League of Legends Patch Notes concludes September by having the regional Pro Leagues finalise and Pre-Worlds adjustments coming into full effect. Over the two Patches of 25.18-19, heavily built meta items and runes are falling out of meta or being toned down while the bulk of the buffs include buffs to Riot’s favourites. Brawl being back and more Doom Bots should make non-competitive play still interesting, although it is likely more of the same type of content.
Patch Notes
A pre Worlds Patch Note always gives insight into what direction the game is going before the big spectacle at the end of the year. The balance team have proven to push and buff their favourites while nerfing a lot of oppressive snowballers, perhaps pointing to a preference for cagey games or low win fights happening frequently.
For solo queue, it is a frustrating and perhaps slightly underwhelming patch as solo queue stompers have found themselves on the buff list to become more pro viable while the nerfs are mostly to prominent pro champions rather than solo queue centric balance change.
Champions Buffs
The buffed Champions include:
- Ahri
- Amumu
- Ashe
- Brand
- Caitlin
- Cassiopeia
- Diana
- Draven
- Garen
- Hwei
- Jayce
- Jinx
- Leblanc
- Lillia
- Mel
- Seraphine
- Vel’koz
Most of these champions have fallen out of the pro meta, but they’re still fairly common in solo queue. Including picks like Ahri, Ashe, Cait, Garen. Hwei, Jinx, Leblanc and Lillia into buffs is a clear nod towards them being tuned into Worlds viability as all of these Champions are strong enough to not need nerfs in terms of solo queue, and some Champions such as Lillia and Hwei are already fairly picked even before these buffs.
The more significant buffs are to the more volatile and solo queue centric Champions including Champions like Mel, Seraphine and Cassiopeia. Other picks such as traditional lane bullies like Draven and Jayce round out a buff list that should frustrate solo queue players and annoy every non-Hwei using midlaner.
25.18 with the introduction of the T1 Worlds skins and more adjustments.
Champion Nerfs
The nerfed Champions include:
- Annie
- Aurora
- Azir
- Corki
- Galio
- Pantheon
- Poppy
- Qiyana
- Sivir
- Sylas
- Taliyah
- Volibear
- Yunara
The yearly Azir, Galio, Poppy nerf is back and is probably not going to do much again. In other news, many of the early to mid game centric power spikers in each role are getting nerfed such as Annie, Aurora, Corki, Pantheon, Sivir, Sylas and Yunara. In terms of their viability, the average solo queue player should probably stop using most of these picks as their first options in most cases, other than Volibear who seems to have been OP for the whole year, especially in the jungle role.
The listed champions tend to snowball in a quite volatile manner, with kills early making them spike in a fairly oppressive way without much significant falloff late. For this reason and the fact that meta champions such as Qiyana fall out of the spotlight, it is an understandable, if high-elo to pro skewed change again. The nerfed Champions being toned down because of their lane dominance or lack of ability to be punished make them fair targets for a tone down.
Pre-Worlds, many Champions are getting their attendance passes handed out or revoked.
Adjusted Champions
The adjusted Champions include:
- Briar
- Illaoi
- Jax
- Lee Sin
- Syndra
- Zac
The first patch of the month adjusted Briar, Illaoi and Zac, all probably more used in solo queue than pro play. They’re all largely nerfs and bug fixes to compensate for a lack of functionality, while giving QOL improvements to make them feel played the way they are intended.
Lee Sin’s power curve makes him ridiculously early-skewed after this patch, which makes him even more snowball reliant but perhaps gives him a niche in pro. Jax’s adjustment explanation starts with, ‘We’d like to see Jax as a more meta-defining top laner at Worlds’, which should immediately raise red flags as it is essentially an admission that Riot picks and chooses which Champions they want to shove into the spotlight in pro play rather than a meritocratic balance philosophy that gives equal opportunity. The buff itself gives him one of the strongest level 6’s in the game while not meaningfully affecting his scaling.
Syndra’s reworks are nice and probably make her feel better in solo queue with more damage, CD and AP ratios in her kit while her base stats take a hit to make sure she doesn’t become a World’s defining mid laner.
Beautiful. Deadly. Hungry. Flora Fatalis Lissandra, Fiddlesticks, and Soraka bloom on PBE in Patch 25.20 pic.twitter.com/uVIppUE0Pi
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) September 23, 2025
Item and Rune Reworks
The reworked items and Runes include:
- Bami’s Cinder
- Celestial Opposition
- Mercurial Scimitar
- Redemption
- Sunfire Cape
- Unsealed Spellbook
The Bami and Sunfire Buff should make it so tank junglers consider this build path more, especially for those such as Sejuani who build full tank right off the rip. It is niche as the meta leans towards more fighters and AP junglers right now, but for solo queue, it is nice to have a Liandry’s counterpart that isn’t clearly inferior.
The reworks to Unsealed Spellbook show how unbalanceable the Rune is in pro play, while Redemption gets a much needed, but probably not meta defining nerf as the permanent first pick option for most supports in meta.
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