nerfs to the OP’s: the Monkey King falls

Seven (7) Champions received nerfs on the patch—all prominent picks, both in solo queue and in pro play. Those Champions are Wukong, Bel’Veth, Seraphine, Yuumi, Senna, Zeri, and Tahm Kench. 

Since the patch went live, their win rates have gone down. Except for Yuumi and Zeri, who barely felt the nerfs, the others weren’t so lucky. 

Notably, the reduction of damage dealt to monsters on Wukong’s Nimbus Strike impacted his jungle clear. His Ultimate also received a nerf with ten seconds added to its cooldown early.

Ever since Wukong gained the ability to jump over walls with his W, he has been a force in the jungle. He consistently performs well in solo queue while being a priority pick in competitive LoL. However, after the nerf to his clear speed, his win rate plummeted by over 2% in the past couple of days.

Bel’Veth also received a pretty significant nerf to her kit as she keeps trending down in wins, bans and pick rates since 12.12. With the Empress of the Void showing her power in competitive play alongside Solo queue dominance, the nerfs feel more than justified.

Bel'Veth 12.12b
Bel’Veth Solo Queue stats in the past 7 days Source: lolalytics.com

AP Katarina is back

Katarina has had itemization issues ever since the item rework in Preseason 11. Over time, the creativity of Katarina players bore success with various build paths, from AD Kraken Slayer Katrina to a bruiser build with Divine Sunderer.

Katarina patch 12.12b
Riot buffed AP Katarina on patch 12.12b Image Source: Riot Games

Riot went full circle and brought back good old AP Katarina on patch 12.12b by increasing some of her ratios. Hextech Rocketbelt into full AP is the most frequent build on the patch, and it is showing promising results.

Katarina has seen a significant increase in play and ban rates, and a nice win rate spike pushing her over 50% in the past few days. It seems that Katarina infinitely resetting around and one-shoting everyone is much healthier for the Champion and the game than some wacky builds we have seen lately.

Zoran Papak is a Croatian esports writer for jaxon.gg. His biggest passion and emphasis by far is League of Legends, and he diligently covers the esports scene for the world's biggest MOBA. His knowledge of competitive LoL is equaled by only a scarce few. When he's not bringing the latest news from the League of Legends scene, Zoran also contributes coverage in other areas, including in competitive Counter-Strike.