LoL Patch 25.8 Preview: lots of AP Champion Buffs, Annie, Ahri, and Syndra Adjusted

The League of Legends 25.8 Patch Notes are live, bringing a wave of AP champion buffs, nerfs to dominant picks like Gwen and Yone and adjustments to mages like Annie, Ahri, and Syndra—all set to go live on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

Annie Splashart

Lots of AP champions are receiving buffs this patch

The League of Legends 25.8 Patch Notes are out. According to Riot’s official schedule, Patch 25.8 is expected to drop on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. This patch delivers a wave of champion updates, including buffs to picks like Blitzcrank, Brand, Zeri, and Zoe, plus another round of adjustments for Xerath and Mel. Meanwhile, Gwen, Yone, and Yuumi take a hit with nerfs to reduce their overall presence. Annie, Ahri, and Syndra receive nuanced reworks to shift power within their kits for more satisfying gameplay. Dead Man’s Plate is toned down on the system side, while items like Cryptobloom and Overlord’s Bloodmail get boosted.

The Full Patch 25.8 Preview. Credit: @RiotPhroxzon on X.

Buffs:

Champions: Blitzcranking, Brand, Hwei, Mel, Renketon, Shen, Singed, Sona, Xerath, Zeri, Zoe
Item: Cryptobloom, Opportunity, Overlord's Bloodmail

Nerfs:

Champions: Gwen, Lulu, Tristana, Yone, Yorick, Yuumi
Item: Dead Man's Plate

Adjustments:

Champions: Ahri, Annie, Syndra

Riot's Reasoning behind these changes

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

Mel

Mel's power budget distribution re: abilities is in a pretty good spot, so we're adding more power to her to bolster her winrate without pushing her poke or ranged all-in damage
We like her E being more about utility/catch and Q being the thing to dodge for damage
We're being cautious around perceived frustration here so putting power in less frustrating power

Gwen

Our changes to Gwen have landed shape pretty well, moving power out of her being a scaling full squishy AP one shot champ
She's a little too present right now, so we're taking her down a tad, but it's good to have another AP fighter in there to allow for more comp diversity and keep certain champs in check

Annie

Changes to Annie are aimed at increasing her satisfaction by moving a bit of power out of Tibbers' sustained damage which can be hard to feel and into some of her spells
Also adding some Pen to her kit innately so she's a bit better at killing tanks with multiple rotations and doesn't need to one shot squishies as hard as a result which is often frustrating for players (she'll still be good at it though)

Syndra

Syndra's builds have been pretty heavily in the MS kite builds and we're moving power budget out of that and a bit more into her actual burst purchases so she has to build a bit more damage and AP

Zoe

Zoe has been pretty absent for a while; giving her a bit of a bump to her waveclear as she's rather telegraphed right now and can't push tempo as much as it feels like she should

Xerath

Changes last patch didn't quite hit the mark, so we're giving a small buff to his Q and his passive, which is mid skewed
Wanting to skew a little more towards mid

Tristana

She's crept up a little, we're happy she's not meta driving mid, but just generally too powerful

Header Photo Credit: Riot Games