Patch 25.S1.2 Notes
It's time for the first patch in Noxus! We've got a handful of changes all across League including some of our first tweaks to Swiftplay, ARAM changes, the return of ARURF, and of course some changes to a few champions. We've also got Vanguard finally coming to Mac, some minspec upgrades to MacOS and Windows, and (if you missed it) some fixes to Blue Essence and Account XP gains in the new Battle Pass.
We've got a bunch of follow-up changes to our new seasonal mechanics: The Feat of First Blood is becoming the Feat of Warfare, now triggering off of the first team to get three kills. Blood Roses and Atakhan's rewards are nerfed and the spawning logic is changing to make both spawn location and form more equally distributed. The new Domination vision runes are also being buffed.
For live balance, AD Carries are gaining power through Yun Tal Wildarrows and small shifts to Lord Dominik's Regards and Mortal Reminder. Otherwise, a slew of champions are getting small adjustments to put them into a better place.
Swiftplay also has its first big balance patch, making champion kit-based gold (e.g. Twisted Fate, Gangplank) exempt from comeback mechanics (this is a buff) and otherwise bringing in the biggest outliers.
Looking for more info on League? Go visit the League of Legends Community Wiki!
On the topic of cool community tools, while 2024 might be behind us you can use YearIn.LoL here to check out the mark you left on the Rift last year so make sure to check it out. TFT patch notes here!
Patch Highlights
LA Wildfire Relief
You may have seen the news recently of unprecedented wildfires sweeping through Southern California. These fires, which are burning right in our backyard in Los Angeles, have displaced thousands, destroyed homes, and pushed entire communities to the brink. While firefighters and frontline responders have made significant progress containing the fires, the fight is far from over and for many it's a day-by-day battle.
As a company rooted in Los Angles we wanted to share how we're directly respondingโfrom supporting those impacted, to launching in-game fundraisers for natural disaster relief and prevention efforts.
Starting January 22nd, we'll be launching in-game fundraisers in VALORANT and League of Legends to support global fire and other natural disaster relief and prevention efforts. Proceeds will go to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund which will then direct funds to organizations aiding in disaster recovery in Southern California and around the world.
From January 23rd to 11am PT on February 5th, Riot will contribute 100% of Riot's proceeds from Firefighter Tristana, as well as a 3x match, to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, a donor-advised fund sponsored by ImpactAssets.
We've published an article highlighting what else we're doing, and done so far, to help Rioters who've lost their homes or are still evacuated and what we're doing for our local communities, as well as information related to our Social Impact Fund here.
MacOS OpenGL to Metal Transition and DirectX changes
To maintain the stability and performance of our games, we sometimes need to deprecate support for older hardware or software that isn't widely used by players anymore. These kinds of changes typically only impact a small number of players, but we wanted to give an ample heads up in case you're impacted by these changes.
In a couple of patches, we will be upgrading macOS users from an OpenGL graphics technology to Metal graphics. This will roll out gradually with the ability to revert back to OpenGL for a period of time until OpenGL is removed. If you're still using OpenGL, the client will automatically use Metal when we remove the support, so no action is required from you. However, if you were running OpenGL due to your hardware not being compatible with Metal graphics, you will need to upgrade your hardware so that you can continue playing after OpenGL support is removed.
We're also going to be upgrading how we use DirectX 11 for Windows users. If your graphics card supports DirectX 11 feature level 11_0, your client will update automatically. However, if your graphics card only supports up to DirectX 11 feature level 10_0, you will need to update your hardware so that you can continue playing after this upgrade.
For Minimum and Recommended System Requirements we recommend checking the support article.
Vanguard comes to Mac
We will begin officially rolling out Vanguard support for Mac with this patch. It will be passive at first, with the intention to have Mac anti-cheat turned on and fully operational in the first few weeks of February. When we initially introduced Vanguard on LoL last year, we mentioned that we'd be keeping an eye on the trends of cheaters in response, and as the prophecy foretold, their pivot towards masquerading as Mac environments now necessitates that we generate trusted Mac sessions in order to differentiate between the good and the bad. Don't worry though, you don't have to install anything new. Mac will be using our Embedded Vanguard product, which as the name implies, "embeds" cheat detection directly into the game client. For the extra-studious player, more info on Vanguard can be directly absorbed by pointing one or both retinas at our recent anti-cheat retrospective.
