League of Legends Patch Notes introduces Season 3, with the return of Doombots, QOL changes and numerous Champion changes. With UI fixes, the possible introduction of WASD movement, anti-smurfing measures and the T1 Worlds Skins being released, there is plenty of content for everyone to enjoy through August. With Riot’s attempt to rebalance the jungle, nerf meta pro play picks that are common in solo queue and make underpowered items feel somewhat useful, it’s a patch that should be enjoyed by most jungle enthusiasts and players who want to try alternate builds to the traditional meta itemisation.
Patch Note Changes
Big Jungle changes, underused Champions being buffed and many funky builds being pushed by the Riot Team in Champion Adjustments makes for an interesting month of August and Patches 25.16-17. While the usual suspects of difficult to balance champions are in the nerf and adjusted list, the item reworks over the two patches are also interesting with Ultimate Haste items getting buffed two patches in a row.
Champion Buffs
The buffed Champions include:
- Brand
- Gnar
- Illaoi
- Irelia
- Kalista
- Kassadin
- Kayn
- Kog’maw
- Master Yi
- Miss Fortune
- Morgana
- Nautilus
- Nilah
- Qiyana
- Rek’sai
- Senna
- Sett
- Sion
- Sylas
- Vayne
- Zyra
Along with new Junglers such as Sylas, Nautilus and Qiyana being added into jungle consideration, Morgana gets a double buff with some underplayed picks such as Kog’maw or Kassadin being buffed to try and bring them back into relevancy. Rek’sai is also another jungler that received some power due to her abysmal pick rate, while surprisingly some oft used Champions like Miss Fortune and Gnar have snuck into being buffed despite being pretty powerful in general.
Builds such as AD Sion and AP Irelia were introduced while another attempt to make Kalista viable for the casual userbase fell flat, so it is basically a Baus buff. It feels like the two themes of increasing jungle viability for traditional non-jungle Champions and buffing non traditional damage output by putting alternate scalings on abilities will add breadth to build optionality and jungle meta.
Champion Nerfs
The nerfed Champions include:
- Gwen
- Jarvan IV
- Lulu
- Master Yi
- Nocturne
- Rell
- Rumble
- Shaco
- Singed
- Trundle
- Xin Zhao
- Yuumi
25.16 sees some of the key junglers on the Patch nerfed while new faces will be buffed to compensate. It is probably deserved that many of the omnipresent high elo and pro present Champions such as Jarvan, Nocturne, Trundle and Xin Zhao are nerfed to bring down their level slightly, as they have been viable in meta as blinds and counters for a long while.
Gwen and Rumble being nerfed again feels like a personal attack against their pro presence as their omnipresence in pro continues despite being fairly underwhelming for most of the active playerbase as it requires high skill to maximise the damage output of these champions compared to solo queue stompers that are quite common in top lane. The same goes for Lulu and Rell who have also been nerfed but still continue to thrive in pro due to the identity of their kits lending itself so well to higher levels of play.
25.16 is a jungle top shakeup with numerous champions being adjusted.
Adjusted Champions
The adjusted Champions include:
- Mordekaiser
- Rumble
- Singed
- Teemo
- Varus
- Viego
- Warwick
- Yunara
25.16 sees niche ideas such as AD Mordekaiser and Lane Viego get reintroduced, while bugfixes on the other champions such as Rumble, Singed and Varus get rolled out. 25.17 sees some tone down to Yunara’s power on specific builds but probably still keeps her viable even at the highest level. These champions have in-built flaws that make them non-interactive in certain gameplay patterns, or oppressive in their identity in certain Elo brackets all the way from low iron to pro.
25.17 is centered around buffs and bugfixes to launch the new season.
Reworked Items
- Axiom Arc
- Experimental Hexplate
- Horizon Focus
- Profane Hydra
The Hexplate buff hopefully lands it onto more optimised builds on certain Ult Reliant Champions rather than being a Nocturne enabler, and the same goes for Axiom, Horizon and Profane Hydra, with all of them having different and more satisfying alternatives in the meta due to price, passives or just straight output. Horizon will still probably be niche and will be overshadowed by Deathcap while the other Hydra’s still look more picked than Profane, understandably due to Profane’s historic oppressiveness when viable.
Despite all these adjustments, Axiom, Hexplate and Horizon Focus are probably bait to build on most champions bar those whose whole identity leans on these items such as Nocturne, although they have become a niche option for some champions. The problem with these items is that they lean too far into certain niches or have better alternatives in the meta that are more consistent which leads to them not being built as they fulfill similar roles in a diluted manner.
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