Five League of Legends champions that desperately need a rework

With over a decade of patches and gameplay changes, League of Legends is constantly evolving. And while Riot’s done a decent job of keeping the roster fresh with new champions and long-awaited reworks, not every champion has been so lucky. Some are still rocking their kits from 2009 in a 2025 game – and it shows. 

Outdated mechanics and clunky abilities have left several champions behind in the current meta. They might have been fine back in the day, but are no longer cutting it in today’s fast-paced, counterplay-based League of Legends. So here are five LoL champions that desperately need a rework in 2025. 

League of Legends has over 160 champions and counting, and not all of them are ageing gracefully. Some were designed in the original era of the game, with point-and-click stuns and crit RNG. Reworks help bring outdated champions back in line with modern expectations: more counterplay, more mobility, more skill expression, and less frustration (for everyone involved).

Riot’s goal with reworks is to keep older characters relevant in an evolving meta – ideally making them more fun to play and play against. It’s all about breathing new life into forgotten picks without stripping away their core identity. 

The time has come for Zilean to be examined by devs. His core gameplay loop hasn’t seen real change since he was reworked into his current form in patch 5.4 – over 3,700 days ago in 2015. In a game that evolves with every patch, that makes him feel ancient in more ways than one. 

His double-bomb combo is quite clunky to land, and his revive ultimate often feels more frustrating than fun – for both sides. His current passive, Time in a Bottle, was a cool idea on paper when it was added in patch 5.21, letting Zilean store XP and level up an ally. But in practice, it’s awkward. It can only be used when standing next to a teammate, can easily be triggered by accident, and locks Zilean in place while it casts. 

Outside of niche pro play appearances, Zilean is rarely picked – currently sitting at a 2.1% pickrate as Support, and now barely relevant in Mid. Something needs to change for The Chronokeeper to keep pace with modern-day League of Legends. 

Teemo, everybody’s most loved (or hated) Yordle. The Swift Scout received a long-overdue graphic rework, or Art and Sustainability Update (ASU) in 2024, switching out Teemo’s tired threads for a new, more modern look. But that’s where his updates stop completely. Teemo’s kit has pretty much stayed the same since he landed on the Rift in 2009, aside from minor tweaks across different patches. 

In today’s League of Legends, where vision is everything, Teemo’s Guerrilla Warfare passive feels practically useless. His stealth can be easily countered, and his Noxious Traps get immediately deleted whenever they’re revealed by Oracle’s Lens or Control Wards. Most of his power still comes from being annoying rather than offering any meaningful decision-making or skill expression.

He’s become one of the least-picked champions across all roles and ranks, at 1.3%. A Teemo rework could preserve his identity as LoL’s cheeky Yordle scout while finally giving him the tools to succeed outside of low-elo cheese and mushroom trap piles. 

Tryndamere is a throwback to League’s early days – one of the OG champions released in 2009. However, aside from a few balance tweaks over the years, his core design has remained largely unchanged.

As one of the oldest champions on Summoner’s Rift, The Barbarian King is in an awkward spot as a statcheck bruiser. In lower ranks, he can dominate with random crits, point-and-click slows, and an ultimate that temporarily ignores death. But in higher elos, where players know to stack armour and kite around him, he’s often dead in the water. 

His lack of skill expression and binary playstyle – either he snowballs or is useless – make him a one-dimensional character that doesn’t hold up in 2025. And this is reflected in his mid pick and ban rates. Thankfully, he’s confirmed to be on Riot’s rework radar for the future, so it’s not a question of if but when. 

Despite receiving a soft rework in patch 13.5 in 2023, Yuumi remains one of the most disliked champions in League history, with one Reddit user describing the changes as “a butchery.” 

Since her 2019 release, Yuumi’s story has always been a tale of two cats. On one hand (or paw), she was the perfect beginner-friendly champion for newer players to practice the support role. On the other, she ended up being one of the most powerful enchanters on the Rift in solo queue and pro play, abusing her untargetability, poke, healing, and crowd control without ever needing to risk herself.  

Many players feel her rework failed to fix any of her main pain points. She can stay attached to her ADC for an entire game, whereas she previously had to jump out to proc her passive shield. With the new “Best Friend mechanic,” she’s forced into ADC jail even when the lane is doomed. Her Final Chapter ultimate also no longer roots or slows, it just tickles the enemy while healing teammates. 

In 2025, Yuumi is a D-tier enchanter on U.GG and offers little in the way of counterplay or skill expression – two things that define healthy champion kits today. It’s time Riot finally gave her a true rework and a fresh new chapter for the Magical Cat.

Cho’Gath has been stomping around the Rift since 2009, like some other champions on this list. While his kit has undergone a few tweaks, it still shows its age. His abilities are basic and outdated – a delayed knock-up that feels like it takes years and Feast, the execute ultimate that can turn him into a screen-filling raid boss once he’s eaten his fill. 

In today’s fast-paced, mobility-heavy meta, Cho’Gath feels sluggish and one-dimensional. His laning phase is Feast or famine – literally. If he snowballs, he becomes an unkillable powerhouse with true damage; if not, he’s a slow-moving health sponge who struggles to make an impact. 

His passive sustain and waveclear help him survive early, but with so many champions dashing circles around him, it’s hard to justify picking The Terror of the Void. Even Feast can be frustrating to use effectively, so it’s time Cho got a rework to compete with the rest of the League of Legends roster. 

While plenty of champions have received updates and reworks in recent years, like Corki, Skarner, and Aurelion Sol, there are still relics from the past stuck in limbo. Classic champions like Zilean, Cho’Gath, and Tryndamere are all still waiting for their time in the spotlight.

Hopefully, with Riot doubling down on champion sustainability and modern game health, these legacy picks won’t be left in the dust for much longer. Because every champ deserves their glow-up – even ones like Teemo and Yuumi, who make us want to uninstall.