Blue Essence and Account XP Update
We published an article last week about a mistake we made when calculating and planning Blue Essence acquisition. We screwed up on this one so we're making some changes across the next couple of patches as follows to make up for this and correct it.
First off, we're changing the total BE value across the Pass milestones from 4750 BE to 9000 BE and we're updating the post-50 repeatable Epilogue milestones in the Pass from 50 BE to 750 BE. The Epilogue changes should be live during this patch, 25.S1.2, after Jan 23rd at 04:00 PT.
Because the Act 1 Pass is already live, and a decent number of players have already completed the BE milestones, we're going to be compensating the difference through a one-time easily-completable mission that will grant 4250 BE.
We're also going to be changing the final Champion Capsule in the Pass to a Glorious Champion Capsule starting in the Act 2 pass.
When it comes to account XP, we'll be increasing the account XP earned by about 40%. That should ensure that the average number of games to 30/Ranked access is close to or slightly faster than before this update.
If you'd like to read more behind the why and what happened we recommend reading that article.
Changes:
- We're increasing the total Blue Essence from Milestones from 4750 to 9000. (starting with Act 2)
- We're adding a one-time compatible mission for 4250 BE to make up for the difference in Act 1. (Live with this patch, until the end of this Act)
- We're increasing Blue Essence from repeatable milestones from 50 to 750 BE. (Live with this patch)
- We're changing the last Champion Capsule in the Pass to a Glorious Champion Capsule. (Starting with Act 2)
- We're increasing Account XP gains by 40%. (Live with this patch)
Homeguard
We're adjusting Homeguard's range to cover the entire platform to remove any friction around where one should position while waiting in the spawn with a nerf to the duration to retain overall travel time to lanes.
- Homeguard range has been increased to cover the entire fountain platform.
- Homeguard Duration: 7 seconds โ 6 seconds.
Feets of Strength
The Feat of First Blood was chosen as a very clear tie-in to existing mechanics in Summoner's Rift, but it's clear that for the purposes of Feats of Strength it occurs too early and can create extremely frustrating experiences in combination with invades or early fights. We're replacing the Feat of First Blood with the Feat of Warfare, which is granted to the first team to reach three champion kills. We'll be keeping an eye on this in the future to ensure the gameplay is up to modern standards.
Feat of First Blood
- Removed.
Feat of Warfare
- Granted to the team which first reaches three champion kills.
Atakhan
Meter for Voracious vs Ruinous
Now that we've seen a good bit of player data as well as some early pro data, we are making some adjustments to how Atakhan's Form is determined, as well as a small nerf to Bloody Roses. Average players will see slightly more Voracious Atakhan while pro players may actually have a higher chance of seeing Ruinous; and both Voracious and Ruinous rewards will be nerfed with Voracious being nerfed significantly harder.
Threshold
- Threshold in Normal/Ranked Games: Reduced by around 20%
- Threshold in Swiftplay Games: Reduced by around 20%
Points Generation
- Points per Champion Kill: Reduced by a major amount
- Points from Champion Damage: Unchanged
- Points Increase when Alone: 1.85x Melee | 1.65x Ranged โ Unchanged
- Swiftplay Points Increase when Alone: 1.85x Melee | 1.65x Ranged โ 2x Melee | 1.75x Ranged
Voracious
Bloody Roses
Ranked
For the first two weeks of a new Ranked patch cycle we disable Apex duo MMR restrictions, so similar to past splits and years Apex duo MMR Restrictions will be turned back on in 25.S1.2.
Mel, the Soul's Reflection
Champions
Cassiopeia
Triumphant Passive move speed decreased.
Cassiopeia is a disproportionate winner in the Feats world, which is probably at least partially due to her lack of feet being a bit overcompensated. Cutting down some of the extra power she gets to make sure slithering isn't too beneficial compared to walking.
