League of Legends Patch 25.21 brings ARAM mayhem and Bard buffs
Riot Games has released the notes for League of Legends (LoL) Patch 25.21 as the end of the year approaches.
There are plenty of champion updates, though it’s too early for the most-banned champions at LoL Worlds to influence Riot.
Here is a look at all the champion buffs and nerfs, as well as more information on the release of ARAM Mayhem.
All champions are now available to play in the Practice Tool
In a much-welcomed change, Riot are now allowing players to try new champions in the Practice Tool even if they don’t own them.
All champions are unlocked for players using the Practice Tool in solo mode (1 human player, so bots & spectators are ok).
Riot have also added a feature to spawn/respawn neutral monster camps (i.e., jungle camps & scuttle crab).
And they’ve fixed a bug where scuttle crab would not respawn in certain circumstances.
ARAM Mayhem is out now in League of Legends
League of Legends’ newest mode is finally out to the public as Patch 25.21 sees the release of ARAM Mayhem.
The new mode sees the augments from Arena mode put into the single-lane map of ARAM, with players being given random champions to play.
At the start of each match, players will get to choose between one of three powerful augments to kick off their build.
They’ll then be presented with more augment choices at levels 7, 11, and 15 once they return to base.
The game mode will be live for over a month with it leaving on Patch 25.24 aka December 3rd.
By that time, League of Legends will see the long-awaited return of the winter map version of Summoner’s Rift.
LoL Patch 25.21 champion buffs
Bard
Former esports caster turned LoL game designer David ‘Phreak’ Turley revealed he was happy Bard was slightly overpowered as he’s a fun champion to see at Worlds.
Riot Games say they’re pretty happy with Bard’s current balance state but want to add more build options for him, particularly AP items like Shurelya’s.
W – Caretaker’s Shrine
Minimum Heal: 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 30% AP) -> 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 40% AP)
Maximum Heal: 50 / 87.5 / 125 / 162.5 / 200 (+ 60% AP) -> 50 / 87.5 / 125 / 162.5 / 200 (+ 70% AP)
Movement Speed: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 (+ 5% per 100 AP) -> 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30 (+ 6% per 100 AP)
Ezreal
Ezreal has been struggling, particularly at lower ranks. Riot wants to give him a general boost to help him keep up in the late game.
Base Stats
Attack Damage Growth: 2.75 -> 3.25
Kalista
Riot believes Kalista has been underperforming for quite a while now.
They’re hoping to give her some mid-game strength by increasing her attack damage growth, which directly feeds into her attacks as well as her Q and E damage.
Base Stats
Attack Damage Growth: 4.25 -> 4.75
Yone
Yone’s has also been struggling a while now, and the upcoming changes to Doran’s Shield and Second Wind will likely leave him in a pretty sad state.
As a result, Riot is pre-emptively buffing his early game power.
Base Stats
Attack Damage: 60 -> 62
Yunara
As LoL’s newest champion, Yunara’s balance has been increasingly tricky for Riot. Hence the upcoming novel.
As she’s still relatively new, over two-thirds of her games are played by inexperienced players, substantially dragging down her win rate.
And even after accounting for that fact, she’s still weaker than the average bot laner.
Riot has two goals in mind for her. They want to improve the value of ability ranks in W so that Yunara players who invest in spell damage are rewarded.
Secondly, they want to make her more consistently mobile, bringing up Kanmei’s Steps average movement speed so that players don’t have to save it to only dodge key skillshots and instead can take more proactive and aggressive fights.
W – Arc of Judgment
Initial Damage: 5 / 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 (+ 85% Total AD) -> 55 / 95 / 135 / 175 / 215 (+ 85% Total AD)
Damage per second: 5 / 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 (+ 40% Total AD) -> 33 / 57 / 81 / 105 / 129 (+ 51% Bonus AD)
W – Arc of Ruin (Transcendent State)
Damage: 50 / 200 / 350 (+ 175% Total AD) -> 175 / 350 / 525 (+ 150% Bonus AD)
E – Kanmei’s Steps
Movement Speed: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% decaying over 1.5 seconds -> 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% decaying after 1.5 seconds
Movement Speed toward Enemies: 45 / 52.5 / 60 / 67.5 / 75% decaying over 1.5 seconds -> 45 / 52.5 / 60 / 67.5 / 75% decaying after 1.5 seconds
Cooldown: 7.5 -> 9
Step Right: Fixed a bug where Yunara could retain the enhanced movement speed without facing any enemy champions
LoL Patch 25.21 champion nerfs and adjustments
Diana
Diana’s previous buff to her jungle clear overshot a bit, so Riot are nerfing that change slightly to keep her in line.
Passive – Moonsliver Blade
Monster Damage: 300% -> 280%
Dr. Mundo
Dr. Mundo is a scaling juggernaut who has to fight through a fairly weak early game in order to scale.
However, he’s scaling a little too easily. Riot are making some power-neutral adjustments to take away some late-game burst and give back late-game durability instead.
Base Stats
Armour Growth: 3.7 -> 4.5
E – Blunt Force Trauma
Minimum Active Damage: 5 / 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 (+ 7% Bonus HP) -> 5 / 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 (+ 5% Bonus HP)
Graves
Riot is nudging Graves back toward having a strong sustained fight pattern and that means letting him rely on Grit and playing to stack it up.
