We've made it through the storm and landed on the last patch of the year! Get your reading glasses and Santa hats on, because we've got a substantial list of changes from smoothing out the new landscape.
And keep them on, because we’ll also be following up on balance outliers with an end-of-year “10.25b” mid-patch update to tie up all the loose ends before we ring in the holidays.
Past champs and items, we're rolling out updates to Ranked initial placements and decay, bringing back Nexus Blitz with its own set of improvements, and riding Rell in, iron horse and all.
And that's it! So from all of us: stay safe, stay cozy, and we'll see you in the new year. It's going to be a good one.
12/15/2020 "10.25b" Balance Changes and Bugfixes[edit]
As promised, we're doing one last round of balance changes to ensure the game is in a good state before the winter break. Again, happy holidays and we'll see you back in January!
Akali was a big winner in preseason in that her win rate climbed considerably from awful to okay for most players. We've been hoping that we wouldn't need to nerf her until pro play started, but unfortunately, she's breaking ban rate limits in Elite play. Decreasing her prolonged combat damage as a result.
QOL CHANGE : Rell's E would incorrectly prioritize targeting Rell, rather than snapping, when used with other abilities. We're changing it so she can't target herself with E within three seconds of taking damage from a champion, casting another ability, or basic attacking another champion to avoid this problem.
SLOT SWAP BUGFIX : Fixed a bug where Ironspike Whip's (and the items it builds into) cooldown would reduce to 0 when moving slots in the item inventory
Amumu Base mana growth decreased. E base damage decreased later. R stun duration decreased early and now scales.
Amumu's win rate was exceeding acceptable bands, to the point where we had to micropatch him in on 10.24. We're reiterating the changes here in case you missed it: With the synergy between his passive, Despair's uptime, Tantrum's resist scaling, Sunfire Aegis' unique and resistances, Demonic Embrace's burn, and Abyssal Mask's damage amplification on his R, Mummy seems to be the clear winner of preseason. Add in his buff in 10.23 when we made his ult a stun and he's been sweeping the competition off their feet. This should knock him down a peg.
Base Stats
MANA GROWTH :[60]⇒ 40 (revert of 10.23 buff)
E - Tantrum
BASE DAMAGE :[75/100/125/150/175]⇒ 75/95/115/135/155
R - Curse of the Sad Mummy
STUN DURATION :[2 seconds]⇒ 1.5/1.75/2 seconds
Anivia Basic attack animation sped up. Q cooldown, missile speed, and detonation damage increased; passthrough damage and cost decreased; now Chills enemies it passes through. E cost flattened and damage increased. R cooldown now scales; base damage decreased.
Anivia's been feeling out of date for a while. Though technically balanced, we thought she could use an update to her playstyle. Since she also lost a bunch of power from preseason changes, we're using this as an opportunity to fluff and buff her feathers. To make room for these modernization improvements, we're also cutting some base damage from her R so that she doesn't fly too close to the sun.
Base Stats
ATTACK DELAY CAST OFFSET :[-0.008]⇒ -0.1 (in other words, her basic attack animation has been sped up)
BASIC ATTACK MISSILE SPEED :[1500]⇒ 1600
Q - Flash Frost
MISSILE SPEED :[800]⇒ 950
WELCOME TO CHILLI'S Flash Frost now Chills enemies it passes through
BIRDSEYE Flash Frost's detonation now occurs at the correct location rather than slightly behind
Annie has seen strong success with her pick-and-burst potential. As the new season also brought a trove of Annie-friendly toys, we're toning back some of the movement that helped her run it down.
E - Molten Shield
BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED :[30%-60% (level 1-18)]⇒ 20%-50% (level 1-18)
Ekko Passive damage ratio to monsters increased and cap removed.
Ekko's doing well in mid but is really struggling in the jungle, so we're giving him back our 10.3 nerf and a little extra.
Passive - Z-Drive Resonance
DAMAGE RATIO TO MONSTERS :[150% (caps at 600)]⇒ 250% (no cap)
Fizz has been faring swimmingly despite his mana loss in 10.24. In combination with the overall net positive from Mythics, he's hopped over the line. Turning the tides by reverting our change in 10.23.