Passive - Serpentine Grace
- Triumphant Move Speed per level: 6 โ 5
- Default Serpentine Grace Move Speed unchanged.
Evelynn
E Move Speed increased at higher ranks. R damage increased.
Evelynn is among the worst-performing assassins after season start. Many assassins are now weaker in uncoordinated play due to Eyeball Collector being replaced with more vision-centric runes and we're working on bringing the weakest outliers back up where they belong. Evelynn is up first here, where we're providing her some better in-combat move speed and reliable late-game burst damage to help her assassinate better.
E - Whiplash
- Move Speed: 30% โ 30/35/40/45/50%
R - Last Caress
- Unempowered AP Ratio: (+65% AP) โ (+75% AP)
- Empowered AP Ratio: (+156% AP) โ (+180% AP)
Irelia
W damage decreased. E damage decreased. R damage decreased.
Irelia has been a strong performer for a while and is deserving of a nerf. However, we'd like to preserve how good she feels as a fast-moving auto-attacker with the tools to survive melee combat. As such, we're peeling out damage from places that she isn't very reliant on. Though there are a large number of changes here, each of these abilities contributes only a small fraction of her overall damage output.
W - Defiant Dance
- Minimum Damage: 10/25/40/55/70 (+40% Total AD) โ 10/20/30/40/50 (+40% Total AD)
- Maximum Damage: 30/75/120/165/210 (+120% Total AD) โ 30/60/90/120/150 (+120% Total AD)
E - Flawless Duet
- Damage: 80/125/170/215/260 (+80% AP) โ 70/110/150/190/230 (+80% AP)
R - Vanguard's Edge
- Damage: 125/250/375 (+70% AP) โ 125/200/275 (+70% AP)
Kayn
Increased Passive damage at lower levels.
Base Kayn and Red Kayn are about where we want them power-wise, but Blue Kayn isn't performing quite well enough. He doesn't need more late game burst, so we're raising up the floor of his passive a bit to give him a more powerful spike upon transforming that he can use to try to snowball the game.
Passive - The Darkin Scythe
- Shadow Assassin Bonus Magic Damage: 15-45% (based on level) โ 25-45% (based on level)
Malzahar
Updated W pets to now increase damage on level up.
Malzahar has under-the-hood updates to his W and R in this patch in order to open up mode-specific balancing for those abilities. As a result of these ability updates, already-spawned Voidlings now update their damage when Malzahar levels up and tooltip shows their actual damage instead of only part of the calculation.
W - Void Swarm
- Voidling damage now updates when Malzahar levels up
- Updated tooltip to show total Voidling attack damage
Master Yi
Attack Damage growth increased. E damage increased.
Master Yi is weak, so we're giving him some generic buffs to help out his sustained damage.
Base Stats
- Attack Damage Growth: 2.5 โ 2.8
E - Wuju Style
- On-hit True Damage: 20/25/30/35/40 (+30% Bonus AD) โ 20/25/30/35/40 (+35% Bonus AD)
Smolder
Q damage now scales to benefit from Infinity Edge.
We're delivering a very small Smolder buff, opening up Infinity Edge as a capstone option by letting its crit damage scale Q, since crit chance already scales the ability.
Q - Super Scorcher Breath
- Damage scales up to Critical Strike Multiplier based on Critical Strike Chance, allowing Smolder's Q to benefit from Infinity Edge.
Tahm Kench
Q damage decreased.
Tahm Kench is overperforming in both top lane and support. We like that he's tanky and can sustain himself back up if his opponents can't drag him down but he's overall too deadly, so we're delivering a straightforward damage nerf to his bread and butter ability.
Q - Tongue Lash
- Damage: 80/130/180/230/280 (+Passive) โ 75/120/165/210/255 (+Passive)
Viktor
Q damage decreased. R damage decreased.
Viktor is still doing a bit too well after 14.24's micropatch nerfs. So we're simply bringing down his late-game damage from places he shouldn't miss terribly.
