LoL 12.22 PBE: ARAM Energy & Tenacity Buffs, Champion Select Anonymity Testing

The League of Legends PBE update for November 3rd, while part of the ongoing 12.22 cycle, focuses primarily on logistical and non-Summoner's Rift (SR) gameplay adjustments. The headline additions include the rollout of new cosmetic loot assets tied to the upcoming Space Groove 2022 event, and significant quality-of-life adjustments for the ARAM game mode. Economically, the update introduces the 'Space Groove 2022 Capsule,' the corresponding 'Grab Bag,' and the 'Space Groove 2022 Epic Skin' asset. These cosmetics confirm the structure of the next major in-game event, providing players with the usual pathways to acquire themed skin shards and specific guaranteed content, such as skins for Ornn, Nami, and Teemo, among others. A minor aesthetic tweak was also applied to the Galaxy Slayer Zed mythic chroma icon. Strategically, the most impactful changes, though confined to ARAM, reveal Riot’s intent to diversify gameplay on Howling Abyss. Riot Maxw3ll introduced targeted buffs designed specifically to empower high-mobility assassins and energy champions, who typically struggle in the chaotic, sustained environment of ARAM. Champions reliant on the Energy resource—namely Akali, Kennen, Lee Sin, and Zed—are receiving a crucial 20% bonus Energy Regen. Furthermore, a massive roster of 17 assassins and dive champions, including Ekko, Kha’Zix, Qiyana, and Rengar, are receiving a flat 20% bonus Tenacity. This change is aimed at mitigating the crippling effects of chain crowd control, which often makes melee engagement difficult in ARAM. Conversely, the popular ARAM utility caster Ashe received a targeted nerf: the removal of 20 Ability Haste. This is a clear move to reduce her overwhelming presence and utility spam, particularly the frequency of her Volley (W) and Hawkshot (E) abilities, which dominate the neutral zone. Beyond ARAM, Riot Auberaun confirmed that a critical systemic change—champion select anonymity—is being tested on the PBE. This infrastructure shift, intended for SR, represents a major attempt to combat pre-game scouting and queuing manipulation in high-elo environments, potentially reducing game dodges and improving overall queue health by hiding player identities until the game loads.

This PBE iteration (12.22 cycle) provides little in the way of direct Summoner's Rift balance but introduces two critical infrastructure and design philosophy shifts: a targeted systemic attempt to diversify the ARAM meta, and the highly anticipated implementation of champion select anonymity, which holds profound implications for competitive high-elo ladder play. The most significant change for the core competitive environment is the testing of **Champion Select Anonymity**. This feature directly challenges the established high-elo meta of pre-game scouting. Previously, professional and highly ranked players relied heavily on external tracking services (like OP.GG or League of Graphs) to instantly identify teammates and opponents, allowing for highly targeted counter-picking, lane matchup optimization based on player mastery ('one-trick' recognition), and crucially, opportunistic dodging of unfavorable compositions or known toxic/underperforming players. By concealing player identities until the loading screen, Riot aims to restore integrity to the drafting phase, forcing players to draft based on pure synergy and composition rather than exploiting individual player data. This change fundamentally raises the floor of required draft knowledge and may significantly reduce dodge rates, which are notorious for disrupting queue stability in Master+ tiers. We predict a short-term spike in 'blind' drafts and a potential power shift towards universally strong, flexible champions whose performance is less reliant on exploiting specific opponent weak points. The ARAM balance changes, while not impacting professional SR play, offer clear insight into Riot’s evolving design philosophy regarding champion viability in non-standard modes. The systemic buffs target champions who suffer due to the inherent constraints of Howling Abyss: a high frequency of CC and lack of sustain/resources. The **20% bonus Energy Regen** for Akali, Kennen, Lee Sin, and Zed addresses their critical resource dependency. In a constant skirmish environment, these champions quickly deplete energy, resulting in extended periods of vulnerability. The bonus regen converts them from burst-damage outputters with massive downtime into viable sustained damage threats. More impactful is the blanket **20% Tenacity buff** applied to 17 champions, consisting almost entirely of assassins, skirmishers, and high-commitment dive champions (e.g., Kha’Zix, Qiyana, LeBlanc, Zed). Tenacity is the stat of choice for enabling commitment. By granting 20% resilience against Crowd Control, Riot is significantly raising the survivability and functional initiation capacity of this entire class. This essentially shifts the meta leverage point in ARAM; previously, ranged poke compositions (Mages/ADCs) dominated through overwhelming CC lockdown and zone control. This systemic Tenacity boost acts as a global counter-measure, empowering the dive compositions to successfully penetrate the frontline and execute backline targets without being instantly neutralized. This is a calculated risk aimed at breaking the established, stagnant poke-heavy ARAM meta. Conversely, the **removal of 20 Ability Haste on Ashe** confirms her status as an overly dominant utility pick in ARAM. Ashe, leveraging her short-cooldown Volley (W) for near-permanent slow application and consistent rune proc generation, has excessive zone control. This nerf specifically targets her utility spam, forcing players to be more judicious with ability usage and creating larger windows of opportunity for the newly buffed dive champions to engage. The design trajectory here is clear: promote engagement, reduce utility spam, and increase the viability of high-risk, high-reward melee compositions, even in the non-SR environment.