League Of Legends is back with Patch Notes and an apologetic video resurrecting Hextech Chests back into the game. The tank meta will be no more and assassins and Ashe will be back in the spotlight. From discussing the balance of game items and champions, along with explaining the financial vision and implications of removing chests, Riot has had a busy month where they’ve burned bridges with the community and are scrambling to rebuild them again.
Champion Buffs and Nerfs
The buff and nerf list for champions seem extensive but aren’t majorly meta-defining for the major player base with buffs for Ashe and Mel and nerfs for Hwei and Yasuo probably affecting the ranked queue the most.
Buff List
- Ashe
- Diana
- Ekko
- Gangplank
- Jayce
- Mel
- Nautilus
- Sion
- Teemo(Jungle)
Diana and Ekko buffs point to AP mid-laners on the fringe getting a buff, while base increases to Sion and GP make them better laners. Jayce and Teemo are more of an adjustment and Nautilus might appear more in solo lanes anytime his base damage becomes increased.
Ashe buffs probably make her a staple in the meta and ladder, as she is still popular even when underpowered, and Mel getting another buff probably keeps her right in the spotlight exactly the way Riot wants. Ashe was less prioritised than ADCs such as Varus and Corki in recent patches, so bringing her back and making her scale better is a welcome change as her gameplay patterns aren’t harmful but she is undoubtedly strong. Also, they looked at Mel and thought ‘Let’s make her scale better while nerfing tank items’ is so classic Riot.
In the arena, you either leave as a champion—or not at all. Don't miss the Grand Reckoning on March 5. pic.twitter.com/f8AWwtX1Og
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) February 20, 2025
Nerf List
- Hwei
- Kalista
- Lulu
- Warwick
- Yasuo
Hwei and Kalista have very marked strengths in Hwei’s adaptability and scaling damage as well as Kalista’s laning strength and snowballing ability. The nerfs probably balance well for both the Champion’s player base and for pro.
Lulu is a viable pick in the Fearless draft, but most of her power comes in the ranked queue, which goes for both Warwick and Yasuo who are ladder stompers. This makes them both viable buff/nerf targets dependent on the player base rate.
The Patch Notes introduce tank nerfs and Champion balancing.
Item Changes
Tanks will end their dominance while physical damage dealers get a buff through the improvement of Infinity Edge becoming even more viable. The change also aims to bring about balance around boots.
Tank Item Nerfs:
- Abyssal Mask
- Fimbulwinter
- Heartsteel
- Plated Steelcaps
- Unending Despair
Here comes the Nerf train to all the good tank items choo choo! Heartsteel and Unending Despair being nerfed is understandable, but they completely gutted Fimbulwinter which is situational and rare. While the Abyssal nerfs should be applauded, no one is buying Abyssal for solo queue and would rather Visage or Rookern.
Tanks are probably better on the stronger side than the weaker side as players will more often lean into bruisers or more traditional damage carries that can build more damage than resistances. The Riot player base will still keep playing Irelia and Yasuo despite how strong Sion and Cho’Gath are irrespectively, so making sure tank players are rewarded for playing an oft-underplayed but pivotal role in team comps should feel rewarding. Steelcaps will always need a nerf. It’s a conceptually overpowered item. Good job Riot.
Buff List:
- Infinity Edge
- Mercury Treads
- Symbiotic Soles
Mercury gets a price buff while Symbiotic Soles gets some initial movement speed. Nothing major but might affect pro play. There’s a certain popular second-tier team in the EU that ran Swifties and is now running Symbiotics because of the map tempo it gives.
Infinity Edge DOES NOT NEED A BUFF, HELLO RIOT!?!?!?!?! IE is one of those items that you should constantly be wary of buffing and is probably better on the expensive side if strong due to the sheer power this item power spike brings. Yes, it’s 5 less AD but the 150 gold makes ADC’s spike harder and faster, earlier in the game. Don’t listen to the ADC mains, they wouldn’t know itemisation if it hit them in the face, just don’t buff their core items because they complain the most on Reddit threads.
Patch 25.04 is here to save the day 🦸
NEW Masked Justice skins, item balancing, and more in the last patch of Season 1, Act 1! https://t.co/9TPIijgmYx pic.twitter.com/KN2UxMQLlk
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) February 19, 2025
Chests Are Back
The changes to chests courtesy of Riot_Riru are as follows:
- 10 Hextech Chests and Keys per Act—8 on the free Pass, 2 additional with Honor
- Hextech Chests will be replacing the free Battle Pass skin
- Consolidating all Key Fragments into Keys, rounding up leftover fragments
- The Blue Essence cost of all champions will be reduced by 50%
- Delaying Sahn Uzal Mordekaiser Exalted skin while we make improvements
- Increasing the quality of Battle Pass skins going forward
- Adding 25 Mythic Essence to the paid Battle Pass to replace one paid pass skin
- Clash is going back to a monthly cadence
- Your Shop is coming back in Patch 25.06
- The Blue Essence Emporium will return in Patch 25.07
As the video below mentions, the Riot dev team backtracked on the free reward systems they announced they were deleting from the game’s last patch by bringing them back in the next act with new systems in place centred around the BattlePass and Honor. The big outrage of removing Hextech Chests, reducing the frequency of Clash, and deleting Your Shop and The Blue Essence Emporium unannounced made it so every League of Legends post had players replying with a ‘Give Hextech Chests back’ reply by multiple accounts and with good reason.
The community are understandably disillusioned with Riot and the devs because this seemed like a last-ditch cash grab on a dying game, with predatory gacha systems also introduced recently and the large number of layoffs in the dev team has shown a large quality drop in skins at higher price points, likely due to the profit margins that Valorant has brought in where players have been willing to spend 50 dollars on a single gun skin without batting an eye. Comparatively, League Of Legends has had cheaper skins and maybe it was pushed by the Riot stakeholders for more profit margins or a last squeeze of the old cash cow IP, but whatever it may be, players have understandably lost trust and are disappointed in Riot which has proved to be another bottom line and predatory monetary system to chase better profit margins for stakeholders.
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