League of Legends patch 25.20 is the Worlds 2025 patch, and it brings some changes to lane swaps and champion tweaks.
Worlds 2025 is right around the corner, and details of the patch they're playing on are here. Here's how we think the buffs and nerfs to various champions in League of Legends patch 25.20 will affect the pro players competing for glory in Worlds. This patch also introduces a change to lane swaps, but is it effective?
Lane swap changes in LoL patch 25.20
The lane swap detection in the top lane now ends at 4:00 in-game time instead of 3:00. This further disincentivizes 2v1 lanes and delays the swap for priority over Voidgrubs. However, this does not deter laneswaps completely.
We may see teams make creative calls to get around this new restriction.
Champions most affected by the Worlds 2025 patch
Azir
Azir got "adjusted" this patch. The dev note explained that Azir is getting a weaker early game in exchange for better late-game scaling. This may skew some lane matchups away from Azir, but his impact in teamfights and the threat that he poses are mostly left untouched.
The Emperor of Shurima is part of most pro mid-laners' arsenal (or support, if you're Alan "Busio" Cwalina). In this year's MSI, he had a 94.7% presence in drafts. This means he was either picked or banned in 18 of the 19 series played in the event.
Notably, though, he was left unpicked and unbanned in Worlds 2024. This will most certainly not be the case for this event — expect to see a lot of Azir.
Orianna
Orianna got a slight hit to her early game, too. The damage on her W was changed to be more scaling, to incentivize her to pick up more AP.
This shouldn't affect her presence at all in Worlds 2025. The change isn't severe enough to change lane matchups, and pros can certainly look for ways to get over this slight bump very quickly.
Pantheon
This is a slight buff to Pantheon jungle, which is currently his one-and-only role in pro play. He's not usually the highest priority jungler, but he's a good pick in a pinch, especially with Fearless Draft.
This change may bump his priority a little higher (especially with the Wukong nerfs, see below). Expect to see more bans headed Pantheon's way, and Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong to strike a bit more fear into Anyone's Legend's enemies when he picks him.
Wukong
Wukong is in a similar state to Pantheon. While the Unbreakable Spear gets a slight combat stim, the Monkey King is getting taken down a peg. The slight flat damage buff on his E does not compensate for the lost scaling on Q.
Other changes in League of Legends 25.20, the Worlds patch
Briar, Katarina, Malphite, Veigar, Volibear, and Warwick all received small changes to their kits that shouldn't move the needle their mostly non-existent presence in professional play.
Meanwhile, Anivia, Camille, Fizz, and Graves received decent changes, but their niche-ness in the current meta is most likely not affected at all.
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