LoL Patch 25.5 Preview: Lane Swapping and Top Pro Picks Hit with Nerfs

Releasing on Wednesday, March 5, this patch introduces the nerf to lane swaps, but also several nerfs to prio picks played in pro play such as Aurora, Ambessa or K'Sante.

Lane swap Radius/Ksanté

Lane Swapping is finally being nerfed in 25.5

The League of Legends 25.5 Patch Notes is out. According to the official schedule the game's developers provided, Patch 25.5 is set to be released on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. The patch introduces a nerf to lane swapping, mainly targeting pro play, as well as nerfs to several priority picks in competitive games, such as K'Sante, Aurora, and the recently popular Ambessa. Beyond that, it also addresses some outlier picks in lower elo, like Yorick Jungle and Cho'Gath mid, balancing their strength.

The Full Patch 25.5 Preview. Credit: @RiotPhroxzon on X.

Buffs:

Champions: Aphelios, Mundo, Seraphine, Zed
Items: Staff of Flowing Water, Yun Tal Wildarrows
Runes: Sixth Sense, Unflinching

Nerfs:

Champions: Ambessa, Ashe, Aurora, Cho'Gath, Elise, K'Sante, Skarner, Yorick
Runes: Axiom Arcanist
Lane Swaps

Adjustments:

Champions: Poppy

Riot's Reasoning behind these changes

Read more about League of Legends changes on the X account of Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison.

Tanks

After Tank item changes last patch, we're continuing to monitor the effects of how all of these will shake out
We are buffing Mundo, because he fell further than the rest and normally rests higher than where he landed
We're specifically not buffing Tahm Kench as he is a champ that we don't feel needs to live above 50% for his frustration cost; he consistently rates among the highest frustration on our surveys and his gameplay often feels some of the least interactive of the group

Melee Crit

Melee Crit carries have been left without a crit first item for a long time; while YunTal is not the most complete package for them, it is their most potentially viable option and can help them feel a bit more supported by the system

Zed

Zed has been resting in a pretty weak state for quite a while, especially compared to Season 14
We're giving him a small buff to get him back to his previous levels
In particular, he's very frequently played bruiser, which is fine sometimes but when it's close to his most common build, typically means his assassin pattern isn't functioning particularly well

Jorick

Jungle Yorick has been cropping up as a terror in particularly lower skill play with his... Liandrys 3rd build
Looking to take the power of this down a bunch

Speed'gath

Speedgath in the midlane has been picking up a lot of steam
We're looking to do some nerfs to specifically Mid Cho without harming Top too much; and trying to nerf both top end Q and W so that he doesn't just swap maxes (we think of the spells to max, Q is higher gameplay than W)

Pro focused nerfs

A lot of Pro focused nerfs this patch aimed to try and add more diversity into particularly the game 1's of the series which often tend to play out very similarly
This is a hit to many of the safe blinds and/or high prio champs that target some of their more Pro oriented characteristics

Header Photo Credit: Riot Games