Base Stats
MANA GROWTH :[57]⇒ 37
Gragas Passive healing increased. W cooldown decreased.
Gragas was hit hard, especially in a post-preseason jungle with less health to guzzle. Helping him clear camps faster to soften the blow.
Irelia hasn't really found a home with the Fighter Mythics yet, so we're specifically tackling the areas that will help her synergize better with existing Mythics and also handing her back some cooldown for her immediate Sheen purchase.
Ivern Q cooldown decreased. E cooldown decreased; shield increased. R basic attack speed increased.
Ivern's fallen below par and deserves quite a bit of love, especially after the shift to ability haste. To help root him as a stronger jungle pick, we're giving back some of the extra shielding power he lost from Athene's, and opening up access to more of his abilities to help both him and his allies survive fights. And we can't forget about Daisy, can we?
Even with some of his lethality options catching some nerfs (see below), Jhin's still cashing out hard this preseason with pure crit builds. Giving him a direct trim.
Q - Dancing Grenade
MINIMUM DAMAGE RATIO :[45/52.5/60/67.5/75% AD]⇒ 35/42.5/50/57.5/65% AD
Karthus Q cost decreased later; damage ratio increased.
Karthus isn't performing well in any of his roles, but seems to do a lot better when getting mana out of his Mythic. We're giving him a small boost, but also expect item optimizations will improve his strength.
Q - Lay Waste
COST :[20/26/32/38/44 mana]⇒ 20/25/30/35/40 mana
DAMAGE RATIO :[30% AP]⇒ 35% AP
Kayle Base magic resist decreased. E passive damage ratio decreased.
Prior to the item rework, we buffed Kayle in preparation so that she'd have better choices in the new system. Those items ended up synergizing really well on her and have resulted in an overperformance in the mid lane. We overall like the item choices she has so we're not fully reverting the buff we did in 10.23, but are instead targeting other problem areas (her resilience in the midlane and the on-hit damage she gets when combined with Nashor's Tooth).
Base Stats
MAGIC RESIST :[34]⇒ 30
E - Starfire Spellblade
PASSIVE DAMAGE RATIO :[25% AP]⇒ 20% AP
Kayn Base armor decreased. Q base damage decreased; cooldown increased.
Kayn is one of the few junglers able to fully utilize the new jungle item due to his penchant for strong basic attacking and AoE damage, increasing his overall early clear speed and power. Bringing some of his early clears back in line.
Base Stats
ARMOR :[38]⇒ 35
Q - Reaping Slash
BASE DAMAGE :[75/95/115/135/155]⇒ 65/85/105/125/145
Lee Sin Base armor increased. W cooldown decreased. E base damage increased.
Monk with no sight and no Machete means monk gets more muscle.
Base Stats
ARMOR :[33]⇒ 36
W - Safeguard
COOLDOWN :[14 seconds]⇒ 12 seconds
E - Tempest
BASE DAMAGE :[80/120/160/200/240]⇒ 100/140/180/220/260
Lulu Q base damage decreased; deals bonus damage to targets hit with both bolts; removed passthrough falloff damage; deals less damage to minions.
Giving Lulu a higher success rate when hitting both Glitterlance bolts and clearing up confusion around whether her second bolt does any damage. Well, now it does!
Q - Glitterlance
BASE DAMAGE :[80/115/150/185/220]⇒ 70/105/140/175/210
I RECOMMEND BOLTS Hitting a target with both bolts now deals 25% bonus damage
JUST A BOLT Bolts no longer have passthrough falloff damage
NOT JUST MINIONS Bolts now deal 70% damage to minions
Morde became a little worse for wear after losing his Liandry's + Rylai's combo, but was at the very least propped up by Riftmaker's in 10.23. With Riftmaker nerfed in 10.24, we are looking to give some power back to Morde himself so he's not so reliant on a specific item or item combo.
Due to the changes to cooldown reduction, Nasus is finding it difficult to ramp up the frequency of his strikes. Directly reducing its base cooldown to let it scale better into the late game.
Nidalee's balance state used to be extremely tied to her synergy with Runic Echoes, which was removed in the item rework. She is also running into pretty severe mana issues, due to the fact that her costs were tuned around the item. With all that in mind, we're shifting some of her power from strong mid-game farming into more champion-focused damage, as the latter is friendlier to all levels of players.
