The new Teleport nerf is one the most major updates in League of Legends patch 12.1, the season’s first patch of the year.
A staple Summoner Spell in professional play which the mid laner, top laner, and sometimes even bot laner will run, Teleport’s impact has been paramount.
It allows individual laners to manipulate minion waves and find cross-map advantages, which is a big part of what League of Legends is all about.
Riot Games, however, is putting a dampener on the Summoner Spell with this nerf.
“Right now, there’s too much disruption happening too early and too often,” the game developers explained. “Currently, it often feels like bot lane gets decided by outside influence, and mid and top get decided by the influence they have on bot lane.”
The new Teleport aims to put the spotlight back on the laning phase, and will impact how the game is played in solo queue and competitive play.
New Teleport nerf to Summoner Spell in League of Legends patch 12.1 for 2022 season
- (Updated) Teleport cooldown adjusted from 420-210 seconds (based on level) to 360 seconds at all levels
- (New) Unleashed Teleport: Teleport can only be used on allied towers. Once tower plating falls at 14 minutes, Teleport transforms into Unleashed Teleport, which can target allied towers, minions, wards, and certain allied constructs (same as Season 2021 Teleport)
- (New) Unleashed Teleport cooldown: 240 seconds
Teleport’s cooldown used to scale with level, but not anymore after the nerf. The Summoner Spell now has a fixed 360 second (6 minutes) cooldown. According to Riot Games LCS caster David “Phreak” Turley, this is especially advantageous in the early levels.
From level eight to 11, and from 16 to 18, however, compared to Season 11’s Teleport, its cooldown is actually longer.
But the biggest limiting factor is that it can only be used on allied towers now.
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How the new Teleport changes will affect your lane
Top lane
Top laners will need to be aware of two key changes.
Firstly, you won’t be able to teleport to minions anymore, which will curb minion wave manipulation.
Previously, oppressive top laners would push in the wave, recall, then teleport back on the last surviving minion under the opponent’s tower to keep the minion wave pushed. Low in resources, the enemy top laner becomes highly susceptible to a dive from you and your jungler.
With the new Teleport, this situation cannot happen anymore since you can only teleport back to your tower. Conversely, this also means that if you’re losing lane, you now have more room to breathe and reset.
Secondly, since the party at bot lane has been canceled, losing top lane will be even more painful as you won’t be able to teleport cross-map behind enemy lines to reap the benefits and equalize your power.
As such, top lane is even more of an island now after the Teleport nerf in League of Legends patch 12.1. It’ll be up to you to pick the best champion to win your lane with mechanics or risk losing out entirely.
Mid lane
For mid laners, the way you utilize the new Teleport would not change.
As mid lane is a shorter lane compared to top, mid laners usually teleport back to their own tower after a push to collect the incoming minion wave. Mid laners in pro play also tend to teleport to top lane, for example, to deter a dive from happening and save their top laner.
The only real change is that mid laners won’t be able to teleport to a ward at bot, but it doesn’t hurt you as much because your main job in the prevailing mage meta is to clear minion waves in mid and scale. In any case, you’ll still be able to walk through the river to roam and gank both side lanes.
Bot lane
Mobile AD carries like Ezreal have the advantage of taking Teleport as their Summoner Spell over Heal. Besides the rare times we saw in pro play where a “loose” AD carry teleports to a minion or ward cross-map to clean up a fight, bot laners would usually safely teleport to their own towers to collect the wave.
The impact on AD carries and supports in the bot lane after this Teleport nerf, of course, will be deeply felt. Gone are the days where you push the minion wave at bot lane, then suddenly, the entire enemy team shows up behind you.
So the only things you have to worry about from League of Legends patch 12.1 onwards are the enemy jungler and river roams from the mid laner.
Phew. For once, bot laners and supports can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to these new Teleport changes.
Read the full League of Legends patch 12.1 notes here.
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