Naafiri was actually a pleasant surprise in League of Legends 2023. As a new champion, she was not complicated, and many fans appreciated her monster design. However, she is now being changed and most likely pushed into a different position.
Who is Naafiri? Naafiri appeared in July 2023 and was essentially an assassin for beginners. Unlike other assassins, she had no complex abilities. Her dashes were easy to execute, and she could deal a lot of damage. Although she was highly banned at release, she never became a hugely popular champion.
If you look at the statistics on U.GG, you can see that Naafiri is currently only relevant in the mid lane. There, she has an overall pick rate of 1.8% and a win rate of 51.99%. In the jungle, things look much worse. There, she has a pick rate of 0.3% and a win rate of 47.53% (as of: 05.03.2025, 17:41).
Now, however, Naafiri is set to be changed, as RiotAugust describes on x.com. In particular, they want to adjust her playability in the jungle and give her more outplay potential.
Less Damage, More Dogs
What will be changed? On x.com, RiotAugust has already shown what the changes to Naafiri will look like. The biggest change is probably that her Ultimate and her W will switch. However, both spells will be adjusted. At the same time, jungle clearing is expected to improve, and she can have more dogs than before:
- She will get less health and health regeneration per level.
- Passive: She can have 5 dogs instead of 3 when she reaches level 15, but the health gain and damage are weakened. To survive in the jungle, the dogs now deal more damage (155%) to monsters.
- Q Ability: The ability deals less damage.
- W Ability: The W will become the old R. The hunt duration, mana cost, and cooldown will be reduced. The values for damage and movement speed will be adjusted. Naafiri cannot be targeted for 1 second. The shield that provided additional health to the dogs will be removed, and the buff will no longer be reduced upon a kill or assist.
- E Ability: Cooldown will be reduced, and the range will be increased. The damage will also be reduced, but the dash is no longer always at maximum range, but now to where the cursor is within range.
- R Ability: The new Ultimate is the old W. You will now be able to recast the ability if Naafiri achieves a kill or assist within 7 seconds. Cooldown, damage, and mana cost will be increased. The range is fixed at 900, and the ability can no longer be blocked.
Overall, Naafiri’s damage is reduced, and she receives some improvements for the jungle. Due to the changes, her all or nothing
playstyle could change.
What does the community say about it? On Reddit, the community reacted to the changes:
- The user wheels-of-confusion (via Reddit) sees Naafiri with the changes possibly as a bruiser:
I wonder if she will be broken with a bruiser build. The whole kit now looks much more geared towards skirmishing and more sustained fights.
- The user woofwoofpack (via Reddit) compares her to another champion:
R and W swapped, R cannot be blocked, and W gives some durability. So she is now Nocturne.
- NA-45 (via Reddit) does not like the changes at all:
As someone who actually plays Naafiri, these [changes] look pretty bad. I know I’m in a tiny minority, but I like her current kit
When will the update be released? The Naafiri update is expected to appear soon on the PBE, the test server of LoL. The update for Naafiri should then appear with Patch 25.06 on March 19, 2025. Since the changes are only being tested on the PBE, some aspects of the update may still change before the full release. A new feature from 2025 is particularly appreciated by some pros in LoL: Professionals from Europe praise new format in LoL: It is the future of e-sports
