League of Legends Releases New Update for February 2025

Summary

League of Legendshas released update 25.04, with new cosmetics, champion adjustments, and bug fixes. This will be the last updateLeague of Legendswill receive for Season 1, Act 1, which, following the success ofArcane’s second season, has brought a wave of themed content to the game.

This first act was entitled “Welcome to Noxus” and started on January 9. It centers on Noxus and the Black Rose after the events of the Netflix series, and its main highlight isMel’s debut as a newLeague of Legendschampion. Another addition was the Masque of the Black Rose skin line, with new cosmetics telling the story of the Black Rose ball in Noxus for Elize, Ezreal, Katarina, Renata Glasc, Samira, and Vladimir. Riot also released two new motion comics, “Bringer of Ruin” and “The Fourth Principle.”

League of Legends Tag Page Cover Art

Now Riot has releasedLeague of Legendsupdate 25.04, and one of the main new features is the debut of the Masked Justice skins for Senna, Lucian, and Yone, along with the Quantum Galaxy Slayer Zed skin. TheLeague of Legendscosmeticswill be available from February 20 at 9 pm UCT, along with chromas for Lucian, Senna, and Yone. Another important change made by the update is the Honor System, which has been revamped to better reflect the interaction between players. In this way, the devs say the system will be more effective at “showing a player’s impact on their teammates” instead of just how many matches they’ve played.

With update 25.04 live, several champions have received tweaks, most notably theLeague of Legendscharacters who can jungle. Diana, who has been proving popular in the lane, has received buffs to enhance her performance in the mid lane, while Ekko has been buffed to improve his presence in both lanes. Teemo has also gained more power for jungle, while Elise, who is strong in support, will have some of her power to support teammates moved to her jungle potential. Outside the Summoner’s Rift junglers, Mel has received several adjustments to make her playstyle not as overly safe.

In addition to newLeague of Legendsskinsand champion balancing, this update has revealed the Clash 2025 calendar, with new tournaments for players to join and rewards to get. The Mythic Shop has an array of new cosmetics available, such as Prestige K/DA Evelynn and Prestige PROJECT: Zed. Meanwhile, skins such as Lancer Zero Hecarim and Prestige Lunar Beast Fiora are leaving the store.

League of Legends Update 25.04 Patch Notes

Honor Revamp

As of this patch, the Honor system has been revamped to better reflect how players interact with one another. Instead of steadily progressing over a Season (unless you’re penalized), your Honor now updates regularly based on your recent behavior. Our goal with these changes was to make Honor about how you show up and the positive impact you have on your teammates, not just how many games you’ve played. As always, we want this system to create a safer and more positive environment for everyone in the community and we believe these changes will help get us there.

Now that Honor is a more accurate evaluation of behavior, we’re tying it to communication privileges and other rewards. Honor 3 now represents neutral players who aren’t being disruptive or positive. All the baseline features to play and communicate with your team are available at this level. Higher levels of Honor are reserved for players who are consistently positive, respectful, and collaborative. These players are rewarded Battle Pass XP drops and benefits like visible Honor levels. At Honor 5 you’ll gain access to ally-targeted pings to call for things like Dearest Karthus’s ultimate. Meanwhile, Honor levels 1 and 2 indicate an active penalty on your account due to recent disruptive behavior and, as a result, access to rewards and some chat usability will be restricted.

For even more details about the system, check out the Honor FAQ here! These updates will go live on February 20th 21:00 UTC, shortly after the patch goes live.

Ashe

Q, W, and R damage increased.

After her recent adjustments Ashe is sitting a bit on the weaker side, so this patch we’re looking to add the bite back to her frost. For this change list, we’re looking to give her some more power in the mid game by increasing the AD scaling on her Q and W while also giving her a bit more up front damage on her R so that Ashe and her allies can more successfully burst down enemies she’s engaged on.

Diana

Passive damage to monsters decreased. Q and W damage increased.

Diana has quickly risen in the ranks as a jungler but is currently struggling as a mid laner. We’re giving her some generally helpful buffs to make her a stronger mid lane while pulling down some jungle mods with the intent to slightly nerf her there. We’re specifically choosing to increase her early game flat damage as a way to open up non-assassin build paths and to reduce some of her current low-MMR skew.

Ekko

Q damage increased.

Ekko’s currently sitting a bit weak in both the jungle and mid lane, so we’ve got some timely buffs to help him out. We’ve got some extra base damage for his Q which should help him shave seconds clearing jungle camps and minion waves without needing additional power from items.

Elise

W (human form) damage decreased, W (spider form) cooldown decreased, bonus attack speed increased. R spiderling damage increased.

Elise jungle was quite weak at the start of the season, but recent buffs to Dark Harvest and Electrocute have brought her back to viability. However, Elise support has taken over as she’s a bit too strong overall, so we’re removing some of her support one-shot potential and buffing her sustained spider powers so that she still has a leg (8 legs) to stand on as a jungler.

Gangplank

AD growth increased.

Gangplank’s been avoiding his oranges and needs a dose of vitamin B (for buffs). We’ve cooked him up some base stat buffs due to how cleanly it benefits both his Q and his synergies with Trinity Force.

Hwei

Passive damage decreased. QW damage decreased early. WE damage decreased.

Hwei’s currently painting L’s for his opponents, especially when it’s a higher skilled player holding the brush. As a champion that benefits from his flexibility to adapt to all situations we’re looking to reduce how well he can optimize his laning phase and other tools that better players typically use.

Jayce

W attack speed increased.

We’ve got a pretty straight forward change for Jayce this patch. Last patch when we raised the attack speed cap, we missed increasing his W to match, so we’re back to right that wrong.

Kalista

W damage decreased early.

Kalista’s changes at the start of the year succeeded in making her quite a bit nicer to play, but she’s a bit overpowered right now whether you’re a pro player or have simply learned how to play this difficult markswoman. Since most players haven’t mastered Kalista’s high skill curve, we’re opting to be more pro-focused with this nerf, so we’re hitting her Soul-Marked damage as an attempt to focus on that tier of play while leaving your average Kalista player relatively untouched.

Kog’Maw

Q damage decreased, AP ratio increased.

Kog’Maw normally sits at pretty high win rates due to being easy to play and always having room for counterplay. However, he’s winning a little bit more than is fair right now, so we’re delivering a small tap down. We’re just taking away some damage that he shouldn’t really miss, as we’d like to preserve his rapid-fire spitballs as best-in-class. That said, AP Kog is getting some compensation for this nerf as it’s not very strong right now and could use the help.

Lulu

W bonus attack speed decreased, cooldown increased. E damage and shield strength decreased.

Lulu is in quite a strong state right now and has power she can afford to lose so we’re looking to give her some meaningful nerfs this patch. Help, Pix! is one of Lulu’s most flexible and reliable abilities, so we’re looking to take it down a notch while also removing a bit of power from her Whimsy.

Mel

Multiple changes, overall safety decreased, damage scaling increased.

Mel has been very popular both to pick and to ban. We believe Mel experiences just a little too much safety for opponents to effectively punish her due to her range and ability durations. So to correct that we’re lowering her Q range and speed, W duration, and early E root duration to make her a more assailable target. At the same time, we’re returning some of her ability to scale into the mid and late game with some added damage to both E and R while lowering the damage value of W from rank up which results in some painful end game experiences.

Nautilus

Nautilus' power levels are currently sinking, especially in solo queue, so we’re looking to give him back a little power in his Q to make him a bit more of a kill threat early game so he can get those early takedowns and ride that wave to a win.

Sion

Base armor and health regeneration increased.

Sion’s not in the best state at the moment, and since we’re about to nerf a bunch of his main items we’re setting him up with some proactive compensation buffs. We’re doing this by giving him some base defensive power that he lost from his items. Additionally, Sion currently struggles in lane with a lot of losing matchups, so we’re targeting his base armor instead of armor scaling to specifically help him in the early game.

Teemo

E damage to monsters increased.

Teemo jungle has definitely gotten weaker since we all went Noxus, and the recent nerfs to his E definitely didn’t do him any favors there. Since he’s already in a good spot in his other positions we’re giving him very specific jungle power.

Warwick

Q mana cost increased.

Warwick’s actually doing just fine in the jungle, but his power in top lane is, well, over the top. We’re looking to offset this difference by hitting his Q here since he maxes it first when playing top but second when in the jungle.

Yasuo

Passive critical damage reduction removed.

Yasuo hasn’t been able to find his stride recently, so we’re here to put some wind behind his metaphorical sails this patch. We’d like it if Yasuo players were more willing to buy early crit chance, so we’re softening his crit damage modifier from way back when base crit damage was 200%.

Items

Abyssal Mask

Though Abyssal Mask is doubly situational, both needing MR and other magic-damage teammates to synergize with, it was overbuffed at season start and doesn’t need to be quite so good. We’re fine with Abyssal being a fairly rare purchase, as it’s not important that tanks consistently raise damage output across the board.

Magic Resistance: 50 ⇒ 45

Fimbulwinter

We’ve had Fimbulwinter on our radar for a while. It’s been a very strong item for a while, but it’s been consistently overlooked, especially since not all tanks need mana. However, we’re at a point now where champions who are between two options (Fimbulwinter vs. Muramana or vs. Seraph’s Embrace) should clearly always be choosing the tank option. We’re looking to fix that this patch, so we’re bringing its shield down a notch.

Everlasting Shield: 100-180 (based on level) (+4.5% current mana) ⇒ 100 (+4.5% current mana) (Note: this is roughly 30% less shielding in average cases)

Heartsteel

While very popular and the current poster child of frustrating tank items, we don’t believe Heartsteel is actually quite as powerful as its reputation may suggest. The nerf here is meant to be fairly small as a result. That said, the high-end snowball cases for this item can get out of hand, so we’re specifically going after the best-case scenarios where it gains over 1000 bonus HP and feeds into all the other HP scaling.

Colossal Consumption Max Health: 10% of damage ⇒ 8% of damage

Infinity Edge

ADC builds take a little bit too long to get off the ground at the moment, so we’re shrinking their most-built item, Infinity Edge, in order to let them get into the rest of their build sooner.

Price: 3600 ⇒ 3450 gold

Attack Damage: 70 ⇒ 65

Mercury Treads

After making several balance passes at level 2 boots late last year, we’ve gotten them to a point where they’re appropriately competitive with legendary items. That said, we’ve got some minor balance outliers within the boots space itself, so we’re looking to bring up some of the worst performers and bring down the top end a touch.

First is Mercury’s Treads, which is the weakest tank footwear. We know 50 gold doesn’t sound like a lot, but boots are small items and as a percentage, this is like dropping 125 gold off of a full legendary.

Price: 1300 ⇒ 1250 gold

Plated Steelcaps

As Mercury’s Treads are getting a bit stronger, Plated Steelcaps are getting a bit weaker, since they’re currently the strongest boots in the game. This has the added benefit of being a very small buff for ADCs, which we’re happy to lightly buff in the short term.

Damage Reduction from Auto Attacks: 12% ⇒ 10%

Symbiotic Soles

Symbiotic Soles are the worst-performing boots in the game for most players, so they’re deserving of a buff. We’re being a bit cautious here, only giving 5 move speed to the unupgraded version, but we’ll keep an eye out to see if they’re deserving of more love in the future.

Flat Movement Speed: 35 ⇒ 40 (Note: Evolved movement speed unchanged at 45)

Unending Despair

Unending Despair was the strongest tank item in the game before season start, but players hadn’t really caught on. Now that it’s generically purchasable with both armor and MR, players are flocking in and identifying that it is indeed very, very good. As the intent was to push the item more toward health stackers, we’re continuing on that trend, making it still great for champions who stack bonus health and less of a generic tank item that anyone can grab.

Anguish: 8-15 (based on level) (+3% bonus health) ⇒ 3% of bonus health (Note: this is a 10-15% nerf to the item’s damage)

Systems

Atakhan

In this patch we’ve adjusted Atakhan’s Form Spawn Rules to better reflect how bloody a game feels with what form Atakhan takes on. This also includes accounting for differences between what a bloody game looks like in Solo Q vs Professional Matches.

2025 Clash Schedule

Clash 2025 is just around the corner so get your 5 stacks and clear these dates for your shot at Clash supremacy! As mentioned in the last dev update, we’re reducing the amount of Clash tournaments this year from 12 to 6 total. But we are going to be experimenting with some new tournament formats like ARURF Clash and bringing back player favorites like the ARAM Cup. So get your teams together and we’ll see you on the Rift (or Howling Abyss)!

Tournament Days

Updated Rewards

Since we’re reducing the amount of Clash tournaments this year by half, we’re also recalibrating the VP required for each tier of rewards. Check out the new VP requirements down below:

ARAM

Hello ARAMers!

We have a light patch for 25.04, with a focus on Teemo. Trap-based champions have historically been difficult to balance due to ARAM’s unique vision system. This time, we’re giving Teemo players back more opportunities to plant shrooms while reducing their overall impact. Our goal is to maintain his champion fantasy while keeping an eye on frustration levels.

On the tank front, several tank items have been nerfed in Summoner’s Rift this patch. We’ll be monitoring tanks' performance in ARAM to determine whether individual adjustments are necessary. We’re also working on a Sett nerf for the next patch, so stay tuned! And as always, GLHF!

Swiftplay

Death Timers

Now that there’s a hard cap on how long Swiftplay games can go, we’re pulling down on late-game respawn timers so that players can more readily fight for their (Nexus’s) life.

Death Timer Multiplier (minutes 10-35): 100-133% ⇒ 100-112%

Champions

Now that Yorick has a sudden death cutoff that covers up his weak endgame power COMBINED with the fact that the sudden death mechanic favors his specialty of dealing structure damage his power levels are off the charts, so we’re here to bring Yorick back down to Earth Runeterra.

AD Growth: 5 ⇒ 4.3

R Maiden Mark Damage: 2/2.5/3% max health ⇒ 1.5/1.75/2% max health