League of Legends Update 12.21 recently made its way into the live servers and this time, four champions got buffed. We will focus on the buffs applied to Malzahar and Xin Zhao below.
Malzahar
Malzahar is quite difficult to play in the early stages of the game because of his terrible wave clear. So, players usually depend on his Malefic Visions (E) ability to do it, but it is still not the best way due to its low damage and slow tick-rate. Developers added a new mechanic to improve Malefic Visions in executing minions at certain health.
Malefic Visions (E)
Kill Confirmed: Malefic Visions will now execute minions below 15 - 45 health (levels 1-11).
As shown above, the ability now executes minions with health below 15 to 45, varying from levels 1 through 11. This should assist players in getting their power spike faster and if the mechanic works out well, developers might add something similar to more champions with the same issue.
Xin Zhao
Xin Zhao is currently struggling in the meta against most junglers, especially after the laning phase where he can’t do much for the team. In this update, developers buffed his Determination (Passive) and Audacious Charge (E).
Determination (Passive)
Third Hit Bonus Damage: From 15/25/35/45% AD to 15/30/45/60% AD.
Heal: From 6-74 (based on level) (+10% AD) (+55% AP) to 6-74 (based on level) (+10% AD) (+65% AP).
His passive ability is buffed to deal more damage as the game progresses. The bonus damage remains the same at the first stage and then slowly scales as the game goes on; the saving grace he requires to deal with opponents in the mid-late game. Additionally, his healing scaling has also increased slightly but it has a small catch: only the AP scaling received the buff.
Audacious Charge (E)
Cooldown: From 12 seconds to 11 seconds.
His Audacious Charge ability now has a slightly lower cooldown, decreased from 12 seconds to 11 seconds.
Similarly, Ahri and Corki have received buffs in League of Legends Update 12.21, and you can read more about them here.