Q - Siphon Power
- Empowered Attack Bonus Damage: 20/45/70/95/120 (+100% AD) (+60% AP) โ 20/45/70/95/120 (+100% AD) (+50% AP)
R - Arcane Storm
- Damage per tick: 65/105/145 (+45% AP) โ 65/105/145 (+35% AP)
Yuumi
Passive heal increased and cooldown decreased at higher levels. R damage increased.
Yuumi is understandably a bit weaker in a world where her contemporaries get 5 free Armor, MR, or Ability Haste and she doesn't. As she's overall one of the weakest supports in the game, we're delivering some extra power. We're targeting her overall gold scaling to give her power focused on at-home play where supports gain a decent amount of gold on average.
Passive - Feline Friendship
- Heal: 25-110 (based on level) (+15% AP) โ 25-110 (based on level) (+25% AP)
- Cooldown: 20-10 (based on level) (by level 11) โ 20-8 (based on level) (by level 13)
R - Final Chapter
- Damage: 75/100/125 (+20% AP) โ 75/125/175 (+25% AP)
- Max Damage over 5 waves: 75-250 (+40% AP) โ 75-350 (+50% AP)
Items
Lord Dominik's Regards
We're adjusting the crit armor penetration items in order to make their purpose sharper: better when faced with high armor enemies without making them clearly stronger when not facing them.
- Total Gold Cost: 3000 Gold โ 3100 Gold
- Armor Penetration: 35% โ 40%
Mortal Reminder
- Total Gold Cost: 3200 Gold โ 3300 Gold
- Armor Penetration: 30% โ 35%
Yun Tal Wildarrows
Yun-Tal has slid a bit in comparison to Collector with the higher pace of action demand on objectives from Feats. We are trying an aggressive buff to it, but still want it to remain a scaling option compared to Collector.
- Attack Damage: 50 โ 55
- Attack Speed: 25% โ 35%
- Total Gold Cost: 2900 Gold โ 3000 Gold
Runes
Deep Ward
Our new Domination Tree Vision minor runes have landed a bit soft. While it is largely expected that the average player will get less out of these runes than high MMR and pro play, we are still interested in tuning them up a bit.
- Yellow Trinket Duration: 30-120s (based on average champion level) โ 45-150s (based on average champion level)
Grisly Mementos
- Trinket Haste for each Memento: 4 (2 for Summoner Haste) โ 6 (3 for Summoner Haste
- Max Mementos: 25 โ 18
Sixth Sense
- Cooldown: 300s Melee / 360s Ranged โ 275s Melee / 350s Ranged
Swiftplay
Our first major Swiftplay balance patch is aimed at cleaning up some systemic issues and otherwise addressing champion balance outliers. For Gangplank, Pyke, Akshan, Draven, Twisted Fate, and Senna, their gold generation would count as normal gold and thus put their opponents into a comeback state, letting them earn more gold to keep pace. This kit-specific gold will no longer count for enemy comebacks but will still be multiplied if the Gangplank player themself is behind the curve.
We're otherwise bringing down mostly late-game scaling from overperforming champions this patch, as late-game XP and gold values are much more guaranteed, so those who are normally held down by weaker early games no longer have these weaknesses.
Bonus Gold Generation Mechanics
We're making it so that extra gold earned from champion mechanics does not trigger enemy gold comebacks/bounty adjustments. These sources of gold:
- Are increased by your own rubberbanding.
- Do not contribute to enemy rubberbanding.
- Do not count when calculating your own rubberbanding.
List of abilities affected:
- Gangplank Q
- Pyke R
- Akshan W
- Draven Passive
- Twisted Fate Passive
- Senna Passive
Champions
Kayle
Malzahar
Nilah
Qiyana
Rengar
Singed
Sivir
Teemo
Trundle
Urgot
Yorick
Zyra
ARAM
Hello ARAMers, In this patch we're focusing on shifting modifiers to champion spells for two beloved champions: Sett and Sona.
- Sett: We're redistributing some of the power from his W into his other spells. This change aims to ensure that all his abilities contribute meaningfully to his brawler fantasy.
