League of Legends’ mid patch 10.25b released, Akali made it to the nerf list

Riot Games revealed League of Legends' last mid patch update of the year, 10.25b, to bridge over the stop-gap for fans before Season 11.

With patch 10.25 put into play a few days ago and 11.1 knocking at the doors, this minor update has received mixed reviews all over social media.

According to League of Legends’ gameplay director Mark Yetter, the hotfix patch is nothing but a tweak to beat the holidays.

This Christmas, League of Legends fans will get to play with a buffed Kayn and Gangplank, whereas champions like Malphite, Akali, Galio, Olaf, and Anivia are all set to be slapped with nerfs.

The changes have been made for bug fixes and to improve the overall in-game balance. Riot Authors Tricia "Mom Cat" Tan and Anna "Shio Shoujo" Woo stated:

"We’ll be following up on balance outliers with an end-of-year 10.25b mid-patch update to tie up all the loose ends before we ring in the holidays."

They further added that, as promised, they've been doing one last round of balance changes to make sure League of Legends is in a good state prior to the winter break.

In a recent tweet, Yetter posted the outline of the League of Legends patch 10.25b featuring all the buffs, nerfs, and adjustments.

Patch Preview for 10.25b (hotfix patch before the holiday)This should be going live tomorrow afternoon. I'll bump when it does. pic.twitter.com/J7xcsCUFov

— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) December 15, 2020

League of Legends patch 10.25b notes: Changes and Bug fixes

1. Akali

• PASSIVE - ASSASSIN'S MARK MOVE SPEED: 40/50/60/70% ⇒ 30/40/50/60%
• PASSIVE - ASSASSIN'S MARK DAMAGE: 39-180 (+60% bonus AD) (+50% AP) ⇒ 29-170 (+60% bonus AD) (+40% AP)

2. Anivia

• E - FROSTBITE BASE DAMAGE: 60/90/120/150/180 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170
• E - FROSTBITE COST: 40 mana ⇒ 50 mana

3. Galio

• W - SHIELD OF DURAND COOLDOWN: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 18/17.5/17/16.5/16 seconds

4. Gangplank

• BASE AD GROWTH: 3 ⇒ 4

5. Kayn

• BASE ARMOR: 35 ⇒ 38
• Q - REAPING SLASH BASE DAMAGE: 65/85/105/125/145 ⇒ 75/95/115/135/155

6. Malphite

• BASE MAGIC RESIST: 32.1 ⇒ 28

7. Miss Fortune

• W - STRUT BUGFIX: Fixed a bug where Strut's attack speed would not increase with rank.
• GUN GODDESS MISS FORTUNE BUGFIX: Gun Goddess Miss Fortune's guns and Q/E/R VFX are no longer missing before a form is selected.

8. Olaf

• Q - UNDERTOW SLOW: 29/33/37/41/45% ⇒ 25/30/35/40/45%
• W - VICIOUS STRIKES ATTACK SPEED: 55/65/75/85/95% ⇒ 50/60/70/80/90%

9. Rell

• E - ATTRACT AND REPEL QOL CHANGE: Rell's E would incorrectly prioritize targeting Rell rather than snapping when used with other abilities. We're changing it so she can't target herself with E within three seconds of taking damage from a champion, casting another ability, or basic attacking another champion to avoid this problem.

10. The Collector

• BUGFIX: Fixed a bug that caused The Collector to pierce through champion death passives.

11. Ironspike Whip

• SLOT SWAP BUGFIX: Fixed a bug where Ironspike Whip's (and the items it builds into) cooldown would reduce to 0 when moving slots in the item inventory.
• TOTAL COST: 3400 gold ⇒ 2500 gold

12. Sunfire Aegis

• While relatively balanced, Sunfire Aegis continues to dominate tank Mythic choices. We're giving the other items more of a chance to be explored.
• IMMOLATE RAMPING DAMAGE 12% per second up to 72% ⇒ 10% per second, up to 60%

Riot Games' response to fans’ feedbacks

As soon as the mid-patch 10.25b’s preview was out for the League of Legends, fans, Tweeps, and Redditors seemed unhappy with Akali’s nerf. As a point of clarification to this, Riot Authors of League of Legends stated:

“Akali was a big winner in the preseason. In that, her win rate climbed considerably from awful to okay for most players."

They further added that they've been hoping of not having to nerf Akali until the start of the pro play, but unfortunately, she's been breaking ban rate limits in Elite play. This resulted in her prolonged combat damage decreasing.

Unfortunately, we had to bump the Hurricane changes from the 10.25b patch into 11.1, they will definitely be coming in the new year. Have some early 11.1 previews for you all later today, it's only partially finished though.

— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) December 15, 2020

Mark Yetter further clarified to the League of Legends audience that many other major changes were planned for the 10.25b patch. But unfortunately, those won’t be up anytime before the next year.

League of Legends fans would still have to wait for a month before the major changes come up in 11.1.