MAXIMUM DAMAGE :[210/255/300/345/390 (+150% AP)]⇒ 210/270/330/390/450 (+150% AP)
E - Primal Surge
COST :[60/75/90/105/120 mana]⇒ 50/60/70/80/90 mana
PantheonUPDATED Realigning Pantheon to better support the various roles he's been taking on the Rift.
Pantheon's last overhaul was aimed at bringing new life to an old top lane mainstay. With time and professional play, his rework shifted gears to mid, and then to support. While we love seeing players innovate and journey with the champion, we can't ignore the growing sentiment of folks missing the old champion they love, and we think it's worthwhile to bring Pantheon back to his original home.
With that being said, the intent of these changes isn't to destroy support Pantheon, but rather to adjust that role's power, while also giving a boost to the tools that'll finally let old-school Pantheon fans successfully play him in top, and even mid lane, as promised years ago.
TL;DR, we're shifting more power into a bruiser-y playstyle by giving him a higher uptime on his Q and equipping him with more selfish outputs like armor penetration at the cost of utility (i.e. strong invulnerability), slows, and most importantly, a massive movement speed boost for when he crashes onto the scene.
Base Stats
MOVEMENT SPEED :[355]⇒ 345
Passive - Mortal Will
CALL ME BACK Pantheon now gains 5 stacks when he recalls.
Q - Comet Spear
EARLY RELEASE COOLDOWN REFUND :[50%]⇒ 60%
EARLY RELEASE BUGFIX : Fixed a bug where Pantheon's Q would not cast and still go on cooldown when he was hit with a CC
COST :[40 mana]⇒ 30 mana
EMPOWERED SLOW Comet Spear no longer slows
W - Shield Vault
BASE DAMAGE :[60/80/100/120/140]⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
BUGFIX : When Pantheon hits an enemy with an Mortal Will-empowered W and uses another ability immediately following, the next basic attack will now properly be empowered
E - Aegis Assault
INVULNERABLE E no longer blocks turret shots
REDIRECTION SLOW :[50% (based on movement direction)]⇒ 25% (based on movement direction)
MORTAL WILL EMPOWERMENT :[Consuming Mortal Will stacks extends the duration of Aegis Assault]⇒ When Pantheon slams his shield, he consumes Mortal Will stacks to gain 60% movement speed for 1.5 seconds
R - Grand Starfall
PIERCE THE HEAVENS Pantheon gains 10/20/30% armor penetration
X MARKS THE SLOW The spear that lands before Pantheon now slows for 50% and applies a spear's worth of damage (unempowered) in a small area around it
ALLY VFX Grand Starfall's ground indicator now appears for both Pantheon and allies at start of channel
Samira Passive updated to extend Knock Up duration on already knocked up enemies. Q and R life steal effectiveness decreased. Q crit bugfix.
Samira's win rate isn't over the line, but her ban rate certainly is, which indicates an issue with game health. Cutting a frustrating knock up mechanic and the hard synergy she gained with new items.
Passive - Daredevil Impulse
KNOCKING AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE Instead of knocking up Immobilized enemies, Samira now keeps already knocked up enemies in the air for at least 0.5 seconds. Samira can still dash into range for a basic attack against Immobilized enemies.
Q - Flair
CRIT LIFE STEAL EFFECTIVENESS :[100%]⇒ 66.6%
BUGFIX : Critically hitting an enemy with Q now deals the proper bonus damage
R - Inferno Trigger
CRIT LIFE STEAL EFFECTIVENESS :[100%]⇒ 66.6%
Seraphine Base health growth increased. W self-shield increased.
Seraphine is currently feeling a lot of weakness against more aggressive opponents (i.e. Zed, Fizz, Akali) in the midlane. So much so that it's driving players away from playing her there. We're giving her a little more durability so that she can survive longer and more successfully in 1v1s.
Base Stats
HEALTH GROWTH :[80]⇒ 90
W - Surround Sound
BEAT OF MY OWN DRUM Seraphine's personal shield is now increased by 50% (shield value is now 90-180 (based on level) (+45% AP))
Shyvana Adjusted Shyvana's Passive on non-SR game modes like ARAM and Nexus Blitz.
As many Shyvana players know, it's extremely frustrating to play Shyvana on any other game modes besides those on Summoner's Rift because Passive only gives her 5 bonus armor and magic resistance On other maps she has no way to fully gain from her passive! Well, we're changing that.
Passive - Fury of the Dragonborn
ARAM (HOWLING ABYSS) : Shyvana begins the game with 5 bonus armor and magic resistance. She also gains permanent stacking armor and magic resistance whenever she or her allies kill Cannon Minions or Super Minions. Additionally, Shyvana gains 1 armor, 1 magic resistance, and Dragon Fury regeneration (0.05 per stack) whenever she is healed by a Health Relic AOE on the enemy side of the map.
NEXUS BLITZ (TEMPLE OF LILY AND LOTUS) : Shyvana gains permanent stacking armor and magic resistance whenever she or her allies kill nearby epic monsters, jungle monsters, and Rift Scuttlers. Additionally, Shyvana gains permanent Dragon Fury regeneration (0.05 per stack).
Taliyah Subsequent Q hits no longer deal reduced damage to monsters.
Helping Jungle Taliyah keep up with other junglers while ensuring that her mid performance isn't overly affected.
Q - Threaded Volley
THREADING ON THIN ICE Subsequent hits no longer have reduced damage against monsters
Twitch Q attack speed increased. W slow increased. R bonus damage increased.
Both AP and AD Twitch are significantly underperforming. Our goals are for both to be viable ways to play him, but to stay true to his original gameplay design, we don't necessarily want his AP gameplay to be stronger than AD. For now, we're going to be buffing him in both styles of play, but it is possible that we will need further tuning adjustments as players get used to AP Twitch.
Bros for life. Yone has the same issue as Yasuo and is being tuned accordingly.
Base Stats
ATTACK SPEED GROWTH :[2.5%]⇒ 3.5%
Rengar W healing from monsters increased; now deals bonus damage to monsters.
Big cat and the following champs (forgive us for the non-alphabetized order here) came out of the preseason changes sorely missing the old Tiamat, so we're making adjustments for them. Rengar in particular took a massive clear speed hit, so we're bringing that back up.
W - Battle Roar
HEALING FROM MONSTERS :[75% of the damage he's taken from monsters]⇒ 100% of the damage he's taken from monsters
MONSTER MASH W now deals 65-130 (levels 1-18) bonus damage to monsters
Warwick Passive bonus damage increased. Tooltip updated to reflect accuracy.
The loss of both Tiamat and Machete took its toll on Warwick's clear speed, and his builds are now looking very tank-heavy. Looking to buff that back up and add some more incentive for damage items.
TOOLTIP BUGFIX : Updated tooltip from incorrectly stating that Eternal Hunger's bonus damage is 8-42 instead of 10-44, that healing is equal to damage attempted instead of damage dealt, and that below 25% health the healing is increased 300% instead of 250%
Talon's ability to roam is contingent on his ability to clear waves. And his ability to clear waves was too reliant on Tiamat. While his lethality build suffered a lot, he's starting to move out of assassin items into Goredrinker and Ravenous, so we're only giving him a small buff for now.
Grouping some individual item changes since most of our item changes this patch can be easily categorized by class. A couple of notes on some specific items though: Muramana has started to see play as the optimal second item for several mage champions. We're changing its effect to physical damage to incentivize its target audience to pick it up (AD casters, where ya at), while laying the groundwork for potential buffs that won't encourage more mage poaching. And Seeker's Armguard was too efficient for its cost, so we're nudging down its power.
Certain junglers who get high value out of fast attacks and AoE have been significantly overperforming since preseason began, so we're paring down the power in clear speeds that were introduced in the new system.
INSPIRE BONUS DAMAGE :[40-60 (based on ally's level)]⇒ 35-55 (based on ally's level)
Crit Strike Items
Many of our marksman champions are still weak, especially those that rely on their basic attacks to deal damage. To help with this issue, we're buffing a couple early build Legendaries so that marksman champions can scale up smoothly through midgame to eventually spike hard with Infinity Edge.
