On December 16th, Riot released a hotfix to patch 25.24 in League of Legends, or patch 25.24b. This patch brings new balance changes before Riot employees go on vacation for the rest of the year. The hotfixes nerf Aatrox, Qiyana, Sylas, Zaahen, and other outliers of 25.24. However, the update was applied without any mention or official post. So here are the winners and losers of 25.24b!
The hotfix to the latest patch brings changes to 9 champions:
| Champion | Goal of the changes | Previous values | Changes from 25.24b | Last changes before 25.24b (if recent) | Win rate in 25.24a | Win rate in 25.24b | Win rate delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aatrox | Jungle clear nerfs | Q minimum bonus monster damage: 40 | Q minimum bonus monster damage: 15 | 25.23: Passive monster damage cap increased to 100-320 from 100 Q now deals 40 bonus damage to monsters (increasing with the spell’s damage modifiers) | 49.84% (jungle) | 47.66% | -2.18 |
| Ambessa | Late game nerfs | Passive damage scaling: 30% bonus AD E damage scaling: 40-60% bonus AD | Passive damage scaling: 25% bonus AD E damage scaling: 50% bonus AD | 25.23: Q bonus monster damage increased to 150 from 125 | 48.54% (top lane) | 47.99% | -0.55 |
| Lux | Damage buffs when hitting Q | Passive damage scaling: 30% AP Q damage scaling: 65% AP | Passive damage scaling: 35% AP Q damage scaling: 75% AP | No recent changes | 49.96% (support) 50.98% (mid lane) | 50.41% (support) 52.06% (mid lane) | +0.45 (support) +1.08 (mid lane) |
| Miss Fortune | Health nerfs | Base health: 640 Health Growth: 103 | Base health: 625 Health Growth: 100 | 25.23: R scaling increased to 80% AD per wave from 75% | 52.87% (bot lane) | 51.9% | -0.97 |
| Qiyana | Jungle clear nerfs | Q monster damage: 1.75x | Q monster damage: 1.55x | 25.21: Health growth reduced to 121 from 124 Q scaling reduced to 85% bonus AD from 90% | 46.06% (jungle) | 44.46 | -1.60 |
| Sylas | Jungle clear nerfs | Passive monster damage: 1.3x | Passive monster damage: 1.15x | 25.18: Passive monster damage reduced to 1.3x from 1.5x | 49.71% (jungle) | 48.2% | -1.51 |
| Tahm Kench | Top lane buffs | Passive damage scaling: 4% bonus HP | Passive damage scaling: 4.5% bonus HP | No recent changes | 49.07% (support) 49.73% (top lane) | 50.61% (support) 50.5% (top lane) | +1.54 (support) +0.77 (top lane) |
| Volibear | Buffs to AD builds | W damage scaling: 100% AD | W damage scaling: 110% AD | 25.23: Base AD increased to 65 from 62 | 49.5% (top lane) 51.39% (jungle) | 50.61% (top lane) 52.33% (jungle) | +1.11 (top lane) +0.94 (jungle) |
| Zaahen | General nerfs | Q recast duration: 5 seconds Q1 heals against all units Q1 bonus damage scaling: 20-60% bonus AD Q2 bonus damage scaling: 20-60% bonus AD E outer ring bonus damage scaling: 100% bonus AD | Q recast duration: 4 seconds Q1 heals against living units only Q1 bonus damage scaling: 20-40% bonus AD Q2 bonus damage scaling: 20-40% bonus AD E outer ring bonus damage scaling: 75% bonus AD | 25.24a: Diverse nerfs again | 50.79% (top lane) | 48.41% | -2.58 |
The biggest losers of this patch are Aatrox, Qiyana, and Sylas.
Zaahen as well, of course, but this is his third nerf while he was only released in the last patch. The Darkin came out overly strong, to the point where even two nerfs later, he still terrorized the Rift. On patch 25.24, Zaahen was decent in the hands of people who had never played him, and excellent for his mains. Zaahen took another big hit but he started way up there, and the champion remains strong.
Players of jungle Aatrox, Qiyana, and Sylas, tough; they faced a rough surprise going into Summoner’s Rift for what they thought would be just another game. The three champions were nerfed without any mention of it, as Riot put no announcement in the client or website. An early Christmas present, and players of these three champions were on Riot’s naughty list.
Aatrox, Qiyana, and Sylas all have a noticeably slower jungle clear in patch 25.24b. A slower clear means a longer time until level 3, arriving later at the first crab, being unable to do the first gank as early, and generally speaking farming less efficiently over the course of the game. This simple characteristic turned the three characters into much worse junglers all by itself.
Sylas, down but not out after the nerfs. Image source: Riot Games
With these nerfs, the best junglers to play on the current patch are Rek’Sai, Jax, Rammus, Jayce, and still Sylas.
Patch 25.24b was the last patch of season 2025. The next update will be on January 8th, 2026, for the beginning of the next season. Read about season 26 changes here.
Featured image source: Riot Games
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