As he’s getting this MR from Quickdraw, he can once again have the base magic resistance of a ranged champion.
So, if you can catch Graves before he’s able to stack up, he’s more burstable than before, but if he’s able to play the fight out the way he wants, he’ll grow to be a sustained monster.
Base Stats
Magic Resistance: 32 -> 30
Magic Resistance Growth: 2.05 -> 1.3
E – Quickdraw
Now grants 50% of armour as bonus Magic Resistance.
Magic Resistance per stack: 2 / 3.5 / 5 / 6.5 / 8
Max Magic Resistance: 16 / 28 / 40 / 52 / 64
Gwen
Back in 25.06, Riot tried to give Gwen more power over her laning phase while maintaining her identity as a scaling AP skirmisher.
However, those changes have left her in a less popular state that has alienated Gwen players from the version of her that they enjoyed.
So Riot is reverting her back to almost the exact same champion from 25.05, with two differences:
Her armour growth is a little lower, and her jungle levers are weaker. These two changes weren’t reverted because she was a little too strong in top and significantly too strong in the jungle back before the changes.
Base Stats
Health: 600 -> 625
Health Growth: 100 -> 125
Attack Speed Growth: 2.5% -> 2.25%
Passive – A Thousand Cuts
AP Ratio: 0.55% per 100 AP -> 0.6% per 100 AP
Q – Snip Snip!
Small Snip Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+2% AP) -> 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+5% AP)
W – Hallowed Mist
Armour and Magic Resistance: 22 (+ 7% AP) -> 22 / 24 / 26 / 28 / 30 (+7% AP)
Cooldown: 22 -> 18
E – Skip ‘n Slash
Damage: 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 (+ 25% AP) -> 5 (+ 20% AP)
Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 -> 13 / 12.5 / 12 / 11.5 / 11
Cooldown Refund: 50% -> 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65%
R – Needlework
Damage: 30 / 60 / 90 (+ 8% AP) -> 35 / 65 / 95 (+ 10% AP)Slow: 30 / 45 / 60% -> 40 / 50 / 60%
Kog’Maw
Kog’Maw is one of the winningest bot laners in the game and has also lost his old identity as a scaler.
This targeted nerf towards his early trading should rebalance him while retaining some of that scaling potential.
Q – Caustic Spittle
Passive Attack Speed: 10 / 15 / 20 /25 / 30% -> 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%
Morgana
Morgana has taken off as a highly powerful midlaner across all ranks of play.
Riot are happy she’s found a new audience but she’s also quite overpowered.
To open up some more weaknesses, they’re bringing down her guaranteed durability and making her rely more on Black Shield and Soul Siphon.
Base Stats
Armour Growth: 5 -> 4.2
Qiyana
Qiyana has been one of the clear winners from the recent changes to Profane Hydra and Axiom Arc.
She’s been taking over in both mid lane and jungle, especially in elite play as we’ve seen at Worlds. These nerfs should help.
Base Stats
Health Growth: 124 -> 121
Q – Elemental Wrath / Edge of Ixtal
Damage: 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+ 90% Bonus AD) -> 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+ 85% Bonus AD)
Quinn
Quinn has been one of the winningest top laners for a while now.
With nerfs to both Doran’s Shield and Second Wind this patch too, Quinn is being nerfed so she doesn’t completely overtake top lane.
Riot hopes these nerfs will open up her build options away from simply high AD lethality burst, allowing her the space to play out a more sustained auto-attacking pattern.
Q – Blinding Assault
Damage: 65 / 100 / 135 / 170 / 205 (+ 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120% Bonus AD) -> 65 / 100 / 135 / 170 / 205 (+ 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100% Bonus AD)
R – Skystrike
Damage: 70% Total AD -> 60 / 90 / 120(+ 35% Bonus AD)
LoL Patch 25.21 items and runes changes
Catalyst of Aeons
Catalyst needs to be competitive with Lost Chapter in giving tankier AP champions enough mana to play out their laning phases.
It does not, however, need to invalidate burst damage so strongly. So Riot is delivering a small health nerf until it’s turned into Rod of Ages.
Health: 350 -> 300
Doran’s Blade
Riot is reverting Doran’s Blade back to its 14.1 version with omnivamp because the item is meant to serve more than just attackers, but instead a wide range of AD champions, such as those who rely on abilities to deal their damage.
3% Lifesteal removed
[NEW] Heal for 2.5% of damage dealt (reduced to 33% of this value for area of effect spells and pet spells)
Doran’s Ring
The tuning of some starter items and Second Wind can make it feel pointless to attempt to harass during lane phase, resulting in stale gameplay.
This is especially true in mid lane, where players don’t play for kills often enough.
With these changes, Riot is attempting to nudge back towards poke being more valuable in the lane phase.
Mana Regeneration: 1.25 per second -> 1 per second, increased to 2 per second for 5 seconds after damaging an enemy champion
Health Regeneration: 0.55 per second -> 45% of mana regenerated value
Doran’s Shield
See Doran’s Ring.
Max Healing after taking damage: 45 (melee) / 30 (ranged) -> 40 (melee) / 30 (ranged)
Second Wind
See Doran’s Ring.
Healing after taking damage: 3 + 4% of missing health -> 4% of missing health
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