CRIT SCALING Infinity Edge no longer grants critical strike damage scaling with critical strike chance (max 40% at 100% crit chance)
THIS IS CRITICAL If you have at least 60% critical strike chance, Infinity Edge now grants 35% Critical Strike Damage.
Mana Mythics
Responding to feedback about champions feeling sluggish with low haste by making a few changes to some of the AP mana Mythics to improve baseline item feels. Liandry's will still be the ultimate haste option, providing up to 40 haste late game. Ornn's items will also reflect equivalent adjustments.
Some more tank systemic nerfs. Slowing down Bami's power spike, especially for junglers, and pushing Mythic item strengths further apart from each other. Sunfire may be a standout in popularity, but all of them are reaching higher power levels at the moment than desired.
We've been hard at work iterating on the shop and have some exciting features to share with you this time. Stay tuned - we aren't done yet and there will be more coming soon.
SMARTER RECOMMENDATIONS The data is flowing in nicely and during 10.25 we'll be enhancing the recommendation system with the latest and greatest builds from around the world
QUICKBUY PINS You can now pin open any Quickbuy Panel by clicking the button that appears in the top-left of the panel when it is opened. In a future update, the shop will remember the pins you set.
SHOP SCALING If the shop was either too smol or thicc for your liking, you can now change this from interface settings in the options menu
LOCKED ITEMS : In more instances, items you cannot purchase for reasons other than you being broke will have a lock displayed on them.
WE RECOMMEND THIS TAB : The default tab of the shop has been changed from All Items to Recommended.
EXTENDED STATS : Extended stats in the main UI will now properly show while the in-game shop is open
LANGUAGE SEARCH : Items can be searched for in different languages
Nexus Blitz is back in 10.25, this time with a couple of changes we've made from feedback we received from last run, as well as some bugfixes:
Jungle Guardian now deals less damage, but CCs more often. It also now has a laser that shows who it's targeting.
All Nexus Blitz-only items are removed, except The Golden Spatula. Nexus Blitz items match what you're familiar with on Summoner's Rift, except without gold generation items or warding items.
Frogs! Foxes! Environment art updates and features added throughout the map.
Scuttle's home in the bottom of the map has been updated to provide more opportunity for strategic vision play
Entrances into the bases have been widened slightly
Mentioned already in her section above, but Shyvana has a new passive!
The Catapult of Champions can no longer be displaced from its location when crashed into by the Battle Sled
Champions participating in URF Deathmatch do not permanently lose access to abilities after the event is over (i.e. Lulu's E - Help, Pix!)
Jungle monsters can no longer be moved and trapped behind the Catapult of Champions through certain champions' abilities (i.e. Syndra's W - Force of Will, Blitzcrank's Q - Rocket Grab
Champions entering a zombie state (i.e. KogMaw's Passive - Ichathian Surprise) mid-Catapult-flight will still land at their intended location
Certain champion abilities (i.e. Tahm Kench's W - Devour) can no longer temporarily grant death immunity to Loot Goblins
If a champion enters the Catapult while mid-air through their abilities (i.e. Nidalee's W - Pounce, Ziggs' W - Satchel Charge, etc.), they will now properly gain the Catapult effects when they land as if they entered the Catapult normally
Yone's E - Soul Unbound properly detonates and deals true damage against DPS Check Target Dummy and Loot Goblins
Kalista's R - Fate's Call can no longer be used on allies in stasis during Prize Fight
Continuing our work on Ranked to ensure that the start of season is a less frustrating experience for all players. For Diamond specifically, we're removing the complexity in the system since the tier used to have an entirely different version of decay. This new version is also more forgiving for Diamond players than the old version, in addition to being more relaxed than the rules for Master+.
Initial Placement Configuration: The Ranked reset at the start of the season will be smaller this year to get players back to their expected rank faster. To compensate, LP gains and losses have been made slightly smaller.
Unified Ranked Decay: Diamond now uses the same banked-game decay system as Master+, though with more relaxed tuning.
Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
Each game played banks 1 day of activity, up to 10
After 10 days of inactivity, you'll begin consuming banked days
Once all banked days have been consumed, you lose 250 LP each day until you fall out of Master
Diamond
Each game played banks 7 days of activity, up to 28
After 28 days of activity, you'll begin consuming banked days (this initial grace period is skipped if you decayed into Diamond from Master+)
Once all banked days have been consumed, you lose 50 LP each day until you fall out of Diamond
As outlined in our Content Refund FAQ, players with less than three refund tokens in 2020 will receive their 2021 refund token granted in 10.25! As a reminder, you only get back one refund token per year, even if you are down more than one. You can always check how many you have in the Store and read through the Player Support FAQ for more information about refund tokens.
LEAGUE CLIENT: "This skin is no longer available for purchase" tooltip no longer appears at the start of Champ Select
LEAGUE CLIENT: Chat window no longer jumps to the left in Champ Select
LEAGUE CLIENT: Social Panel - Hovercards once again correctly display a friend's game type and champion while they are in game
We've standardized the icon that appears next to targets when their resistances have been shredded
Renekton's death VO now properly plays in all languages
Sylas now properly gets credit for attacks landed when using Passive - Petricite Burst
Yuumi's W - You and Me! now properly goes on cooldown when she is affected by charms or knock-ups
The orb that Cosmic Vladimir holds now properly reappears upon revival
Nami's W - Ebb and Flow now properly grants enemies with movement speed from Passive - Surging Tides
Attacking a target multiple times as Bard with Meeps from Passive - Traveler's Call will now properly reapply Imperial Mandate
Elise's E - Rappel now properly increases the effects of her Passive - Spider Queen
Knight's Vow's Sacrifice, Immortal Shieldbow's Lifeline, Night Harvester's Soulrend, Hextech Rocketbelt's Supersonic, and Lock of the Iron Solari's Devotion icons now properly display in the buff bar
When Jhin equips Guinsoo's Rageblade and Runaan's Hurricane, the bolts from his fourth shot will now properly deal normal damage
Champions' health bars will now accurately reflect the shield health even after activating Bloodthirster's Eclipse passive while another shield is active
Fixed a bug where it was possible to reset the cooldown of another item if you swapped the location of it with a freshly activated Sheen in your inventory
Abilities which empower a champion's basic attack will now properly trigger Mana Charge when hitting epic monsters
Fixed a bug where Kayle's attack range would unintentionally increase after leveling up her R - Divine Judgement
Corrected Kalista's E - Rend AD ratios to their proper values
Karthus can now properly trigger Horizon Focus with Q - Lay Waste
Killing a target as Kalista with Q - Pierce will now properly transfer all of the original target's E - Rend stacks to the next target
Kalista can no longer proc Electrocute or Phase Rush with two attacks (a basic attack or Q - Pierce, followed by E - Rend). It will now properly proc after 3 separate attacks/abilities.
Fixed many items' tooltips to match the actual in-game values in places like Match History, End of Game screen, etc.
Immolate's range indicator now properly increases in size with the champion (like Cho'Gath)
Shen's W - Spirit's Refuge no longer blocks all of Katarina's abilities that have an on-hit element. The spell portion of her damage should still be dealt to Shen.
All Runaan's Hurricane bolts now properly apply damage from Ravenous Hydra's Cleave passive
Fixed a bug where a player could cast Ashe's W - Volley while it's on cooldown if they level up it and cast it at the near same time
White tiles no longer appear at Zed's feet while recalling or during his death animation
Little Legends can now be saved through the Loadout Selector in ARAM, even if its the first game after unlocking the Little Legend
Tricia "Mom Cat" Tan
Hanna "shio shoujo" Woo
Battle Queen Katarina
Battle Queen Diana
Battle Queen Qiyana
Battle Queen Janna
Battle Queen Rell
Elderwood Xayah
Elderwood Rakan
Elderwood Ivern
Elderwood Azir
Elderwood Ornn
Battle Queen Diana Prestige Edition
Battle Queen Katarina
Battle Queen Janna
Battle Queen Qiyana
Battle Queen Rell
Elderwood Xayah
Elderwood Rakan
Elderwood Ivern
Elderwood Azir
Elderwood Ornn
K/DA ALL OUT Kai'Sa (BADDEST)