- Sona: Her strength has largely come from frequent spell casting, but her Ability Haste has been heavily nerfed due to her passive. To address this, we're reducing the effects of her passive while restoring some of her damage and shielding power. The goal is to keep her at a similar power level overall, but we'll be closely monitoring her performance to ensure balance.
We're excited to see how these changes play out and let us know your feedback!
Champion Adjustments
Sona- Passive Max Stack Ability Haste: 60 โ 30
- Q Cooldown: 8 โ 10
- W Cooldown: 10 โ 13
- W Heal: 30/45/60/75/90 (+30% AP) โ 45/60/70/80/90 (+20% AP)
- W Shield: 25/45/65/85/105 (+25% AP) โ 65/75/85/95/105 (+20% AP)
- Removed Damage, Damage Taken, Heal, Shield, and Ability Haste nerfs
Sett
- W Max Health Storage: 50% โ 40%
- Q Bonus Speed: 30% โ 35%
- Removed Damage, Damage Taken, Heal, and Shield Nerfs
Karma
- RQ Bonus Magic Damage: 40/100/160/220 (+30% AP) โ 40/90/140/190
Champion Buffs
- Kai'sa: Damage Taken: 95% โ 90%
- Soraka: Ability Haste: 0 โ 10
ARURF
ARURF is back! It takes place on the Noxus map with all of its changes and systems, with a few tweaks to fit the increased pace of URF.
Champion balance and Item cooldowns have been adjusted from previous URF releases as well and we'll be keeping a close eye on item cooldowns and their impact on the game.
Mythic Shop
This update we'll be celebrating Lunar Revel amongst other thematics! Catch up on previously released Prestige Skins, Event Chromas, and Accessories. You'll need to act fast though because we're planning a second batch of beastly content rotating in 2025.S1.3!
Now Available
- Prestige Mythmaker Cassiopeia
- Prestige Mythmaker Sivir
- Prestige Porcelain Lissandra
- Prestige Heavenscale Ezreal
- Prestige Ocean Song Seraphine
- Prestige Mecha Kingdom Garen
- Firecracker Vayne Prestige Edition
- Hextech Sejuani
- Crystalis Motus Leona
- Porcelain Lissandra (Golden Tiger)
- Heavenscale Ezreal (Lustrous)
- Mythmaker Sivir (Gilded)
- Firecracker Vayne (Golden Tiger)
- Crystalis Motus Leona (Reclaimed)
- Mythmaker Galio (Gilded)
- Mythmaker Garen (Gilded)
- Mythmaker Irelia (Gilded)
- Mythmaker Zyra (Gilded)
- Heavenscale Wealth Icon
- Heavenscale Prosperity Icon
- Mecha Kingdoms 2020 Icon
- Lunar Revel 2022 Icon
- Heavenscale Focus Icon
- Mecha Kingdoms 2020 Ward
- Lunar Revel 2023 Ward
Leaving the Mythic Shop
- Kabooooom! Nexus Finisher
- Prestige Soul Fighter Pyke
- Prestige Heartsteel Yone
- Prestige Coven Akali
- Prestige True Damage Yasuo
- Ashen Conqueror Pantheon
- Hextech Amumu
- Mysterious Arcane Ward
- Winterblessed Ward
- Winterblessed Diana (Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Winterblessed Shaco (Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Winterblessed Swain (Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Winterblessed Warwick(Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Winterblessed Zilean (Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Winterblessed Zoe (Wreathguard) Chroma + Icon
- Arcane 2021 Icon
- Arcane Caitlyn Icon
- Arcane Ekko Icon
- Arcane Heimerdinger Icon
- Arcane Jayce Icon
- Arcane Jinx Icon
- Arcane Vi Icon
- Arcane Viktor Icon
- Winterblessed 2023 Mythic Essence Icon
- Lunar Revel 2024 Mythic Essence Icon
- High Noon 2024 Mythic Essence Icon
- MSI Empyrean 2024 Mythic Essence Icon
- Anima Squad 2024 Mythic Essence Icon
- Worlds 2024 Mythic Essence Icon
Bugfixes & QoL Changes
- Fixed an issue where Prestige Masque of the Black Rose Katarina was not granting the Prestige Border Icon. Players that have already earned this reward on the Battle Pass will be automatically granted the Border Icon.
