League of Legends Patch 25.05 – Full Breakdown of All Buffs, Nerfs, and System Changes | LoLNOW.gg

Patch 25.05 for League of legends is set to shake up the meta with massive changes targeting lane swapping, champion balance, and item adjustments. Riot Games is making aggressive moves to curb lane swapping in pro play, nerf Axiom Arcanist, and buff key champions like Zed and Aphelios.

These changes will go live on March 5th, 2025, bringing new balance updates that will Impact Solo queue and professional play alike.

Let’s dive into everything coming in Patch 25.05!

credit: Riot Games

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🔹 Lane Swap Nerfs – Riot’s Harshest Anti-Swap Changes Yet

Lane swapping has dominated pro play recently, and Riot is taking drastic action to prevent it.

Note: We’ve covered Lane Swapper debuff in-depth here.

📌 How Lane Swaps Will Be Penalized in Patch 25.05:

• Turret damage reduction increased from 50% → 95% when lane swap detected.
• Defending champion gains ALL gold/XP from minions, even if they don’t last hit.
• Towers execute minions instantly, preventing freeze setups or denying CS.
• Offending champions (those swapping) receive 50% LESS XP and gold.
• Defending champion takes 50% LESS damage under tower, making dives nearly impossible.
• The lane swap debuff lasts for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, after which lane swapping is no longer penalized.

💬 “Lane swaps will no longer be viable in the early game, forcing standard laning phase matchups back into play.”

While teams can still swap after the 3:30 mark, early-game swapping will now heavily punish the swapping team.

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🔹 Axiom Arcanist Finally Nerfed

Axiom Arcanist has dominated the meta since the start of the season, providing insane cooldown reduction on ultimates. In Patch 25.05, Riot is nerfing its power significantly:

🔻 Single-Target Ultimates: Damage amp reduced from 14% → 12%.
🔻 AoE Ultimates: Damage amp reduced from 9% → 8%.

While these nerfs won’t completely kill the item, they bring it more in line with alternative choices.

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🔹 Item and Rune Buffs in Patch 25.05

Several underperforming items and runes are receiving buffs to increase viability.

System Change	Buff Details
Staff of Flowing Water	Passive duration increased from 4s → 6s.
Sixth Sense	Cooldown reduced from 275s (melee) / 350s (ranged) → 250s for all.
Unflinching	Armor & MR buff increased from 2-10 → 6-12.
Yun Tal Wildarrows	Melee crit per stack increased from 0.2% → 0.4%.

These buffs help support items (Staff of Flowing Water), vision-heavy junglers (Sixth Sense), and melee crit champions like Tryndamere, Yasuo, and Briar get better power spikes.

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🔹 Champion Buffs in Patch 25.05

Champion	Buff Details
Aphelios	Attack speed ratio increased from 0.640 → 0.658.
Dr. Mundo	Base HP increased from 613 → 640.
Seraphine	Q missing HP damage amp increased from 60% → 75%.
Zed	E damage increased from 65-165 (+65% bonus AD) → 70-170 (+80% bonus AD).

✅ Zed receives much-needed buffs, making his assassin playstyle more viable again.
✅ Dr. Mundo gets compensation buffs after tanking nerfs hurt him in 25.4.
✅ Seraphine’s damage scaling improves, increasing her utility in fights.

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🔻 Champion Nerfs in Patch 25.05

Champion	Nerf Details
Ambessa	E damage per hit reduced from 40-140 → 40-120.
Ashe	R damage reduced from 250/450/650 → 200/400/600.
Aurora	E damage reduced from 320 (+80% AP) → 275 (+70% AP).
Cho’Gath	Q damage reduced from 80-340 → 80-320. W damage reduced from 80-300 → 80-280. E max HP damage reduced from 3% → 2.5%-3.5%.
Elise	Human Q damage reduced from 40-160 + 4% HP → 40-160 + 4% champ HP. Spider Q damage reduced from 60-180 + 8% missing HP → 50-170 + 8% missing HP.
K’Sante	Passive mark damage reduced from 20 + 1% max HP → 12 + 1% max HP.
Skarner	Q max HP damage reduced from 10% → 8%. Q slow duration reduced from 1.25s → 1s. E cooldown increased from 20-16s → 22-18s.
Yorick	R monster damage cap reduced from 100 → 50.

❌ Yorick jungle build is gutted, making him less oppressive in solo queue.
❌ Cho’Gath’s “Speed’Gath” build gets hit hard, reducing his burst damage in mid-lane.
❌ K’Sante remains a problematic champ in pro play, so Riot is nerfing him further.

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🔄 Poppy Adjustments – Support Nerfs, Top Lane Buffs

Riot is adjusting Poppy to nerf her support role while keeping her top lane power intact.

📌 Poppy Adjustments:

• HP Growth: Increased from 104 → 110.
• Passive Shield: Changed from 13-18% max HP at level 13 to 11-20% max HP at level 18.
• E Damage: Reduced from 100-260 → 80-240, but bonus AD ratio increased from 100% → 120%.

💬 “This aims to keep Poppy viable in top lane while reducing her power in support.”

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Final Thoughts – The Biggest Winners & Losers of Patch 25.05

🎯 Biggest Winners:
✅ Zed – Assassin buffs make him stronger in solo queue.
✅ Aphelios – Scaling ADC power increases, making him more viable.
✅ Melee Crit Champions – Yun Tal Wildarrows buffs make crit builds more effective.

❌ Biggest Losers:
❌ Lane Swappers – Riot’s new system essentially removes early-game swaps.
❌ Cho’Gath Mid – “Speed’Gath” build gets severely nerfed.
❌ Yorick Jungle – Loses significant power, weakening his ability to solo objectives.

This patch heavily favors standard laning phase strategies, nerfs problematic champions, and brings key balance changes to items, runes, and systems.

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Frequently Asked Questions about League of Legends Patch 25.5