League of Legends Patches 25.10 and 11 brought AP item reworks, Brawl, and the second inductee into the Hall of Legends in a largely quiet month for the gameplay side. With another multi-hundred-dollar skin, more buffed champions being nerfed straight away, and some noticeably underwhelming buffs and nerfs, it’s much more of the same from Riot and League in May. The largest gameplay side changes are the reworks of AP items. They should benefit AP Champions that didn’t synergise well with the old meta items, becoming relatively weaker compared to the newly buffed AP items.
Patch Note changes
The Champion buffs and nerfs in the two patches of 25.10 and 11 were largely underwhelming, with the buffed and nerfed champions not getting nearly enough drastic changes to push them in or out of the meta. The AP item changes are significant as the devs aim to bring underused AP items to the fore while targeting overused AP items by making them less powerful, which also inadvertently resulted in the shake-up of the mage meta. Mid was affected through item changes rather than a numbers buff or nerf on champions, meaning new builds could push out of favour mages back to relevancy.
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Champion Buffs
The buffed Champions include:
- Cho’gath
- Senna
- Smolder
- Diana
- Rengar
- Ryze
- Sivir
- Twisted Fate
- Twitch
- Udyr
25.10 saw Cho’gath, Senna and Smolder get buffed, with Senna returned to a playable state and tank Cho and Smolder getting buffed. 25.10 saw all three of these Champions return to relevance, especially Senna, who had been completely out of the meta. The unfortunate thing about Senna returning to meta is that she’s started appearing in Mid and Top in my ranked games, and she just flat-out loses lane. At least we know she has fans in every role.
In terms of 25.11, Udyr and Ryze might be the big winners with AP item changes, and Ryze’s numbers buff probably making him a solid pick, and Udyr becoming more powerful with flat damage buffs.
AP Items got significant adjustments in 25.10
Champion Nerfs
The nerfed Champions include:
- Fiddlesticks
- Kayn
- Lulu
- Naafiri
- Xin Zhao
- Yuumi
- Cho’gath
- Elise
- Lucian
- Smolder
The nerfs in 25.10 should have been significant for Fiddlesticks, but his power is still fairly oppressive, although, as the patch notes, Support might have taken a slight but probably largely inconsequential hit in power.
Cho and Smolder got buffed and instantly nerfed, pointing to the realisation that both champions were fine without buffs. Elise and Lucian are getting flat numbers nerfs, but they should both still be in a good place in the meta overall. Similarly, Naafiri and Xin being nerfed is a good thing, but their numbers haven’t taken a drastic hit and should still be some of the best options in their roles.
25.11 saw many Champions adjusted along with buffs for out-of-favour Champions
Adjusted Champions
The adjusted Champions include:
- Vi
- Aatrox
- Annie
- Ashe
- Garen
- Kassadin
- Samira
They say that Vi underwent an adjustment, but it is a flat nerf as her zero charge Q is noticeably weaker, and her Ultimate also got weaker in terms of damage. Garen is probably the other noticeable one, but ultimately, I believe the gameplay pattern of being silenced into 100-0’d is unavoidable. This is especially true in sidelanes, which means any adjustment doesn’t fix the root cause of countering Garen, which feels almost impossible with a melee champion.
Kassadin also falls into the same basket with Garen in that he gets help for his early laning, but nerfed his Ultimate to compensate. He will solo win against certain comps who cannot shut him down or be completely useless as he gets spaced. Pushing Samira for more Lifesteal will not change the fact that either she’s a pentakill machine or INTing with no in between.
Ashe sees another adjustment in 25.11
AP Item Rework
- Bloodletter’s Curse
- Cryptbloom
- Hextech Rocketbelt
- Horizon Focus
- Liandry’s Torment
- Lich Bane
- Luden’s Companion
- Malignance
- Morellonomicon
- Nashor’s Tooth
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Seraph’s Embrace
- Stormsurge
Pretty much everything got buffed in the two patches outside of Liandry’s, which is now borderline unusable as an item. Items like Seraph’s can be conditionally buffs or nerfs, but the adjustment to Liandry and Rod of Ages points to the devs not liking Mages being tanky and encouraging more squishy, burst-centric mages. It was obvious when playing Viktor, for example, who was in meta for a while and builds RoA and Liandry’s as the first two items, that they probably don’t want Mages being able to survive burst.
Champions like Kayle benefit the most from these changes as she builds Lich Bane, Nashor’s and Deathcap as her core three, but the shakeup was largely targeting RoA and Liandry’s to force them out of favour.
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