- Fixed an issue that allowed extra bonus gold from the Cash Back rune in Swiftplay.
- Fixed an issue where a drake would sometimes be targetable or attackable during their spawn in animation in Swiftplay.
- Fixed an issue that caused 0g bounties to display in Swiftplay.
- Fixed an issue where Baron would spawn slightly out of place. Dashes that previously worked on Baron from over the wall like Diana's E should once again work as expected.
- Fixed an issue where various champions' channels were not cancelled when entering Atakhan's: False Life revive state. We haven't fixed all the interactions like this just yet but we're working through reproducing them and fixing them as we can.
- Fixed an issue that caused Naafiri's or Yorick's pets to remain at their location before a teleport.
- Fixed an issue that caused Ornn's Passive to cancel Teleport.
- Fixed an issue that caused various champions' abilities to not decrease the cooldowns on their R while using Axiom Arcanist.
- Fixed an issue where using Teleport with Zilean would cause increased passive cast time.
- Fixed an issue where when using Unsealed Spellbook if Teleport duration was longer than 5 seconds, your summoner spell wouldn't swap back.
- Fixed an issue that allowed the use of summoner spells while in the Atakhan revive state.
- Fixed an issue that caused Dr. Mundo and Zilean to not gain additional healing when using Axiom Arcanist.
- Fixed an issue that caused Karma's RQ combo to not trigger Axiom Arcanist.
- Fixed an issue that caused Ivern's passive to have an increased cast time when using Teleport.
- Fixed an issue that caused Hextech Drake's auto attacks to be invisible.
- Fixed an issue that caused Sion to sometimes not receive the Homeguard buff.
- Fixed an issue that caused Tower Ranges to be slightly off. Try to outrange the tower now, Caitlyn.
- Fixed an issue that caused Bloodletter's Curse to not apply to multiple target dummies at once.
- Fixed an issue that caused the client to crash after disconnecting.
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to buy upgraded boots despite not completing all feats.
- Fixed an issue that caused Rek'Sai's model to become invisible if she dies during her R channel with Atakahn's Revive.
- Fixed an issue that caused Forever Forward Boots to lose empowered Recall.
- Fixed an issue that caused Crimson Lucidity - Ionian Insight's passive to not grant the correct amount of Summoner Spell Haste.
- Fixed an issue where Annie's Q would go on cooldown when killing a target with a different ability.
- Fixed an issue where the Blood Rose minimap icon would sometimes linger permanently.
- Fixed an issue where the Feat banner icons sometimes displayed with a lower resolution.
- Fixed an issue where pinging Feats would not have SFX.
- Fixed an issue where if Teleporting to a unit and it dies the Teleport would be lost.
- Fixed an issue where Drake announcements would display twice.
- Fixed an issue where duplicate items would display in a Collection.
- Fixed an issue where Ambessa's Passive would ignore Dodge or Blind.
- Fixed an issue where the Magic Resist from Rumble's E would not increase by 50% in Danger Zone.
- Fixed an issue that caused Zoe's W to display the old summoner spell icons.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Feat announcement icon to display when an enemy team progresses a Feat.
- Fixed an issue that caused Scorch or Lethal Tempo to deal unintended extra damage.
- Fixed an issue that caused some Debug text to appear in Teleport's tooltip.
- Fixed an issue that caused Malzahar's E to not grant Bloodletter's Curse stacks.
- Fixed an issue where Atakhan's UI elements would sometimes be out of bounds of the UI in spectator view.
- Fixed an issue where Atakhan's Objective Timer would not display in spectator view.
- Fixed an issue where Aurora's Battle Bunny skin's E VFX would not match the hitbox.
- Fixed an issue that caused Atakhan's scoreboard to not be aligned.
- Fixed an issue that caused pets to not trigger Shojin or Malignance consistently.
Upcoming Skins & Chromas
The following skins will be released in this patch:
The following chromas will be released this patch: