Naafiri gets these big changes in LoL patch 25.6

LoL patch 25.6 has just had its details revealed, and Naafiri mains will want to pay close attention to some big upcoming changes.

With  First Stand season in full swing for League of Legends, shakeups to the competitive meta are inevitable. The recent nerfs to lane swapping have proved controversial, yet players at every level have quickly adapted to the new normal.

Lead gameplay designer at Riot Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison just shared the official patch preview for 25.6, and it spells big changes for a few champions. Of those changes, Naafiri has seemingly undergone a major rework. Riot acknowledged her poor win rate and overall design issues in taking steps to fix her simplistic assassin kit.

What changed for Naafiri in LoL patch 25.6?

Riot has updated Naafiri with LoL patch 25.6 to have more outplay potential, swapping some skills around for a more efficient power budget. Naafiri’s low-skill floor and limited ceiling mean she doesn’t have a presence in high Elo play.  Her pick rate is just 1%, making her one of the least-picked heroes in the entire game. Despite that pick rate, she does have an average win rate of 52.28%, though how much of that is due to players’ lack of experience against Naafiri and her only being played by stalwarts is debatable.

To fix her predictable play pattern, Riot has opted for some major changes to the Naafiri kit. The biggest by far is swapping her W and R. Naafiri’s W is now The Call of the Pack, which comes with the following significant changes:

• No longer has interactions with Hounds’ Pursuit
• Grants untargetability for 1 second to Naafiri, her packmates, and turrets
• Packmates are now capped at 2
• Bonuses from Packmates are now reduced to 5 seconds
• Bonus attack damage changed to a flat 20% of total attack damage
• Bonus move speed reduced from 70/85/100% (decays over duration) to 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% (no decay)
• Increased bonus move speed duration to 5 seconds
• Cooldown reduced to 20/19.5/19/18.5/18
• Mana cost reduced to 60

In R’s place is Hounds’ Pursuit, which also bears some significant changes:

• Can only target champions
• Does not stop at the first champion hit
• No longer refunds 50% cooldown if the channel is canceled prematurely
• After the first takedown, Naafiri can recast [R] for 12 seconds and reveal an area of 2100 radius around her for 4 seconds
• The second cast grants a 100/150/200 shield for 3 seconds
• Cast range is now a flat 900
• Cooldown increased to 110/95/80
• Mana cost increased to a flat 100

Her We Are More passive ability can now have a maximum of 5 Packmates, with increased damage across the board at the cost of some survivability. Other minor changes include a slight damage ratio increase for (Q) Darkin Daggers and a slight nerf in damage and range to (E) Eviscerate. Riot hopes that these Naafiri changes will result in a higher pick rate for the champion.

Gwen, Singed receive changes in patch 25.6

Champions Gwen and Singed will also receive minor changes in the upcoming PBE. One of the issues Riot noted with Gwen is how heavily backloaded her scaling is. While it gave her a powerful late game, it did mean she had minimal impact in the early to mid-game. Gwen now has a higher base HP to compensate for her slightly lower HP gain per level. Early game skills such as (Q) Snip Snip and (E) Skip ‘n Slash now deal more damage and also support Riot’s push for a more well-rounded flow for Gwen.

Meanwhile, Singed also got some slight adjustments to make him feel better, especially while farming. He now has a slightly faster base attack, and (Q) Poison Trail now grants Singed minion kills if they die under its effects. Patch 25.6 will launch on March 19, 2025.